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Spring ball starts today... sort of

Posted March 16, 2008

OK college football junkies, the NCAA tournament bracket is out today and you're completely ignoring it because spring football is here. Well, relax and enjoy some hoops for the next few weeks because it will be at least that long before we really know much about coach Dan Hawkins' team.

Why you ask? It's simple. The Buffs are slated to practice three times this week in shorts and helmets and then take next week off for spring break. So the real work, most of the hitting and a lot of the jockeying for position in terms of competing for playing time, won't materialize until April arrives. The first practice in pads is schedule for April Fools Day. Maybe we're being set up here.

Lots of stuff to look at this spring, but let's get one thing straight from the start. No one is going to win a starting job in spring practices. It might happen elsewhere, but it's not going to happen with a Dan Hawkins coached team.

Spring is a chance for some of these guys to get a leg up though. A few priorities are finding the top seven or eight offensive linemen, the guys who will enter fall camp with coaches expecting them to be the most prepared to fight for starting jobs.

On the defensive side, the two cornerback jobs are wide open and a defensive end spot is up for grabs. The fact is, every job is really being fought for, but some positions have entrenched players who are experienced and pretty unlikely to be beaten out.

I think the only guy who is basically 100 percent safe in his first-string spot (and I bet coach Hawkins would fight me on this) is longsnapper Justin Drescher. Anyway, let the competition begin (at least in shorts and helmets).

...Riar Geer might have been arrested and suspended from the team the other day, but I wouldn't expect that to change coaches minds in moving Nate Solder to tackle this spring. Here is what offensive line coach Jeff Grimes had to say about what everyone seems to want to call "an experiment."

"In my mind, it's not an experiment," Grimes said. "I think he's got the potential to be a great one. Some of the best guys that I've coached who have gone on to play in the NFL have been tight ends or defensive ends that grew into being great offensive tackles. To me, he's a perfect guy for that. He's 6-foot-9, 275 and he'll continue to get bigger and stronger. I think he's everything you're looking for once he gets big enough to play the position."

...So it's impossible to know how many CU fans are planning to come to the spring game. I'm guessing it will be a banner year, which isn't saying much considering CU's history with an all-time spring game attendance record of about 13,000. But I doubt the program is going to meet the challenge from former coach Bill McCartney and Hawkins, who asked fans to fill the stadium with at least 50,000 on April 19. Why I am I doubting it. Well, the athletic department has done a poor job of getting people excited about it. Where is the buzz? Where are the television ads? Why don't they have Hawkins and McCartney and athletic director Mike Bohn getting in front of anyone with a microphone asking people to come? Beats me.

Now compare that to the fact that Nebraska has already sold more than 40,000 tickets to its spring game. Yeah, that's right. They sell tickets in Lincoln even after one of their worst seasons in recent memory. Missouri's spring game will be nationally televised on one of the ESPN networks and Mizzou is also selling tickets this year after finishing No. 4 in the nation last season. I can't imagine what would have to happen to get CU fans to buy tickets to the spring game.

...How badly do you suppose new Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild would like to beat CU and Hawkins in his debut on Aug. 30 in Denver? A group of CSU assistants were guests last week at one of the first three Missouri spring practices. Missouri crushed the Buffs last season 55-10 in Boulder. Not a bad place for Fairchild to start trying to draw up a game plan. Now if he only had Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman, he'd be on to something.

...Speaking of Missouri, apparently billionaire Warren Buffet, who was recently named the richest man in the world by Forbes magazine, is a big fan of the Tigers. Buffet lives in Omaha, Neb.,which I find sort of funny. I mean, you're the richest man in the world and you're living in Omaha? At least this disproves the theory that everyone in Nebraska is a Cornhuskers fan.

Anyway, Daniel, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting last season, was one of 100 Missouri Business School students invited to Omaha to meet Buffet last week, the Columbia Tribune reported. It even seemed a little strange to Daniel that Buffet isn't a Cornhuskers fan.

“I guess not,” Daniel said told the Tribune. “I guess since the season we had he’s a big Missouri fan. I don’t know how he has a connection, but he said he’s a huge fan and wanted anyone from the football team to come.”

That's just bad news for CU, which is perpetually behind in the facilities and fundraising race in the Big 12 and nationally. It's not bad enough that you have Boone Pickens basically acting as an NFL owner would for the Oklahoma State athletic department, now the richest man in the world is a Tiger fan? Next thing you know, Bill Gates will be pledging his allegiance to CSU.

...Finally, I'd like to invite you to participate in a live chat I'll be hosting Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. on Buffzone.com. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have on the first two days of spring drills, recruiting and the recent legal problems the program has had. That day is also pro timing day at CU and I might have some interesting tidbits for you.