CU Buffaloes Football 2012 Preview

The Colorado Buffaloes football program dealt with one of their roughest seasons in recent memory.  Followers of Colorado football could tell you that after seeing many pressers in which we seen head coach Jon Embree call out his squad.  Whether the Buffs lost games that had should have won or games in which they were completely blown out, they were humiliating loses to say the least.   As bad as this program may have been last season, this season could be just as bad, but it is just the step the program will have to take before they start to move up the ranks in the PAC-12.

This team is in complete transition as the squad slowly moves out players from the Dan Hawkins era to the Jon Embree regime.  The program is bringing in many players into Boulder, and having a coach/recruiter such as Eric Bieniemy, the school has been able to steal recruits from other schools, including those in the PAC-12, which can be viewed as like a “2-for-1 special”. 

In the 2012 recruiting season, the Buffs ranked 36^th in the nation, slowly making their way up back into the top 25.  They brought in 27 recruits, including 20 3-star and 2 4-star players. 

The buffs will need all the bodies they can get.  This was a program that saw many injuries in the 2011 season, so durability is a question.  To the team’s defense, they did play 13 games last season without a bye in the schedule. 

The Buffs also go into the 2012 season with having lost quality players at positions in which they struggled throughout the season.  They lost 29 players, 12 of which were starters including Rodney Stewart, Tyler Hansen, Toney Clemons, Ryan Miller, Curtis Cunningham, Josh Hartigan, Travis Sandersfield and Anthony Perkins.  During spring ball, the Buffs we also dealt a serious blow to the offense with the loss of stud wide receiver Paul Richardson to a torn ACL.

Last season CU averaged 108 yards on the ground, passing for 237 yards, putting up just under 20 points a game while giving up almost 37 points per a contest.  That is good for 106^th, 57^th, 109^th and 109^th in the nation.  Understand that CU’s numbers in the air was inflated due to the fact that they were behind in almost every game, resulting in slinging the ball on just about every play.  Having said all this, looking into 2012, the Buffs have plenty they can improve on. 

At Quarterback, the Buffs were high on Nick Hirschman and were hoping he could be healthy competition to Texas transfer Connor Wood.  Hirschman did suffer a fracture in his foot in early March, putting him on the shelf until August, giving Wood the opportunity, and in all likelihood to start the season against Colorado State.

One bright spot is running back.  5-7 185 lbs. Soph. Tony Jones will bring the speed out of the backfield while 5-9 205 lbs. Jr. Josh Ford will bring the “pop” in the running game.  Both these kids saw more action as the season goes on and I expect these two to have solid seasons for CU.

Wide Receiver and Tight End is decimated, with the loss of Richardson and Clemons, this group will have serious problems and will need someone to step up to help the lack of experience at the QB position.  Behind Richardson and Clemons is Keenan Canty, Tyler McCulloch and DeVaughn Thornton.  Together, they accounted for 30 catches for 326 yards.  This is a very inexperienced group which can only go up.  The loss of TE Ryan Deehan does not help either, he was becoming more a of downfield threat in the seam as the season progressed, but he has moved on and it is up to former DL Nick Kasa and Kyle Slavin to pick up the slack.

The offensive line played roulette all of last season as the line constantly had a new lineup for most of the season last year.  The line that struggled to protect QB Tyler Hansen and help open up holes for TB Rodney Stewart lost their best lineman in Ryan Miller to the Cleveland Browns via the NFL Draft.  The returning players got experience, but were inconstant all of last season, fair judgment of the line can’t be made until the season starts, but based on the last years play and lack of depth; this will be the weakest point of the squad.

