OK, well, 3-0? I can honestly say I didn't expect THAT this year. Maybe Hawk 'n' Crew have something good up their sleeve? We don't normally come out on the good end of OT. I can still remember that gut-wrenching OT loss to Nebraska after the HUGE comeback in 1997. Buckhalter and crew decided to cough up about 5 fumbles in the 2nd half and allowed us to tie...only to pooch the 40-yard-or-so FG in the OT period...and then we lost in the next series. This is the 2nd time in 2 years that we've managed to hit the clutch FG. The Legend of Mason Crosby lives on (and now that motherfucker is in MY NFC CENTRAL with the Packers - I've never been so PISSED to see a CU grad in the NFL [I'm a Vikings fan])!

Anyway, perhaps I'll get back to blogging. Anyone with me?

Mac

2008 NFL Draft - Day 2 Redux

Well, I went into today thinking that we'd see another one or two of our guys taken in the draft. Nope. Polumbus and Charles are still standing at Dal Ward, waiting for a telephone call. That said, it's probably a rather fair assumption that both will be given good looks by teams looking for rookie free agents once the draft business wraps up.

So, we send out a LB and a CB in the 2nd round. Good stuff. Hey, CSU didn't send anyone on either day. Eat that, Ramsies...

More soon as we start the long, long march to August and the pre-season.

Go BUFFS!

2008 NFL Draft - Day 1 Redux

Well, not a bad day for the ol' Buff football alumni. For those of you that are die-hards and watched the entire 1st-day coverage, Jordon Dizon and Terrence Wheatley were chosen with the 45th and 62nd picks, respectively. Of course, Dizon (the stud) had to go to friggin' Detroit, where he's certain to meet failure and despair (see: Joey Harrington) as long as Millen is running the place. Oh, who am I kidding. They were failures prior to Millen. He's just the newest scapegoat.

ANYWAY, that's beside the point. Millen and Marinelli seem to really like Dizon, comparing him to Chris Spielman and Stephen Boyd of Lions teams past. Spielman was the man in the NFC Central, back in the day, so that's very positive. I don't know much about Boyd. Guess I'm not a big Lions fan. I just remember Spielman being a pain in the butt for our TEs and RBs.

Wheatley, on the other hand, heads to New England late in the 2nd. I'm sure this is partly to atone for NE's loss of Asanti Samuel in the offseason to Philly. Wheatley is quick, a good cover guy, and tackles well. He should be a good addition to the juggernaut that is the New England Patriots.

Not a bad first day for the Buffs. Looking forward to Day 2.

The Start of the 2008 Football Season is Nigh

So, a little update on life since my last post in late March...

- I have a new job at work
- Hillary Clinton is still in the damn race.

Not much else is new in life. On to football.

I love the NFL Draft. It gets me back in the football spirit after long, long NBA (I'm not a basketball fan) and NHL (I live in Florida and am too cheap to get DirecTV's "NHL Center Ice" package to watch the Minnesota Wild) seasons have sapped my sports energy right out of my body. I've been replacing that excitement with non-stop political talk and MSNBC on 24-hour loop on the TV. Thankfully, the draft is nigh and I finally tuned my XM car radio on to Fox Sports this afternoon to hear Chris Myers and Jeremy Farnham. Tomorrow, it's 8 straight hours of ESPN or the NFL Network streaming onto my TeeVee (and into my Tee-VO). Sweet, sweet NFL.

This year, since my Vikings traded their top pick and two 3rd-rounders to the KC Chiefs for Jared Allen, I really don't have a dog in this hunt. However, according to CU Athletics, we plan to kick 4 of its graduates into the draft: Jordon Dizon (the stud), Hugh Charles, Terrence Wheatley, and Tyler Polumbus. Good stuff.

Anyway, I'll be watching tomorrow to see all the gory details. I'm sure a few of you will also be watching. Enjoy!!!

Spring Practice...and A New Offense?

So, it's been since 'Nam that I posted on this blog. Work has been crazy busy. My son just turned two (jeez, I'm freakin' old). My brother is getting married soon (yes, for those of you that remember Brent, the kid's takin' the plunge). Oh, and I've been engrossed in the 2008 presidential election. Being an avid Barack Obama supporter, it's been quite fun, though I could do with less Hillary Clinton these days. Sorry, ladies and gents. Can't handle John McCain. 100 years in Iraq is a long time for you all to be deployed...

Anyway, so I'm reading my RSS feed this evening and read through the CU Athletics site and came across this articlethat quotes redshirt freshman Markques Rimas as saying:

The Buffs have been evolving on both sides of the ball, but the offense should be noticeably different next year.

