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Colorado Daily
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December 2nd
… CU in a few minutes …
Arizona up to No. 7 in College Football Rankings; Utah up to No. 23
… While it will take an interesting combination of events, but Arizona, with a win over Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game, could find its way into the first edition of the College Football Playoffs … Meanwhile, Utah’s four-point win over Colorado impressed the panel enough to move the Utes up in the rankings, from No. 25 to No. 23 …
From ESPN … TCU moved back into the College Football Playoff rankings’ first four, and leapfrogged undefeated Florida State in the process.
The Horned Frogs were ranked third, one spot ahead of the Seminoles, in the rankings released Tuesday night, the final set of rankings before the 12-member committee selects the four teams for the inaugural playoff tournament on Sunday.
Alabama and Oregon remained No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Ohio State was ranked fifth and Baylor, which defeated TCU on Oct. 11, was sixth.
TCU routed Texas, 48-10, this past Thursday to win its sixth straight. Florida State held off Florida, 24-19, in Will Muschamp’s final game as the Gators’ coach, but still slipped a spot in the CFP rankings despite winning its 12th straight this season (and 28th overall).
Each of the top six teams are in action this weekend. Oregon faces Arizona (No. 7 in this week’s CFP rankings) in the Pac-12 championship game on Friday. Alabama plays Missouri (No. 16 CFP) in the SEC championship game and Florida State faces Georgia Tech (No. 11 CFP) in the Dr. Pepper ACC Championship Game, both on Saturday.
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Ten Buffs named to All-Pac-12 Academic teams
From cubuffs.com … The 2014 Pac-12 football All-Academic teams were announced on Monday and 10 Colorado players were honored.
Junior wide receiver Nelson Spruce led the way, earning first-team honors, followed by sophomore running back Michael Adkins, senior wide receiver Tyler McCulloch, senior punter Darragh O’Neill and senior placekicker Will Oliver who each received second-team honors. Senior wide receiver D.D. Goodson, redshirt freshman Derek McCartney, junior offensive tackle Stephane Nembot, sophomore linebacker Ryan Severson and senior tight end Kyle Slavin all received honorable mention nods from the conference.
Colorado’s five players on the first or second team tied for the fourth-most of any team in the conference, with only Stanford (9), Arizona State (7) and California (6) finishing with more.
Spruce, who made a conference all-academic team for the third-consecutive year, now adds one of the conference’s highest academic honors to the number of honors he has received, and surely will still receive, for his athletic prowess on the gridiron this season. The record-setting receiver sports a 3.64 GPA during the fall semester and is majoring Business-Finance.
Spruce was honored on Sunday at the annual CU football awards banquet as the team’s most valuable player during the course of the 2014 season. He was also honored earlier this fall by being named as one of 10 semi-finalists for the prestigious Biletnikoff Award, handed out annually to the nation’s best receiver (he did not advance to the finalist round). Even more honors are expected later in the month as the conference releases its All-Pac 12 football teams which honor the conference’s best players at every position.
McCulloch earned second-team honors for the first time after receiving honorable mention nods during both his sophomore and junior years. He has a 3.43 GPA and is majoring in Communication. He will graduate this May.
Oliver’s latest recognition for his academic efforts is the third of his career. He was a first-team performer last season and a second-teamer as a sophomore. He has a 3.76 GPA and is majoring in Business-Finance. He will be graduating in May with a master’s degree in accounting and a bachelor’s in finance.
O’Neill was also honored for the third time as he made the second-team for the second consecutive year after receiving honorable mention honors during his sophomore year. He sports 3.85 GPA and is majoring in accounting. He will graduate in May with a master’s degree in accounting.
Adkins, a first-time honoree, has a 3.33 GPS and is majoring Business and is one of only 13 underclassmen in the conference to garner either first or second team honors.
Nembot was honored for the third time after making the second-team each of the last two years. Goodson was an honorable mention selection for the third-consecutive year. McCartney, Severson and Slavin were all honored for the first time in their college careers.
