Friday Beer Post: Gameday Beer-o-the-week - Sasnak Edition

Each week throughout the football season I'm going to suggest a good beer for the ubiquitous pre-game tailgate. Let's be honest, with tailgates it's not always top quality that you're looking for. To steal a phrase from the heinous beer terrorists at Budweiser, you want "drinkability." (or what a real beer connoisseur calls "a session beer") So, be warned, these may not be "the best" beers around. But, in the words of Dave Chappelle as Samuel L. Jackson "IT'LL GET YOU DRUNK!"

Finally, after weeks of lame beers I get to pick a solid beer. Kansas, besides being flatter than a pancake, is also home to a legitimate craft brewery. Well, sort of. You see, Boulevard Brewing, who brews this week's pick, is technically in Kansas City, Missouri. But, damnit, Kansas is in the cities name, so I'm calling it Kansas. In addition, Lawrence, KS is much closer to KC than Columbia, MO, so you can suck it; Boulevard's Double Wide IPA is this week's Tailgate beer-o-the-week.


A double IPA version of their Single-Wide IPA, Double-Wide is my favorite Boulevard offering. It's strong on the hops, with well-balanced fruit flavors. As you can see from the picture, it has a beautiful complexion with a strong, frothy head. Part of Boulevards "Smokestack Series," Double-Wide is a quality IPA that sits well on your palate, with plenty of bitter, sweet and floral flavors to go around. I checked with Liquor Mart, and they've got it in stock so I'm good to go. No big party this week, since the game is only on the radio, so I'll have some time to enjoy this big beer properly.

Happy Friday! Go Buffs, Beat Sasnak (please)!

Quick Post: First Pac-12 schedule

I heard some complaints from friends this year about the home schedule. Sure it didn't have UT, the Nubs, or OU, but I thought it was still a good schedule (Hawaii is an interesting opponent, and of course there was the Georgia game).

Well, if you thought the home schedule was weak this year, get ready because Oregon and USC are visiting the Front Range next fall. How does that suit you? We also get Washington State (*Sad Trombone*) and Arizona (meh). (that Cal home return is still being discussed, we may still play it as a "non-conference" conference game.)

Road trips will be to Washington, ASU, Stanford, UCLA and Utah in addition to the previously scheduled trips to Ohio St, Hawaii, and downtown Denver. Damn that's a tough schedule.

I can't wait for this thing to kick off... is it next year yet?

Kansas Preview

Now that everyone is resigned to their respective fates, I've been thinking recent Buff history; specifically '06. It's astonishing to look back on the past 5 seasons of Buff football and see the course of events. CU went out and got one of the premier up-and-coming coaching names in an attempt to reshape the program after the "scandal." Immediately, and most shockingly, the program was slapped in the face. With anticipation of things to come, and the possibility of 50+ points being thrown up against lowly Montana St., Buff fans poured in to see CU play its first D-1AA opponents in years. Instead of a rout of the Bobcats from Bozeman, the fans witnessed one of the most demoralizing performances in CU history. Unable to even crack 225 yards of offense, the post-Barnett era got off to the most embarrassing of starts as CU lost at home to a D-1AA team that would lose to a D-2 team the following week.

(Remember these guys? They started it all....)

I bring that-day-which-must-not-be-spoken-of up because the situation is eerily similar to that of Kansas. After a hastily reached decision to fire the previous head coach, the university (Kansas) goes out and grabs the hot, up-and-coming name from a non-BCS school (Turner Gill from Buffalo). After much hype, the team goes out and loses, embarrassingly, to a D-1AA school (North Dakota St., go Bison!) at home. The team then proceeds to win 2 games over the course of the season (fingers crossed on that one). Judging by the resulting 5 years of the Dan Hawkins coaching era, maybe Kansas should just cut it's losses after this year and hire Dave Logan.

--
Sasnak

(Baby Mangino can't save you anymore, KU)

Oh, Kansas. You were good for exactly 2 months. I don't know how, or why, they were able to cobble together that talented '07 team, but they certainly have reverted to form recently. You would think that leading a traditionally abysmal football program to a one-loss Orange Bowl season would be enough to buy some leeway, yet KU fired the fat man for being overly aggressive. He yelled at kids during a practice... oooOOOOoooo.

(I'll miss you, fat man!)

Whatever. It's the start of basketball season; does anyone at KU really care?

It is what it is, and it's currently a disaster. After the aforementioned loss to NDSU, the Jayhawks rebounded to randomly beat Georgia Tech (who I'm sure prepared very hard), but have since struggled to even play competitively against a real opponent. The straits are so dire that Coach Gill even praised his team just for leading at half last week.

