Signing Day 2007

[Jens1893]

A huge day in the College FB calendar. Where will the big and still undecided recruits like Noel Devine sign?

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Devine is going to West Virginia

[Nuggets4]

Isn't Devine the HB with SERIOUS grade issues? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[Hercules Rockefeller]

No, you're right. Uber-recruit and his only offers right now according to his coach are FSU, Alabama, and West Virginia.

[Jens1893]

No, you're right. Uber-recruit and his only offers right now according to his coach are FSU, Alabama, and West Virginia.

I was kinda expecting NCSU to be in there ... grades don´t seem to matter at NCSU.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Buff predictions?

Stay the same, lose someone, or add somebody?

[Hercules Rockefeller]

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070206/SPORTS06/702060373/1345

Recruiting article about how no names can make a name for themselves.

Jamaal Anderson was a 2* WR coming out of high school
They mention Cutler's only interest from Big X schools was at safety
DeMeco Ryans
Others mentioned- Mark Anderson, Sidney Rice, Tim Jennings, and DeMeco Ryans

[Nuggets4]

Buff predictions?

Stay the same, lose someone, or add somebody?

No matter what the rankings say, this is our best class in YEARS. If nothing else, we got SERIOUS about the offensive and defensive lines which was long overdue.

[ColoradoBuff]

Looks like the Buffs lost 2 recruits so far. LB Hall and C Gerhart.

[Jens1893]

Looks like the Buffs lost 2 recruits so far. LB Hall and C Gerhart.

Gerhart is disappointing, but it had to be expected after Hawkins pulled Tello´s offer.

[Florida_Bronco]

Isn't Devine the HB with SERIOUS grade issues? Or am I thinking of someone else?

He's also got serious character issues. He's also not all that good in my opinion.

[BroncoBuff]

No matter what the rankings say, this is our best class in YEARS. If nothing else, we got SERIOUS about the offensive and defensive lines which was long overdue.
I disagree ... We did sign 5-star Ryan Miller, but any CU coach would've signed him b/c he was a CU guy regardless.

But Miller's blue-chip ranking heavily skews this class, and makes it sem better than it is. CU finished #33 in the nation on Scouts, but without Miller, it wouldda been much, much lower - prolly into the 50s, which is actually lower than Barnett's recent classes were.


We did sign two excellent Junior College kids at QB and RB - both will probably start the next two years.

The Big Kahuna for next year is 5-Star (probably 5) QB Landry Jones from Artesis, NM. He is high on CU, and says he'll commit very early - as in next month. Everybody wants him, Texas, Alabama, Miami, Michigan, USC. He would be HUGE if he commits.

[Jens1893]

I disagree ... We did sign 5-star Ryan Miller, but any CU coach would've signed him b/c he was a CU guy regardless.

But Miller's blue-chip ranking heavily skews this class, and makes it sem better than it is. CU finished #33 in the nation on Scouts, but without Miller, it wouldda been much, much lower - prolly into the 50s, which is actually lower than Barnett's recent classes were.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda ...

[Hercules Rockefeller]

BB, you're talking to Rivals and Scout subscribers. We all know Landry's situation.

Not happy with the BS that Garhart pulled last night, you don't sit there and tell coaches the night before you're not signing with them after you admit they took no other C prospects this cycle because of you. If you're going to pull your commit, do it earlier.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

and BB, since you like to complain about Perri's lack of offers, UCLA and Oregon offered in the past week. UCLA only has 11 scholarships to give out his year, so it says something if they're willing to offer a guy.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Looks like their might be at least one surprise commit for the Buffs today. The cubuffs.com running blog just mentioned that they got a fax from a prospect now turned commit. Hopefully they didn't consider Wright just a prospect still and it's not Tau yet.

Edit: Guess it was Tau. Hopefully there will be another surprise today for the Buffs.

Still doesn't take the sting off of Garhart, but a definite upgrade over Tello.

[SoCalBronco]

I read that WVU told Devine he can't get in this morning, so he will go prep as was expected.

So far so good with our class, Marve has inked, we pulled Nicolas from Rutgers, we won the battle with Urban Meyer for DVD (although lost Hicks to him), Bailey is in, Jared Campbell from Denver (brother of CC), couldnt pull Kerry Murphy unfortunately....now we are just waiting on Deonte Thompson.

[Florida_Bronco]

I read that WVU told Devine he can't get in this morning, so he will go prep as was expected.

