Larry Brown Sports

Jon Embree was fired as head football coach by the University of Colorado on Sunday following two poor seasons in which the Buffaloes went 4-21. The Buffs were coming off a 1-11 season, but Embree was led to believe his job was safe. He was emotional when he learned of his fate, and raised the point that African-American head football coaches don’t often get second chances as head coaches once they’ve lost a job.

On Wednesday, Embree took that point a step further when he told the SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio show “Evan & Phillips in the Morning” that he believed his race played a role in his firing.

“I get it, you know, 4-21 is not good, but there’s a lot that went into that,” Embree told hosts Evan Cohen and Steve Phillips. “You know, Gene Chizik was 5-19 and got another job. So to say basically that it was just the record, I don’t buy that.”

Embree recognizes the season went poorly, but he attributed a lot of that to youth.

“We had some bad losses. We had some losses that we were in it for a while … I played a ton of freshman. We started anywhere from 9 to 10 a game. True freshman. It was just the situation that we were in.”

Embree also says he had the support of the athletic department despite the difficult season.

“Every week, going into my press conferences after the game, the athletic director was ‘Hey, we’re in this for the long haul. Think long-term. These kids get older.’ Every week, that same speech was given to me. So to say that it’s record, I don’t buy that.”

Asked if he thinks he would still have his job if he were white, Embree, when pressed, said yes.

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Colorado head coach Jon Embree was fired earlier this week after a 1-11 season, which is the worst year in the history of Buffaloes football. In two seasons as the head coach at Colorado, Embree compiled an incredibly disappointing record of 4-21. A former tight end coach for the Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins who never held a coordinator position, it is now obvious that the Colorado alumnus was in no way qualified to be a head coach.

During his final press conference on Monday, Embree broke down and nearly began to cry when discussing the relationship he had with his players.

“You guys just want to try to get me in trouble, huh?” he said while fighting back tears.

While it’s easy to understand how a coach can become attached to his players and get emotional about leaving, Embree left Colorado with no choice. The Buffaloes were beyond awful the past two seasons.

We understand his disappointment that African-American college football head coaches don’t often get second chances to be college head coaches, but what should be focused on is whether an injustice was done, and whether coaches are hired on merit rather than race. Embree probably did not deserve the job in the first place based on his experience, deserved to be fired based on his performance, and he should recognize those truths.

After beating rival Colorado State 24-3 on the road in their first game, I made the mistake of believing Colorado might be decent this year. Then they went out and got rolled by Cal 52-7 and I realized how wrong I was. If there was one positive to come out of the 45-point beatdown, it was that it yielded one of our most humorous moments of the college football season. Following the game on Saturday, quarterback Tyler Hansen went all Tim Tebow with a promise on twitter:

“Buff nation, I promise you this type of thing will never happen again. Going out there and playing like that will never happen again while I’m at Colorado and I can promise that! It’s unacceptable.”

Hansen deleted the tweet but that’s what The Denver Post reports it said. Even if the post was erased, Hansen’s mindset hadn’t changed a few days later. He essentially repeated the words from the tweet to reporters after practice on Tuesday. Hansen says he’s not trying to be like Tim Tebow which is nice. I guess the takeaway is that Colorado is now free to lose by 50 points since 45 is out of the question.

The Buffs have been garbage for five years now. They’re not an addition to the Pac-10. Rather than hit us with strong words and guarantees, I’d rather see actions on the field. After all, how did that guarantee work out for Adam Wainwright?

Sources:
CU Buffs’ QB Tyler Hansen vows never again [Boulder Daily Camera]

I feel so let down. I feel like a boy dreaming of steamy, mind-blowing sex, only to get stranded at second base. The prettiest girl in school flirted with us the past few weeks, joined us for a couple of dates, then ultimately decided she wanted to try and work things out with her ex-boyfriend. Oh what could have been.

As an unabashed Pac-10 fan my whole life, I was getting so pumped up for a Pac-16 featuring powerhouses like Texas and Oklahoma, not to mention exciting programs like Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. There could have been two beautiful divisions — one to the West representing mainstays like the Washington, Oregon, and California schools, and one to the East involving the six new programs from the Big 12 and the Arizona schools.

We would have had seven games against intradivision opponents per season and two interdivisional games per year. There would have been conference title games featuring USC and Texas, Oregon and Oklahoma, and regular season games with Huskies against Aggies. And best of all, there would have been a conference television network to ensure we didn’t miss a minute of the action! After years of getting dumped on by the rest of the country, the Pac-10 would have finally received the respect it has rightfully deserved. Oh, what could have been.

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After a second disappointing loss to start the season for Colorado last week, we wrote a fictitious, humorous post suggesting Colorado didn’t allow their coach on the team plane back to Boulder. While that was just a sarcastic post, the notion was representative of the attitude around Boulder regarding the football program. If you don’t believe me, just check out the way a geology professor picked on a student of his who also is a football player.

Buffs football player Marcus Burton said his geology professor told the class: “You people may think this class is boring. We’re just talking about rocks. But it’s no more boring than both the CU games. Marcus, you’re a captain. Can you tell us about that?”

That’s so ridiculously inappropriate I can’t even begin to say how wrong it is. First off, academics and sports are supposed to be separate. You telling me this guy isn’t the type of person who would be willing to give the players good grades to keep them eligible if he’s making comments like that? Luckily the head of the geology department thinks the same way because he really took the professor to task saying, “The hope is that after such, both faculty and student can get back to the business of education, which, I hope most would agree, is the only business with which my department should be concerned.” Damn straight. You have to figure that Hawkins is done for good if they can’t beat Wyoming Saturday.

via Dr. Saturday

Toledo — After getting blasted by the Toledo Rockets 54-38 on Friday evening, the Colorado alumni made their displeasure with the program known. Several prominent football boosters phoned athletic director Mike Bohn to complain about the team getting manhandled in their first two games of the season. The Buffs are 0-2 and have been outscored 77-55 in their losses to Colorado State and Toledo. The biggest complaint was that the defense allowed little known Toledo quarterback Aaron Opelt to look like a Heisman Trophy candidate. The senior quarterback with a career rating of 78.4 threw for 319 yards and four touchdowns while also running for 109 yards and two touchdowns.

Phone calls apparently began coming in early in the third quarter when the team was down 30-3 and also in the fourth quarter when they were down 54-24. The Buffs are now 13-26 under Dan Hawkins who’s in his fourth year as the school’s football coach. One anonymous backer of the program said, “Four double-digit win seasons last decade, we’re used to a certain standard of winning around here. Right now the program is not achieving at the level where we want to be. For me, the performance starts all the way at the top.” Another booster made a fourth quarter call to Bohn insisting that Dan Hawkins not be allowed back on the plane to Boulder, suggesting he take a bus back to think long and hard about how much he wants this job. Luckily quarterback Cody Hawkins was allowed to travel back with the team.

*The events detailed in this story never actually happened. Dan Hawkins instead posted his response below:

This is actually something that has irked me lately. I can’t stand some of the introductions they give on TV. Why should Jonathan Papelbon introduce the BC players? Does he even know any of them? Has he ever watched any of their games? If the introducer has to look off camera and read off a teleprompter to find the player’s names, then he probably shouldn’t be introducing them. But when ABC gets creative and has Eric Cartman introduce Colorado’s players, then we’re getting somewhere. Witness:

Thanks to commenter Nick, via Awful Announcing and The Postmen. And yes, Boulder has a lot of hippies.