The defensive line will struggle some as well.  The starters in Nate Bonsu and Eric Richter, both weighting over 300 lbs. should hold the fort down, but it’s the depth behind them that must be questioned.  Undersized linemen means the second unit will be pushed around, not imposing their will on the rush and pass D.  The edge has a up and coming DE in 6-3, 255 Jr. Chidera Uzo-Diribe, forcing 5.5 sacks and 3 forced fumble, but the productivity slips behind him.  CU should be ecstatic with the signings of Kisima Jagne and Samson Kafovalu.  Both these kids have size and speed, look for them to get playing time early and make some noise come late in the season, particularly Jagne, who posted a 4.5 40.

The linebackers are the heart of the defense.  Lead by Jon Major, who led the defense last season with 85 tackles on the season, and when healthy, a Douglas Rippy, the two posted 6 sacks between the two.  With Kyle Washington who showed flashes to make big plays as a freshman, this group should be flying to the ball and don’t be surprised if one of these guys make a big play on a week-in week-out basis.

Last is the secondary.  After the departure of NFL caliber corners in Jimmy Smith and Jalil Brown, the cabinet was left almost bone dry.  Also due to injuries Embree moved TB Brian Lockridge to play corner against Wazzu in which he had 5 solo tackles and a sack in the loss.  The returning players in the secondary include Ray Polk, Greg Henderson and Terrel Smith who only were able to muster up 3 interceptions on the season, this is a very pedestrian secondary.  Help is on the way though, and with the terrible play, the new recruits will see playing time early and often.  The play can only go up, so if the recruits are bad, given their youth and potential, I expect the guys to play through the season.  CU’s bread and butter of the recruiting season came in the secondary with the signings of Kenneth Crawley and surprising Yuri Wright.  Wright was the 40^th ranked player in ESPNU’s 150, but due to his actions and words used on twitter, the BCS conference schools stop pursing him…except Colorado, on which Embree, being the disciplinary and understanding person he is, he brought the kid in and Colorado may have found them a gem.

CU does have a more manageable season coming up, including a non-conference schedule in which they play Colorado St., Sacramento St. and Fresno St. before PAC-12 play, CU may have a shot to go 3-0, but with the inexperience on the field, no game is going to be a cakewalk.  They can easily can start the season 1-2 before PAC-12 play.  Seeing what Colorado has ahead of them, 5 wins may be in the cards for the Buffs.  No bowl game, but seeing what they went through the last several seasons, this would be a huge improvement and look for the light to shine brighter for the program throughout the season.

Hitting the Ground Running

Thursday is the final session of OTA's for the Denver Broncos before we head into training camp in late July.  The players on the defensive side of the ball keep giving themselves praises on how well the D is coming along.  Obviously, the NFL world is focusing on Peyton Manning and the rest of the Denver Bronco offense.  The last OTA's we heard about how the offense was struggling in the passing game, but according to the Denver Post's Mike Klis, Manning "He zinged medium-range crossing patterns to tight end Jacob Tamme and receiver Matt Willis. And he nailed deep go-routes to each side of the field, one to Eric Decker, the other to Demaryius Thomas".

Recently, Willis McGehee said he has a goal of rushing for 1,200 yards this upcoming season.  Last season, he was one yard short of that goal, but was done mostly in the zone-read offense with Tebow.  Enter Manning, in all of his time as a Colt, the running game there was mediocre in his tenure as a whole.  Yes he had Edgerrin James for a while, but the running productivity slipped following his departure the the second year for Joesph Addai.  Manning has spent his career building up the numbers to be one of, if not arguably the greatest QB of all time.


Coming to Denver, many people were lead to believe that the Broncos offense would look like the Indy offense, pass first, second and then run third.  Well, after hearing Manning's recent comments, he understands the Broncos history and what this team has been built on over the years and has really has adapt to working with the Broncos brass and vise versa, making for the potential for a balance, unpredictable offense.  Sam Davis of DenverBroncos.com spoke with Manning and this is what he had to say.