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December 1st
... CU in a few minutes …
Full transcript of Coach Mike MacIntyre’s end-of-season press conference
Cliff notes:
- Nelson Spruce coming back next year … not a real surprise, but good news nonetheless
- Offensive lineman Marc Mustoe has decided to graduate, and will not return next season, even with a year of eligibility remaining
- Safety Jered Bell, who tore his ACL in August, is likely to receive a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA
- Emphasis on filling the Recruiting Class of 2015: “a couple secondary guys, a couple more receivers, a running back and looking in the linebacker area”
- On whether he believes Sefo Liufau can take the Buffs to the next level: “Yes I do, I definitely think he can”
- He does not foresee any changes in the coaching staff this off-season
- Defensive lineman Samson Kafovalu, who left the team this summer (academics) is expected back in January (if this works out, it would be huge boost for the defensive line next fall, with Tyler Henington and Markeis Reed also coming back from injuries)
- Quotable quote on next year’s team: “We’re right there knocking at the door. We used to be not even on the doorstep. So, we’re knocking at the door. So, we’ll knock the door down and here we go. So, I’m excited about the future and optimistic about everything and so are our young men. They don’t believe it’s a pipe dream anymore, they believe that it could be reality. I think when I was first saying that to them, they were like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’ Now, they really believe that it could happen. So, a little extra work, a little extra effort, a little extra focus makes it special.”
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Here is the complete transcript from the press conference, From cubuffs.com …
Opening Comments
“Yesterday, we had our football banquet. Those banquets are always exciting, but also sad at the same time. We said ‘bye’ to 21 seniors. We said ‘bye’ to some good football players and some really fine young men that I believe, 100 percent, have set the foundation for our program. They have really done a lot and done all I’ve asked. I really, really appreciate those young men. So, we’re ready to go to work and start on the future. We had a team meeting this morning and the guys are in the weight room right now as we speak. I just left the weight room with them and we’re working for the 2015 season today. So, we’re excited about the future and we’ll keep pushing along. We named (wide receiver) Nelson Spruce the most valuable player, I think everybody would have thought that. He shattered a bunch of records and he’ll be back next year and he’ll ending holding probably every CU receiving record and probably a lot of Pac-12 records. I look forward to seeing the All-Conference (teams) come out. I definitely expect him to be a first-team All-Conference player.
(Linebacker) Kenneth Olugbode was named the defensive player of the year. (Quarterback) Sefo Liufau was named the offensive player of the year. He broke a bunch of records also. (Punter) Darragh O’Neill was named the special teams player of the year. Ryan Severson won our non-specialist special teams player of the year, he plays on four (special teams units) and he had a good year doing that. (Defensive end) Derek McCartney and (wide receiver) Shay Fields…..Derek McCartney won the freshman defensive player of the year and Shay Fields won the freshman of the year on offense. We had other awards that were given out and a lot of young men deserved them. So, that was how that wrapped up and now we’re getting ready for the next season, it’s already here on us. We actually went out last night after the banquet. I was at houses last night already recruiting, so that’s already began. As soon as I leave here, I’m heading out again. So, it’s that time of the year. It’s an exciting time.”
On Evaluating The Just-Concluded Season
“What we’ll do is…….right now, all of the coaches are everywhere. So, we don’t really have time at this point to look at the season. We’ll look at the season December 15, when it’s dead period for recruiting. So, we’ll spend that whole 7-8 days leading right up to Christmas to evaluate the season. Our graduate assistants and quality control are breaking the season down for all the different things we want individually and schematically. So, when we come back on the 15th, we’ll dive in on that hard. We’ll look at our pros and our cons, we’ll look at different things that we need to fix, we’ll talk deeply about positions and players, different things we want to do, how to utilize guys better, how to evaluate. So, we’ll go through an extensive process for 7-8 days there before we have a few days off for Christmas. Then, we’ll crank it back up after Christmas and we’ll start looking at what we want to do.
We’ll start looking at other ideas. Last year, offensively, I had them study extremely hard with what I call ‘run-action pass’ which we put into our offense last year, where we’re reading the run, throwing passes and doing all that type of thing that a lot of teams were doing. That tremendously helped our offense as a whole. That was the basis of our offense this year and that’s why it took off. That was something I wanted to do and (offensive coordinator) Brian Lindgren and them bought into it hard. We really studied it and it really helped develop our offense and took it to another level, especially in the running game. So, we were always able to get a good run most of the time or we could get a little short pass, that helped us a lot. So, that’s one of the things we added. We’ll tweak some things on offense, we’ll do a lot of fixing on defense and keep moving forward.”
