The Jon Embree era is officially set to begin Sept. 3 when the Buffs travel to the islands to take on the Hawaii Warriors.
Embree will try to accomplish what no other CU head football coach has done since 2007.
Win on the road.
The last time that CU won a true road game was at Texas Tech over 3 full seasons ago. Since then it’s been 18 long plane rides back to the Rocky Mountains.
With that said, the whole program is moving forward but hoping to reflect the past and bring back traditions that have been ignored. In the previous regime, Dan Hawkins painted over the brick wall, which boasted all the milestone victories in CU history. That didn’t sit well with alumni but now with a distinguished former Buff at the helm they can be reassured that old traditions will become current traditions again.
Although CU defeated Hawaii last year 31-13 in Boulder, Embree’s first task as head coach is a tall one.
Hawaii is coming off a 10-4 season, one in which they had the #1 passing attack and were the #10 scoring team in all of college football. Their quarterback, Bryant Moniz, is returning for his senior season after throwing for over 5,000 yards and 39 TD’s last season.
However, a question mark arises when it comes to his top targets for this year. Last year’s top two receivers both went to the NFL (Greg Salas and Kealoha Pilares) and besides senior Royce Pollard no other receiver had more than 50 catches.
Regardless of the weapons Hawaii will have coming into the game it will be a good test for Colorado’s inexperienced secondary. The Buffs also lost two of their top defensive backs to the NFL and are looking for players to fill their spots. Embree has not announced the starters yet, but they will have their hands full against the pass-happy Warriors.
Coach Embree told his squad during spring practice that their reward for beating Hawaii will not only be breaking their winless streak on the road, but he will dedicate a brick on the wall to their achievement.
The coach wants to bring back old Colorado traditions to the downtrodden program and one of those traditions is winning. He will get his first chance to continue that tradition September 3.
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