SB Nation User Blog: roxbombers

Josh Smith Gets 2nd Release to UCLA

roxbombers — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:02:28 -0000

promoted to front page...-irish1611

Just saw on Ringo's blog that Smith has also been released to UCLA -

When CU limited his transfer option to just USC, he appealed the decision to a committee made up of three professors. They ruled on the side of Bohn and Hawkins, but Manning tells me a deal was worked out between Smith and Hawkins allowing the release and possible transfer to UCLA.

If Smith eventually ends up with the Bruins, he will be the second Buff in the past two offseasons to leave Boulder for Westwood, Calif. Former offensive lineman Kai Maiava left CU after the 2007 season for UCLA, where he is expected to be a heavy contribuitor this season for former CU coach Rick Neuheisel.

Bruce Feldman also posted on his twitter was we are all hoping

Talked to CU QB Cody Hawkins: Buffs are expecting a big season from WR Markques Simas, who is apparently looking great in off-season work.

Tyler Hansen broken thumb, out until early June

roxbombers — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:16:59 -0000

Let's hope that he can come back and be ok and ready to compete for the fall and this doesn't have any impact on the QB race.

Ringo put this the injury update on his twitter, man

Quarterback Tyler Hansen suffered a broken thumb in today's spring game and won't be able to throw until early June.

i just hope this doesn't have any lingering effects and hansen can still put pressure on cody for that starting spot

All Buff Fans Not in Colorado, Great News

roxbombers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:15:27 -0000

EDIT: just got an email from Dave Plati saying the telecast on CUBUFFS.com is FREE to all, not premium.

This is some great news as I do live in Colorado but not sure I will be able to make it up Saturday. Cubuffs.com will be airing the game live online according to the Buffzone blog by Kyle Ringo.

The school will provide audio and video on its website, with color analyst and former Buff quarterback Charles Johnson definitely slated to be involved. Longtime CU play-by-play and color commentary guy Larry Zimmer might take part, but he also has other responsibilities that day with a class he teaches.

Wooo, good PR for Hawk

Recruiting with a little more of my rant

roxbombers — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:56:05 -0000

Alright Hawkins you want to close down practices thats fine. I don't think you should because with the past couple of years with a horrible record you should have nothign to hide. Whether it is to "protect" his kid, or what the reason thats fine, but enough is enough. Excuses are done, this is the year. I understand that most of the other schools in the conference, hell even the country close their practices, thats also fine. But don't say too much information is leaking when I haven't seen one drop of info on this board or others that would lead me to think that way.

I have never been the biggest fan of Hawkins, but he has started to win me over with his recruiting in state over the last few years. But my question is why in the world does he take so long to recruit and get some of the top kids locked up. I know that its going to be a battle to get Kasa, Miller, Major etc and that can take a while but it seems like we don't get any recruits at all until the fall and close to NSD. We should be able to get guys like Parker Orms locked up before his sr yr. He has by far the best program in state(maybe not for long) and should be pulling kids to boulder. But Hawk wants to close his spring game like the big boys well go get recruits like the big boys.

We better see significant improvements in the offense if they have all these "special" plays that the public can't see. All I know is that I better not see what seemed to be 5 shotgun draws a game, or it will be time to turn the program over to someone who knows to run an offense

I want a North title, or get within a game of the North title, or Mr. Hawkins you can go close spring practice back in the WAC because our program needs to easily beat up on the University of JUCO (KSU), ISU not barely scrap by EWSU (or whatever they are), KSU, ISU, and not even be able to get to the Petro Bowl.

Time to put up or shut up Cody and co.

Sorry for my rant, I wasn't a fan of Hawkins to start and like the RR slogan is "Excuses are for losers" so no more excuses of he didn't have anything when he got here, now its his players and lets go win 9-10 games and all will be forgiven

2008 Big 12 Champs: Texas!!

roxbombers — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:41:52 -0000

According to Tim Griffin:

The Longhorns have claimed the Big 12 title

Here's the Picture of the Wall

I thought this was insane. I didn't even think someone would let them do this but hey, I guess its there wall. I could see if they put up a Big 12 South champs since they all 3 were tied but a big 12 champs thats a little too far. I was thinking about what Mack would say to a recruit when they go by the trophy case and he only has 2 trophies but 3 years listed. He could let them know that Oklahoma is holding it for him

Hawkins ranks 10th in the Big 12

roxbombers — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:31:03 -0000

Hawkins ranks 10th in the Big 12

First Day of Practice

roxbombers — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:27:08 -0000

Man was it great to see some Buffs football. Traffic sucked so I didn't get there right at four but I saw plenty. Unfortunately they didn't allow phones or camera's, but here are my thoughts about the day.