It's a simple equation, they give up too many points, and don't score enough. Red Zone efficiency is way down (only 68%) and they're getting less than 200 yards per game through the air. Only scoring 16.1 points a game isn't going to help anybody, and offensively, KU looks like they're straight out of the dark ages. While they do get over 320 yards per game from the offense, they don't really do any one thing particularly well, and are often stuck in neutral when they have the ball.

Offensively, the team is lead by... somebody. The team still hasn't announced a starting QB for this week's game. It could be Jr Quinn Mecham... or Fr Jordan Webb who's had most of the snaps this season.... or even So Kale Pick. Say what you will about Cody, at least we know who our starter will be Saturday afternoon. Whoever the QB is, I don't expect a lot of production from the position. When an offense is stuck in the mud, you can usually look at who's under center for the cause of the problem. The rest of the Jayhawks offense is a collection of could-be talent, but with no real go-to stars. WR Bradley McDougald (He's a Sophomore!) is struggling after a break-out freshman campaign. Other go-to targets for whoever the QB is will be Johnathon Wilson and converted DB Daymond Patterson. RB James Sims and the rest of the rushing attack are often just as ineffective as the passing attack. A lot of backs will see touches, and that's not necessarily a good thing...

(Webb, who's handled most of the snaps this year, may not be the QB come Saturday)

Defensively, the Jayhawks are a mess. In their 4 Big XII contests, they've given up an average of 47 points per game. They've given up over 450 yards of offense 3 times this season, and even allowed Baylor to crack them for 678 yards. This unit is porous, especially against the run where they allow 5.1 yards per rush. They only have 8 sacks on the year, so they don't really get after the quarterback, and they only have 2 picks on the year, which makes me think their coverage is soft. Sr Linebacker Drew Dudley, Jr LB Steven Johnson and Sophomore Safety Lubbock Smith lead the defense, such as it is.

Prediction Time
If a game isn't on television, does it really happen? As it is, these sort of match-ups often make for good games; two struggling teams facing off with nothing to lose, etc.

CU should win. Even Vegas agreed as the Buffs were installed at 9 point favorites earlier this week. The problem is that damn road game jinx. Hawk can't coach his way out of a brown paper bag when the game is played outside of Colorado; the team comes out flat, doesn't have the internal fire to kick-start the engines, one thing leads to another, and it's another Buffs loss.

I really want to pick CU to win this week. Even after all the jokes CU does have a shot at a Weedeater bowl, which is important to the kids on the field. CU needs this game for confidence and pride, unfortunately I don't think they'll get it done.


Yes, KU is awful this year, and yes they don't even have a QB, but even bad teams catch breaks once in a while, and this Buffalo program loves to give bad teams breaks. I expect an ugly game; turnovers, bad special teams, poor offensive efficiency, etc. I also expect CU to find a way to lose, as it has every time it's gone on the road the past 3 years. If we hadn't decided to abandon the run game, maybe I'd give us a chance, but the team is playing scared and lifeless, and I just can't overlook it.

But, don't worry CU fans, Hawk will still be employed come Monday morning, because of some nebulous "honor" concept. Sigh...

(At least he's happy...)

KU 19 - CU 12

GO BUFFS!

CU club hockey

Last week, the CU club hockey team lost to CSU at the Pepsi Center. While I'm sure attendance was sparse, that matchup has sure come a long way from when I was going to games at the crumbling CU rec center. One of my favorite things to do when I was an undergrad at Dear Old CU was attending club hockey games. While not a varsity sport (and considering the history of collegiate hockey in the state, why isn't it?), CU club hockey was always a good way to pass an evening. The games, and the rec center venue, combined a vicious, intimate atmosphere with hockey stank (if you've been to the rec center's ice arena, you know what I'm talking about).

Let's be honest, club hockey is not the highest level of the sport, but the poor skating and low skill level seemed to make the games more exciting. It was fun to get a little drunk and head over the the rec center. I'd get to sing the fight song a few times, and, since the team was winning championships when I was still in the dorms, probably see a Buffalo victory.

Of course my favorite matchups were the ones against CSU. Lord knows I love to see Buffaloes kick Rammies across any playing surface, and ice is no different. Those games were always intense. Blood, fights, fan intimidation; those games had it all. Even the JV matchups, which strictly barred any fighting, ended up with bodies on the ice. 300 people would pack the tiny rec center, and even with a crowd that small, the atmosphere was loud and alive. I loved going to those games as much for the crowd as for the game itself.


(CU may have lost this round, but it's always fun to watch the Buffs and Rams battle it out on the ice)

While hockey is too expensive of a sport for the program to be elevated to varsity, it's good that the university has a presence on the ice. Hockey is fun, damnit, and I'm already thinking of attending the February 11th CU/CSU game at the rec center.

