Mizzou Sanity: Colorado football

Showing posts with label Colorado football. Show all posts

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Coach Nick Nolte with a huge win...

...OU loses, K-State's up 10 on Texas, and IT'S A NORTH REVIVAL, BABY.

Consider this a North Revival Open Thread...

UPDATE: 5:19pm - Sweet jesus, K-State's about to go up 3 possessions heading into the fourth quarter. I have absolutely no idea what to think about any of the 12 conference teams right now.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Mizzou Links, 8-30-07

I was a day early in my 'why blogs are great' sentiment. Yesterday produced the best reason yet: "Cut to the Chase." I love that Pinkel agreed to this, I love that it's going to be a weekly thing, and...yeah, I love blogs.
Today's player profiles: the Trib talks to Darnell Terrell, the Missourian profiles asst Cornell Ford and a couple of his prized recruits, PowerMizzou also takes on some "St. Louis sons", and the KC Star takes on Juice Williams and...Kirk Farmer?
In basketball recruiting (basketball? what's that?), Inside Mizzou has a Laurence Bowers update. Spoiler Alert: he likes Mizzou. Meanwhile, back to football, Tyler Wilson's still down to just two teams (Spoiler Alert: one of them's Mizzou), but he still isn't deciding...
Clone Chronicles takes a look at the ISU depth chart for tonight's game against Kent State.
Corn Nation does the same for Saturday's NU/Nevada game.
Looks like KU will be playing as many freshmen as Mizzou this year. Followers of Mizzou recruiting will recognize two of the names on the list...former Mizzou targets Carmon Boyd-Anderson and Dezmon Briscoe.
Buffs.tv previews CU/CSU.
Via Bring On the Cats, here's a quick (and relatively optimistic) look at the KSU season. It doesn't make much mention of the turmoil and strangeness presenting itself over the last few weeks, but...I'm not sure that makes a difference with this team. Ron Prince did a lot of things that annoyed the crap out of me last season and made me think KSU was going to stink for quite a while...then I looked up at the end of the season and they were 7-5. So whaddo I know...

Monday, August 20, 2007

Mizzou Links, 8-20-07

I'm running late on the Links now because I had to watch that Indy Bowl highlight video from top to bottom again...I take complete credit for that comeback, by the way. I was recording the game, and I turned it off about two plays before Marcus King's interception. That was obviously the catalyst.

Another new O-line commitment over the weekend. The Beef made a great point on the phone this weekend...with as many high schools that incorporate the spread offense now (especially in Texas), there's really no need for us to ever recruit another O-lineman who isn't fully versed on the spread's intricacies. I haven't paid attention, but I'm sure folks on the message boards are whining "Ohhhh, he's not a big-time recruit!" or whatever, but...well...tough. Meanwhile, Jeff Ermann catches up with Cahokia's finest...new TE commit London Davis.
Graham Watson summarizes the offense's massacre of the defense on Saturday's scrimmage. I'd like to point out that this was mostly done against the #2 defense, not the #1, and while that shows that our depth isn't very good...well...that's not as much of a problem as not having a decent #1, right? Honestly, with two weeks to go before the season starts, I'm still a bit worried about our pass rush, which was my #1 concern all along. Sounds like the run defense might get a boost from formations where Ziggy Hood occasionally works from the DE slot, and it also sounds like Sean Weatherspoon and a healthy Van Alexander will make the losses of Marcus Bacon and Deke Harrington pretty palatable. If Darnell Terrell can get back to full speed by September 1, then I'd say the #1 defense is in pretty solid shape. All the defense has to be this year is competent. That's what I keep telling myself.
Gabe has a nice Week Two Recap for your reading enjoyment. We bag on Gabe for always being wrong in his recruiting predictions (well, it seems that way anyway), but there's no doubting that he goes all-out on coverage.
LOTS of practice coverage in Sunday's Trib. Joe Walljasper has his own Week Two Recap, and then he catches up with Mr. T Rucker, while Dave Matter talks about Tony Temple's damn-impressive recovery from the bruised knee that scared the bejeezus out of everybody a couple weeks ago. Meanwhile, if Danario Alexander is the best #4 receiving option in the conference, and Jared Perry is maybe the best #5, I guess Jeremy Maclin might be the best #6? Sweet merciful crap, do we have some weapons...
The Missourian takes a look at Derrick Washington and his chances of avoiding a redshirt in 2007. Actually, so does Mike Dearmond. Mike also takes note of Chase Patton's impressive play.
Things aren't too hot in Manhattan at the moment...to say the least. Zero completions? Really?
Iowa State is looking into a new uniform design for 2008, and you can vote on your favorite helmet right now. I've gotta say...I'm not sure why, but I LOVE all three of those choices. Guess I'm a fan of white helmets or something...who knew? I'd say I-State is my #1 choice, ISU my #2.
Via Rock Chalk Talk, it appears that, as expected, Todd Reesing is your KU starting QB. Ouch. Who knows...maybe he's improved significantly in the offseason, but...I think that says more about Kerry Meier than it does about Todd Reesing.
Meanwhile, also as expected, Coach's Son Hawkins is officially the Colorado starter.
Finally, in Lincoln it looks like Zackary Bowman has begun practicing again. I don't expect much from him after 19 knee injuries, but I guess it helps with depth in a pretty thin secondary.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Mizzou Links, 8-13-07

