Recapping Colorado Buffaloes Football and Pac-12 News, Links, and Stories
Ohio State 37, Colorado 17 " CU At the Game - A CU Football blog by Stuart Whitehair
From the opening kickoff, in which the Buffs surrendered a 45-yard return, to the 90-yard kickoff return in the third quarter, to the kickoff out-of-bounds, to the fair catches inside of the ten yard line (which directly led to ten points for the Buckeyes), to penalties on kickoffs, which forced the offense to continually start inside its own 20-yard line …
"We spend 35 minutes at practice on special teams", said Embree. "We play young guys but there are no excuses. They are out there and we expect them to execute. We just keep emphasizing what we need to do to make it better." How bad were the Colorado special teams? On the day, Ohio State never had to start a drive from inside its own 20-yard line. Conversely, the Colorado offense started eight-of-twelve drives inside its own 20-yard line. The Buckeyes started six of their 12 drives on the Colorado side of the field; the best the CU offense was offered on the day was the Buff 37.
LSU Tigers bump Oklahoma Sooners from atop AP's Top 25 - ESPN
Another decisive victory away from home pushed LSU to No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll for the first time since 2007. The Tigers bumped Oklahoma from the top spot Sunday after winning 47-21 at West Virginia the night before. The Sooners had been No. 1 since the preseason. They stayed unbeaten with a 38-28 victory at home against Missouri. LSU received 42 first-place votes from the 60-member media panel and 1,471 points. Oklahoma received 12 first-place votes and 1,422 points.
Texas A&M Aggies officially get accepted into the SEC - ESPN
Texas A&M is set to join the Southeastern Conference, the league said Sunday, possibly signaling legal hurdles have been cleared for the Aggies to leave the Big 12. The SEC announced the move will be effective next July, and said Texas A&M will participate in all sports during the 2012-13 academic year. That gives the SEC 13 members and its first addition since South Carolina and Arkansas joined in 1992.
After the jump; A&M is Gomer Pyle and 'Washington State was how bad?'
Texas A&M Aggies hit tipping point in bolting for SEC - ESPN
In the end, it's pretty simple. This is what happens when you tell Aggie jokes for nearly a century. Texas A&M took the last laugh on Sunday. After a century or so of being disrespected, teased, mocked and scorned, the Aggies had enough. How else to explain that the school would leave all that it left behind? The Aggies are McFly in "Back to the Future," Private Pyle in "Full Metal Jacket." They snapped.
So, wait a sec... A&M joining the SEC is the same as a fat dude eating a bullet in his undies? OK, cool. I'm back up to speed now...
Pac-12 power rankings: Week 5 - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN
If you don't like where you are in the power rankings, play better.
11. Colorado: When Buffaloes fans looked at the 2011 schedule -- and after going, "Really? Really? Come on! 13 games, no bye? At Ohio State? Really?" -- they penciled in a victory over Washington State at home on Saturday. As a new coach, Jon Embree has a reservoir of good will from his fans. That reservoir will show a slight fissure if the Cougars swagger out of Boulder with a W.
Ted Miller raises a good question... how long is the collective patience of Buff fans? Or; instead of threatening emails and 'For Sale' signs in yards, will people instead just go for a bike ride?
Pac-12 Photostories: Where Vontaze Burfict Dirties Up Matt Barkley - Pacific Takes - Think football plus LOLcats. Yeah, that's the ticket...
Oregon St. president opens up about Pac-12's non-expansion decision - Buffzone
While the door is shut to Pac-12 expansion for now, that doesn't necessarily mean the league won't entertain offers in the future. Oregon State president Edward Ray said he would personally take look at anything that made sense, even though there was a strong sentiment among the Pac-12 schools that expansion wasn't in the league's immediate best interests.
"You know, it's like politics where you say 'Never say never,'" Ray said when asked if the Pac-12's decision this week to stand pat meant it wouldn't consider taking on new members at some point. "I don't know. But I do know I could not speak for others. I'm an economist, so it's always like, 'So, what are we talking about here?' That's the devil in me.