Good, maybe he'll learn something from this.

[penguintheory]

Looks like the Buffs lost 2 recruits so far. LB Hall and C Gerhart.

Where is Gerhart going? His older brother is a freshman here at Stanford.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Where is Gerhart going? His older brother is a freshman here at Stanford.

Arizona State

[bpc]

I don't follow HS recruiting as much as college but who is Garhart, and what did he do? Did he committ earlier and where did he go?

[Hercules Rockefeller]

#7 Center prospect in the country, committed to the Buffs in August and then switched his commit to ASU last night.

[bpc]

That really hurts.

[GSRelyea]

The Butch Davis era seems to be starting off very well for the Heels:

NAME POS HT WT HOMETOWN RANK GRADE STATUS NCAA SCHOOL
Marvin Austin DT 6-2 290 Washington, DC DT #1 85 Signed North Carolina
Charles Brown CB 5-9 185 Maple Heights, OH CB #55 73 Signed North Carolina
Albert Craddock OLB 6-1 205 High Point, NC OLB #35 75 Signed North Carolina
Mike Dykes OG 6-4 250 Pittsburgh, PA OG #14 77 Signed North Carolina
Linwan Euwell DE 6-2 210 Pinetops, NC DE #26 78 Signed North Carolina
LaCount Fantroy CB 6-0 170 Washington, DC PG 40 Signed North Carolina
Carl Gaskins DT 6-5 280 Melbourne, FL 40 Signed North Carolina
Chris Gray OT 6-4 240 Landrum, SC OT #129 70 Verbal North Carolina
Brian Gupton WR 6-4 185 Nashville, TN 40 Signed North Carolina
Cameron Holland OG 6-4 280 Pittsburgh, PA OG #71 72 Signed North Carolina
Ryan Houston RB 6-3 240 Matthews, NC RB #18 79 Signed North Carolina
Dwight Jones WR 6-5 200 Burlington, NC WR #12 81 Signed North Carolina
Greg Little WR 6-3 225 Durham, NC WR #5 84 Signed North Carolina
Rashad Mason WR 6-6 215 Nashville, TN 40 Signed North Carolina
Matt Merletti RB 5-11 185 Cleveland, OH 40 Signed North Carolina
Aleric Mullins DT 6-3 285 Wendell, NC PG 82 Verbal North Carolina
Mike Paulus QB 6-5 220 Syracuse, NY QB #15 79 Signed North Carolina
Zach Pianalto TE 6-5 215 Springdale, AR TE #19 78 Signed North Carolina
Tydreke Powell DT 6-3 295 Ahoskie, NC DT #6 81 Signed North Carolina
Devon Ramsey ATH 6-2 240 Red Bank, NJ PG 40 Signed North Carolina
DaNorris Searcy S 6-0 203 Decatur, GA 40 Signed North Carolina
Jonathan Smith OLB 6-3 195 Durham, NC OLB #15 78 Signed North Carolina
Quantavius Sturdivant S 6-2 222 Oakboro, NC S #12 79 Signed North Carolina
Jay Wooten K 6-3 180 Laurinburg, NC K #20 73 Signed North Carolina

[Jens1893]

These are confirmed on cubuffs.com

Ethan Adkins

Tyler Ahles

Matt Bahr

Matthew Ballenger

Blake Behrens

Kendrick Celestine

Shawn Daniels

Eugene Goree

Michael Iltis

Devan Johnson

Kealakai Maiava

Ryan Miller

Anthony Perkins

Chris Perri

Markques Simas

Joshua Smith

Lamont Smith

Sione Tau

Nate Vaiomounga

Anthony Wright

[bpc]

No surprise there. Butch may be a terrible coach on the pro level but the man is an amazing car salesman.

UNC is a hot bed... its a surprise that they haven't done better in football than they have. Should be exciting to watch that program because the ACC is wide open at this point with G-Tech and Wake representing it as the division champions.

[GSRelyea]

Since Mack Brown left it has been brutal in Chapel Hill, ESPN had them ranked as the 21st best recruiting class going into today, it has been a long time since they cracked the top 25 on that list. With the amount of alumni money floating around and the amount of football talent in the state, I am hoping they are challenging for an ACC title within 3 years. Don't know how sold I am on Mike Paulus, but as long as he doesn't turn the ball over as much as his brother he should be ok.....