“The first week has been pretty good,” redshirt freshman wide receiver Markques Simas said. “I wasn’t real sure how things were going to go with the new offense but things are going well. It’s been nice to get out here and back into the swing of things, even if we aren’t in pads yet.”

New offense? It sounds good to me. As you might have read during my live blog of the bowl game and the postgame analysis, I wasn't terribly satisfied with last year's offense. I'd be perfectly OK is Hawk 'n' Crew ripped up the old playbook and brought in something new, fresh, and a little more exciting. We could sure use it, in my opinion.

Anyway, as we get closer to the draft, I'll be posting a little more often. We don't have a ton of talent being auctioned off this coming draft, but it'll be nice to see some of the competition lose some of their best talent. Of course, Chase Daniel is returning to Mizzou, so that kinda sucks.

I'll hope to have David Plati on record a little more often as I get the blog ready for the upcoming season. I'll make sure to have everything ready to go so that we can follow the team for a whole season.

Oh, crap! I almost forgot. For those of you on Facebook, add the "Colorado Football Fans" unofficial fan group to your profile. It's fun for smack-talking (I just smack-talked a friend of mine that is a KU fan - ha ha, Mr. Gardner) and has some cool trivia that gains you points and stuff. Pretty cool. I'll probably be using Facebook to complement this blog come fall time. Good way to increase traffic and make the site more interactive.

Anyway, take care, all. Talk to a few of you soon. Adios!

2008 NFL Scouting Combine

Alright, since I'm recovering from the flu - Lord, it sucks - and have nothing better to do with my time, I decided to TiVo the NFL Scouting Combine these past few days and I'm scooting through the episodes for nuggets about our boys that were invited.

CU's Assistant AD David Plati has been gracious enough to respond to my inquiries and has allowed me to post most of his stuff that he sends me. Basically, he told me that 3 of our players were invited to the Combine - Tyler Polumbus, Jordon Dizon, and Terrence Wheatley - and will likely have a place on someone's pro squad after the Draft. No juniors or other underclassmen had declared for the Draft and he didn't see any others doing so at the time.

Anyway, the combine results are out and here's how our 3 participants did in the activities prescribed for them:

- Tyler Polumbus (O-Line - 6'7", 312 lbs)

- Bench press, 225 pounds (reps) - 24
- Broad jump (standing long jump) - 9 feet, 0 inches
- 40-yard dash - 5.33 seconds

- Jordon Dizon (Linebacker - 5'11", 229 lbs)

- Bench press, 225 pounds (reps) - 21
- Broad jump (standing long jump) - 9 feet, 0 inches
- 40-yard dash - 4.70 seconds
- 3-cone (a form of shuttle run) - 7.01 sec

- Terrence Wheatley (D-Back - 5'9", 187 lbs)

- Bench press, 225 pounds (reps) - 17
- 40-yard dash - 4.37 seconds
- 3-cone (a form of shuttle run) - 6.74 sec
- Vertical jump - 36.5 inches
- 60-yard shuttle run - 11.58 sec

A couple of positive notes about our guys:

- One of the top draft prospects for 2008 in the D-Back position is Leodis McKelvin of Troy State U. Wheatley tied him in the 40 and bench press and outjumped him by 3 inches in the vertical jump. Not bad.

- Tyler Polumbus - a 312-pound hog - can jump 9 FRIGGIN' FEET FROM A STANDSTILL?

Strangley, Hugh Charles was not invited to the event, so no stats on him at all. Anyway, when I see more stuff, I'll post it. In the meantime, I hope to kick this stupid flu and get back to work. Peace!

2008 schedule

Now that the big signings are behind us it's time to look forward to the 2008 schedule. Here is a breakdown of what I believe we can expect.

We start with CSU - Not a good team. Finished 3-9 last year. A rivalry can always produce upsets so we better watch out but this should be an easy win (knock on wood)

Eastern Washington. Yes, thats right, Eastern Washington. They are the Eagles and play in the Football Subdivision. Barring any repeat of that better off forgotten game against Montana State a few years ago, we should win this one.

This brings us to 2 very good out-of-conference matchups. Florida State and W. Virginia. We played very well against FSU last year at home and should be able to put up a good performance this year. It is a road game which will make it tough . This is a toss up and the first real test for the boys. W. Virginia will not be as good as last season and losing Rich Rodriguez (head coach) will hurt but it is at home and televised nationally on ESPN (Thursday night game). This is another toss up.

