—
Random Thoughts – Volume XII – February 17, 2019
—
Buff Trivia Question of the Week … What Buff fan is responsible for coining the phrase, when it comes to referring to the opposition wearing down as the better conditioned Buff team dominates the second half, “They got Tuckered Out”?
—
Nebraska being Nebraska …
In case you haven’t heard the story, Maurice Washington, the leading returning running back for Nebraska – and the presumptive starter when the Cornhuskers visit Boulder in September – is in a bit of legal trouble.
From ESPN … A judge in California has signed an arrest warrant for Nebraska running back Maurice Washington, his lawyer said Thursday, while university officials said the athletic department did not know the exact allegations against the player during football season.
Washington was charged in California in December with possessing and distributing a video of a former girlfriend being sexually assaulted by two other people in 2016, when she was 15.
He will surrender himself to authorities and appear in court in California to avoid being arrested, his attorney, John C. Ball said.
The article then goes on to talk about how last spring Nebraska connected Washington with an attorney who was friends with head coach Scott Frost, but then conducted a deniability shell game which kept California investigators from talking with Washington, while giving Scott Frost the ability to claim that he was unaware of any pending charges:
By the second week of September, Washington had started his freshman season and was on his way to becoming the team’s third-leading rusher.
Court papers described futile attempts by a California detective and Sexton to arrange an interview with Washington through Vaughn and Bruning. They made repeated calls and sent texts to Washington that went unanswered.
The court documents suggest the case languished throughout the season, and there is no indication Washington was ever interviewed.
Now, compare that Scott Frost to the Scott Frost who said, when he arrived on campus, that he only wanted high character kids in Lincoln:
“And I’ll tell you this right now”, Frost told the Omaha World-Herald last June (a few months after referring his running back to a friendly attorney), “If there’s anything negative about women, if there’s anything racial or about sexuality, if there’s anything about guns or anything like that, we’re just not going to recruit you, period.”
—
Arizona being Arizona …
The Arizona basketball team comes to play Colorado Sunday night (6:00 p.m., MT, ESPNU) in an unusual situation.
The Wildcats are not only behind the Buffs in the Pac-12 standings (CU is a 15-9, 6-6; while Arizona is at 14-11, 5-7), the Arizona comes to Boulder riding a six-game losing streak, the longest since Lute Olson’s first season (1983-84).
What is not unusual about Arizona’s basketball team is that they will play Colorado down yet another assistant coach.
Earlier this month, the Wildcats said goodbye to yet another assistant suspected of violating NCAA rules.
The latest assistant to be dismissed from Sean Miller’s staff is Mark Phelps:
From ESPN … Sources told ESPN that Phelps is accused of a violation regarding former Arizona recruit Shareef O’Neal’s academic transcripts. O’Neal, the son of former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, was committed to the Wildcats in 2017 before signing with UCLA.
Surprisingly – or perhaps not surprisingly … The university said in a statement that Phelps’ suspension is “not related to the federal criminal proceedings in New York or the NCAA’s review of the facts underlying the allegations of unlawful conduct.”
Phelps is just the latest in a series of assistant coaches to get the ax … while head coach Sean Miller remains immune.
From ESPN … Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke voiced strong support for coach Sean Miller and his men’s basketball program Saturday night in the wake of the school’s move earlier in the week to fire assistant coach Mark Phelps.
“We’re fully supportive of the coaching staff, the leadership of the basketball program,” Heeke said. “We’re supporting, as I have said before, we support Coach Miller. Those things that have been said to the contrary to that are not true.”
Really?
I mean, Really?
—
Oregon being Oregon …
Jim Leavitt is on the move again.
The former Colorado defensive coordinator is now the former Oregon defensive coordinator.
From ESPN … Leavitt spent two seasons with the Ducks after coming over from Colorado, but he was not hired by Oregon coach Mario Cristobal. Rumors of Leavitt’s likely departure surfaced in early January, as sources said the relationship between Cristobal and Leavitt had become strained.