Fun night last night...70 mph winds came out of nowhere...good times...anyhoo...now that we've got a pretty good idea of what's going on in Columbia, let's look around the Big 12 North.

So in 1995, Nebraska had to replace three DL starters, and those replacements ended up being named Wistrom and Peter, and the Huskers won another national title. Apparently 2007 will be just like that. Good to know. In other news, Marlon Lucky (mild concussion) and Cody Glenn (tight hamstring) both missed out on some scrimmaging over the weekend. See, Jeffrey? Every team has injuries. And finally, Sam Keller drops jaws. No comment.
One of KSU's major question marks, wide receiver, has gotten a boost from the emergence of JUCO transfer Deon Beasley. Another boost could come from remembering that Jordy Nelson is pretty good. In all, I think Josh Freeman is pretty overrated (and apparently not in the best of shape), but I also think that there are enough unknowns involved with K-State that they are pretty much the North wildcard.
Another weak WR corps--Colorado's--might get a boost from a freshman or two, though that's rarely an optimal solution. Even less optimal: freshmen on the O-line. Dan Hawkins really doesn't have much of a choice--he barely has enough scholarship OL's to fill out a 2-deep. I do figure that line play (on both sides of the ball, really) will hold CU back more than playing a RSFr QB. They do have one thing going for them, though: here's a feature on one of the conference's most underrated RB's, Hugh Charles.

Here's a new candidate for Best Nickname in the Conference: Tang "Hostile" Bacheyle. He could provide a nice physical presence in the Jayhawk defensive backfield...though physicality wasn't the main problem for the KU DB's last year--it was speed. And with no Jon Cornish in the backfield, it's time to "open up the offense." Not a bad thing per say, though when your QB's are Todd Reesing and Kerry Meier, it's not necessarily a good thing either.

So the ISU offense has Bret Meyer and Todd Blythe. Great. It appears that the other 9 starting positions on offense are still up for grabs, including RB (Jason Scales, J.J. Cass, Cameron Bell, Alexander Robinson, Michael Atchison, The Beef) and Other WR (R.J. Sumrall, Wallace Franklin, Euseph "Awesome Name" Messiah, Doug, The Boy, Bill C.). Also, Meyer is getting a bit of competition from RSFr Austen Arnaud. Meanwhile, the 'Clones have one less LB in the mix, as veteran Adam Carper is out for the season.

Finally, back to Mizzou...DE was my main concern heading into this year, and a resurgent Stryker Sulak could be a positively huge boost for the Mizzou defense. Meanwhile, Mike Dearmond looks into the Mizzou punter battle (or lack thereof), and Graham Watson talks about the true freshman emerging in the defensive backfield.

And Mizzou's Roger Wehrli sits down for the Trib's Sunday Q&A...

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Colorado Spring Football Preview

You can stop holding your breath, Atch...here's the long-awaited Colorado profile!

2006

To say the least, 2006 was forgettable for the Colorado Buffaloes. Despite having won back-to-back North Division titles in 2004 and 2005, CU was seen as a program in free-fall, especially after a) Gary Barnett stopped recruiting in about 2002, b) they got outscored 112-6 in the ’04 and ’05 Big XII Title Games, and c) Barnett got fired. Dan Hawkins inherited a program that had started to lose its talent and athleticism in the last few years, and it took a while to gain traction. A 19-10 loss to D-1AA (sorry, Division 1 Championship Division) Montana State kick-started an 0-6 start that saw CU play competent defense and incompetent offense. They very nearly upset Georgia in the fourth game of the season, but after a decent showing at Mizzou (a 28-13 loss), they lost at home in 3 OT’s to Baylor (ouch). In the end, a 2-10 season only saw home wins against Texas Tech and Iowa State. They were competitive in many games and improved offensively as the season progressed (well...there was no way to go but up, but they did average 19.3 PPG over the last half of the season after not scoring more than 13 points until Week 6. Dan Hawkins is an offensive-minded coach, and you know things will improve in that regard. But how much? And how soon?

