Woes of the Buffaloes

Just finished posting the article looking at Colorado for Oregon's fifth game. Things do not look any better in 2013 than they did last season. In fact, in some ways, they look worse.

The best players on defense are gone and the top two linemen on offense have left. That does not spell a lot of good things for a team that finished as the worst offense and worst defense in the conference a year ago.

But this isn't really about that, my look at the team for Duck Sports Authority is posted to look at.

The bigger problem is that the decision to fire Jon Embree appears to have been one made in haste as a response to two embarrassing seasons in the Pac-12 conference. I am not sure if Colorado really made the switch to better position themselves financially or because they thought maybe they'd have a better chance at rebuilding in the Pac-12, but it appears that the Buffaloes are nowhere near respectability in the conference.

The hiring of MacIntyre looks more of a hire made from desperation. The names that were originally mentioned all fell through and it appears tht Colorado got "stuck" with the hiring of a coach whose track record is not really as impressive as it seems.

Sure, MacIntyre was able to get San Jose State turned around, but the recruiting competition he faced was nowhere near as stiff as in his new home. At San Jose State, a member of the Western Athletic Conference during his tenure, the recruiting interests of the members were widespread and created a fairly level playing field. At Colorado, he learned quickly that competing against national level recruiters like Stanford, USC and Oregon as well as competing against 11 other teams for the top West coast talent leaves very little low lying fruit that can come in and help right away.

Colorado may have better cohesion and be a more focused team in 2013, but they will still lack the talent to compete. Maybe he gets things turned around in 3-4 years, but he's going to have to do it through development of players because he is going to struggle to get ready-made talent to Boulder.