Monday Grab Bag: Tad Boyle's European Vacation

The big news this week is two-fold.  Not only is the football program finishing up fall practice with its second full week, but the BasketBuffs are embarking on their long anticipated trip to Europe.  Apologies to the football program, but my focus is on Coach Boyle's European Vacation.

Today in the bag, I'll be talking trip details, recapping my recent visit practice, and touch on the half-way point of fall football camp.

Click below for the bag...

Five reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming football season

The stated goal this year is to do what no CU football team has done since 2007: get to a bowl game.  I may not be sold on that, but I can at least can see a potential path to that end. Below the jump, I'll give five legitimate reasons why the Buffs might actually sneak into that bowl game.  No hyperbole or leaps of faith here, just honest-to-goodness truths that will allow any Buff fan to believe.

Click below for the list...

Quick Post: The finals go on without Jenny Barringer

Buff Nation's best hope for an Olympic medal crashed out before even reaching the final.  Jenny Barringer Simpson, one of the best runners in CU's storied history, struggled in her semi-final run of the 1,500m yesterday, and ended up finishing last in the heat.  She was the defending world champion in the event, and her early exit was almost as big of a shock as her winning run last year was.

For her sake, she doesn't take any opportunity to place blame, saying "I have no excuse. [...] I have nothing. I'm in great shape and I feel good. You just have to earn every single step, and I think I thought about the final before I had earned it."  

Warning bells were already going off in my head Monday during her qualifying heat.  She was behind the lead pack for almost the whole race, and had to essentially sprint the final lap to even sneak into the semi's. A friend of mine who follows these things blamed tactics, but it's always worrying to see that kind of performance in the opening round.

It's a shame for Jenny, but she'll be back.  Her win at the 2011 World Championships makes her a national figure, and her career has plenty of races left in it.  I'm sure sometime over the next four years she'll run a race or two that will make everyone forget about London.

The recruiting of Jabari Bird

Allow me a brief respite from football talk to delve into some basketball recruiting...

It's no secret that CU is now a hoops name to be reckoned with.  Every aspect of the program is on the rise, from on-court production, to the recruiting trail.  It's a perfect storm of the right coach seizing upon a conference switch and an upsurge in talent, money, and facilities.  Recruits who, in past years, wouldn't have given the program the time of day, are suddenly returning phone calls, and scheduling visits.

Case-in-point, next month Coach Boyle and staff will be hosting 5-star super prospect Jabari Bird.  The 6-6 swing guard from NorCal is everything that you look for in an ideal swing-man: height, speed, scoring ability.  He "may have the most upside of any wing-type out west," and has emerged as one of the premier recruits on the Left Coast

To even be in the running (reportedly in his final 4) for such a high-profile talent is a testament to how far the program has come over the past few years.  Bird would certainly be a difference maker the second he slips on the Black and Gold.

The reported pitch is, "... he (Bird) is the missing piece to the puzzle and potentially the program's next lottery pick."   I think the biggest key to that pitch is that it's referencing the "next" lottery pick, rather than the first in a generation.  With the NBA matriculation of Alec Burks, and the future prospects of players like Andre Roberson and Josh Scott, Coach Boyle can easily point to a pipeline carrying talent from Boulder to the NBA.  Come here, and you too can land in the Association.

Could Bird be the next CU superstar? From: Rivals.com

Unfortunately, I don't think it will work.

Tad Boyle, it pains me to say, is not perfect.  Even in the magical 2012 recruiting class he had some high-profile misses, as he failed to secure a signature from 4-star point guards Ty Wallace, and stopped pursuing Dominic Artis.  In the end, I doubt this recruiting war will end in anything other than similar disappointment for Buff Nation.  Cal (again, fucking Cal) is the presumed front-runner for his services, and I'd put a lot of money on them winning this battle.

Still, it's pretty cool to say that a 5-star hoops recruit is checking out campus.  Get a kid to Boulder, and he might just find something he likes...

Colorado Football: When keeping it real goes wrong

Thankfully, the offseason has been blissfully quiet.  Other than a few injury concerns, the news reports emanating from the program have all been performance related.  Very little if anything on the disciplinary front... wait, what's that noise?

Oh no, it's a herd of hyperventilating media members... this is never good for anyone living in Boulder County.  This is probably about that noise complaint that drew cops to practice.  Fine, what do you guys have for us today?

Hrmmmm.... an incident resulting in no charges, where a couple of over-excited college kids mouthed off at some cops.  (Like that doesn't happen eight times every weekend night up on The Hill.)  Exciting (I fucking hate this small town crap).  Certainly firing air soft guns between cars is pretty stupid, but it seems like a smack-upside-the-head level incident.

Wait, what, CU is suspending two, and kicking off another?

Really?  I mean, sure, they shouldn't have lipped off to the cops (Very bad form. Also, never sarcastically demand that a cop shoot you), but the BPD brought five patrol cars, and drew weapons, over an air soft pistol.  I'm assuming that would've raised everyone's blood pressure significantly to the point that nerves were strained.

Hey, I don't know everything involved, and maybe these guys all carried previous in-house disciplinary issues, but this seems like an overreaction by the coaching staff.  There has to be much more to the Jermaine Clark result, especially.  There's no way this incident warrants dismissal/departure from the team.

From a football standpoint, this isn't all that impactful.  Thornton and Thomas weren't first choices at their respective positions.  CU can live without them for two games against low-level opponents.  Clark, while ticketed for limited playing time this fall, is replaceable.  Still, a quick, sad end to his CU career.

Can we please try to get through camp without any more bullshit?

Quick Post: ... and then there were three

The 4-way battle for the #1 QB slot on the CU depth chart didn't even last a day.

Freshman Shane Dillon is still recovering from his February surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder.  While cleared to practice, he's still very limited.  In that light, Coach Embree announced yesterday that Dillon will likely redshirt, and is therefore out of the QB competition.  The race is, be default, down to three.

This was not always a part of the plan. Many had, prior to the surgery, thought Dillon to be a dark horse contender for the QB crown.  However, logic would dictate that, even when healthy, it'd take a pretty special kid to supplant a seasoned veteran (Webb), a high-profile transfer with plenty of practice time (Wood), or a returning in-program backup (Hirschman).  I'm not saying that it was impossible, but, had a healthy Dillon won the job, I'd have been floored.

Hirschman and the QB corps are battling it out this fall. From: the BDC

As it stands, three quality options remain for Embree and crew to choose from.  With practices closed, progress reports will be slow to emerge, and even then tainted with a twinge of PR spin. (Case-in-point, the quote of the day from Coach Embree is that each of the three QB's "had their moments... this competition, I guess, is going to have to go at least two days."  That's some deep shit right there.)  Even with the media blackout, expect plenty of rumored developments to hit the waves over the next two weeks.

Monday Grab Bag: Fall camp is open for business

Football is back.  Officially.  I'm serious, just look:

Today is the first full day of fall camp, and the CU Video team was kind enough to put together that nice short to pump everyone up.  The video states "Believe and love what we are doing.  Success will come."  The coaching staff has stated that that success is a bowl trip.  All that's left is for the team to live up to that guarantee, because that success train is long past-due.

Today in the bag, I'll be looking at the five storylines I'll be following as camp unfolds, talking the un-official start of basketball season, and running through some Olympics notes.

Click below for the bag...