It’s been a long hard winter.  The standard cocktail party question “When are the going to fire Hawk?” And this week I have the answer.  You can’t fire an undefeated coach.  And that is exactly where we stand today Coach Dan Hawkins and the Colorado Buffaloes are undefeated heading into a brand new campaign.

We have every reason to be excited and hopeful.

1. We named a starter at QB weeks before the season started.  This can only result in a little team unity heading into our initial contest.  Good Luck Tyler Hansen
2. The offensive line is finally coming together.  The mass of men on the line crumbled quickly and struggled to regain confidence the rest of the season.  But now they all have plenty of game experience under their belt.  We are expecting big things.  Rodney Stewart can’t say enough about how big the holes they are opening for them.
3. WR went from weakness to bright spot.  The additions of Toney Clemons, Paul Richardson and Travon Patterson are huge both physically and metaphorically.
4. Big Targets and Lots of time will lead to big days for Tyler Hansen
5. It’s a farewell tour.  Even I am excited for final games in Columbia, Norman and of course Lincoln.
6. Aric Goodman has been kicking on tiny uprights. Let’s hope it turns him from a practice kicker to a pressure kicker.
7. We have some of the best DBs in the business.  Jimmy Smith and Jalil Brown are NFL caliber.
8. Patrick Mahnke has been moved to LB.  Surely his “speed” will be better utilized there.
9. We have real depth.  Holy cow.  There are multiple places on the field where I am stoked to get the number 2s in because they have just as much talent as the 1s.  It has been a while since we’ve had that.

Let’s dream for just a second.  What if CU emerges 3-1 from non-conference play?  With Georgia very unsettled at QB and it being a night game at home, it is possible.  What if CU heads to Norman at 5-2?  What if CU heads to Lincoln at 8-3 playing to win the Big XII North?

Can you imagine any better way to say good bye to the Big XII than taking the Big XII championship trophy with us?  I can’t.

The preseason is always fun to dream before the harsh reality sets in.  But if you can’t feel the rush that a scenario like this creates, maybe you need to take a step back and remember why you are a fan in the first place.  Being a fan is about shared excitement.  Your team reaching a pinnacle that others didn’t think possible.  It’s not about hating and wishing ill on others.

Let’s Go Buffs!

I’ve sunk to a new low. I’m so done with this season that I completely forgot to post the pick ‘em last week. We did make picks, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m a day late on this, but picks were made prior to the game last night.

The ESPN author mentions how recruiting is a fickle thing, but hey I will take the top recruits any day.  Having a team with some threatening  superstars could be just what we need.  Of course imagining Folsom Field chanting Munchie is interesting to say the least.

Our Hawk is running away with the pick ‘em crown while the Buffs’ Hawk continues to flounder. Here are the picks for the week:

Once again, I’ve been so depressed about the current state of the team/program that I forgot to post my Top 25 ballot. I’ll pencil the Buffs in at #246.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Iowa	1
5	TCU	1
6	Boise State
7	Cincinnati
8	Oregon
9	Georgia Tech	1
10	LSU	1
11	Penn State	1
12	Pittsburgh	2
13	Ohio State	2
14	Southern Cal	5
15	Miami (Florida)	3
16	Arizona	4
17	Utah	2
18	California	7
19	Oklahoma State	3
20	Notre Dame	1
21	Wisconsin
22	Houston
23	Oklahoma	1
24	Virginia Tech	11
25	Clemson
Last week’s ballot

I guess I’m not that surprised after Josh Smith left and we have never committed to Scott to be the go to guy on the ground.  I am guessing top recruits aren’t going to lining up to come play here any time soon.  Dan Hawkins better figure something out very soon or the next coach will inherit a worse program than Hawkins did 4 years ago.  Hopefully these coaches start figuring out how to utilize the talent they have before it all transfers away.  Every team needs a Scotty McNight type of guy, but not many teams win with only those types of players.  On the other hand maybe Scott is transfering because he is not willing to work through the hard times to see the good times ahead.  If that is the case then CU is better off without him.  But, from the outside looking in it appears that this is truely a case of horrible coaching.

This is all you get, picks and rankings. Hopefully a big Buffs win this weekend will get us back in the mood.

As you can tell, we’re all so disgusted with this season none of us can drum up the energy to write anything about the Buffs. In fact, I did my rankings on Sunday and totally forgot to post them. Here’s what I submitted for the week and for the record, I have the Buffs ranked at about 100.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	TCU	3
5	Iowa
6	Boise State	2
7	Cincinnati	1
8	Oregon	1
9	Southern Cal	1
10	Georgia Tech	3
11	LSU	1
12	Penn State
13	Virginia Tech	1
14	Pittsburgh	3
15	Ohio State	1
16	Oklahoma State	2
17	West Virginia	3
18	Miami (Florida)	7
19	Utah	2
20	Arizona
21	Notre Dame	1
22	Houston	3
23	South Carolina
24	Oklahoma
25	California
Last week’s ballot

Running late this week, so no commentary. Below are our picks for this week.