[BroncoBuff]

Sione Tau signed with CU!!! :yayaya: ^5 :thumbs: !Booya! :thumbsup: :flower: ^5

Signed, sealed and delivered! He's a high 3-star OT from Hawaii - a big 6'5" 280 pound chilseled Hawaiian stud who had been verbally committed to Arizona State ... as recently as when I looked this morning before leaving for work


And Brian Cabral snagged a 2-star center from Hawaii to replace Garth Gerhart, who, coincidentally, defected from CU to Arizona State last week. He's like the #29 center in tha nation (Gerhart was #7), but still - if he and Tau help rebuild the Hawaiian/Polynesian pipeline, then cheers!

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5296/taupf8.jpg






*EDIT* - Hercules PM'd me that Hawk might snag Tau away from ASU a full week ago. Nice call, Herc! ^5

[BroncoBuff]

Where is Gerhart going? His older brother is a freshman here at Stanford.
Yeah - he had commited pretty early to CU ... like in September. In his interview he said, "I wanted to make my decision early, because I saw how my brother had to call back all the coaches he'd talked to and break the bad news. I didn't want to do that, so now I'm commited."

I hope he gets hit by a bus ... I am so glad we snagged that big OT away from AZ State! Serves them right...



WE'RE GONNA BE IN TEMPE NEXT YEAR ....

I hope we kick butt on those filthy Devils (sorry Ludo), and I hope George Hypolite rolls over Gerhart's knee as he stands on the sidelines in civvies. Stupid freshman.

Why is OUR theft of Tau okay, but their theft of Gerhart not?

BECAUSE .... Arizona State fired the head coach since Tau verbally commited. So there.

[bpc]

I grew up in Hawaii... Damien is a funny school. They routinely get their ass's kicked in the private school conference, the ILH, by St. Louis, Kamehameha and Punahou... surprisingly though, they have a prospect that comes out every one or two years that turns out to be really good.

Hopefully Tau is that guy. I was recruited by Cabral coming out of high school... he has great ties to the Islands and takes a lot of pride in bringing island kids to Boulder.

This should be a good pickup for them.

I hate Dennis Erickson. Talk about a sleazeball. He was that way at Miami, in the pro's, at Oregon State and then at Idaho. I'm sure he promised car's or something to Gerhart.

[bpc]

I have to agree with the sentiment of Nugg... the one area that lost the most ground in the big 12 is at the bigs area. Our offensive line play has been attrocious. The defensive line play hasn't been much better.

[BroncoBuff]

Thanks for the insight, bpc ... tell us more about your story. What position? Etc ...

CU has a very solid Hawaii history. There's a sophomore on CU who's Tau's good buddy from Hawaii .... and we signed the center last night to replace Gerhart. And I think Jordan Dizon might play on Sundays in a couple years.

I didn't remember that it was Dennis Erickson at ASU ... I understand Gerhart a little more now. Ericksen has the ring @ Miami, 49ers history .... maybe Gerhart like him.

[SouthStndJunkie]

Michigan had the 12th ranked class coming into today (Luginbill's rankings)

Class led by QB Ryan Mallett (#2 ranked QB) and WR Junior Hemingway (#4 ranked WR).

Steve Watson's kid.......Steve Watson Jr. TE from Mullen High School signed with Michigan.

[BroncoBuff]

I have to agree with the sentiment of Nugg... the one area that lost the most ground in the big 12 is at the bigs area. Our offensive line play has been attrocious. The defensive line play hasn't been much better.

We signed 7 or 8 excellent O-line guys (green) ... the two Hawaiians in the last 24 hours are red-starred. SCOUTS.COM has CU's O-Line class ranked #3 in the nation: http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=148&p=9&c=14&view=3&yr=2007

This is the full list of CU signings this year, highest rated to lowest (barring one last signing later today - by my count we do have one scholarship left). Garth Gerhart, the one Ericksen stol away, would have been listed below Drew Hudgins, and above Devan Johnson:



http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2813/commit1wg5.jpg
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/609/commits2rz7.jpg

[Hercules Rockefeller]

All the LOI's are in, they do have room for one more though.

[BroncoBuff]

Herc, maybe they'll give Spida' Schneida' that last one ...


And I don't wana argue with good news, but Miller and Tao are both prototype LTs....

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Doubt it, he never visited. Boyles still hasn't faxed in his LOI to Washington yet either. Doubt there's another one, but AM seemed to be playing coy about the possibility of another mystery commit when he was asked.

