I have an old Recruiting Book from 1991, this is how the teams finished up. 1. Mich. 2. Fla. St. 3. Penn. St. 4. Tenn 5. Colorado 6. A&M 7. Fla 8. Ga. 9. Washington 10. Bama Oh, LSU 41st. This year, you could take about 5 or 6 out of that top ten. Times have changed.
Hiring Hawkins was a mistake that started their downfall. Hiring an ex player (Embree) with very little coaching experience compounded the problem and sank the program to rock bottom. MacIntyre looks like he has the mindset and credentials to bring the program back. He's got to have the backing of the CU administration and the CU fan base to make it happen.
If back up to the 2 coaches prior to Hawkins and Embree, you can almost say the same thing. Neuheisel and Barnett were a bad combination that also sank the CU program. Mark that as a string of 4 bad consecutive hires.
That's a fair point about Neuheisel & Barnett. Although some allegations were made against Neuheisel I think when it was all said and done he wasn't formally charged with anything. It's interesting that neither of them are currently coaching in any capacity. Of course Barnett's getting a little long in the tooth. I met him when he was coaching the high school team on the Air Force Academy grounds in the early '70s.
With Neuheisel and Barnett, it was more about the "win at all costs" climates they they created and nurtured (though to some extent that was seen in the McCartney era also). In particular, it was about the elevation of winning over player conduct and character.There were far too many Rae Carruth types that were actively recruited then protected by the CU football program when they'd step out of line. (Contrast that with how Les Miles will give players only so many chances.) Neuheisel carried that into the Washington program when he left CU and almost destroyed that program also. There was a pretty good series on this here: http://seattletimes.com/html/victoryandruins/ Barnett and Neuheisel - unlike Hawkins and Embree - were actually good football minds, they were just really bad caretakers.
