In a season of a lot of downs, it just must seem like business as usual.The news?
Xavier Silas, Colorado's "X-man," gets thrown in the hole for one game by the Big 12 following a little wrestling on the court with Nebraska's Ryan Anderson in the Buffs' home victory over the Cornhuskers over the weekend.
That means, of course, CU will roll into the conference's postseason tournament without one of its' top scorers. Bad news on a team soaked in it.
BGT: The good news, if there is such a thing with CU, is that this will mean more expectations and more touches for top dog Richard Roby, which is exactly what the Black and Gold Boys need.
The more Roby the Buffs can get, the greater the likelihood is the team will do something positive. Roby is not a selfish player and no one is more qualified to have the ball in his hands.
What Silas' lockdown also means is that the Buffs must find a way to get more juice from do-it-all handyman Dominique Coleman, star-in-the-making Jeremy Williams and cool Kal Bay.
All three should be excited as they are more than capable of putting the shine on.
Woolfork drops by
Former CU linebacker Ron Woolfork (left town as a 1994 fourth-round pick of the Miami Dolphins), a two-time first-team All-Big 8 performer, the school's second-leading sacker (33) and tackles-for-losses runner-up (53 total), both behind legendary Alfred Williams, and now the head coach at Denver's East high school, gave some time to the BGT to talk football.
Before we get started, how about this stat -- Woolfork once made seven tackles for losses in one game, against Iowa, back in 1992.
One game.
BGT: Ron, about coaching high school football -- what led you to it and what's good about it for you?
Woolfork: Coming from Detroit, Mich., high school football was pretty big. It was a chance for us to go out and be athletes and with all the things going on in the city you needed that release. High school football was definitely that for me. I know it was a very positive experience so I wanted to continue that when I was done playing. I'm just trying to give back.
BGT: Outside the x's and o's, what's your philosophy about leading the young bucks, motivating them, showing them how to be successful?
Woolfork: You got to have the 'want-to' factor, which is simply this -- you have to want to get up in the morning and do something with your life. You have to have the passion to go about your day and do something positive, do the right things.
Whether it's wanting to do well in the classroom or wanting to say "yes sir, no sir" and being respectable, just trying to do the right thing.
All I'm asking is that young men get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say this is the 'want-to.' I got to want it today.
BGT: Is high school where you wish to plant deep roots or do you have other aspirations?
Woolfork: I do have other aspirations but I'm in no rush. You change a lot of lives at this level. You can touch and mold a lot of young men and women in all of high school sports. I just want the experience of being part of something good.
BGT: How rewarding has this all been for you. Is it what you expected?
Woolfork: It was a challenge at first and is any time you have change where folks were used to something else.
BGT: In college, you were a fearsome pass rusher. What makes for a great quarterback crusher, what skills do you have to have and what made you so very good?
Woolfork: You got to want to get to the quarterback. It's a mindset.
Pass rushing is also your ability to mentally disrupt whatever that offensive lineman is trying to do.
It's speed, power, quickness and your desire to want to destroy the guy in front of you.
BGT: You came to Boulder as a quarterback. If you would have stayed at the position, what would you have been able to accomplish?
Woolfork: I get asked that a lot. I look at all the big quarterbacks now and think I would have been o.k., I would have prevailed.
I was a big guy -- 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4, 210 pounds -- I was able to move around and I think with my athletic ability, with a pretty good arm...who knows?
BGT: Who have been some of your favorite Buffs to watch since you left school?
Woolfork: I like the way Jeremy Bloom played, with a little intensity. Ben Kelly. Jashon Sykes. Daniel Graham, the way he took over the tight end position for a Christian Fauria. Matt Russell. Matt Lepsis. A lot of guys.
BGT: What is your studio analysis of what CU has to do to get this program back to being a winner?
Woolfork: What I like about coach (Dan) Hawkins is he reminds me of how coach (Bill McCartney) Mac started to really get people behind the program -- his enthusiasm, his way of communicating about Colorado football. You don't have a problem in wanting to be a part of it.
I do think the recruiting aspect has to get better. It's recruiting.