Conference play poses some challenging matchups. The big challenge is that we play most of our tough games away from home. Kansas, Mizzou, A&M and Nebraska are all on the road while Texas (homecoming), Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Kansas State are at home. Mizzou and Kansas promise to have good teams again with both big play QB's returning. Texas is always a challenge as we have not beaten them in 3 meetings since the 2001 Big XII Championship game. We should be favored to win the ISU, OSU and KSU games. The Nebraska game should be a winner given the turmoil in Lincoln lately but that game is always a wild one and could go either way.

Overall, I think an 8-4 season would be a good year for the 2008 team. If we can be 3-1 or better out-of-conference there is no reason a 9-3 season can't be within reach. This team is still maturing and 2008 has the potential of setting the table for a 2009 or 2010 National Championship run! Let's all keep our fingers crossed and get out there to support our Buffs!! Hawk and Coach McCartney have challenged the CU faithful to show up 50,000 strong for the spring game (April 19th). So if you are in Colorado, GO TO THE GAME DAMMIT!!

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER!!

Jimmy Love

Jimmy Love in the HOUSE!!!

I would like to give a big Buffalo Stampede welcome to my good buddy, Jimmy Love. Jimmy is one heck of a die-hard Buffs football fan and it is my honor and pleasure to have him posting as a regular contributor on this blog.

Jimmy's a big fan of Rivals.com and does a lot of research on recruiting and draft stuff. I've been horribly busy at work lately (trying to build flight hours up for a reason unknown to most people outside my own family...you military types may want to look into it...), so the posting has been a bit scarce. However, as we approach the NFL combine and draft, expect more and more posts coming from the two of us.

Anyway, welcome banner unfurled for Jimmy Love. Welcome to the Buffalo Stampede :)

Recruiting Jackpot!

First I'd like to thank The Mack for allowing me to guest post here on Buffalo Stampede. I'll add my two cents from time to time and hopefully provide some good insight into Buffalo football. I'm sure you all will keep me honest.

Now, on to the important stuff. How about them Buffaloes! Wednesday was national recruiting day and our Buffs scored big. Compiling one of the best classes in recent history, Hawk inked 21 young and talented future Buffs. The class includes 7 four-star, 9 three-star and 1 five-star recruits according to rivals.com. We recieved a final ranking of #15 in the country with an average star rating of 3.24! What a day! The big fish was RB Darrell Scott (5 star) out of St. Bonaventure HS in CA. Announcing his choice live on ESPN, Scott decided to become a Buff because "Coach Hawkins has a vision and I want to be a part of that vision". I don't know about you but I like the sound of that! Scott shunned Texas, USC and FL to become a Buffalo! Of course having his uncle (WR Josh Smith) on the team i'm sure helped. Josh is the youngest brother of Darrell Scott's mom. Darrell Scott is the all around package. He is compact and powerful with lightning quick acceleration and the ability to pound the ball inside. At St Bonaventure, Scott amassed 99 TD's and became the 4th leading rusher in CA HS football history! He promises to make an immediate impact at CU and could be the new face of Championship football in Boulder.

Alright, enough about Scott. There is too much talent in this class to spend all our time talking about one guy. Partnering with Scott will be 4-star RB Ray Polk out of Phoenix, AZ. Polk is a great runner and conjures up visions of Bobby Purify when watching him run. These 2 along with 2-star Rodney Stewart gave CU a national ranking of #4 at the RB position.

What about LB? LB is a position that CU traditionally is very strong at. Matt Russell, Ted Johnson, Chad Brown, Greg Beikert, Hannibal Navies and of course Jordan Dizon all have been studs for CU and in the NFL. This class promises to continue that tradition. Led by 4-star LB's Lyn Katoa out of Utah, Jon Major from Colorado and Shawn Mohler from CA (CC transfer), this bunch ranks #3 in the nation! These 3 will make an immediate impact in 2008 as freshman! Other new LB's include 3-star Will Pericak from Boulder High and 3-star Doug Rippy out of Ohio. LB and newly promoted associate head coach Brian Cabral must be fired up about these guys.

At OL CU bolstered up by snagging 4-star Max Tuioti-Mariner and 4-star Bryce Given from Denver. Mariner actually could have been a 5-star but an injury limited his playing time as a senior. These 2 along with 3-star Ryan Dannewitz gave the Buffs a #19 national ranking at the OL position.

The TE position also bolstered up with the signing of 4-star Ryan Deehan from CA and 3-star Ryan Wallace out of KY. This gave CU a #7 national ranking

Other future Buffs are:

2 star: Jameson Davis (K), Vince Ewing (DB), Paul Virgo (Athelete)

3 star: Chance Blackmon (WR), Curtis Cinningham (DB), Tyler Hansen (QB) Steven Hicks (DB), Patrick Mahnke (DB),

So, there you have it. A very strong and promising class for 2008. There is a lot of potential here but Hawk needs to turn that in to success. I have no doubt he can do it. This is an exciting time for the program and the leadership at CU is looking for everyone to get on board. If you are in CO, go to the spring game and show your support. It's these kinds of things that recruits see and factor in when making a choice. Alabama got 92,000 people at their spring game last year and they inked the #1 class in the country! We need that kind of commitment from students, faculty, fans and alumni to turn this recruiting success into a National Championship program.

