Recapping Colorado Buffaloes Athletics and Pac-12 News, Links, and Stories
So much for that in-state sweep by the University of Denver women's basketball team. Colorado gleefully swept away any thought of it Thursday night, pummeling of the Pioneers 71-36 at the Coors Events Center. CU took control late in the first half then steadily pulled away in the second, running its record to 8-0 for only the third time in school history.
The only two Buffaloes teams to open more successfully were those in 1992-93 (15-0) and 1980-81 (12-0). The Buffs are among only a dozen unbeaten teams nationally, and if this run keeps up, they just might make a run at the national rankings. "But not quite yet," said coach Linda Lappe.
"We have to continue to win. I'd like to say we're a team that should be ranked, but looking at the RPI's, which came out (Thursday), we're not there yet . . . we're going to have to do something in the conference. If we do well in the conference, yeah, maybe we'll get some votes in the top 25."
Boyle looking for right chemistry for CU Buffs - Buffzone
Nine games into the season, Colorado's second-year head coach is still searching for the right court chemistry. It's an issue Boyle knows he must study and figure out this week while his players are taking final exams.
The inconsistent Buffs are 5-4 after Friday's 65-54 loss to Wyoming at the Coors Events Center.
"When things start going down, our negative energy just exudes through our pores," Boyle said after the program's 27-game winning streak against non-conference foes was rudely halted by the physical visitors from Laramie.
"We've got to find a way to have positive energy. That takes maturity and it takes leadership. "I've got to do a better job of that as a coach, and I think our seniors have to do a better job of that on the floor."
Pac-12 Hopes to Establish Presence in China - NYTimes.com
Larry Scott, the Pacific-12 Conference commissioner, flew to Beijing on Sunday to start an apparently unprecedented effort by a college sports league to establish itself in a foreign country. Scott plans to spend four days there meeting with various officials to put together a "road map" for a way to expand the presence of Pac-12 universities in China. While Scott has his eyes on Central America, South America, India and other Asian nations in the long term, his immediate priority is establishing the Pac-12 in China.
After the jump: College Football Plus-1 Scenarios, Colorado's All-American, and a dual-QB system that almost happened, and would have won the heisman three years in a row...
Ranking 2011 College Football Coach Hires, From No-Brainer To Baffling - SBNation.com
It's time to make some initial judgments of this month's major conference head coaching hires, from the home runs to the (to put it kindly) more risky picks. Your move, Kevin Sumlin.
Change is Coming: Four BCS Plus-One Options Under Consideration " FRANK THE TANK’S SLANT
With Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany effectively stating that BCS automatic qualifying status is going to disappear in 2014, there’s some even more important related news. A couple of weeks ago, one of my contacts told me that the FBS conference commissioners were evaluating a plan for the BCS to only run the national title game and then revert back to the old system for all other bowl games. That proposal has since been reported by CBS Sports to have originated from Delany.
This same contact is now telling me that the implementation of a plus-one system to determine college football’s national champion is gaining traction in principle. The issue is that there are differing opinions as to what that plus-one system will look like. Here are four main options under consideration by the conference commissioners (with my own advantage/disadvantage observations):
2011 As 1981: Week One - Football Study Hall
So it's time to have some fun. The end of the season kicked my butt enough that Study Hall kind of got put to the side a bit. But in the void of the next couple of weeks, it's time to start playing the What If... game. I felt it would be interesting, then, to play out the 2011 college football season with a completely different schedule. I randomly selected 1981 because it was an even 30 years ago, but once I checked out that schedule, I realized it would work pretty well.
The 1981 season played out before schools broke the NCAA's monopoly on televised games (and before the concept of independent college football teams fell apart). So that's what we're going to do: we're going to play out the 2011 season with 1981's schedule. That means...
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | FEI: Last Stop Before Bowling
I want the best teams to play one another on the field as much as anyone. But several, if not many, of those games could and should be scheduled in the regular season before we even get to developing a new playoff selection process. There were only seven non-conference regular season games played this year between teams that ended up in the final Associated Press top-25 poll.
Two of those games involved LSU, wins over Pac-12 champion Oregon on a neutral field and over Big East champion West Virginia in Morgantown. Those games are a huge reason why we are so confident that LSU is the best in the nation. The absence of more of those kinds of games is why we aren’t as sure about the other contenders.
Introducing ... The MACtion Scale - Football Study Hall
As you'll see in today's Morning Tailgate Mailbag, someone proposed an excitement scale of sorts ... basically a way to look at the teams most likely to play exciting, ridiculous games. Here's how...
Pac-12 All-Underrated team - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
We're publishing an All-Pac-12 team on Friday, but the process of putting that together -- and reviewing the coaches All-Conference team -- made me think of all the guys who slip under the radar.
And thus we have our All-Underrated Pac-12 team.
DE Josh Hartigan, Colorado: He's led the Buffaloes in sacks for two years, recording seven this past season.
Robert Griffin And Andrew Luck, Two-QB System For Stanford Football; Does It Work? - Pacific Takes
Jim Harbaugh had to catch all the quarterbacks didn't he? While everyone else was piling on Pidgeys and Ratattas, he was ready to load on Charizards and Aerodactyls.