Here was the response when asked if there were any more surprises:

Time will tell. ;)

So take that FWIW.

[bpc]

Thanks for the insight, bpc ... tell us more about your story. What position? Etc ...

CU has a very solid Hawaii history. There's a sophomore on CU who's Tau's good buddy from Hawaii .... and we signed the center last night to replace Gerhart. And I think Jordan Dizon might play on Sundays in a couple years.

I didn't remember that it was Dennis Erickson at ASU ... I understand Gerhart a little more now. Ericksen has the ring @ Miami, 49ers history .... maybe Gerhart like him.

Most people that have been around from the old Rocky Mountain News Board remember... that was some 10 years ago now.

I was a die-hard CU fan coming out of school. It was my dream to go there. My first two letters ever were from Washington and CU, my top two schools. I was a top-rated LT/DL coming out of school, got all-conference honors in 1997 when i came out.

I went to Radford High School which has had a bunch of good players come out of it recently, but wasn't exactly a powerhouse. We really stunk my senior year... we went 0-10 my last season and only had about 24 players on our varsity program... We have a lot of military families, myself included with ruined the continuity of program a lot of times. We also had one of the most rigorous training programs in the state in terms of conditioning which scared a lot of students off because straight up, it would break most people off.

I ended up playing basically every game my junior and senior year doing everything... i literally took every snap. I wasn't complaining because I loved it but my only break was during the quarter changes, and half time. I started at LT and the 3 tech in our defense. Played all special teams including kickoff, kick return, pat, punt, punt return... not bad for a 6'4, 275 kid in high school. Unfortunately my stats and play hurt a little bit. I never gave up a stat but fatigue set in a lot. When i walked off the field at the end of games, I could literally see sweat squeezing out of my cleats.

The recruiting process is interesting... as stated Brian Cabral was recruiting me. Came out to my school, wrote me post-cards, I was in heaven! I had these golden emblazed logo's on the letters coming in... man, what a dream come true. Coach Cabral told me that he wanted another "Chris" from Hawaii to be a starter on the offensive line... in reference to me replacing the departed "Chris Naeole" who went to Kahuku High School in the islands.

As stated my team had some pretty good talent at certain positions... we were a running team though and we had two really young sophomore's at QB and HB. Unfortunately they averaged probably about 7 or 8 turnover's a game... NO, i'm not joking. The team itself was impressive. I was a two way starter, as was Ashley Lelie (yes, the Broncos 1st round draft pick and now hated ex Bronco by many on here.) We also had Wayne Hunter (OL) who was drafted in the 2nd round by the Seahawks a few years back but he only played on the defensive line surprisingly.

Our senior year went bad as I stated. We went 0-10, would really say close to teams in the 1st half but would get worn down by the end of the game. Cabral told my coach I looked tired... I thought it was a joke but they didn't offer me a full-ride after the season finished. Washington reiterated the same thing. I was hurt because those were the two school I really wanted to go to.

I got offer's from UH, Utah, BYU, SDSU, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, UCLA, New Mexico and a few others. I was dead set on CU and UW and when those fell through, I decided I would stay home and play in front of my family.

I got to UH and told the coaching staff I wanted to play defensive line. They were running a 3-4 and it was the 3rd year of the Fred Von Appen era... about a week into summer camp they had injuries on the offensive line and asked me if wanted to skip red-shirting my first year and try to start on the offensive line... of course, being a four year starter was a huge goal of mine so i decided to do it even though I loved defense. About two days after I switched, I blew out a big peice of lateral maniscus in my knee (terrell davis). I was basically done for the year.

We went on to go 0-12 my freshman year, Fred Von Appen got fired and they brought in June Jones. When Jones came in, they had the great purge of my fellow recruits from my class and let it more or less be known that I wasn't one of his guys and I probably wouldn't play for him. Several guys from my class got cut from the team. I wasn't one of them but more or less I was looking for other opportunities. Eventually I decided to transfer to the I-AA level where I finished up my degree and playing football in 2003.

I love college football but its an eye-opener when you get thrown in the process. My family was a blue-collar navy family and honestly if you aren't prepared for the recruiting process you can get beat up by it. My dad didn't really know anything about it as I was the youngest of my three brothers and neither of the previous two got scholarship offers or recruited for sports.

