What can you say? What is there to say after your team, your alma mater loses by more than 30 points for the third time in four weeks?
“We have all talked about it, but it’s been all talk and no action,” said head coach Jon Embree after an all-too regular performance by his Buffs in Tempe, Arizona.
Embree has said the right things from the beginning of his tenure in October. Players and staff utter a statement of quality control improvements, but the translation to the field is worse than the instruction manual to a Chinese knock-off mahogany bookshelf. Fans are starting to get restless, and we can only get senses of what’s going on inside the locker room.
“There are some guys who are just okay with wearing the jersey. That’s wrong and that’s what has to change,” said senior captain Tyler Hansen who showed his true grit and fire coming back after a concussion a week prior.
And that feeling seems to be a mutual one from everyone involved, and is trickling down from the man in charge. “The other ones that just want to be on the team, be around if it goes good and then decide to jump in the water when it’s not going good. We will just have to keep weeding them out,” said Embree.
Embree is realistic, optimistic and he seems to be truly aware of his team.
“You can find a million reasons why you can’t, the goal is to go out there and find the one reason you can and go out there and do it,” said Embree who, even after everything that could have easily torn down a lesser football coach, is still on the straight and narrow.
Embree wants, nay, demands big things of his players. He can articulate all he wants right now, but it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets players that care as much as he does. The coach may be naïve, inexperience and willing to take the criticism if it means success.
An image, or win in the Buffs case, could speak a thousand words but I doubt ‘satisfied’ will be one that Jon Embree uses.
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