Everything else, on the surface, is awesome. Boulder is a great place. If I had to do it all over again, I'd leave Detroit and go right back. It's a great place to play football.
BGT: Need a scouting report on East high school, Ron. Have one for next year?
Woolfork: We lost 22 seniors but I'm returning 19 juniors so the leadership will still be there. A lot of guys will have to play early, as sophomores.
Athletically, match us up with anyone in the state. There will be a learning curve but we're going to be pretty good. We got talent.
It's about confidence.
BGT: You mention confidence. Do you think that played a big role in CU's 2-10 season, a lack of assuredness?
Woolfork: It looked like we were playing hard but I didn't see that togetherness, that closeness you have to have to win games.
We had that in the early '90s. No matter what the situation was, we came together, we strapped it up.
Last year, they played hard, don't get me wrong but I didn't see that heart on the sleeve. You can play your booty off but you need that heart.
Once we get that back in Boulder, look out.
Hawk is going to get it done. I truly believe in what he's doing. I believe kids are going to come there and are going to run through walls for him.
The Horses
The Denver Broncos keep workin' the pre-draft landscape, bagging running back Travis Henry while losing out on defensive end Patrick Kerney.
BGT: Flat out a good day for the Broncos. Henry is no star and he has a past of post-college excitability with drug use, as well as some thing law enforcement also frowns upon, chasing underage girls (he was 23, she was 15 -- not cool), but he is a solid, productive running back.
The other concern is the Broncos have not recently gone this route -- going outside the organization for a heavy-mileage back. But there is no doubt that Henry is tougher-minded and more physical than the departed Tatum Bell, if not as explosive. Bell was like the dream sports car that was too often stalled on the side of the road. Great when it runs but also a pain in the butt.
O.K., so Henry is no Terrell Davis, no Clinton Portis but he might be as talented as anyone else Denver has had running the ball during coach Mike Shanahan's reign as king.
Kerney, meanwhile, is reportedly a good guy and could have been an upgrade in rushing the passer but he is also a major overspend by his new team, Seattle, because his numbers are fading and because scouts believe his thin frame is always a breakdown waiting to happen.
So, in this case, that loss is acceptable and likely a good thing financially. It does, however, require the Broncos to keep searching for that requisite quarterback hunter.
Where did you go Simon Fletcher and Rulon Jones?
Letters
More on the Ted Johnson-spark-of-a-story on concussions. This comes from the guy named Anonymous. Some of the letter was deleted in the editing process.
"Thanks for telling our story.
"Dr. Gerald Maher is currently the head and neck specialist and general dentist for the New England Patriots. He uses a tried-and-true evaluation of the players jaw and bite structure.
"From this evaluation a wax bite is taken to correct any of many negative conditions. We are now training team dentists with a DVD training program.
"Ted Johnson, we have a document stating he never had a concussion wearing this mouth guard.
"When (NFL doctor Elliott) Pellman did his studies, initially he found through video replay, most concussions came from side (TMJ or jaw hits) -- 70% came from these forces, 30% from blows to the crown of the head. Crown of the head concussions, its been found are different in sympoms and after affects. These are the type Johnson's tackling style lended to. He split a helmet one time.
"You can put a mouth guard in and get hit over the head with a 2x4 and still get a concussion. A mouth guard can only protect against concussions that originate at the jaw or TMJ, which the NFL says is about 70%.
"For the reseach Pellman did he only used the 30% of crown hits to improve on helmet padding, since a helmet can do nothing to prevent hits to the jaw. The chin strap is the problem as energy transfers through it. Even the military has looked into its use because of the similarity of the chin strap designs. Pellman has led everyone involved on a witch hunt. The question now is whether the league is going come in our direction."
BGT: While I don't like to go with anonymous letters, this person obviously had something of value to add so it was a worthwhile post, if only for key points, such as head-on collisions are not the leading cause of brain pain, that Johnson split a helmet (not a good thing) and that the NFL's good doctor tried to displace blame because of his own shortcomings regarding player safety. You know the type -- throw everyone under the bus to save yourself. Pellman would not have been someone you and your family would have liked to have encountered on the Titanic as it was going down.
Truth
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