"But I know that some of my colleagues said 'You know what? I don't care what any of the facts are, I don't want anything to change.'"
Jon Embree's situation similar to that of Washington State coach - Buffzone
Patient in Pullman. That has been the story during the Paul Wulff era at Washington State. Entering the 2011 campaign, Wulff -- who played for the Cougars from 1986-89 -- had compiled a 5-32 over his first three seasons back on the Palouse. It appears Washington State, which will visit Boulder this Saturday for Colorado's first official Pac-12 game, has finally turned the corner.
The Cougars, coming off a bye week ahead of the conference grind, will bring an entertaining brand of football to Folsom Field. Through three games, despite losing starting quarterback Jeff Tuel in the opener, the Cougars (2-1) rank fourth nationally in passing (380.0 yards per game), fifth in scoring (49.0 ppg) and sixth in total offense (539.7 ypg).
"Not every situation when a coach arrives is the same. In this case, being that this is my alma mater and I'm a fan, I think I have a little more interest," Wulff said during a recent interview with the Camera when asked about his rebuilding process.
"I was disappointed with where we started. Things were a lot lower here than you would ever want to imagine."
Brooks: Promising Setup Turns Sour Fast For Buffs - CUBuffs.com
It was all setting up so nicely for the Buffs . . . until the game started without them. Again. Just a month into his first season, Embree had hoped to use this game as a "measuring stick." It turned out to be a tough lesson administered with an ugly stick.
CU Buffs 'have long way to go' after loss to Ohio State - Buffzone
"We have a long way to go as a program," coach Jon Embree said. "We have a long ways to go from the standpoint of getting to where we are competing and not hoping to upset an Ohio State. To say, 'Hey, you know what? We're going to go in there and we don't have to worry about rugby punting. We don't have to try to do things to manufacture anything. We can come in and play them straight up.
"So we have a long way to go."
"We really didn't have field position all day and that's one thing that helps out is to win the field-position battle," quarterback Tyler Hansen said. "It seemed like every series you start backed up. So it's tough. Every series you've got to go 90, 95 yards. That's tough to do against Ohio State. We've got to change that next week."
THORBURN: CU Buffs need to prove they belong in Pac-12 - Buffzone
It's a good thing Larry Scott isn't allowed to trade CU to Chuck Neinas for Oklahoma and a team to be named later. Everyone understands Embree has inherited a British Petroleum-sized mess that the first-year head coach is trying to clean up one spoonful at a time. The new staff needs to stack some recruiting classes together before it's truly ready to go on the road and beat an elite program like Ohio State. This is a honeymoon period. With a lot of the former coach's kids tagging along.
Over the next nine weeks, however, it's very important that the current Buffs -- the seniors who are used to losing and the true freshmen who have been thrown into the fray -- show the Pac-12 some glimpses of why CU football belongs in this conference. A 1-0 start would help. The good news is the program's first official Pac-12 game will be played at Folsom Field next Saturday against Washington State.
CU is a dramatically different team when it doesn't have to get on an airplane before a game. If CSU was a must-win, then beating WSU -- the team picked to finish last in the North Division -- is a must-win. Should the Buffs lose then Sports Illustrated's harsh prediction of an 0-9 Pac-12 debut could have some legs.
Buffs Eighth At Dick McGuire Invite - CUBuffs.com
The University of Colorado women’s golf team followed up its worst round of the season by shooting one of the best team rounds in CU history to finish the day tied for eighth after 36-holes at the 2011 Branch Law Firm Dick McGuire Invitational, held here at the UNM Championship Course. In uncharacteristic fashion, the Buffs as a team shot a 14-over par 306 in the first round on the 6,187-yard, par 73 course. They then rebounded to shoot even par in the second round, just the 13th round in school history CU has shot even or under par as a team, and the Buffs moved up from a tie for 16th to eighth place with a 36-hole total of 14-over par 598.
Yay women's golf, go buffs.