Everybody take a deep breath. Now that we’re done comparing Tyler Hansen to every other mobile QB that made it big, it’s time for us to step back and realize that it was a great win on Saturday, but there’s still a lot of tough football ahead of the Buffs. The door is still open for the Buffs to be a player in the Big 12 North, but there are still a lot of questions. Hansen looked fantastic on Saturday, but he’s bound to make mistakes as the season moves on. I’m looking forward (a bit nervously) to how he performs in Manhattan on Saturday. If he repeats the performance he had against KU, the Buffs should be in pretty good position to turn their season around and get to a bowl game. If not, we’ll be in the same spot next week of trying to figure this team out.

The Blogpoll for this week is below. I’ve moved all undefeated teams to the top and shuffled a few others around. This is an odd season and difficult to rank. Before long, I’m just going to have to start drawing teams out of a hat.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Boise State
5	Iowa	5
6	Cincinnati	1
7	TCU	5
8	Southern Cal	2
9	Oregon
10	LSU	1
11	Miami (Florida)	2
12	Penn State	2
13	Georgia Tech	4
14	Virginia Tech	9
15	Brigham Young	4
16	Ohio State	8
17	Pittsburgh
18	Oklahoma State
19	Texas Tech
20	West Virginia
21	Utah	3
22	Notre Dame	1
23	South Carolina
24	Kansas	8
25	Houston
Last week’s ballot

Good morning and happy game day Buff Nation! On this 7^th weekend of college football, Barking Carnival has provided us with a roundtable to chat about. We haven’t had much participation in the roundtables this year, so while your watching some of the games today take stab at a question or two. Hopefully most of you are heading to the game vs. Kansas tonight, and if not, what are your thoughts on the game? Happy Saturday and as always GO BUFFS!

How does this year’s Texas/OU game define Mack Brown’s legacy?

Does this one game define Mack Brown’s entire legacy? Absolutely not! He’s a great coach, a great guy, and while there is a lot riding on this game it doesn’t change the fact that he is one of the best coaches in the nation. If you disagree just take a look at his overall record at Texas: 119-26. Enough Said.

Who needs to win a big game more: Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel, or Mark Richt?

Mark Richt is definitely in most need of a big win. Stoops is just fine, he can’t win all the time and is just having an off season. Tressel just needs to recruit some more speed, that’s where he runs into problems when playing and typically losing to other top teams. (Sound familiar? Except with all teams, not just those at the top). Richt, and Georgia have been slipping from the power they were a few years ago. They are still recruiting well and have the ability to jump right back into the spotlight; they just need a big win to put them there.

Pick the game that glistens like no other on your remaining schedule. Why does it shine for thee? What portent does it hold at the seat of your BCS or Brut Sun Bowl altar?

I have to choose the Red River Rivalry. The emotion and rivalry factor that is always present in this game, on top of last season’s debacle should make for a great game. Texas, if they can come out of this one with the win, will most likely be making an appearance for the BCS National Championship. I’m definitely looking forward to this game.

Big upsets are hard to predict. Riddle us yours for the month of October.

Watch out Kansas, the Buffs are coming for you tonight! (And I will admit I’m a bit worried about the Oklahoma vs. Texas game too)

In a top-heavy year where many of the favorites immolated themselves from national title contention early on, two teams now loom larger than the rest: Florida and Alabama. Assuming they face off in the SEC Championship game and the supremacy of their defenses continues to shroud their offenses in a cloak of 13-10 wizardry, and no other team seems quite as worthy by comparison (this is the SEC after all), should they get a chance to play again in January for a national championship? If not, what undefeated or 1-loss team would have the best positioning?

No, absolutely not. Nobody wants to see the same two teams play basically back-to-back, regardless of how exciting it may end up being. It is part of the game; you get your shot to beat someone, why should it happen again? Some other team definitely deserves a shot before we see a rematch. It would be a situation similar to that of Michigan and Ohio State a few years back, but Florida turned out to be better than both teams, a lot better. That is when Texas comes into play. I think they would be the best rivalry to the SEC Champion. It better not be Boise State or Cincinnati, those games would just be boring to watch. I’m thinking, and hoping, that we’ll be seeing Texas vs. the SEC Champion on January 7^th in the Rose Bowl.

Everyone is back on board with the Buffs this week as we’re all expecting them to at least cover the spread. After watching Iowa State almost squeak out a win against the Jayhawks last week, I’ll be disappointed if the Buffs aren’t at least in the game for all four quarters. All but three editors are over .500 and those of us that are below are inching our way up. At least I’m not in sole possession of the worst record this week. Welcome to the basement Dr. E.

Ok, so for the second game in a row the Buffs oppenent gave every opportunity for the Buffs to win, and well the Buffs squandered them away.  So now the Buffs make a switch at quarterback and hopefully this does not become the QB shuffle of ‘08.  Lets hope Hansen is given the freedom to make mistakes and is allowed to learn from them.  Lets be honest, this season is going nowhere fast and if we switch to Hansen lets stick it out so he comes in next year as a more experienced player and we can get off to a fast start.