I'm not paying attention a whole lot as it had just broken that Cutler wants out of Denver for sure and I'm sure that irish will get a review up before I'm able to post this but here are my thoughts of the day

The Good:

OL->Not sure whether we were lucky or not but the OL was next to us all practice. They looked REALLY good to me doing the agility drills and damn I have never been that close to Miller and Solder at 6'7 and 6'8 respectively. The were quicker than the other OL off the ball on most of the drills that I saw. Also a plus, one practice down, 0 OL out for the year.

Aric Goodman->Ya I'm still a homer for this guy and even though that practice was never a problem, this guy was flat out BOMBING the few kicks he did. All I saw was about 4-5 in between the drills and the dude was probably 30-40 yards out and hitting the bubble. We are talking middle of the uprights and 30 feet above the top of the goal post. I think that Grossnickle(sorry if that is a misspell too lazy to look it up right now) will just add to competition and competition is never a bad thing.

Markques Simas->This was the first time that I have seen him and I was very impressed. He caught all but one ball that I saw and he looks like he has playmaking ability like Josh Smith that you get the ball in his hand and he will make plays. I can't wait to see him more if I am able to get up there and hopefully see more of the offense throwing the ball

All the RB's-> Obviously the day was set up for them to look good with no one even touching them in the drills when they ran towards where everyone was standing but man, I can't wait to see this year and how this shakes out. Rodney Stewart looked sexy with the #5 rocking and Darrell Scott looked tiny with all the "Freshman 15" that he came to camp last year with off. In the drills that I saw I was also very impressed with Brian Lockridge looking almost as fast as Stewart with great cuts. I didn't see much of Demetrius Sumler but he didn't look bad, looks to invite more contact and use less cuts than the other guys, but still very early.

Riar Geer: I think for this offense to go to the next level the most important factor is Geer. The TE needs to be a spot that with the playmakers on the edge our QB whoever that maybe be can check down for the 5-6 yard gains and keep moving the chains. He made one really nice catch even if a OL and a FB was guarding him, lol.

Not willing to say bad since its early:

The QB's: Although I didn't get to see the camera's in action until the very end, I did see a lot of QB drills which was helpful, but doesn't make me feel so hot. Here's how I break it down after what I saw

Cody Hawkins: As much as I hated Hawkins by the end of the year right now I think the job is by far his to lose. His balls were much crisper tighter spirals and he moved much quicker when they were doing the pocket drills. When doing the short passes/screen drills over the goal post I thought he looked the most refined and threw the best balls which he should. I loved to see that they did practice by throwing over the goal post to simulate passes getting deflected, all the QB's I saw hit once or twice, Cody's passes were on the line to the ball boy a lot more though. When they were scrimmaging at the other end Cody has a beautiful scramble left jump and throw and a nice grab in the endzone by one of the TE i believe. (kinda hard to see 100 yards away)

Tyler Hansen: I didn't like Hansen much last year because I had a semi man crush on the pro style 6'4 QB that's behind him. I think the staff used him horribly last year but as a true freshmen maybe he wasn't ready to handle that. In the pocket drills he looked a little rattled trying to move quickly but he really impressed me. He doesn't look a whole lot taller than Hawkins but his balls were right on the money and seemed to have quite a bit more zip than Hawkins balls. He didn't have as tight of spiral as Hawkins did, but we didn't even get to see him scramble which we learned last year is such a big part of the game.

Matt Ballenger: I posted on some story of the board that I was hopping on the Ballenger bandwagon for QB this year. I will respectfully step off before it begins. He looked very raw but I think next year he is our QB depending on what happens to Evans. He is still very small, him being 6'4 doesn't help, but he looks like a stick figure out there. His passes weren't as online as either of the other 2 or as nice of spirals. Tough to tell without the DL standing there but it didn't look like his release point was that much higher than Hawkins with him being 5 or 6 inches taller than him. The few deep balls that I saw him throw looked awesome but didn't look comfortable at all during the short passes. I think he has the most upside out of our QB's right now but he still needs a year of developing in the weight room and just getting more comfortable and refining his delivery. I really hope he can prove me wrong this year and compete for the starting job.

It was a nice practice all together, just great to see the buffs out there. I would love to see more screen passes this year than we saw last and the QB's worked for a section on it. I think that Stewart/Scott/anyone would be deadly on screen passes the way our OL looked and their ability to get out in space.

Alright thats enough for now, lol. Probably won't get another chance with work to get back up there but man, it was great to see some Buff football.

Hopefully they don't enforce the camera rule

roxbombers — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:07:57 -0000

Just got on CU buffs to get the spring roster and this was teh note at the bottom

Please enjoy your time here at CU! — When at the practice fields, including the bubble, please turn off cell phones (no
conversations or texting allowed inside the gates); NO pets, cameras (still or video), lawn chairs or umbrellas are allowed. At
the request of the coaching staff, only CU recognized media may take notes, pictures or video and all must wear their official
CU-issued credentials. Thanks and go Buffs!

