Buff Bites: The Rise of the Colorado Buffaloes is recognized

An Emmy Nomination, a history of CU’s two-sport stars and a crazy prediction for the 2017-18 college football season that will leave you speechless highlight this week’s Buff Bites.

“THE RISE” IS UP FOR AN EMMY

Without question CU’s video department is one of the best in the country, so it comes as no surprise that they received an Emmy nomination (Heartland Chapter) for their six-part series chronicling the 2016-17 Colorado Buffaloes football program.

If you’re unfamiliar with “The Rise,” you can check out all six episodes here. Well worth the watch. Emmy winners will be announced July 15^th at the awards presentation gala.

Another must watch is this great piece CU Video released this week on Colorado’s receiving core, the #BlackoutBoyz.

With all these receivers returning, the Buffs should have one of the top offenses in the country next season. (One sportswriter neglected to include CU’s offense among the top returning for 2017. See below.)

McCARTNEY RECOGNIZED

Congrats to Buffs senior linebacker/defensive end Derek McCartney who was one of 42 student-athletes named to the 2017 Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List. The trophy, named after USC great Ronnie Lott is annually awarded to college football’s defensive IMPACT Player of the Year. McCartney’s junior season was cut short after suffering a knee injury against Michigan. Prior to his injury, McCartney had one of the more memorable moments of 2016, scooping up a fumble and returning it for a touchdown in the Big House with his grandfather (legendary CU Head Coach Bill McCartney) watching.

DOWN WITH THE KING

After testing the NBA Draft waters, 6’6” 225-LB former Buffs guard George King announced he will be returning to Boulder for his redshirt Senior season. Originally from Fayetteville, N.C., King averaged 11.1 PPG & 6.8 RPG as a junior and will be the Buffs top returning scorer and rebounder for the 2017-18 season. News of King’s decision reminded me of RUN-DMC’s hit “Down with the King” which was released in 1993, a year before George King was born.

FACILITIES FACELIFT

You’ll be seeing George King’s name and statistics on a new center-hung scoreboard in the Coors Events Center next season. "These new state of the art video boards will allow our fans to enjoy CU Athletics' events in a whole new way,” Colorado’s associate athletic director of external affairs and chief marketing officer told CUBuffs.com.

Another addition was “The Wall of Champions” display which was installed in the CU Champions Center this week. The wall features eight 6 foot-by-3 foot pieces featuring some of the greatest Buffs of all-time, from Chauncey Billups (basketball) to Jeremy Bloom (football, Olympic skier).

WELL DESERVED

For the third time in the last four years, CU’s Sports Information Department was named a “Super 11” award winner. Since 2009, the award has been presented annually by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) to “sports information departments and programs that exemplified excellent media relations” (according to the FWAA website). "This is a team award, from the full-time staff to our student assistants and those dozen or so people who have worked game days, in many cases for decades," CU Sports Information Director David Plati told CUBuffs.com.

Plati and crew also managed to have some fun in route to capturing this year’s award, as evidenced by the CU depth chart released for the Michigan game.

A HISTORY OF CU’S TWO-SPORT STARS

After Buffs cornerback Isaiah Oliver finished fourth in the Decathlon at the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships, CUBuffs.com contributing editor Neill Woelk wrote this great column detailing the rich history of two-sport stars at CU.

YES, YOU’RE READING THIS CORRECTLY

According to the Bleacher Report’s David Kenyon, Colorado State football will have the 8^th best offense in the country for the 2017-18 season, while the Buffs failed to crack his Top 25. As you can imagine, this left a few Buffs fans with a sour taste in their mouth.

WHO’S COUNTING?

Wednesday, May 24th marks exactly 100 days until the Pac-12 South Champion Buffs open their 2017 campaign against Colorado State. We’ll see whose offense is better!