We need to get more constency from the reciever position.  Perhaps the slow development by that crew is caused by the fact the position coach is also the head coach and might not be able to give enough attention to the young players and their development.  All I can really hope is that Hansen can throw an out route with some zip on the ball so a corner can’t pick it off and return it for a td.

Special teams continue to be less than special.  On a night where Scott had a big return and the Buffs blocked a field goal they also had a punt blocked for a touchdown and a punt returned for a td.  Not to mention I’m not too sure we can make a field goal.  If this part of the game doesn’t improve it won’t matter who the QB is.  We are not good enough that we can hand any team 14 points.

Defensively things continue to improve and things are looking better than early in the year.  The front seven was able to pressure McCoy and hold the Texas running game in check.  The secondary got beat a couple of times, but are still playing far better than they did against Toledo.  Showing improvement is encouraging, which is why the offense has been so frustrating.  If the secondary can limit the deep throws better then the Buffs might actually be competetive in the Big 12 north.

It’s a fairly boring poll this week as not much changed since last week. Most of the up and down is due to teams either losing to teams they should have, others moving up to fill in spaces, and teams new to my Top 25 this week. I don’t think there’s anything questionable here other than Missouri may still belong in the 23 range, but I’m still pissed that they imploded on Thursday and so they drop all the way out. Feel free to make suggestions/comments.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Boise State
5	Virginia Tech
6	Southern Cal
7	Cincinnati
8	Ohio State	1
9	Oregon	2
10	Iowa	2
11	LSU	3
12	TCU	2
13	Miami (Florida)
14	Penn State	1
15	Nebraska	1
16	Kansas	1
17	Georgia Tech	2
18	South Florida	2
19	Brigham Young	4
20	Oklahoma	4
21	Notre Dame
22	Wisconsin	1
23	South Carolina
24	Utah
25	Auburn	11
Last week’s ballot

I can’t believe it’s week 6 already. It’s snowing in Colorado today, so it’s really starting to feel like fall. We start the Big XII portion of the season this week, which means no more games against hired cupcakes. The editors as a whole have improved from the terrible start and six are now above .500 for the season. I still stink, but not quite as bad. The big matchup this week is Nebraska and Missouri tonight, where we should find out if one or both are for real. One note: for some reason (perhaps the Dez Bryant situation), the OSU/A&M line was not available earlier in the week when we did our picks so we treated that game as a pick ‘em.

Dan Graham will appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week.  He is the freaking man.  We used to run the touchdown play to him ACROSS THE MIDDLE  all the time.  I remember those days. Back in the day when we had Chris Brown and Bobby Purify and we RAN THEM BOTH!

Best of luck to Dan this weekend as you attempt to break the cover curse

For the past 3 seasons I was a supporter of Hawkins and his staff, believing that they were heading in the right direction and building this team up from the terrible state it was previously in. They’ve been able to sign some good players, not many, but a few here and there, and have shown glimpses of improvement year after year. I was sold, and convinced each season that things could only get better. I was a firm believer of “Hawk Love”.

Not anymore.

I am now at a loss for words. I find myself wondering what this coaching staff is doing with the program? They are constantly playing a crop of walk-ons and mediocre recruits over more talented players who may have less experience/knowledge of the offense but could give us more of a chance to score, run down the ball carrier, or cover a man from time to time. It just doesn’t make sense to me anymore.

Some may be skeptical of playing the newer guys, but here is my thinking: we have to TRY something else. I don’t care if it doesn’t work, what we’re doing now isn’t working either. So why not try a new player every so often. How many times do we have to watch our defense be picked apart, play after play? And when we do make a defensive stop, how many times do we have to watch Espinoza trip, fumble, backtrack on a punt before we try someone else back there? I won’t even touch on Aric Goodman, you all know the problem there. And then comes the offense. Every single drive is a struggle to move the ball. For once, take Cody out and try someone else, give D. Scott the opportunity to get some momentum going in a game, put in Simas and Simmons for more than a few snaps a game. Don’t get me wrong, McNight is a solid player but we can’t throw to him every single time. (Against WVU, Scotty was the only receiver with a reception until the clock had 6:30 left….. In the 4th!) Obviously nobody else can get open, so lets try putting some other guys in there. Coaches are supposed to make changes to improve the team, and so far there hasn’t even been an attempt to do that. For some reason, each game we see our slow, short receivers line up while opportunity watches from the sideline with the rest of the team.

The program has now achieved a level of pure embarrassment. How long must this go on before someone decides to change it? Coach Hawk, it’s time you stop talking about good effort from the team each game and provide some real answers as to what is going on. I want to hear some truth, be honest and explain what is wrong with this team. If you can’t do that, leave. Step down. Do something. Anything. You’re losing fans, boosters, recruits and respect for the program. And you’re losing them fast. I am not one to give up on teams, but this season has really been disappointing. I never thought that it would be this bad, but it is. Great job Hawk, so far in 4 years you’ve taken this team from bad to worse. Hang on everyone; unless we start to see some change, this is going to be one long, painful season….