Buffs getting "better, Colorado National Signing Day Part 1

Similar to a helium balloon slipping through the hands of its pigtailed owner, the Colorado Buffaloes football program is on the rise. But unlike those cotton-candy coated hands of that same little girl that looks on in awe of the carnival that sits before her, Jon Embree’s grasp is only getting tighter, ready to take flight.

Embree and his team want that elevation too. 

“We're very excited about it.  Today we got better.  The Buffaloes definitely got better,” said Embree brimming on National Signing Day where the Buffs acquired 28 recruits. “There is a lot of excitement around our program.”  

            This is an exhilaration that translates and transfers much like osmosis throughout the veins of the Buffs contingent. A revival of the past is just one of number of reasons the Colorado program and its fan are excited about the upcoming years. All the coaches were a part of CU, and their pride and energy to resurrect it back to where it once was evident in the recruiting process.

“They (recruits) have to understand that they can come here and be part of us getting back to the way things used to be around here,” said Embree who played tight end for the Buffs in the late 1980’s. “We'll continue to work at it and we'll keep doing our best at it and eventually it will turn.”

Embree is a believer and conversion is what any good recruiter will tell you makes or breaks the sell. You don’t sell the product, Colorado football, you sell yourself, and Embree can make you want to be on his side, because that is where you’ll have the best chance of success.

But Embree wasn’t going after players because of their reputation; he went to place players that would fit the Colorado model. And one of these main requirements was passion; the passion to play the game, give everything for the team and being so committed to the team that they’d give anything to win.

 “As you talk to a kid, you can get a feel for how important it is to them and what it means to them,” said Embree who would strap a helmet on if they let him. “What would happen if they didn't have it?”  

So while a recruiting class win or lose you games, the energy Embree brought to the press conference and the enthusiasm he showed as he talked about his recruits makes you think his Buffs are already aspiring big things.

You better believe it, Embree sure does.

Chucky Jeffery gets to 1,000 points

“Coaches helped me evolve a little bit, I'm a scorer now,” said Colorado Buffaloes guard Chucky Jeffery who, after just two and a half season in Boulder has transformed into a leader for the Buffs and a big-time scorer.

Jeffery scored 18 points in a loss to Oregon on Saturday night to push herself over 1,000 for her career. She is only the 24^th Buff to collect that many points in a career.

“It feels good to get 1,000 points,” said Jeffery of the feat. “It's very humbling and it makes you hungry for more.”

The junior guard from Colorado Springs, Colorado (Sierra High School) has been a staple in the Buffaloes backcourt since her arrival on campus in 2009. In only her second game in Boulder she recorded double figures in points with 11. As a freshman she averaged 9.3 points per contest, which was third on the team.

Coming into her sophomore year her role as leader and scoring came natural. She averaged 13.5 points per game, second to only Brittany Spears. After two complete years in Boulder, Jeffery continued to be on the rise just like the entire Buff team.

“You just have to keep playing and keep working hard and come every day with a positive attitude and that will get you through most of the time,” said Jeffery who knows that this accomplishment is far from an individual milestone. “Depend on your team mates and coaches. The more you reach out the more comfortable you'll be getting over that little hump.”

After the graduation and departure of Spears, Colorado’s all time leading scorer there was only one player that could fill her shoes. Jeffery is 7^th in the Pac-12 in scoring, averaging 15.1 points.

But while Jeffery isn’t sneaking up on anyone her team is. The Buffs came out of the gates fast and were off to one their best starts in the programs history. Colorado started 12-0 but they have fallen off slightly in the tough Pac-12 Conference.  

“We have the last 5 of our 7 games on our home floor and we couldn't be in a better position than right now,” said Jeffery who remains confident about the imminent future. “We have to come out aggressive, pushing the ball, playing defense and getting back to ourselves. Hopefully we get some wins out of that.”

Sportsmag Packages 11/11/11

Sportsmag Packages.

Jon Embree's team is young but on Saturday it will be all about the seniors. Twenty-eight senior will graduate after this season but they have left their legacy here in Boulder. Embree asked the underclassmen to write letters to the seniors, and how they turned out... you'll just have to watch and see.

The Pac-12 is the 'Conference of Champions' and the first two ever champions to be crowned in the new conference were both from Boulder. The men's and woman's cross country squads swept the field in Tempe and are excited for the opportunity to take this momentum with them into the NCAA Nationals.

Amy Barczuk was invited to play at the U-23 National Soccer Camp. The junior is an up and coming star for the Buffs with the potential to play for the stars and stripes in the future. But her journey has come with hard work and a lot of family support.

A Streak of 3-D

“There was no interference from that…. Um…. Yay-hoo,” said the referee following an incomplete pass by Tyler Hansen on third down.