On How Far Along He Already Is In The Recruiting Process Compared To The Previous Two Years
“We’ve had one and a half classes since I’ve been here because the first year when I got here, we had three weeks to recruit. There were some guys committed and we went and found some other guys which was good. A lot of those guys ended up being very good players. Last year was our first full year of recruiting. We were able to redshirt some of those young men. I feel like, yes, we are farther ahead this year than we were last year because we were able to get on juniors the year before and now we’re ahead. Being ahead on sophomores and juniors, you kind of get ahead of the curve so to speak. I feel good about what we’re doing. We hopefully have some kids coming in here in January that we’re excited about too. So, we’ve got a lot of things that we’re working on to help our team for starting spring practice and that type of thing. So, we feel good about it. At this time, you just keep pushing and keep going. There’s a lot of things that pop up with all the different coaching changes. I got a couple of phone calls last night because of coaching changes at 11 at night from kids. So, there’s all kinds of things that happen.”
On Whether They Are Close To Filling Their Allotment Of Scholarships For This Recruiting Period
“It all depends. That’s always a fluctuating thing, it’s not exact. Two seniors came to me last week, (offensive linemen) Brad Cotner and Marc Mustoe, and decided to forgo their fifth year. They’re going to go ahead and graduate. So, those types of things happen. They’re young men who have done a lot, but they’re continuously hurt here. So, that gives you two more scholarship numbers that we weren’t thinking we had. So, there’s issues like that that come about from time to time.”
On What Positions He Might Try To Address Through Recruiting
“Well, we’re addressing a little bit of everything, but we need to get a couple secondary guys, a couple more receivers, a running back and looking in the linebacker area. So, we’re kind of hitting all those areas, you have certain numbers at each area though. When you say that, it might be two at that position because that’s the numbers you have at that position. We have some kids that hopefully……..Jered Bell, it looks like for sure he’ll be able to come back. That hasn’t been ok’d but we think it will be. If something happened where it became a glitch with that, then you would sign another (defensive back). That’s what I’m saying, it always kind of fluctuating. There’s not just a set number. But, I’m excited about what’s going on with recruiting. Our staff does an excellent job. We did a lot of that this summer when we did all of those camps. Our guys worked extremely….We didn’t have a day off in June. We worked extremely hard because that’s the lifeline and we feel like we found a lot of young men that are athletically….They can fit what we want and we’ve seen them. That’s a big key of making sure you don’t make mistakes athletically.”
On Addressing The Team’s Defensive Issues During The Offseason
“Well, I think one of things that will help us on defense is that we’ve played a lot of guys. So, I feel like in the secondary area we are going to have more depth and more experience. We have a lot of guys coming back that I think can do some things and I think they’ll play better. We’ve got to get bigger at our defensive end areas. Those kids have to…..they played a lot, but they have to put on 10-15 pounds. They’ve got to go from benching 280-300 to benching 350-400. That type of process we have to make athletically. Then, defensively, we have to keep working at our scheme and keep looking at what things hurt us, things that happened. Was it schematically as we look back through the season or was it mistakes or did we not teach it well enough or is it experience? We had a couple plays hit us Saturday that had hit us before that we kept working on, but a lot of the kids that were new hadn’t had that happen to them in a game, where the other guys had and we’ve been practicing and working on it. So, that’s a process that we have to look at, and schematically is everything we’re doing the best for the Pac-12? Some of it is and some of it might not be. We’ll go back and look at it and look at other teams’ offenses in the Pac-12, we’ll study that again. We’ll just kind of look and see things that could fit that the best.”
On Whether He Still Thinks Quarterback Sefo Liufau Will Be Able To Take This Program To The Next Level
“Yes I do, I definitely think he can. He’s broken a lot of records and done a lot of great things. I think, as the team around him gets better, especially as we get better on defense, it doesn’t put as much pressure on him to always having to be making plays and always having to go score. In our league though, a lot of games are still going to be like that because the league is so good. But, you’d like to be in opportunities where you can run the ball and be a little safer with the football and not have to be as aggressive because we’re up a couple scores. We get very, very disappointed….We’ve got to be able to cause more turnovers. That’s very disappointing. That’s probably the most disappointing thing to me this year defensively. We’ve got to look at that. I still think us getting bigger and stronger will help that, but also I think we’ve found some things that we need to coach better and do better to be able to help that happen. So, that gives him an easier field to score on. We score on defense, we do some things like that, it kind of changes the dynamics. I think that will ease our way as far as not having to be as aggressive offensively, which makes it tougher on the quarterback.”
