Rivals.com Ranks the Buffs, High Rollers Buying Up Folsom Suites

Rivals.com's annual Preseason Countdown cracked the top 40 last week and we were ecstatic and a bit apprehensive that the Buffs were rated this high. Last year, Rivals season ending rankings had the Buffs as the 56th team in the nation. With the recruiting class coming in and an extra year of experience for the current roster and coaching staff, Rivals feels that the Buffs are now the #34 ranked team in the nation. We were ecstatic because, once again, we see the Buffs on the up and up. Recruiting has been solid and youth is starting to turn into experience. We are a little apprehensive about seeing the Buffs crack the top 40 for a few reasons, though. First off, the Buffs had 20 freshman play last year meaning that we will have around 20 sophomores playing this year which is better than freshman but this is still a very young team. Second, as Rivals says, the schedule is like a "tough steak sandwich, its reasonably soft on the top and bottom but darn tough in the middle." Third, the Buffs lost two All-Americans on defense and as Rivals successfully notes, the secondary is a major concern for the Buffs. There is a lot of expectation for this team with a top 15 recruiting class coming in and a bowl appearance season last year. That bowl season was only attained by two major upsets against OU and Tech with embarrassing losses versus Iowa State and Kansas State. We just think the Buffs are still one year away. Hopefully we are surprised.

Rivals.com really likes the Buffs line on both sides of the ball with potential All-American George Hypolite anchoring the defense and Ryan Miller, Daniel Sanders and Nate Solder being solid offensive lineman. Darrell Scott has to like that. My favorite part of the piece was the bit highlighting WR Patrick Williams and DL Brandon Nicolas, two talented players with high expectations year in and year out who have consistently disappointed. Check out this blog by the Columbia Tribune detailing the best WR's and TE's in the Big 12. Williams in on the list but he has had 3 years of experience and he is consistently below players with less experience in terms of productivity. Williams has all of the physical tools to be a great player but I look for WR's Scotty McKnight and Josh Smith, both Sophomores, to be the go to guys. Also, look for Shaun Mohler, a JUCO transfer and stud, to make a big impact at LB. And they also mentioned that Darrell Scott guy a few times too!

In other news...

--The High Rollers in Boulder want to watch the Buffs next year. All of the suites and a large chunk of the club level seats have sold out. Mike Bohn continues to go out and meet across the nation with alumni and donors. Hopefully the money keeps rolling in. Especially since this article shows that Texas has an athletic budget of $150 million, about 3 times the Buffs.

--Many of the Track & Field athletes are competing for a chance to represent the U.S.A in the Olympics. Former Buff Kara Goucher has already clinched a spot in the 10,000 meters.

Someone Make It Happen...

You have to be kidding me. How on earth could Salt Lake City possibly be getting a new bowl game and not Denver? Does anyone in SLC even care about football? Is there a D1 school in that state? Yes, I know that BYU has won a National Title but c'mon, if you are going to start adding more bowls (I won't even get into the discussion about the ridiculous amount of bowl games) then you better bring one out to Denver.

Three New Bowl Games Try to Make the Cut (Stewart Mandel)