What Harris-Tunk's Injury Means

My full basketball preview won't be up until next week-ish (waiting til the last minute is my forte), but there was plenty of talk today about the impact of the Harris-Tunks ACL tear, and what it could mean to the Buffs postseason chances. To put it lightly, HT being out is a body blow to the Buffs Tourney hopes. No, as Coach Boyle pointed out to Thorburn yesterday, HT wasn't going to grab headlines with his numbers, but we needed his size to not match-up against larger opponents and grab some big rebounds to key the offense, but eat some fouls and possessions as well.

His replacements are none too encouraging. We know what we're going to get from Dufault, and Eckloff has shown some flashes of being able to play at this level, but both were valued under Coach Bz more for their shooting and ability to stretch the opponent than their defense or rebounding (which are emphasized under Coach Boyle). Beyond them, our low post options get crazy thin with the likes of Freshman 7-footer Ben Mills (who I can all but guarantee won't be ready for Big XII play) and a cavalcade of undersized swing-forwards/guards playing out of position. The team will often be forced to play very small this year, and, unlike Mid-Major teams like Drake who can afford to throw 5 guards out there and outscore opponents in a weak league, it's going to hurt for the Buffs to try and do so.

(Players like Trey Eckloff will have to pick up the slack in a big way.)

This team is as comfortable playing small as you can be, but it's a simple fact that you need size of some form to get through a Big XII season. Some times you just need a warm body to eat up minutes. Think of it this way: had CU even had a former big-man scrub like Julius Ashby last season, it probably would've been worth 2 or 3 extra wins on the season; not because he was necessarily any good, but just by the fact that he could eat some possessions with his size. Even when you are guard oriented, you need someone to eat up the block on each end of the court; these guys give you extra chances on offense and slow down opponents on defense.

It's the little things with HT that we're going to miss this year. His help defense, size threat, and (especially) his 5 low-post fouls. We all know of Dufault's penchant for early and compromising cheap fouls in the paint, which will put a major strain on the team this year, but the problems go beyond that; Without HT, you can probably expect to see an extra foul per night for Relphorde and even Burks. Because of their athleticism, they'll have to collapse to the rim on certain defensive possessions that they wouldn't normally have to, involving them in plays that lead to defensive fouls. This could cost us a game or two because a major cog of the offense is on the bench for crucial possessions.

As a result, I'm going to revise my season prediction. Expect a random loss in non-conference play and 12 non con wins (we play a crazy easy non-con schedule). I think .500 in the Big XII is now the benchmark (7-1 at home, 1-7 on the road, a la 2003) and 20 total wins. With our extra weak non-conference schedule, that will place us firmly on the NCAA bubble.

--

Speaking of warm-bodies filling up space in the lane, there is some-what of a dark horse replacement option; Casey Crawford is wandering around with a full year of eligibility left to use. He left the team last year for personal reasons, and still has one more to play. Realistically he's probably out of shape and wouldn't fit into the offense (or really Boyle's style of play at all), but at least he's tall-ish.... This will never happen in a million years (I'm not sure we have a schollie to give up anyway), but all I'm saying is that there is a Buff out there who is 6-8 with Big XII experience and can play one more year.
(Why'd you have to go Casey, we could sure use you right now...)

I'm just grasping at straws right now...

Monday Grab Bag: Well, it could've been worse

Halloween's over, which means we can move on to the 2 month's long Christmas season. Egg nog for all! On with the bag...

Buffs Lose: What did you really expect from this game? If not for us playing in prevent defense from the opening kickoff, and Bob Stoops displaying some mercy by calling off the dogs early in the 3rd Quarter, OU could've racked up 75+ points and 700 yards of passing. I'm not kidding, we're that much worse than they are. As it was, OU racked up 488 yards through the air and 635 yards overall. The Buffs seemed reluctant to try and stop the Sooner offense, instead preferring to sit back and try not to be broken over the top. Time after time to Sooners ran the same swing pass to the running back to keep drives moving down the field (OU RB's combined for 14 catches) wihtout an adjustment by the CU defense, and, when they grew tired of that, our 4 quarters of prevent defense couldn't keep All-World WR Ryan Broyles from getting 9 catches for 208 yards and 3 scores.

While the defense was looking tired and indifferent, the offense was looking impotent. Finding less than 300 yards of offense on the evening, the Buffs were inefficient and non-threatening against a Sooner defense that had been the team's lone weak spot. Rodney Stewart was a singular bright spot gaining 90 yards on 19 carries, even keeping drives alive on some nice runs between the tackles.

I guess my point on this game is that it could've been worse. We knew it was going to be bad, and were in damage control from the opening kickoff. From what I saw, our gameplan was not to even attempt to win, but to keep the Sooners from completely embarrassing us; such is the state of CU football. We know from logical assumptions, press insinuations, and information from reliable sources that Hawk is gone at the end of the year; the decision is already been made, and that we are just waiting for the clock to run out. At this point all we are doing by keeping him around is getting the program embarrassed and kids hurt. With firing him, I think it takes the weight of his impending doom away from the season, and allows the kids to handle their own destiny. If we're going to fire him in 26 days, what good does it do to keep him around any longer?