On Why He Thinks It’s Been Difficult To Get “Five-Star” And Upper-Echelon Recruits To Visit The University Of Colorado
“I don’t know. We’re working at it as hard as we can. There’s guys out there that are very interested in us and guys that I think are really good football players. I really don’t ever look at a ‘star’ until…….you see it but I’m watching the film, I don’t go look at the ‘stars.’ We look at all of them. It’s amazing when we go through and watch guys, other schools will too, you’ll see guys that are ranked high and you’ll go ‘He’s not even going anywhere.’ That’s as the process gets going. At the beginning of the process, there’s ‘stars’ everywhere and it kind of changes. So, I think that we just recruit as hard as we can in the areas that we recruit. We also go where we have contacts and that type of thing in other areas and just keep pushing it. You’re also looking at the character of the young man at the same time. That’s important to us too. (We look at those) that want to be here at the University of Colorado and want to fit into our system and are excited about what’s going on. So, you just keep working. What happen is, as you get enough guys here and as you get enough guys committed and enough guys working then, the ‘W’s’ start to take care of themselves. What’s interesting is: I laughed at it last year and I’ll laugh at it again this year, Minnesota, they’re winning and doing all kinds of things and I don’t think they had anybody above a ‘three-star,’ I don’t think. They still keep winning and they’re beating everybody and they’re doing a good job. It’s just the process and keeping it going. Eventually, the more games you win, then you’ll have more and more situations like that. But, I also heard (TCU head coach) Gary Patterson say last year, he said he’s tired of…..he’s going to recruit the guys he’s always recruited before because he felt like he got out of his realm. They dipped and then he went back to his realm of recruiting the guys that he thought fit TCU and that were hungry and had a chip on their shoulder. I think you’re seeing that change back (with them). He said that about two years ago I think, a year and a half ago.”
On Recruiting The Top Talent In State
“I feel like we’re doing a good job of recruiting in the state of Colorado. We’re getting out everywhere, we’ve been to a bunch of games, we’ve been to a bunch of schools. We went out hard in May , we’re out in schools today in Colorado. Last night, we were in homes in Colorado. So, there’s a very big emphasis on that. Just the population of the state makes it a little bit harder in having ‘BCS numbers.’ Nothing knocking on that, it’s just that’s the way it works out. That’s why you see California and Texas and places that are more populated, the state of Florida, having more players. There’s more population. So, I’m excited about what we’re doing here. There are a lot of good football players in this state, so we just keep combing it and keep working at it.”
On “Selling” The University Of Colorado To Potential Recruits And Whether The Process Is Becoming Any Easier
“I think that now that we’re out there in the Pac-12 more often, out in that geographical area, I think it helps us because they know we’re playing against them and they’re going to play in those areas. I think also, our new facilities and that type of thing and, us going around and being a part of different satellite camps and all that type of thing…..we’re out there meeting more kids and meeting more parents and working with them. That’s helped a lot. It’s always a fine line there on recruiting. Sometimes, it’s not always a perfect science. You’re talking about 17-year old kid, so you really try to dive in and find out as much as you can about them besides just how fast they are and how far they can jump and all that type of thing. So, we’re really trying to dive into that. It’s great when we get them on campus and we get them around our kids. That’s our biggest selling point. I know a lot of people say that, but I believe that here we really talk to our kids about guys we want to bring in. So, that’s important to us.”
On Whether He Foresees Any Turnover Among The Coaching Staff This Offseason
“No, I don’t. But, in the world of college football, things always seem to……..Different jobs open, different people have different opportunities. So, we’ll see how all of that evolves. Last year, nobody on our staff left at that time, but you never know on that side of it. Because I was an assistant coach at different times and had different opportunities and you have to weigh them out. But, I do know that the guys like it here, they enjoy it here, they enjoy living in the Boulder area, they’ve felt very comfortable in the community, their families like it here and that type of thing. So, we’ll just see how all of that unfolds.”