“(The running game) is still going to be a top priority,” quarterback
Peyon Manning said. “I think (Offensive Coordinator Mike) McCoy has addressed the team, and he’s really preaching balance, and trying to be three-dimensional -- where on any down and distance, you can drop back, you can hand the ball off or you can run play-action. If the defense can be thinking about all three of those things, hopefully that gives the offense an advantage."

This offense is still far from looking like the offense that they want to be, for Manning to be effective and to be the manipulator that he is to defenses, he needs a good ground game.  With Manning stressing and  understanding how important it is to have a ground game, the offense seems to have changed in theory of doing everything in the air to establishing the ground game to set up the pass.  With Willis McGehee, Ronnie Hillman, Knowshon Moreno, Lance Ball and Jeremiah Johnson, there is no doubt this can be a potent rushing attack WITHOUT Tim Tebow.  With an established running attack, this offense can and will look like the Manning style of offense that had a effective play-action attack they had in the years the Colts were consistently putting up 13 wins a season.  The thought of having over 2,000 yards on the ground is plausible with this offense give now teams will have to respect the arm of Peyton Manning, meaning 6-7 men in the box instead of the 8-9 they were seeing last season.  In doing so, this will make Manning a more effective passer, giving some that Manning hasn't had the pleasure of doing in quite some time...destroying opposing defenses with play-action, but all will have to be set up with the ground attack.  Something that Manning understands that has been the bread and butter for the Broncos for years, and something that will help make him more effective and prolong his career with the Broncos.

Once a Guarantee to a Offseason Question Mark

The days of the Denver Broncos being ran by O-Line guru Alex Gibbs and the offense being ran by likes of Mike Shanahan, Gary Kubiak and Rick Dennison seem like a distance memory.  The quarantee that each season in the West Coast Offense, the Broncos running game would produce a thousand yard back easily. How was that possible?  Due to Alex Gibbs' coaching of the zone-blocking scheme.

The Broncos offense and ability to have an effective offense in general was due in part to the scheme.  The Broncos did also have Hall of Famers on the line throughout the years.  But in the last season under that scheme in 2007, the Broncos line consisted of Ryan Clady, Ben Hamiliton, Casey Wiegmann, Chris Kuper and Ryan Harris.  The Broncos running attack that season was twelfth overall averaging 4.8 yards a rush and 115.4 yards a game and a passing game that did an outstanding job protecting then Bronco QB Jay Cutler as he was sacked eleven times all season long, including only .5 a sack by rookie phenom and perennial Left Tackle Ryan Clady. 

The Broncos O-line has seen significant change since that season.  Clady and Kuper are the only remaining starters from that season, while the team also brought back Harris to replace Kuper due to his leg injury late in the season.  The Broncos moved to multiple styles of offense with Josh McDaniels and John Fox.  But one thing that was certain through the years was that the Broncos moved from a dying scheme with Zone-Blocking to the "flavor of the month" with the Power-O attack with the O-line.

The running game has slumped mightily until Tebow came in and resurrected the ground attack with RB Willis McGehee this past season.  But with the league moving towards a pass first philosophy, there is one alarming stat that needs to be checked out...SACKS.  Alarming numbers were found by ESPN's Bill Williamson.  What was found is Clady has given up 24 sacks in the last three seasons, including 12 last season. 

Clady spoke with Denver Post's Lindsay Jones and this is what he had to say about protecting Tebow compared to Manning "Not too much of a difference".  This is what he also had to say as well about his performance this past season "There were a couple of things here and there that could have been better, but overall it was solid". 

Coming from the best player on the line, believing that his game was solid after giving up 12 sacks last season HAS to be worrisome.  To his credit, he was in forced to protect a QB that could not make wise decisions in the pocket when he (Tebow) dropped back for a pass.  But the Broncos have to make a decision, with Ryan Clady's rookie contract up at the end of the 2012 season, do the Broncos overpay for potential on his game, or do they decide to go elsewhere?  And this goes for the rest of the line as well, because their newest toy on the Bronco offense could be one hard hit away from calling it a career.