I have no idea what was just said here... But here's the part that makes more sense:
Four-and-a-half years ago, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh approached a 17-year-old Robert Griffin III with an ambitious idea. Griffin, a quarterback and track star out of Copperas Cove High School in Texas, would come to Palo Alto and play for Harbaugh at Stanford, sharing quarterback duties with another Texas high schooler — a blue-chip recruit named Andrew Luck.
UCLA taps Mora to replace Neuheisel - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
Jim L. Mora, a two-time NFL head coach with almost no college experience, is UCLA's new football coach, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com. And UCLA made the official announcement a short time later. Mora, 50, is currently an analyst for the NFL Network.
He was fired from his last coaching job -- a single season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2009 -- after going 5-11. His only college coaching experience? He was a graduate assistant in 1984 at Washington, where he played from 1980-83.
Are Bruins fans going to immediately embrace this hire with buzzing enthusiasm?
Probably not, particularly after Arizona and Washington State made splashier hires with Rich Rodriguez and Mike Leach.
Twitter / @CoachFrontButt - This would be the fake twitter account for the new head coach at Kansas...
Just discovered Pizza Shuttle....I think I'm gonna like Lawrence
I look forward to laughter and the eating of babies.
UCLA withholds money from football players - LATimes.com
Some UCLA football players and members of the coaching staff were at odds Sunday after bowl game checks meant to help with living expenses were withheld. Some players did not receive checks for failing to attend what they called voluntary workouts during finals week, according to one parent who asked not to be identified because it could affect his son.
Making only their second road trip of the season (the first ended in a 52-44 loss at Wisconsin-Green Bay in mid-November), the Cowboys outworked the Buffs in Friday night's second half and decisively snapped CU's 27-game non-conference winning streak at the Coors Events Center. With things other than that broken streak in mind, Boyle called the loss "as disappointing as I've been a part of since I've been at Colorado . . . Wyoming came in and took it from us; they beat us fair and square."
The Buffs can count the ways . . . none of them palatable for their coach. The Cowboys had a 34-29 rebounding edge. They played primarily zone defense in the second half and still forced nine of CU's 15 turnovers. And Wyoming's two big men - 6-10 senior Adam Waddell and 6-7 junior Leonard Washington - dominated inside with 17 and 16 points, respectively.
All of Waddell's points were scored in the second half, with Washington getting eight points in each half.
Gamble already paying off for CU Buffs - Buffzone
"I think it's a little different situation here in how we treat our non-scholarship players versus how some programs treat them," CU's second-year head coach said. "To me, he's one of the 15 guys on our team. We expect just as much out of him walking out of this tunnel to practice as anybody.
"I love having Beau because he wants to be here." Gamble was a part of Fairview's memorable 2008-09 team that started the season 26-0 before losing to George Washington in overtime in the 5A state semifinals at a packed Coors Events Center. During his senior season, Gamble attended a prep school in New Hampton, N.H., hoping to get some more interest from college basketball programs. But the 6-foot guard suffered an injury just six games into the season. Santa Clara, which had been recruiting Gamble before he was hurt, asked him to walk on. As a freshman he saw action in four games for the Broncos.
"My experience at Santa Clara was great. I loved the team out there and I can't say enough about the coaching staff," Gamble said. "But at the end of the day, I've always wanted to come home and be a Buff."
CU Buffs land another DL recruit - Buffzone
The Colorado defensive line is getting a massive makeover with the 2012 recruiting class. CU coaches received a sixth commitment from a defensive lineman over the weekend when Josh Tupou, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound product of Buena Park High School in California pledged to be a Buff during his official visit to Boulder. "I've had a lot of guys go on to play D-I and this guy is the top of the line," Lynch said.
"He's the best one I've had. I had two guys starting at Utah this past year. This guy will be a big time player for CU. No question about it." Tupou chose CU over offers from schools such as Hawaii, Nevada and UNLV. Lynch said Utah was recruiting him as an offensive lineman.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch Texas 5-A playoffs:
Peyton Williams, a standout wide receiver for Southlake Carroll High School in Texas and a CU recruit, suffered a knee injury in the first half of a state semifinal playoff game over the weekend and watched the rest of the game from the sideline in wheelchair.
The severity of Williams' injury isn't expected to be known until today or Tuesday. If the injury is significant, Williams would be the second 2012 CU commitment to suffer a serious injury this season.
Ex-Buff Gary Barnett still hungers to be a head coach - Buffzone
Barnett reportedly expressed interest in the Colorado State job after the Rams cut ties with Steve Fairchild following a 3-9 season this fall, but said this week in interviews with area radio and television stations that he probably doesn't fit the profile for the vacancy at CSU because of his age.
Back in September, Barnett doubted whether he would ever get another opportunity because he is 65 years old and because of the circumstances that led to his firing at CU."I look at it realistically, and I look at a combination of my age and the misperceptions that were created about me, and more than likely that isn't a possibility," Barnett said. "It's all about marketing now and I think it would be a difficult task for any athletic department marketing group to be able to do that with someone of my age."
CU Buffs' Ryan Miller earns Walter Camp honor - Buffzone
Colorado senior guard Ryan Miller was named second-team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation on Thursday.
Miller set the school record for the most career games started with 48, breaking the old mark of 45.
"It sure feels good. I feel honored and I am very thankful to have played five seasons in front of all the Buff fans at Folsom Field and for coach Embree this year," Miller said. "It's been an honor and pleasure."
Go Buffs!