On The Off-Season Conditioning Program And How The Team Will Get Better Because Of It
“I feel like we’re in excellent condition. I think that’s one of the reasons that we do a lot of a lot of things on the conditioning side of it. I think our team does an excellent job of conditioning. I think that’s why we are able to play full games and have a lot of energy and all that throughout the whole game mentally and physically. But, we’ve got to get stronger, more powerful, you can’t say bigger though. Some of our guys are big enough, but they have to reshape it a little bit more. But, some of our guys do need to get bigger in different positions. I think that will help us be more powerful, like running a tackle back into a quarterback or come off a block and knock a ball loose. Offensively, (it will help us) dent the line a little bit better, be a little bit stronger, hold the line of scrimmage with the quarterback so a defender is not back in his face then there’s another foot there instead of the ball sailing high and everybody’s yelling at the quarterback when he couldn’t follow through, they can’t see that. Those types of things will make a big difference and if that happens throughout our team, all of a sudden, you’re a little bit more efficient, you score a little bit more, you play a little bit more defense.
So, all of those aspects…..Our goal this off-season is to get bigger and stronger. The ‘bigger’ word there is….I don’t want them all 300 pounds if you understand what I’m saying, but there’s a couple of guys that need to go from 170-185. That different strength will make a big difference. The situations there are along the line with….. our whole football team needs to get more powerful. So, the best word I would say is more powerful. That’s different for each guy, but we’ve got to get more powerful. That’s a big emphasis. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve changed the way that we’re doing spring practice too. So, we’re going to have that set up where we’ll be able to lift four days a week throughout the whole time after they get back. Then, when they’re home, it’s a big deal for them. I think our team is more committed that when they’re home, they’ll do the things to come back and be in shape. We’ll have conditioning tests and weight lifting tests when they come back, which we haven’t done before because I think they’re at the point where I think they can handle all that. Understand that it is 365-days a year of getting better.”
On The Health of Linebacker Addison Gillam After Suffering Potentially His Third Concussion Of The Season On Saturday
“I don’t know if it was a concussion or not, they’re still looking into that. He was really dehydrated. He had to give him a lot of fluids before the game, so they’re still trying to decide exactly what it was. He might have been dehydrated and kind of just…..So, I’ve got to talk about (head trainer) Miguel (Ruedas) and them some more. After the game, they weren’t sure if it was a full concussion or it was other symptoms. They were trying to figure it all out.”
On Whether There Is Now Any Concern Over Gillam’s Football Future
“No, there is no concern over his football future. Not anything we know right know, no. Definitely, we were concerned about him being sick like he was with the bronchitis which really cut him off. Hopefully, that cannot happen again and (we can) take care of all that.”
On Whether He Is Excited About Any Of The Players On The Scout Team Who Might Be Taking On A Bigger Role Next Season
“Yeah, there are quite a few young men that I’m excited about doing that. I’m not going to throw out a bunch of names, but there are some guys that we felt like athletically can help us. They just needed to put on some strength and some weight. We didn’t feel like just dabbling with them a little bit playing. So, we’re looking forward to seeing how they do this off-season and get out there in spring practice. But, I’m excited about the (offensive) line and the (defensive) line and the receiving corps and that type of thing. Those are guys that I think can help us.”
On How The Team Will Benefit From The Return Of A Number Of Players On Defense Who, For A Variety Of Reasons, Missed Significant Time Last Season
“(Samson Kafovalu) will be back in January. The return of (defensive ends Kafovalu, Tyler Henington and Markeis Reed) will help us a lot. Samson would have started, Tyler Henington would have started, (safety) Jered Bell would have started. There’s three starters right there that will be back that have a lot of experience. So, I think all three of them are good Pac-12 football players. So, I’m excited about those guys getting back. Jered and Tyler probably won’t be able to do a lot this spring, but they’re ahead of their schedule. They’re moving around good. They’re always competing in the training room. I see them in there messing with each other as far as who is farther ahead. Samson will be able to go this spring, which will be great.”
