Jon Embree's life has gotten a lot tougher.
Saturday's upset loss to Colorado State didn't exactly put the Colorado coach on any NFL GM's speed dial. For the first time in his 14-game head coaching career, a loss is firmly on him. What has put bigger obstacles in his career arc are the names Leach, Rodriguez, Graham and Mora.
They are the Four Horsemen of the Pac-12, this year's new coaching blood who will likely put their programs in the opposite direction than Colorado appears headed. Washington State's Mike Leach, Arizona's Rich Rodriguez and Arizona State's Todd Graham are proven winners as college head coaches. UCLA's Jim Mora is a former NFC coach of the year who was an NFL head coach for four years.
Leach merely made Texas Tech one of the most-feared offenses in the land, leading the nation in passing six times. Rodriguez led West Virginia to within one brain-lock loss to Pitt from a likely national championship game. Graham's Tulsa teams twice led the nation in total offense. Mora's Atlanta Falcons reached the 2004 NFC championship game.
Meanwhile, at Colorado we have Embree, who'd never even been a coordinator previously. His two coordinators, Eric Bieniemy and Greg Brown, had never been coordinators, either. Together, the young trio is learning on the job while trying to lift the Buffaloes from deep in the Pac-12 basement against coaches who've been there, done that, bought the championship T-shirt.
OK, three of the four new head coaches have been axed at their previous job. Leach made an alleged mistake in judgment at Texas Tech that he'll deny to his deathbed. Rodriguez was a lousy fit at Michigan. Mora, well, Pete Carroll was fired twice in the NFL too before turning USC into a powerhouse.
The doomsday reaction to Colorado's loss is understandable, if a bit over the top. Jettisoned CSU coach Steve Fairchild left new coach Jim McElwain very little to work with. The Rams' offensive line was a mess and McElwain had to boot two of his best defensive players during the offseason. Coming from Alabama, it was like going from dining every day at Carr? des Feuillants in Paris to a soup kitchen in Fort Collins.
Yet McElwain cobbled together a decent line, kept quarterback Garrett Grayson within his limitations and through sheer charisma and discipline, pulled off one of the best upsets in school history.
But keep in mind what Embree has on his hands. He had the worst team in the Pac-12 last year but lost more returning starters than any other team. His best players ran out of eligibility and his best player this year, receiver Paul Richardson, blew out his knee.
New quarterback Jordan Webb is not the problem; just as Tyler Hansen wasn't the problem a year ago. Embree's problem is he has no breakaway threat, a bunch of possession receivers, except for Gerald Thomas, a true freshman, an offensive line so untrustworthy that CU threw on fourth-and-1 at the CSU 1 and a secondary that's younger than some of Embree's socks.
You can pinpoint CU's problems to Dan Hawkins' last two recruiting classes. Rivals.com ranked CU's 2009 recruiting class 48th nationally and 10th in the Big 12. In his last year, 2010, when those players would be juniors today, it was 66th and last in the league.
In 2010, on the top 10 prospects in the state, Hawkins went zip-for-10.
Granted, fans in Pullman and Tucson aren't knighting Leach and Rodriguez right now. Leach's offense was stuck in neutral for the first half in a blowout loss at BYU, and Arizona had to go into overtime to beat Toledo.
But those coaches have a lot more to work with in Year 1 than Embree has in Year 2. Leach has a senior quarterback in Jeff Tuel who has started 19 games. Rodriguez has the perfect quarterback for his spread offense in senior Matt Scott. Mora can develop five-star QB recruit Brett Hundley, and Graham has a 1,000-yard rusher in Cameron Marshall.
Embree has nothing like that. That's why I picked Colorado to go 3-9. However, one of those wins I figured would be over CSU. Find me three wins on the remaining schedule. Not easy, is it?
Sit tight, folks. Embree's career arc will take awhile to reverse course.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson @denverpost.com or twitter.com/ johnhendersondp
Source: http://www.denverpost.com/henderson/ci_21486522/lean-times-boulder?source=rss
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