(Hawk, staring metaphorically at his bleak future. From: The BDC)

Coaching Situation: I'm told that by keeping Hawk we're preventing terrible things from happening; that firing Hawk today, and not November 27th, would damage recruiting, and end any chance of getting to a bowl game. I would respond by saying that as currently coached the team will lose at least 3 more games, if not all 4, and that recruiting is certainly not helped by a man who knows he doesn't have a job come two days after Thanksgiving (In fact he could permanently damage the current recruiting class, if it hasn't been damaged already). If Hawk was delusional, running to the press with hyperventilated rantings of turning the ship around, never say die and all of that, I might buy that there is something to be gained from his continued employment for one more month, if only from the power of crazy. As it is, he's a beaten man who can't even get through a press conference anymore. I think Hawk hurts, both for his situation and for his team. He cares, a little too much, about the kids he coaches, as has been evidenced by his sticking with Goodman yet being too worried to watch his kick Saturday. (He couldn't bear to watch another Goodman failure because he truly cares about the kid; he knows Goodman is not up to the job, but sticks with him out of loyalty.) The overall situation cannot be good for him; as it is he has a hollow look to his eyes. This needs to end now, for everyone's sake.

I know Mike Bohn dislikes the idea of firing coaches in mid-season; his perspective is that it hurts the kids, and part of me wants to agree with that. But, in my opinion, the kids are being done a disservice by their current head coach. The team is spark-less and directionless; like a 18th Century Frigate with no "wind in 'er sails." That "wind" isn't going to come from a head coach that has nothing to coach for. Perhaps an interim coach could spark something, possibly even a true effort to get to a bowl game. Perhaps an interim coach would fight to gain some attention for the talent there is on the team. As it is, the 2010 CU Buffaloes are just going through the motions, and that is doing no one any good, and is only going to result is more losses and injuries.

Bowl!? I just hope we can win another game...: Former NFL head coach Jim Mora once had a famous rant where he mockingly disagreed with the insinuation that his team could still make it to the playoffs. It's similar to this current CU team; we ain't making it to a bowl, and I mockingly scoff at any insinuations to the contrary. While I love the talk of a bowl game for the simple fact that it shows that the players and Buff nation still have spirit, the fact remains that this team is going nowhere. Yes, there is still something to play for, but do you really expect this team, coached in this way, to win 3 of 4 games against Big XII opponents? I think we still have one more win in our bag of tricks, but that's about the extent of the fight left in the dog.

Lebron James rethinks decision: Hey, look, Lebron James has finally conceded that he made a mistake in dedicating an hour-long telecast to ripping the heart out of an entire city. I'm honestly surprised it's taken him this long to admit his mistake in playing-up his vicious backstabbing of the entire city of Cleveland. He's a good marketer, and I know he's noticed the decline in his nation-wide favorability, but shouldn't he have noticed this right away? I'm sure "The Decision" sounded great to him at the time, but any non-biased entity would've told him that it was a bad idea. ESPN certainly wasn't going to tell him no since they would reap rewards regardless how it was perceived by the public. That Lebron admits his mistake is a good step, I just think that it's a little late and the the damage to his public perception has been done. Viciously tweeting about your retribution schemes certainly doesn't help, either. Expect an apology for his twitter account in 3-4 months.

World Series: I've been pleasantly surprised by the Giants play. Lincecum beat the suddenly mortal Cliff Lee in game 1, and, after the awesome performance of Madison Bumgarner (!) last night, they are one win away from walking off with the franchise's first title since 1954. Besides the good pitching performances, they've played good D and have hit very well. I thought the Rangers would win for sure, but, with the Giants on the brink of a title, I'm moderately happy for them.

(These Giants are one win away... From: Fox Sports)

The NFL and Suicide Pools: I was glued to the Chiefs-Bills game yesterday; weird, I know. Had the Bills pulled the upset, I'd be sitting quite pretty in my NFL Suicide Pool (In a weak week, Most people had the Chiefs as their pick); as it is I am one of 117 left out of the original 1500 entries in my pool (big prizes on the line, btw). I think NFL Suicide Pools are the best fantasy game available; it's all up to you. In regular fantasy football, if you have a bad draft, your season is essentially over. With suicide pools, it's all on your shoulders to pick a winner each week, while saving strong teams for the rest of the season. Strategy, football knowledge, week-to-week intrigue; it's all there. Best. Fantasy. Invention. Ever.

Happy Monday!

Quick Post: Bad news; Harris-Tunks out for season

What many thought could be a break out season for Buffs C Shane Harris-Tunks has ended before it could begin. He's out for the year with a torn ACL.

The Buffs just can't seem to get out of the opening weeks of training camp without losing a player for the season.... sigh.