On Where Expectations Should Be For The Program Heading Into Next Season
“I’ve said along, and it’s not a cop out or a phrase or anything, we’ve got to continue showing improvement. I do believe that we have shown improvement. Now, we didn’t win as many games as we want by any stretch of the imagination but, I believe that’s a process that happened. I also believe when the whole schedule thing comes out, we’ll have played what has to be one of the top ten hardest schedules in America. I know there’s a big hoopla, I said something on some radio (station) after they asked me about it. I told them what I thought. I still think the Pac-12 South is probably the toughest division. You could say the SEC West would be, but if they’re not 1-2….It’s 1-2 whichever way you want to flip it, in the entire country. People that we’re playing against are the best week in and week out. So, I think that’s important to understand what we’re competing against. We will eventually bust through and be one of those guys that is doing really, really well in the Pac-12 South.
So, I think (we need to) just keep showing progress, just keep moving. We definitely need to win more games and I definitely believe we will. We’re right there knocking at the door. We used to be not even on the doorstep. So, we’re knocking at the door. So, we’ll knock the door down and here we go. So, I’m excited about the future and optimistic about everything and so are our young men. They don’t believe it’s a pipe dream anymore, they believe that it could be reality. I think when I was first saying that to them, they were like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’ Now, they really believe that it could happen. So, a little extra work, a little extra effort, a little extra focus makes it special.”
On Spring Practice Being Moved To Mid-February
“We’re moving spring practice to Friday, February 13th. We’ll start then and we’ll finish March 15th, Selection Sunday (the day the NCAA selects their men’s college basketball tournament field). That will be a lot of fun for the university because I know our men’s and women’s teams will be selected. So, we’ll have the (spring) game that day and when it’s over, we’ll be ready for selection and I think they’ve got a big deal here for that that they’re orchestrating for that day. It’s going to be an exciting day for CU. I’m excited about the way we’re doing that. My main mentor, (Duke head coach) David Cutcliffe, convinced me that was…So, we’ve been looking at that. I thought about doing it last year, but I didn’t think we were quite ready for it. I think we’re definitely ready for what we’re going to do. The main reason is, I’m able to keep that lifting going and we’re not going to break that cycle and we’ll be able to get more powerful as a team.”
On Whether There Is An Ethical Code That Fellow Coaches Abide By In Terms Of Going After A Recruit Once The Head Coach At The School That That Recruit Had Previously Committed To Is Fired or Resigns
“Usually, those kids contact you. That’s usually what happens. Then, you’ve start talking to them and you start recruiting them and that type of thing. Usually you let those kids contact you and you go from there.”
On How He Feels Like The Team Performed Offensively And Defensively In Both The Red Zone And On Third-Down This Season
“I definitely think we improved offensively in both those areas. Defensively, there were times this year that, I have to go back and look at it exactly but, we got better on third-downs, we really did. We didn’t get better in the red zone like I would have liked. In our league, like it or not, they’re going to kind of move the ball some. We’ve got to get better in the red zone. So, that’s something that…..Number one, I think that if you get more powerful, stronger and more stout down there, that helps you. Then, secondary-wise, you’ve got to be able to play the different routes and the different things that they’re doing. You’ve got to knock a ball away and that type of thing, not let them come into the end zone with it, you’ve got to be able to understand the different schemes better and do a better job with that. So, that’s an area that we still need to keep focus on. I still think that we need to cause more turnovers on defense and get better in the red zone on defense. Offensively, we need to keep putting it together and cut down on our turnover ratio. But, I think, us getting better on defense will help that on offense. It always does and that’s what we need to do.”
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Report: CSU head coach talking to Florida about head coaching vacancy
From Yahoo Sports … Colorado State coach Jim McElwain has emerged as a leading candidate for the Florida vacancy, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports Sunday.
McElwain and Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley discussed the Gators job Saturday night, sources said.
Information has been gathered on McElwain by Florida officials since the school announced two weeks ago that Will Muschamp would not return as coach, sources said. It is unclear how many other candidates may be involved. Sources said Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze was among those on Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley’s radar, but McElwain’s name may be at the top of the list.
The 52-year-old McElwain is finishing his third season at the Mountain West Conference school. The Rams are 10-2 this year and were one of the strong possibilities for a major bowl bid from the “group of five” conferences outside the Power Five until being upset by rival Air Force on a field goal on the final play Saturday.
