Posts Tagged ‘colorado’

Jon Embree was fired after two seasons as Colorado's head coach on Sunday, following the conclusion of a 1-11 campaign. John Henderson of the Denver Post provided an excellent detailing of the factors that went into Colorado AD Mike Bohn's decision and how the move went down. 

Embree stated that, though he planned to go on the road recruiting early this week, Bohn's decision did not catch him off guard. 

"I had a funny feeling this morning," Embree told Henderson. "Something told me he'd do this."

"He said he didn't feel the trajectory of the program was going in the right direction," Embree said. "I said, 'What direction was it going when I got hired?' "

Embree inherited a program in the midst of five straight losing seasons and, due to attrition suffered during the Dan Hawkins era, Colorado played with one of the youngest rosters in college football, so he has a point. But, ultimately Embree left Colorado no choice. The Buffaloes carried a 3-15 Pac-12 record in Embree's two years, with 13 defeats coming by 25 points or more.  

In addition to the losses, growing unrest among CU's boosters drove Bohn to make a change. 

"The general feeling I have," said Brian Riley, the moderator of a Buffs fan site, "is all the people who were saying they were going to drop season tickets or cut donations are saying they'll increase them after seeing CU has a vision and is committed to winning football."

Kyle Ringo, Colorado's beat writer for the Boulder Daily Camera, supplied information supporting Riley's hypothesis. 

#CUBuffs officials were concerned about damage to the brand after so many lopsided losses the past two seasons.

— Kyle Ringo (@KyleRingo) November 26, 2012

Embree sees something else as the root of his dismissal. 

"You know (black coaches) don't get opportunities," said Embree. "At the end of the day, you get fired and that's it, right, wrong or indifferent. (Former Notre Dame coach) Tyrone Willingham was the only one who got fired and got hired again. We get bad jobs and no time to fix it."

In an interview with the Boulder Daily Camera on Saturday, Colorado athletics director Mike Bohn took stock of the Buffaloes' football program, expressing the need to make changes. The Buffs lost 45-0 to Stanford at Folsom Field, dropping their record to 1-8 on the season.

"We're not where we want to be," Bohn said. "No one is happy with what has happened on the field, players, coaches, staff, fans."

In his second season on the job, Embree is 4-18 at Colorado. The Buffaloes are in the midst of a five-game losing streak, scoring no more than 17 points and allowing no less than 42 points during the skid. 

"Recognizing our shortcomings early in the season, coach Embree, his staff, our leadership team along with football professionals have been engagedin numerous endeavors to address our challenges," Bohn said. "We are working to correct voids now in an effort to not lose time before the end of the season."

Earlier this season, CU President Bruce Benson issued suport for Embree. 

"I don't like to micromanage," Benson said in September. "There's no point that I or anybody else is going to step in that I know about. So we're going to play it out. We're going to rebuild and be positive and move forward."

Read the Boulder Daily Camera's full report here. 

Tomorrow night, Colorado will face the best offense that they've seen all season when they travel to Oregon to take on the Ducks.

That's not to say that the past few weeks have been easy. In their past three outings, the Colorado defense has faced Arizona State (23rd nationally in total offense), UCLA (top 25 nationally in rushing, passing, and total offense), and a very talented USC offense with Matt Barkley, Robert Woods, and Marqise Lee.

Through the first seven weeks of their schedule, Colorado is giving up nearly 500 yards per contest (112th nationally) and 43 points (119th nationally), and has also allowed 133 plays of over ten yards (119th nationally).

With this week's game coming against one of the highest powered offenses in the country, head coach Jon Embree was asked how they are simulating Oregon's speed.

"You can't. We don't have, we only have a couple fast guys anyway. It's not like we have a plethora of them to put out there to simulate that."

"But the tempo of the offense, I think we've done a good job simulating that." Embree said.

The tempo tomorrow will be unlike anything that Colorado has seen so far this season. The defense has been on the field for an average of 71 plays per game, and Oregon is coming into the game averaging 83 snaps per game, and producing 51 points per game off of those snaps (2nd nationally). And if you've watched Oregon this season, you know any one of those 83 snaps can go for six at any moment.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3pm ET on the Pac 12 Network.

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn said that they plan to hire a number of staffers to aid in recruiting as early as next spring.

The additional personnel, totaling about six people, will not count against the NCAA's limit of coaches allowed to hit the road and recruit. Instead, they will be used to help identify, evaluate, and support prospective student athletes and help them in the transition in Boulder. Basically, they'll be taking care of the behind the scenes stuff, so that the coaches can go out and do what they do...which is recruit.

"It'd be huge. Right now, all the legwork and all that we're doing now takes away from all the other stuff we should be doing from an X and O standpoint, or anything else. Things like transcripts, all that stuff." head coach Jon Embree said.

The importance of recruiting was not lost on Bohn either, who said that he plans to add staffers to all athletic programs, starting off with football.

"The recruiting process is not emphasized or invested in at the level it needs to be. We recognize across the board, with all of our coaches when we meet, that it's about recruiting and about competing in this league of champions."

"We're trying to emphasize what we believe is integral to our success, and it's recruiting. We believe we have outstanding coaches who are recruiting and we want to further bolster their data, their research and their information for them to be better so they can attract (players) to what we believe is the premier college community in the country." Bohn explained.

As the Denver Post points out, the Buffaloes have only eight seniors on their roster, which is tied with Indiana for the second fewest in the country (Rice has just seven). So while coaches out on the road recruiting players that can compete at a Pac 12 level is very important, it is just as important for them to take measures to retain, educate, and develop the student athletes once they get on campus.

Good move here.