Key Returnees

For a couple years now, it seems CU has been in flux at the skill positions on offense while maintaining steadiness on the O-line (then again, the lingering effects of the utter domination those early-'00s O-lines imposed might just be clouding my memory). Now it’s the opposite. QB Bernard Jackson, RB Hugh Charles, WR’s Alvin Barnett, Patrick Williams, and Dusty Sprague, and stud sophomore TE Riar Geer all return, but the O-line must replace four starters. And to make matters worse, there has been a rash of O-line injuries in spring ball. And did I mention that CU only has about seven scholarship O-linemen?

On the defensive side, CU must replace both starting DE’s and LB Thaddeus Washington, who FINALLY completed his eligibility last year. Their secondary is nice and experienced (somehow CB Terrence Wheatley still has eligibility of his own), and they do return WLB Jordan Dizon (100+ tackles, 11 tackles for loss) and DT Brandon Hypolite (12.5 TFL). It is key that one of the new starting DE’s (Alonzo Barrett? Maurice Lucas?) steps in and gets pressure on the QB in passing situations, otherwise the secondary will be put in pretty tough situations.

As with Baylor, Colorado’s biggest loss is probably in the special teams department. Kicker Mason Crosby, CU’s biggest offensive weapon for the past three years, graduated. Senior Kevin Eberhart has done a decent job in his place, but no other kicker is capable of doing what Crosby did to the ball the last few seasons. They also have a potential weapon as a punt returner—senior Stephone Robinson—but he did next to nothing in that role last season, averaging only 5.1 yards per return.

Spring Developments

Well, the first we heard from Dan Hawkins and Colorado this spring came back on Signing Day, when Hawkins launched into a fantastic rant about pampered athletes and too many practices. Nothing else that could happen in Boulder this spring could top that.

Anyway, QB Bernard Jackson is not a Dan Hawkins-style QB (his best skills are running, running, and juking), so one of the goals of this spring was to find a role for him and still get a QB in place who is more fit for the Hawkins system. Jackson is apparently lining up wide and in the backfield while RSFr. Cody Hawkins and JUCO transfer Nick Nelson battle for prime QB duties. Looking at the numbers, it doesn’t really appear that either has seized the reins just yet. Also, CB Cha’pelle Brown appears to have moved to WR to give the Buffs a deep threat they didn’t really have last year. We’ll see if it works.

Fun With Numbers

As discussed previously, here were the five statistical categories that were most directly related to Colorado’s success/failure last year:

1. Opponents’ Rushing Attempts (0.87)
2. First Down Ratio (0.80)
3. Third Down Conversion Ratio (0.77)
4. Total Plays Ratio (0.71)
5. Opponents’ Total Plays (0.71)

The fact that Opponents’ Rushing Attempts was #1 on this list tells me that opponents were a) able to secure a lead pretty easily and b) content to run the ball, control the clock, and (in theory) pin the Buffs in bad field position because there was no reason to fear Colorado’s offense. If you’re up 14 points against Texas Tech, you know you have to stay aggressive and keep scoring. If you’re up 14 against CU, put it on cruise and make them show you something.

The highly-correlated items on CU’s list here show that ball control was the make-or-break issue for the Buffs in ’06 (and since they went 2-10, there was a lot more break than make). Will they be better at ball control in ’06?

Offensively, there are more weapons at Hawkins’ disposal—Jackson and Brown in particular—but he still has to figure out how to use them all. Hugh Charles shows flashes of unbelievable speed, but he’s every bit as likely to pick the wrong hole as the right one, and he’s been pretty inconsistent throughout his career. However, you figure he will make at least incremental improvement during his senior season, so that will help. But they need to figure out something here—last season, they were pretty much guaranteed 3 points any time they crossed the opponent’s 35. Without Crosby there to bail them out, they’ll need to mount longer drives. And they'll need a strong QB.

Defensively, if they can get some sort of pass rush, their defense should be able to hold up a little better than last year. Dizon is most definitely an All-Big XII-caliber player, and he and Hypolite could be really strong anchors for the front seven. Again, it all comes down to pass rush and pass defense on 3rd downs.

While having unknown quantities on offense might actually help CU in their opening game against CSU, it would behoove the Buffs to get their act together pretty quickly after that since a) the schedule gets tough in a hurry, and b) teams will have CU film at that point and will be better prepared for what's coming. A trip to Tempe to face Arizona State follows the CSU game, and then Florida State comes to Boulder. This team could be much improved from 2006 and still start the season 0-3 (tell me again why this kind of scheduling is a good thing?). The Buffs play their three toughest conference opponents (OU, Nebraska, Missouri) at home, but that might backfire if they can’t pick off at least two wins there. They didn’t win a road game last year, and otherwise winnable games against Baylor, K-State, Iowa State, and Texas Tech get a lot tougher on the road than at home. In all, I do think it's likely that CU shows improvement, but jeez...with this schedule, 6 wins will be difficult to compile. My first impression says somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-8 or 5-7.