Buffs burnish leadership legacy; more Designated Reads

• “I think it all starts with a commitment to the university … the ability to have a clear vision.” While we technically agree with Colorado AD Mike Bohn that these are good qualities to seek in a college football coach, we have a humble suggestion: Next time, maybe don’t use those words right after firing a head coach two years into his tenure and right before making it outlandishly obvious through further words and sour facial expressions that you have nooooo idea what to do next.

The sporting internet watched with alternating horror and bewilderment as Jon Embree, Bohn and Colorado’s president and chancellor made statements and fielded questions on Embree’s ousting. You can watch the whole thing here, a fact which may be an indictment of the Colorado leadership in and of itself, read a summary of events here or get the general idea from those of us who watched it unfold in real time:

An emotional Jon Embree at his press conference. You can tell how much the job meant to him.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) November 26, 2012

A player just said from the back of the room “Thank you coach. We love you.” Embree said, “I love you too.” — Kyle Ringo (@KyleRingo) November 26, 2012

“We don’t get second chances.” Jon Embree on black head coaches. — Jason Kirk (@JasonKirkSBN) November 26, 2012

Embree on short-term turnarounds. “Basically, you can get mercenaries.” [Bobby Petrino startles to life in his coffin] — edsbs (@edsbs) November 26, 2012

embree’s basically saying, “if you wanted me to win this year, it was gonna cost cash money. untraceable CASH.” — Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) November 26, 2012

And remember, Bohn hit this CU team with the same speech he used when he fired Hawkins. Players in that room heard it before — Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) November 26, 2012

Bohn now makes the plea for commitment. Commitment to facilities, fans, coach, players. At the presser where fired a guy after 2 years. — Michael Felder (@InTheBleachers) November 26, 2012

CU’s commitment? Embree bought the coaches water daily. The athletic dept wouldn’t even pay for it, per a source.

— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) November 26, 2012

is this dude lecturing the entire community right now? is this what i’m hearing? this is AMAAAAAAZING.

— Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) November 26, 2012

“Our primary goal now is to hire a football coach.” This is the most useful piece of information offered up so far. — Holly Anderson (@SIHolly) November 26, 2012

Mike Bohn can’t even swallow as he tries to talk his way around why he can definitely make a good hire on the third time around. — Michael Felder (@InTheBleachers) November 26, 2012

Oh lord, this press conference just crashed into a preschool. — Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) November 26, 2012

I thought our football record was rock-bottom this year; listening to our leadership makes this a new rock-bottom — Mike McCartney (@MikeMcCartney7) November 26, 2012

anyone else wonder who, specifically, had a change of heart on embree? cuz this sounds like someone made a call. — Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) November 26, 2012

When you’re in a full blown building from scratch you have so much work to do before you get kids winning ball games. So much. — Michael Felder (@InTheBleachers) November 26, 2012

We are only a few seconds away from Colorado’s AD dropping an “OVERCOME THE ADVERSITY”

— TomahawkNation.com (@TomahawkNation) November 26, 2012

This window into CU “leadership” that we’re seeing right now makes 2012 Buffs football team look like the ’85 Bears.

— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) November 26, 2012

Mike Bohn has said “irregardless” and now he’s speaking in the third person. This has become a bad SNL skit. — Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) November 26, 2012

Mike Bohn is stepping on every banana peel in the universe. — Peter (@runthedive) November 26, 2012

@runthedive Now you’re seeing why Colorado hired Embree. Nobody else wanted it. Shoot, he may get hired again. — Tony Gerdeman (@GerdOzone) November 26, 2012

Fortunately, CU has one of the best SID’s in the business. They’re gonna need him after this debacle. — Matt Hayes(@Matt_HayesSN) November 26, 2012

After watching that CU presser, I very much regret using superlatives like “worst possible environment for a BCS coach” to describe Auburn. — Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) November 26, 2012

To summarize: M Bohn just fired a coach after 2 years and told the nation his program is underfunded, can’t compete and has bad facilities. — Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) November 26, 2012

You just know Bohn went back to his office, and thought to himself, ‘That went well.”

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) November 26, 2012

“Our next head coach is watching this.” You better hope not, Bohn

— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) November 26, 2012

For a continuing discussion of what went wrong in the Embree regime and where the administration went wrong immediately after that, check out Kyle Ringo’s timeline. And if you take anything away from this, let it be that this situation was so poorly handled that it’s engendering sympathy for the guy who was in charge while this was happening.

• Bowltyme! San Diego State will play BYU in the Poinsettia Bowl … June Jones makes a postseason return to Hawaii with SMU … Oklahoma is tired of the Fiesta Bowl, which is an awfully nice problem to have … and Conference USA has released its title-game-dependent BOWL CONTINGENCY PLAN, which reads as follows:

If Tulsa wins the championship game, this will be C-USA’s bowl lineup:

AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Dec. 31, Memphis, Tenn.: Tulsa

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, Dec. 29, Fort Worth, Texas: Rice

Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl, Dec. 24, Honolulu, Hawai’i: SMU

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Dec. 22, New Orleans, La.: East Carolina

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, Dec. 21, St. Petersburg, Fla.: UCF

 

If UCF wins the championship game, this will be C-USA’s bowl lineup:

AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Dec. 31, Memphis, Tenn.: UCF

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, Dec. 29, Fort Worth, Texas: Tulsa

Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl, Dec. 24, Honolulu, Hawai’i: SMU

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Dec. 22, New Orleans, La.: Rice

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, Dec. 21, St. Petersburg, Fla.: East Carolina

Everybody got all that?

• Roster blotter. Case McCoy will start at quarterback for Texas against Kansas State … Jelani Jenkins could miss Florida’s bowl game thanks to a broken foot … Teddy Bridgewater will play Rutgers‘ defense on two good limbs … Pitt dismisses running back Stephen Williams.

• Spicy coach quotes of the day. Coach Boom with back-to-back appearances, and Holgo with a clinical Weis burn:

Muschamp on Saban saying Gators don’t deserve Sugar Bowl over Alabama/Georgia: “I can switch and we play in Atlanta if he doesn’t want to.”

— Jason Lieser (@PBPjasonlieser) November 26, 2012

#WVU‘s Holgo: “We’re going to be at a schematic disadvantage” against KU’s staff, which is rich with NFL experience.

— Allan Taylor (@AllanTaylorWVU) November 26, 2012

• Misc. The MAC’s move to trademark #MACtion is operating with, shall we say, Big Ten speed … Kentucky wants to reiterate that it’s really about the journey, man … and there’s something so cold and joyless about the phrase “access to competition area policy,” don’t you think?