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Monday Buff Bites - Depth Chart Due Out Today

Recapping Colorado Buffaloes and college football news from around the web. 

Colorado_mediumBrooks: Buffs Need A Post-Scrimmage Identity Check - CUBuffs.com

First-year Coach Jon Embree's opening summation of the 105-play scrimmage was succinct: "The defense played well, the offense was not good enough. Later, he added, "I was not pleased with the overall intensity on offense."

One mediocre scrimmage doesn't bring about a full-blown identity crisis, but the Colorado football team could easily have been misidentified Friday. That well-defined, widely publicized plan to stamp the Buffaloes as a crisp and physical running team unraveled.

That was the bad news. The good news: The Buffs have two weeks to reenergize themselves, restore their overall offensive confidence and reestablish their identity.

CU opens at Hawaii on Sept. 3, and on Monday Embree will release a post-camp depth chart that will be instrumental in establishing who gets the most "reps" in the run-up to the opener and setting the travel squad.

It will be the first depth chart since camp opened on Aug. 4, and at some positions - he didn't specify first or second units - Embree promised a shake-up.

"We're going to have changes on the depth chart," he said. "It's the same three or four guys - and that's the thing on offense, all it takes is one guy (misfiring). It's the same three or four guys consistently making mistakes at the critical times.

Colorado_mediumCU Buffs set rotation for QBs - Buffzone - Even if we don't have the entire depth chart in easy-to-dissect form, we have part of it.  Incidentally it's the part we haven't had for the last three years; the Quarterback depth chart.

Innocent bystander. That's what Nick Hirschman was relegated to for most of Colorado's fall camp after suffering a foot injury. Meanwhile, starter Tyler Hansen practiced like a senior captain should, and freshman walk-on John Schrock made the most of his opportunity. However, Hirschman was impressive enough during spring drills and through the first six practices of camp to earn the No. 2 spot. Starting with Monday's practice, the backup plans to be back on the CU practice fields.

Colorado_mediumBrooks: Receivers Need To Latch On To Consistency - CUBuffs.com 

[Paul] Richardson answered, "Very close . . . when we get into school week (classes begin Monday) and begin game-planning for Hawaii, the playbook will be chopped down. There's not going to be 100,000 plays, but plays for a specific team. That's going to help everybody."

Kennedy: "Right now, we're not very consistent, but I see good things every day in terms of effort and guys trying to do it right," he said. "We're not a finished product; we've got a lot of work to do but the effort's there."

Richardson entered camp "really wanting to get better on my route running, so I just wouldn't be looked at as 'speed' guy but a really good route runner, too. I think I've definitely done that," he said.

With Kennedy's help, he believes he's learning to "finish my routes, staying in my break . . . so that I don't give the defender any declaration that I'm going to be stopping."

He's been used primarily as a slot receiver, but Embree also likes Gray's versatility because of his experience at quarterback as well as on special teams. Gray (6-2, 190) called the Buffs' and Bulldogs' offenses "similar . . . everyone has their own concepts and terminology, that's the biggest thing to learn. But a lot of the actual schemes and plays are the same - just different ways to get into it."

Embree has said the rangy (6-5, 205) McCulloch reminds him of Ed McCaffery - so much so that McCulloch wears the former Broncos receiver's number (87). That's high praise for a freshman, but McCulloch is looking (and practicing) the part.

Colorado_pac-12Chris Dufresne: Pacific 12 Conference's newest members are worlds apart - Los Angeles Times

The Pacific 10 (now 12) Conference is proud to welcome two new lodge members.

One program is disheveled, walks with a limp and wears its shirt tail out — the other is Utah. One is a model of efficiency, efficacy and proficiency — and the other is Colorado.

See where this is going? Probably not, because here's the bait-and-switch:

Colorado, not Utah, has more long-term upside. It has rich history, is a better academic fit, and has been galvanized by playing Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma in the Big 12.

Colorado_mediumBuffs Go Undefeated On Weekend, Win Colorado Cup - CUBuffs.com - Women's Soccer has...(don't say 'kicked off,' don't say 'kicked off')...begun, and they started off by winning Colorado... all of it.

Colorado defeated Northern Colorado 3-0 in its first home game of the season. The victory gave the Buffs a 2-0 start to the 2011 campaign, and earned them the Colorado Cup trophy.

Go Buffs!