That's all for now, thanks again Mack for letting me post .

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER!
Jimmy Love

Post-Season Round-Up

Well, we gave it a good effort to end the season but came up short. A 6-7 record is better than last year but leaves HUGE amounts of room for improvement. As I said before, pass D and guts on offense are things that, I believe, we need to improve if we're going to rise to the levels of UT and OU - or Kansas, I guess...

For the time being, I'm going to be ratcheting back to posting about once a week. I'm going to be pretty busy doing extra flying at work coming up and, well, the football season is over. There'll be some good stuff to write about here and there, so once a week will probably suffice.

I hope everyone is doing well in this, 2008. Talk to all of you soon.

Flashback: 2002 Fiesta Bowl

So, this freakin' writers' strike is killing me. I'm deprived of my normal shows, "Chuck" and "Journeyman" (and my wife's "Grey's Anatomy", sorry), and I decided to TiVo the replay of the 2002 Fiesta Bowl between CU and Oregon. We lost this game at the worst time for me - I was newly dating a recently-graduated Oregon Duck (my wife) - and we didn't look very good at all beyond the first drive.

A few things I noted from the game's first couple of quarters (it was over in the 2nd, basically):

- Oregon had Maurice Morris AND Onterrio "The Whizzinator" Smith as their RBs. Not a bad pair. Morris had enough brains to stay off the whacky tobacky and is still in the NFL as Shaun Alexander's able backup. Onterrio Smith is probably one of those telemarketers that show up as "unavailable" on your caller ID screens trying to sell you nutritional supplements or used Barbie dolls or something. He showed some good promise - even after calling himself "S.O.D" (Steal of the Draft) - as a 4th-round pick to my Vikings. He would have been the starter if he stayed off the whacky...

- Joey Harrington actually looked GOOD. I see why he was the big pick. Too bad he didn't pan out as well in the NFL. It's unfortunate.

- I forgot about Bobby Pesavento.

- Why are so few CU players in the NFL? It's kinda like Nebraska (stay with me here). The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. No stars but a good team. The draft is a topic for another day.

Anyway, just some things I noticed watching the game. Hope the new year (and the workweek) is treating everyone well. Take care and talk to you all soon!

Neuheisel: Prescient or Just Lucky?

I've noticed that a few readers have quite the passion for Mr. Neuheisel. As you probably already read, as well, he received the head coaching position at UCLA. This was much to his delight, as he is an alumnus and for assistant coach for the team. I want to congratulate Rick on the promotion.

However, I have to wonder if something bigger is going on here inside Mr. Neuheisel's brain. Rick was most recently the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens - a team coached by Brian Billick, the former offensive coordinator of my favorite pro team, the Minnesota Vikings. Billick was the OC for the 1998 Minnesota Vikings that should have TROUNCED the Atlanta Falcons and Jamal Anderson in the NFC Championship...but Dennis Green got outcoached by Dan Reeves and got beat at home. My Vikes would have gone on to plow the Broncos into the ground that year, as Randy Moss was a ROCK STAR at the time...BUT, I digress...The fact of the matter is that Billick was considered (and considers himself) an offensive genius with the Vikings and the Ravens. Therefore, he called all the plays for the Ravens. That makes me wonder why they had an OC to begin with? Dress rehearsal? My Vikings have a similar setup with Darrell Bevell. Brad Childress used to be the OC at Philly and still calls the plays in Minnie. Bevell is relegated to "running the offense". Whatever that means. Either way, the job couldn't have been that great for Rick Neuheisel. I'm guessing it was a little boring and demeaning living under the shadow and ego of Brian "I'm not going anywhere next year" Billick. Good move for Rick.

However, Billick didn't seem to know that the ax was about to fall on his (and everyone else's) head. He made a rather grand proclamation during a press conference that, despite his 9-game losing streak, he was not planning to be fired and that most people should shed the notion.
On Black Monday, he and the whole staffed were tossed...less than a week after Neuheisel jumped ship and took the offer at UCLA. Makes me wonder if, while he coveted the UCLA job, he didn't know that, somehow, the ship was sinking in Baltimore and he was tethered to it. It seemed that even Billick didn't know.

So, question. Rick Neuheisel: Lucky or wise? You decide.