While all the fans at the game were disappointed, the popular voters at home were thankful even noticeable grateful that he still had his clothes on. What could have been a disaster in the second-EVER 3-D broadcast turned out to be nothing more than a meaningless prank.

The streaker, if we true fans can even call him that came onto Folsom Field could have single handedly (I refrain, too easy of a joke) made ESPN question its production value. And how could a little thing, a small infraction like that, have such big implications for the largest network in the sports arena?

All kidding aside, 3-D television doesn’t seem to be the next new thing. It won’t sizzle, but it won’t take off either.

Fans at home, and sometimes people even at the stadium get caught doing it, watch the two-dimensional version of the contest to their bemusement. There is no reason to think that people will want to bring this into their home; it may be an interesting improvement of technology but only a step forward to something more dramatic.

The ‘Wall-E’ shaped cameras may start to replace fingerprint covered binoculars. People will come back, they can’t stay away. HD, 3-D or Heavy-D (R.I.P. and he will be missed), by Dwight’s dimension definition, they paved the way and yet there is more to come.

A Speechless Embree

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.

Colorado is no match of #9 Oregon

The Colorado Buffaloes were outmatched, outplayed and out-schemed as they took on the number-9 team in the nation yesterday. The Ducks looked the part of the defending runner-up to the National Champion; they came out and didn’t disappoint.

“That is just how far we have to go,” said CU head coach Jon Embree, “I don’t think when you look out there you see a lack of effort or a lack of hustle or guys trying. We are just not at that level yet.”

The Ducks led by 29 points after the first quarter of play and let off the gas as much as they could. The much underappreciated Ducks defense barely allowed the Buff to cross into Oregon territory. The only points the Buffs could salvage was a safety on an uncharacteristic play by the OU lightning fast return man Cliff Harris. Oregon finished the game with a kneel down from the Colorado 22 yard line and a 45-2 victory.

“Disappointed about what happened to us, but hats off to Oregon,” said Embree in compliment of his opposing number and one of the best coaches in college football, Chip Kelly.

Oregon was classy and refined. They were the most talented, fastest and most well-coached team that the Buffs will see all year.  Colorado had no answers for the Ducks, who were even playing without their starting quarterback, Darren Thomas, and running back, LaMichael James.

The Buffs move to 1-6 and, realistically, no hope on the horizon.

“It is hard. I’m smiling because you have to smile to keep from crying,” Embree said. He is a true Buff believer, and he saw one of the lowest points in Colorado football history first hand in the early 1980’s. But he also saw the resurgence and the changing of a mentality in Boulder.

Now, Embree is in the forefront of the 21^st-century version of this same change. With 15 or 16 freshman getting substantial playing time and his first true recruiting class Embree will have his chance to make it happen.

“It is like what I have been telling them [younger players], ‘It is not where we are, it is where we are going to be,’ and that is what they have to stay focused on,” Embree said, emphasizing on looking toward the future of the program.

Buffs ill-timing proves costly in loss to WSU

Jon Embree doesn’t understand losing.

“I hate losing and I’m competitive and I expect these guys to win every time we go out there,” said the former Buff tight end and now head coach.

The way Colorado let a 10-point lead slip out of their grasp in the final minutes of play is beyond him.

Embree came into Boulder knowing that taking over one of the worst stretches in CU football history was going to be tough. But I don’t know if he thought it was going to be this hard.

“When are they going to get tired of losing?” said Embree who has not strayed away from the Buffs ineptitude to close out a ballgame, “When are they going to get tired of finding a way to lose because you know what, this staff, we’ve been here for five weeks and I’m tired of it.”

But it’s the way the Buffs lost this game, which also happened to be their very first in the Pac-12 that can make any black and gold fan need some high-quality antacid.

The Cougars blocked a Will Oliver field goal attempt early in the first half, which ended up being the winning margin for WSU. Throughout the game the Buffs were able to play Embree’s ‘physical’ game. CU’s offensive line found a rhythm and pushed Rodney ‘Speedy’ Stewart easily 100-yards on the ground.  Then, like looking in a mirror of years past, the Buffs proceeded to squander a 10-point lead with just over five minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

“‘When is it going to be enough? When is enough, enough?” said Embree as his almost lost gaze turned into something more along the lines of disgust, “You put in all of this work, you do all of this stuff that you have done from spring ball to training camp for this? This is what we did the work for? So when is it enough?”

This mentality change is slowly working its way around the Colorado locker room, but there is one man ready to make it a full-on epidemic.

“It starts with Jon Embree, no one else.”

Colorado not close at the Horseshoe

Heading into Ohio State, and the biggest stadium most of these players have ever seen, the Buffaloes had the opportunity to change many people's minds about this program. The game was televised nationally; no blackouts anywhere except for a couple frat houses.

Colorado’s newest coaches have said everything right since they were appointed in October. They even looked, and felt the part. (Not this.)