I don't take back anything that happened though. I had some tough lessons I had to learn from but I'm better for it now, especially if I have any sons that go through the same process. And although I never made it to CU or UW like I wanted to, I can now sit back say it was for the best. Neuheisel ruined both programs in one way or another and then Barnett came in and finished off CU prominance. I just think about if I would have chose to go here or there had things been a little bit different... but in the end even if I went to my dream school, stuff would have gotten all f'd up.

I didn't make the mark I wanted to as it was my dream to play in a powerhouse college program and then in the NFL, of course, for the Denver Broncos... ha ha. Pretty funny that me and Ashley's career's kind of flip flopped. I got the Velasco Award, which is the football player of the year award, and all the scholarship offers. We both made the all-star game and ended up attending UH, he ended up walking on. I blew out my knee my freshman year and he played on the practice squad. When Jones came in, we ditched our running offense for the run and shoot and of course, Ashley was playing WR. He ended up blowing up and doing what he did and then getting drafted in the first round by the Broncos, something that we used to joke about all the time!

I once offered to give him the Velasco Award if he would give me some of his signing bonus... ha ha. He didn't go for it though.

So that was a little bit about my high school and college career. :thumbsup:

[BroncoBuff]

What do you mean the CU and UW offers "fell through"?

And tell us more about Ashley .... what kinda punk plays the hand he played last year?



And I might be naive, but I thought a scholarship was a scholarship ... they can't just yank them, can they? Especially due to football-related injury. That would be crazy - schools would be yanking them all over the place every off-season.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=787057

Link to Signing Day Central

Hawk got a true sleeper in Josh Smith if USC offered a couple weeks ago like Kiesau says they did.

[bpc]

What do you mean the CU and UW offers "fell through"?

And tell us more about Ashley .... what kinda punk plays the hand he played last year?



And I might be naive, but I thought a scholarship was a scholarship ... they can't just yank them, can they? Especially due to football-related injury. That would be crazy - schools would be yanking them all over the place every off-season.

UW and CU were recruiting me hard but it starts from about your junior year. All you hear is, "we want you", "we want you" ect. When we really struggled my senior year, the "we want you's" turned into "mmm... we would like you to come walk on but we don't know if we have a scholarship for you."

It's a tough business. As you can imagine I was devasted and hurt. It was what it was though.

Ashley wasn't really a punk at all. At least not in high school or college. He was quiet, almost shy. I remember during summer workouts in high school, me, him and a bunch of other players would just sit by our weight room and play spades. He was real laid back.

I played with him at UH before he really blew up. I left before the 2000 season and that is when he really took off to new heights.

Between high school, college at that point to him going into the pro's I could definitely see a change. We last hung out during the Carolina/Denver game about two or three years ago. Our lifestyles are definitely much different now and I haven't really talked to him in about a year. I do know from that time he was very frustrated playing in our offense. We had Jake and that was the year that Shanahan really uncorked Jake and let him throw. Ashley had a bunch of TD's and a 1000 yds. He felt like he wasn't used enough. That Carolina game if you remember, he had the game winning TD at the end of the game. It was also the first game that Reuben Droughns came out and blew up in our running game. I just remember sitting with him in his landrover just saying "they don't give me a chance to make plays enough and when they do, I can do things like this."

He was confident in his abilities. I still feel confident in his abilities as well. I think he would have been a great fit for Cutler. Unfortunately he did what he felt he had to do.

In terms of cutting students-athletes... you can't technically but you can do what you want to. Its just like a job and coaches now-a-days treat it like that. If you are late for a team meeting, you are "breaking team rules". Do that or anything else and they have grounds for terminating your scholarship. Jones found anything like that for a lot of my class members and straight pitched them right out of the program. He couldn't do that to me, I made all of my obligations, got good grades and never missed anything. I was squeeky clean. I'll never forget my time with June Jones though. He straight up told me that "we can't cut because you work really hard and you are every where you are supposed to be. I don't however see you playing for this team until at least your senior year." What an eye-opening experience. I'll give the guy a ton of credit for being a great offensive coach. X's and O's wise, he knows a ton. As a people person though he sucks. He dropped the ball with a lot of his student athletes.

When I came into his office and sat down at his desk to tell him i was going to transfer, he was writing an email... he looked up a few times from his computer but kept writing while I was talking. I couldn't believe it. I just thought, man, this guy really doesn't like me.

Ashley told me about how when he decided to declare early for the draft, Jones called and berated him saying "how could you do this to me, after all that I did for you..."