Meanwhile … Colorado State won’t comment
The Coloradoan hasn’t been able to get Colorado State to confirm or deny the story.
From the Coloradoan … “CSU doesn’t comment on speculation about its coaches,” CSU President Tony Frank said Monday through a school spokesman. “The fact that Mac’s name is being tossed around in such discussions is a great tribute to him and his staff and team, and it reflects positively on how far our program has come and where it is going.”
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Or … Is Chip Kelly a candidate?
From CBS Sports Philly … According to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, University of Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley will contact Eagles head coach Chip Kelly as early as Tuesday of this week to “kick the tires” on Kelly’s interest in returning to the college scene.
The source went on to say, “Foley does not plan to officially interview Kelly yet, but will simply gauge Kelly’s interest and make his first pitch.”
Kelly’s name has been brought up before with other college coaching vacancies, but this source actually had the AD ready for action with a timeline.
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November 30th
… CU in a few minutes …
Post-season Football Award winners named
From cubuffs.com … Junior wide receiver Nelson Spruce was named the University of Colorado’s 2014 Most Valuable Player, highlighting the team’s annual senior banquet Sunday morning at Folsom Field’s Byron White Club room in the east stadium.
Spruce essentially replaced Paul Richardson, who declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season; Richardson had wiped several of CU’s longstanding receiving records from the books in 2013, and Spruce came along and one-upped him in taking over most of those marks. Spruce becomes one of only a handful of non-seniors to earn the team’s MVP honor, named the Zack Jordan Award, as prior to last year, no junior had won it since 2002. Spruce is just the seventh wide receiver to be Colorado’s MVP since the award was created in 1959.
Spruce set or tied 20 school game, season or career receiving records, including single-season receptions (106) and receiving touchdowns (12), and consecutive games catching a touchdown pass (seven); his 19 receptions at California were six more than ever recorded before in a CU game and also tied the Pac-1 Conference record. The 106 catches overall enabled him to become just the seventh player in conference history with 100 or more, and finished as the fourth-most ever in a season. The 1,198 receiving yards were the second most in a season at Colorado, where he will enter his senior year in 2015 second in all-time receptions (205), sixth in yards (2,294) and fifth in touchdowns (19).
One of 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award (presented to the nation’s top receiver), he earned 57 first downs, 56 by receiving, which was also a team record, and his 12 touchdowns covered 370 yards, or just under 31 yards per; four of those covered 71, 70, 66 and 54 yards.
With Spruce claiming the MVP honor, the coaches gave the nod for the John Mack Award for the most outstanding player on offense to sophomore quarterback Sefo Liufau. He set or tied 39 single game, season or career records, as he finished his sophomore season with 325 completions in 498 attempts for 3,200 yards, 28 touchdowns and a 65.3 completion percentage, all CU single-season records (the latter for 200 or more attempts). He also set the season mark for total offense (3,336), as well as the most 300-yard passing and 300-yard total offense games in a season (5 of each). He has at least one TD pass in 20 straight games (each one of his career), which is the fourth longest current streak in the NCAA. Career-wise, he will enter his junior year sixth in passing yards (4,979), seventh in total offense (5,148) and tied for fourth in TD passes (40).
The team’s Dave Jones Award for the outstanding defensive player also went to a sophomore, which has happened numerous times, as inside linebacker Kenneth Olugbode was afforded the honor.
Olugbode completed a fine sophomore season with 13 tackles (11 solo) in CU’s 38-34 loss to Utah; that enabled him to become just the seventh underclassman to ever lead CU in tackles for the season. He finished the year with 84, which included 58 solo stops; he also had eight tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage, with a team-best seven tackles for zero, seven third down stops, three passes broken up and two fumble recoveries.
Senior punter Darragh O’Neill claimed the Bill McCartney Award for special teams achievement, as he enjoyed his finest season in becoming just the third player in school history to lead the team in punting for four seasons. He averaged a career-best 44.1 yards per punt, third in the Pac-12 Conference, with a healthy net of 39.5 yards, a top 20 figure nationally. A specialist at pinning opponents inside-the-20, he had 27 this season, second in the league and his percentage of kicks doing so, 42 percent, currently 11th in the nation. He finished his career with CU records for punts (281), yards (12,001), inside-the-20 kicks (95) and those that also were inside-the-10 (34), with his average of 42.71 the ninth-best.