But, as Jon Embree has said several times in several different situations, ‘there is a difference from saying something, and then proceeding to go out and do it’ (I’m paraphrasing here). So when he said that this time was going to be a ‘physical team that runs the ball’ I completely believed him.

Then the Buffs got the ball for the first time.

“We have been awful starting games,” said Embree. The first three plays were all throws and were all unsuccessful; they used 21 total seconds and gave the ball right back to the Buckeyes  “We script plays and we go through it and we give them the looks and we practice it.”

The Buffs want to be physical program, in a name-sake game and that’s how you open the game?

If you are losing, and you need to score in a hurry I can completely understand the philosophy of throwing the ball numerous times. But if there is more than 30 minutes left in a game, so before half time, you cannot disregard everything you ever preached.

In the first half Colorado snapped the ball 23 times; 18 passes and only 5 runs. In those five prescribed running plays none lost yards and they averaged over 4 yards per carry. (‘Four yards a carry’ is something Embree has also stated previously.)

Colorado wants to return to playing good football, but you can’t just say that to win games.

Rocky Mountain Showdown; Good not Great

You always remember your first.

“It feels great,” said Jon Embree after his first victory as a head coach, “My first win as a player was against these guys so to do it as a coach means a lot.”

It doesn’t hurt that his inaugural victory comes against, what is now, Colorado’s only true rival.

The 16^th Rocky Mountain Showdown matched the undefeated Rams against the defeated Buffs but lacked the anticipation that many Colorado natives once knew. The two teams combined for 8 wins in 2010 (only 7 if you don’t count the Buffs win in the same matchup last year), and the last bowl game for either team was Colorado State’s win over Fresno State in 2008.

Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium, which holds upwards of 70-thousand people, was far from full. There were patches of empty seats scattered throughout, but the no-shows (whom are usually booed at Mile High Field) didn’t lessen the energy that translated to the players on the field.

“I heard them; I don’t count them. I don’t spend too much time looking at them,” said CSU head coach Steve Fairchild about the fans although the Rams were only able to see a little more than 17-thousand of their 31-thousand (55%) allotment, “There were enough people there to provide an atmosphere.”

The 55-thousand that staggered into the building from the exponential rowdy tailgates saw a physical game. The Buffs defense took on a new mentality that made them fly to the ball.

“I take responsibility for the personal fouls because I told the team in their today that I took the leash off – there were no rules,” said Embree who usually doesn’t handle the defense, allowed the Buffs to fly around in this big game, “There were no rules and I took the leash off them.”

Colorado’s defense slowed down the Rams rushing game, only giving up 67 yards on the ground and only 176 through the air for sophomore Pete Thomas. But the 10 minute drive to seal the game for the Buffs, the defense stepping up, and even the win was once again overshadowed by the mistakes.  

“I’m happy. I’ll be happier,” said Jon Embree who was clearly upset by numerous mistakes that are constantly plaguing the Buffs.

“There are a lot of things we need to fix too,” said senior Ryan Miller. Colorado came into the game as one of the most penalized teams in the nation and was flagged 10 times for 114 yards on Saturday. “[Today] definitely wasn’t a perfect game. We had a lot of penalties; we need to clean that up.”

The Buffs have a long way to go, but the victory is most obviously a step in the right direction. But CU can’t stew on the victory too long; they have to start preparing for the Buckeyes and a streak that nobody in black & gold can avoid.

“As soon as possible,” said senior Anthony Perkins.

Buffs lose heartbreaker to Cal - Short Recap

Jon Embree’s return to Boulder and Folsom Field probably went better in his dreams. Only a little better though, the only thing that was missing for the new head coach on Saturday was a Buffs win.

“We didn’t play good enough – we lost. I don’t care if we run for two yards or 1,000 yards, we have to win the game,” said Embree following the disappointing 36-33 overtime loss to new Pac-12 opponent California.

The upsides from this back-and-forth game were hard to ignore though.

The combination of Tyler Hansen and Paul Richardson tore apart the Colorado record books. Hansen threw for 474 yards, a new school record, and of those 284 went to Richardson, also writing his name in the record books.  

“I think Paul Richardson is a star in the making and we are seeing it,” said Embree of the sophomore whose 11 receptions tied a school record.

And, don’t forget about Will Oliver’s right leg that gave the Buffs a chance to win the game in the extra period. “It was the reason I picked him. It was a gut feeling,” Embree said about the true freshman that made sent the Buffs into overtime with a 33 yard field goal in the final minute of the game, “That kid is going to be good and he was the answer for us.”

The more than 50-thousands fans that stacked Folsom Field have something to be more than excited about. But the coach wants more.

“Disappointed, I thought we would win,” said the coach. Embree isn’t going to look at numbers as a victory unless the numbers also point in the Buffs favor on the scoreboard following the game.