You all may think i'm joking but the man has a huge ego and he is treated like god in Hawaii. I learned right then and there though that this isn't high school anymore... these guys are out to win... you are either on their side or not and they don't have time to stop and talk to most.

Transferring back to the I-AA level was a great experience for me. I left UH right before the 2000 season started in August and I was starting two weeks later at Little Rock against the University of Arkansas. I kept battling various injuries to my knee's (3 surgeries) but I ended up starting for three years over at Missouri State, which was then Southwest Missouri State. Football on that level was about preparing, hard work, and the team aspect again. From the starting QB down the the 2nd string kicker, the togetherness and unity of that squad and the coaching staff was just so much tighter.

I'm not going to say every coaching staff or coach was like Jones but he left me with a very clear approach of what people from the NFL (he came from the Chargers to coach UH) probably are like.

Lots of valuable lessons learned throughout my five years. All together though a great ride... one conference championship and bowl win, so many friendships and connections made. Some that I use even today.

[BroncoBuff]

Wow - that June Jones stuff in pretty classic.

I had always admired JJ for recovering from that awful car wreck, and for keeping his cool when Jeff George went off on him on the sidelines .... but that's an eye opener.


FOR CU FANS:

There's another recruit they signed - a speedy DB named Jonathan Hawkins (no relation to Dan and Cody) - who doesn't show up in Scouts/Rivals, because he's a "financial aid" signup (?) ... anyway, he's a 2-Star, but very fast: http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=148&p=8&c=1&nid=2202430

*EDIT* - sorry, he was a grayshirt from last year ...

[BroncoBuff]

I do know from that time he was very frustrated playing in our offense. We had Jake and that was the year that Shanahan really uncorked Jake and let him throw. Ashley had a bunch of TD's and a 1000 yds. He felt like he wasn't used enough.
Yup ... that was 2004, the year he cut Jake loose. The Falcons and Panthers were at at Invesco that year, and Griffin fumbled away a Jax road win. If Ash thought he wasn't being used THEN, we can only imagine the torment he suffered in '05.


That Carolina game if you remember, he had the game winning TD at the end of the game.
Yup - I remember that catch, it was SICK! Almost as sick as the Sunday-Nighter in Buffalo ...

BTW - we also won that Panthers game for two reasons that don't show up in box scores:1) Rod Smith chased down Julius Peppers from behind 90 yds on a fum-rec-return, turning a TD into just a FG (or did he cause and recover a Peppers fumble?)
2) A Panther O-lineman lost his cool and threw his helmet on a FG. The 3 were taken off the board as I recall, and they punted.

[bpc]

Yup ... that was 2004, the year he cut Jake loose. The Falcons and Panthers were at at Invesco that year, and Griffin fumbled away a Jax road win. If Ash thought he wasn't being used THEN, we can only imagine the torment he suffered in '05.



Yup - I remember that catch, it was SICK! Almost as sick as the Sunday-Nighter in Buffalo ...

BTW - we also won that Panthers game for two reasons that don't show up in box scores:1) Rod Smith chased down Julius Peppers from behind 90 yds on a fum-rec-return, turning a TD into just a FG (or did he cause and recover a Peppers fumble?)
2) A Panther O-lineman lost his cool and threw his helmet on a FG. The 3 were taken off the board as I recall, and they punted.

You'll love these two pic's from the game BB...

[bpc]

ha ha

[bpc]

she was one of our team mom's our senior year in high school so it was nice to see her after the Carolina game.

[BroncoBuff]

What a cool guy you look like. (I know you've been around here awhile, but now that you've posted that pic, beware of a group here called EGBIGB ;D)

I know you were a CU fan before, but were you a Bronco fan too? Frowing up on navy bases and in Honolulu?

Did you ever think (though I'm not trying to second-guess you) that maybe if you hadn't played every down including special teams as a HS senior, that you wouldda looked better on film, and might've made it to Seattle or Boulder?

Your posts humanize Lelie so much that I find myself thinking things I would've never thought possible ... like, "maybe if he apologized to Shanny, Shanny would take him back with an incentive-laden contract." That sounds strange, but you make him sound like an actual human being - shy, playing Spades and everything.

You say he's different now ... is he "big-timing" you? My best friend in college and then as young guys in sports media, is now a very famous, very big TV guy. It always seemed, thru the 90s, like he might go "big time" on me, but he never did. Then my life went sideways for 2+ years, and I've never re-started that friendship. Sounds maybe similar to you guys (though my sideways was self-inflicted).