Guess if they enforce this you won't be having any pics or twitters from me.

Colorado Offers to K Zach Grossnickle

roxbombers — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:06:11 -0000

Colorado is using another offer to try to stabilize the kicking position. The kid from East (Denver, CO) already has an offer from Kansas and is scheduled to make a trip to Boulder here in a couple weeks (January 16th). I just hope that Grossnickle doesn't come to CU and become a problem like the kickers we currently have. Boy, I bet Hawkins is wishing that he wouldn't have overreacted by giving Goodman a scholarship after that chip shot FG.

The Scout Story

A Quick look ahead: 2010 Recruiting

roxbombers — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:08:22 -0000

I know this is extremely early to even start thinking about this, but I think we are all convinced this recruiting class has the chance to be "alright" after losing our blue chip.

Heres a quick look at the 2010 class that has expressed interest in the Buffs that scout.com has already scouted and given stars:

5* WR Justin McCay's Scout Page

Hes listed at 6-3.5 200 out of Bishop Miege HS in Ks. I love when someone's positives are size, speed, running ability, and only negative is blocking. He would be a Darrell Scott addition to this program. He already holds 9 offers some including: Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas, Florida with ND also interested in him but hasn't offered offically yet. In his article on December 9 he says that Notre Dame has offered but on his page they don't have it noted yet.

Here is what Scout had to say about him:

" McCay can be as good as he wants to be. He has attributes you cannot teach and the work ethic to get better at the things you can. He is a physically imposing player that can run and catch. With the ball in his hands, DCs immediately start to bite their nails in nervousness that he is going to put another "6" on the board. Plays lazy at time but this will change with coaching and age."

I think he is a prospect that we might catch his eye if we start playing up to that 10 win mark.

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4* MLB Hayes Pullard from Crenshaw Senior HS (LA, CA)

Scout hasn't scouted him enough to have any details, Colorado has not offered yet.

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4* S Sean Parker from CA His Scout Page

As a sophmore averaged 6 tackles a game and is known as one of the hardest hitters. Along with being a hard hitter he can make things happen when he gets the ball having a 45 INT return for a TD along with a 95 yard one in the same game. He is a playmaker that I would love to see be apart of this program. Right now he has 6 offers from: Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona State, Stanford, and Washington State.

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Now to a very interesting one that I will be VERY interested to see how our QB play does next yr

4* QB Austin Hinder from right here in Colorado in Steamboat Springs Scout Page

Listed as 6'5 180 looks like he has some maturing to do physically but none of us will complain about a 6'5 Qb, lol. He is a dual threat QB but claims that he only wants to run only if he can't throw the ball. This quote from him was a great description I guess of any QB,

"I love to drop back and sling the ball then if nothing is open I will run. I would rather throw it and then if there isn’t anything I will run. I don’t want to get sacked.

He holds four offers from California, Kansas State, Nebraska, and Stanford. I look at Cal as an early favorite if he enjoyed his trips saying he has been out there six times for different things and that location isn't a huge issue for him.

"I am really looking at where I want to live the next four years. It’s location, the coaches, academics, how good the team is, the direction of the team and if the coaches are going to be there or move around."

Location isn’t about staying close to home necessarily for Hinder. "Location isn’t about staying close to home. I just want to go somewhere that I am comfortable. I am really liking California right now and that isn’t close to home."

When Hawk said he will keep the kids instate this will definitely be a issue when this kid looks like he just wants to go to a winner an not necessarily stay in state.

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4* RB Malcolm Jones from CA Scout Page

Brother of the USC Safety, finished this year with 1500 yrds and 28 TD's.

Up to 5 offers: Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford.

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4* WR Kenneth Scott from CA Scout Page

Not much info on him yet other than he has been offered by Tennessee and CSU

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4* WR Robert Woods from CA Scout Page

Already offered by Cal, Colorado, UCLA, Stanford and ND has shown interest. He ran a 4.43 40 at a skills camp.

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I know this is really early to start thinking about these guys and I'm sure that Scout hasn't ranked some of the higher ranked guys but one things scares me. I know CA has a ton of talent and we are doing a good job of getting some of that talent to colorado but what about looking in our conference. Look at Texas, that is another hotbed of college football prospects that we aren't getting the most out of. We have a beautiful campus, the team is hopefully on the rise. I also acknowledge that CU probably has offered plenty of guys that Scout doesn't have ranked yet but the ones they do it worries me a bit that more of our team last yr and this yr isn't coming from TX.

Another thing that its too early to tell is how many highly ranked defensive guys we have offered to that haven't been scouted yet.

This will probably completely change by next summer but I can't get enough CU football and decided someone else might enjoy reading some of it.

This is also being written about midnight so I'm sure there are a fair amount of errors