Sophomore linebacker Ryan Severson was the recipient of the inaugural Special Teams Belt Award, presented to a player who graded out the best in the coverage portion of the game. He finished second in CU’s special teams points standings with 25, with 16 of those earned from coverage duties, including eight tackles, three inside-the-20, two first downfield credits that altered returns, a forced fair catch, a downed punt and a caused penalty.
The Scout Team Awards were presented to a pair of hard-working walk-on performers, wide receiver Joseph Hall (offense) and defensive end Aaron Howard (defense). The coaches selected the players who contributed the most to the weekly preparation on their respective scout teams over the course of the entire season.
The Lee Willard Award for the most outstanding freshman was shared for the first time since 1998, as wide receiver Shay Fields, a true freshman, and defensive end Derek McCartney, a redshirt frosh, were honored.
Fields set a CU freshman record with 50 receptions, zooming past the old mark of 39 that had stood since 1982. He tied the mark for the most catches in a first game of a CU career (eight), and set the records for the most in the first two (14) and three games (21). He was second on the team in receptions, yards (486) and touchdowns, both overall (5) and via receiving (4). His yardage total was the second-most ever by a Buff rookie, and a 75-yard touchdown he scored at Arizona was the quickest score in a game in CU history (12 seconds in) and the second longest reception by a freshman.
McCartney was in on 32 tackles this season, 21 of the solo variety, which included four-and-a-half quarterback sacks, tied for the second-most by a freshman in school history. He also had four tackles for zero and another for a loss, giving him 10 total at or behind the line of scrimmage, and added two forced fumbles, a recovery, two passes broken up, five pressures and for third down stops in starting all 12 games. After this semester, he will have passed an incredible 88 hours toward his degree in Integrative Physiology.
Placekicker Will Oliver was honored with the Dean Jacob Van Ek Award for academic achievement. A three-time Pac-12 All-Academic team member and CU’s nominee for the prestigious National Football Foundation’s William Campbell Award, he owns a 3.76 grade point average in Business (Finance sequence). He is also working toward his Master’s in Accounting on a concurrent basis. Oliver finished his career with 279 points, second all-time at Colorado, and was second in field goals made (50) and attempts (69), first in both extra points made (129) and attempted (131), second in PAT percentage (.985) and third in field goal percentage (72.57); he set the school record with 102 consecutive PAT kicks made.
In all, 68 players earned letters this season, including 21 seniors and 26 cited as first-year lettermen with 15 of those players freshmen (five true). The lettermen broke down into 29 offensive and 33 defensive players, five specialists and one two-way performer (redshirt frosh George Frazier, who played over 100 snaps at fullback and tight end, and nearly 200 at defensive end).
The complete list of CU award winners announced Sunday; all awards were selected by the coaching staff unless otherwise noted:
Zack Jordan Award (most valuable player): WR Nelson Spruce
John Mack Award (outstanding offensive players): QB Sefo Liufau
Dave Jones Award (outstanding defensive players): ILB Kenneth Olugbode
Bill McCartney Award (special teams achievement): P Darragh O’Neill
Special Teams Belt Award (coverage unit achievement): ILB Ryan Severson
Lee Willard Award (outstanding freshmen): WR Shay Fields, DE Derek McCartney
Dean Jacob Van Ek Award (academic excellence): PK Will Oliver
Offensive Scout Player of the Year: WR Joseph Hall
Defensive Scout Player of the Year: DE Aaron Howard
Derek Singleton Award (spirit, dedication and enthusiasm): WR Wesley Christensen
Tyronee “Tiger” Bussey Award (inspiration in the face of physical adversity): OT Jeromy Irwin
Tom McMahon Award (great dedication and work ethic): TE Kyle Slavin, DB Richard Yates
Eddie Crowder Award (outstanding leadership): OG Daniel Munyer
Offensive Trench Award: OG Kaiwi Crabb, OT Stephone Nembot
Defensive Trench Award: DT Josh Tupou
Hammer Award (hardest legal hit of the year): TE Sean Irwin
Best Interview (selected by team beat media): WR Nelson Spruce
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