[watermock]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/attachment.php?attachmentid=18551&stc=1&d=1170896889

He's Brett Favre's illegitimate son!

J/K

[bpc]

What a cool guy you look like. (I know you've been around here awhile, but now that you've posted that pic, beware of a group here called EGBIGB ;D)

I know you were a CU fan before, but were you a Bronco fan too? Frowing up on navy bases and in Honolulu?

Did you ever think (though I'm not trying to second-guess you) that maybe if you hadn't played every down including special teams as a HS senior, that you wouldda looked better on film, and might've made it to Seattle or Boulder?

Your posts humanize Lelie so much that I find myself thinking things I would've never thought possible ... like, "maybe if he apologized to Shanny, Shanny would take him back with an incentive-laden contract." That sounds strange, but you make him sound like an actual human being - shy, playing Spades and everything.

You say he's different now ... is he "big-timing" you? My best friend in college and then as young guys in sports media, is now a very famous, very big TV guy. It always seemed, thru the 90s, like he might go "big time" on me, but he never did. Then my life went sideways for 2+ years, and I've never re-started that friendship. Sounds maybe similar to you guys (though my sideways was self-inflicted).

Great questions, thanks for the comps!

My dad grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado... he signed up with the Navy before getting drafted into Vietnam. My mom and he eventually met through the Navy and served their 20 years. I was a huge CU and Denver fan growing up. I was knee high to my dad watching the Broncos get pounded super bowl after super bowl but the fanatic in my didn't really take hold until the Denver/Houston Playoff game. I was about 11 years old. I couldn't believe we were getting killed so pad and I prayed to god that we would win (so silly!). Out of nowhere we sort of catch lightening in a bottle and John leads us back to a win.

As for CU... what a great school to grow up with. They've really fallen on hard times but i'm sticking with them! I got Hawk love, and funny story, I just went back out to Hawaii for my brothers wedding in December and I ran into his daughter who is now working for Nike with my brother! Pretty cool thing. (She thinks her brother is going to lead them to the promise land... i'm up in the air on that one.)

I think if I would have had an opportunity to play one side of the ball, or just both ways I could have done a lot better and been more focused but I'll never look at it that way. I love my high school career. I never left the field and I took pride in being in good enough shape at my size to stay on the field the whole time. I played most of 3 years like that. No regrets on that one at all. It just was what it was. I felt like I could shine anywhere though, even when I got to UH and their program had fallen on hard times. I could have went to a plethora of other schools but I felt like if I was good enough, an NFL team would find me.

The only thing I really look back on with disappointment is getting injured. I battled knee problems for the rest of my career. It was something that there wasn't much light on at the time. Most people think that cartilage injuries are the easiest to recover from but I think they can be the most debilitating. When I tore up my lat. maniscus I really lost a lot of the explosiveness out of my right leg, and then both. That is what really hurt me. Maybe I peaked too early in high school though because I was never the same player in college after my knee injury. I don't cry over spilled milk anymore though... I look back on my career and I think about the relationships and where I ended up and the friends I made plus all the amazing memories I have running out tunnels in front of thousands of fans... it was a great ride for me.

As for me and Ash... there is a long past. I haven't really talked to him recently and he hasn't contacted me. I hate feeling like one of those guys that is trying to hang on, so I take a form of non-contact as he just has other stuff going on. He has my info if he wants to give me a shout.

I'm a Broncos fan but I try to keep my fanship and our friendship seperate because how annoying would that be to have your friend asking those kind of questions? I got to hang out with him and a bunch of the players before... him and Lenny were best friends. There were some things that I didn't really approve of with him on that front and I think that was some of the reason that we lost touch as well.

Here are some pics you might like that Ash sent me awhile back...

[bpc]

Here's my freshman pic from UH in 98'.

[bpc]

Action shot from SMS, now Missouri State...

BTW, i grade other players and its not good technique by linemen to leave the hands down. I'm doing a Tony Boselli impression here. :thumbsup:

[bpc]

Me and Mario Fatafehi... we played against each other in high school. He was at Farrington, I was at Radford. Throwin the shaka out there.

[Jens1893]

You definitely look nicer with hair and without the goatee. :)

[Jens1893]

Pete Carroll is apparently switching Joe McKnight, one of the top 5 players in the nation and one of the top 2 RBs, a CORNER!

[bpc]

Go Buffs!