Oregon’s defense improved markedly in 2017, Leavitt’s first season as coordinator, vaulting from 126th nationally in yards allowed to 46th. The unit held steady or slightly backslid in most categories last fall.
Under the terms of the agreement, Oregon will pay Leavitt $2.5 million to leave Eugene, two years after the Ducks doubled Leavitt’s Colorado salary, making Leavitt the first $1 million dollar assistant coach.
This past week, the Colorado Board of Regents approved the contracts for Mel Tucker’s assistants (more on that below).
If you take the salaries of the top five assistant coaches, they still won’t add up to the buyout Jim Leavitt may be receiving from Oregon.
While Colorado will be trying to figure out how to payoff Mike MacIntyre and Co. for their failed attempt to resurrect the Buffs, Oregon can afford to pay out $2.5 million to a successful assistant just because he and the head coach had a “strained relationship”.
Must be nice …
—
Board of Regents being the Board of Regents (or, at least some of them)
As mentioned, the CU Board of Regents this past week approved the new contracts for Mel Tucker’s assistants.
Below are the contract terms for Colorado’s football assistant coaches:
Coach, Position: Term, Annual Salary
Jay Johnson, Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks: 3 years, $591,667 average*
Tyson Summers, Defensive Coordinator/Safeties: 3 years, $500,000
Chris Kapilovic, Offensive line: 2 years, $425,000
Darrin Chiaverini, Receivers: 2 years, $400,000
Jimmy Brumbaugh, Defensive line: 2 years, $312,500 average*
Ross Els, Inside linebackers: 2 years, $275,000
Darian Hagan, Running backs: 2 years, $225,000
Travares Tillman, Cornerbacks: 2 years, $225,000
Brian Michalowski, Outside linebackers: 2 years, $185,000
Alfred Pupunu, Tight ends: 2 years, $145,000 average*
* Note: Johnson will make $550,000 in the first year, $600,000 in the second and $625,000 in the third. Brumbaugh will make $175,000 in the first year, $450,000 in the second. Pupunu will make $140,000 in the first year, $150,000 in the second.
The vote on the contracts was 6-3, with Regents Jack Kroll, Linda Shoemaker and Lesley Smith voting against the contracts.
Shoemaker has voted against football contracts each of the last three times they have come before the board. She voted against the assistant contracts in February 2018 and against Tucker’s contract in December. Shoemaker also abstained from voting on MacIntyre’s extension in June 2017. Prior to the vote, she got up from the table to get a drink of water and was counted as “absent,” despite standing just a few feet from the table.
“I was thirsty. No further comment,” she said when asked by a Daily Camera reporter at the time about why she got up from the table.
Kroll also voted against Tucker’s contract. Smith was elected to the board in November and this was her first vote on football contracts.
Make no mistake, there are members of the CU Board of Regents who are vehemently opposed to CU athletics.
Keep the above names in mind the next time they come up for reelection …
–
Buff Trivia Question of the Week … What Buff fan is responsible for coining the phrase, when it comes to referring to the opposition wearing down as the better conditioned Buff team dominates the second half, “They got Tuckered Out”?
Answer … That would be me … I just wanted to get it on record before you see it on t-shirts this fall …
–
—–
2 Replies to “Random Thoughts – Vol. XII”
Yup “frosting on the dump”
That azcheat denied everything or any knowledge of anything about it right after it first came out.
Leavitt is back in town.
That is all
Buffs.
There ya go again Stu….reinforcing my cynicism.
The guy who coined the phrase “cheaters never win” must have also inspired the creation of the word “naive.”
Frost has learned well from that king of football hypocrisy….Tom Osborne…who may be still pulling all the strings at dear ol stinkin linkin. Even so, it looks like a losing proposition to protect this kid but no one ever accused the gun hiders of being smart.
And then we have the AZ hoop program. I have never read or heard Miller say anything about the situation. Has anyone else? When his number of assistants indicted match those of the president will he start whining as loudly?
You can file “the buck stops here” with “cheaters never win”
Then we have the Leavitt odyssey which kind of sums up it all. Money. Winning means mo money which means mo wins and so on. At least the Buffs dont owe Leavitt…I think.