Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: It's Business First On Embree's First Trip
September 03, 2011 | Football, B.G. Brooks
KAPOLEI, Hawaii - My body's wakeup call came at 1:30 a.m. local time, or 5:30 a.m. MDT. That's close to routine. But Friday morning was one of those wake ups in an unfamiliar place, not quite sure of the surroundings and needing quick help in determining them.
It was still dark but I could faintly hear the surf . . . peaceful reassurance that we weren't in a Holidome somewhere in Kansas.
The JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa, about 18 or 19 easy-on-the-eyes miles west of Honolulu, is a pretty nice place to start a business trip, which first-year Colorado football coach Jon Embree promised this would be. He and the Buffs have enough invested in this trip that treating it like anything else would be a huge mistake.
This is a place where distractions await with every blink of the eye and can be behind every palm frond. But a day and a half into this trip, Embree seemed convinced that things were going according to plan, his plan. He wants it to be about business, but not business as usual.
Not long after their roughly 7-hour plane ride to get here, then another hour bus ride through horrendous midday Thursday traffic to get to the hotel, the Buffs had a short practice. It was held on the hotel grounds, which feature a shortened football field, replete with one set of goal posts, where both NFL squads have worked for past Pro Bowls.
Embree called that brief practice "very, very good . . . awesome, in fact, when you consider just coming off the plane and what we did. They're having fun; I was worried about us being too tight, too up for the playing the game early in our minds. But we're in a good mindset . . . let's go."
He believes his first CU team is, indeed, ready to go against Hawai'i here Saturday afternoon (8:20 p.m. MDT, ESPN2) in his head coaching debut. It would surprise him greatly if the Buffs aren't ready to go. It has been a grueling 10 months of complete change for CU football. Not much residue of the previous four seasons remains, with the glaring exception of an 18-game road losing streak that Embree can't wait to unburden himself and the program of.
"It's important for these kids to know that's not OK," he said earlier this week. "They need to know when they end this streak it'll never happen again, and the classes that follow will have to know it'll never happen again. The only way to get that point across is to talk about it. If you don't talk about it you're pretending that it hasn't happened, like it's not there. I'm not afraid of it and they're not afraid of it. They understand the challenge that's in front of them and they're looking forward to it."
One of the players on the 2007 CU roster when the Buffs won at Texas Tech was linebacker B.J. Beatty, a 2010 graduate who has returned to the islands and attended Friday's walk-through at Aloha Stadium with his younger brother. Also attending was former CU All-America guard Chris Naeole, who has retired from a 12-year NFL career and now is a volunteer assistant at Iolani High School. Naeole, a truly scary guy if you don't know him, addressed the team during their post-practice huddle.
Beatty, who hopes to play professionally in Japan next season, shook his head Friday morning when I asked him about the Buffs' staggering road loss streak.
How to explain it? He started with "a lack of leadership," mentioning no names, but intimating that shortage was compounded by a lack of accountability. "I hear all that's changed," Beatty said.
Embree and his staff hope so; if it hasn't, then much of what they have been hammering into the Buffs since last December won't be apparent here Saturday or in the Saturdays to follow this season. I don't think that will be the case; in reflecting on last August and the run-up to what would be Dan Hawkins' final season, there was a false confidence among players that last through September before unraveling in the season's final two months.
I'm no soothsayer, but I don't get that same vibe from this team. Maybe it's intensity from the guys coaching them, but there seems to be an edge here that wasn't there in 2010 or before.
"From a physical and mental standpoint, the coaches expect you to be able to handle what they ask of you," senior safety and co-captain Anthony Perkins said. "That's tough some days, but I feel like it's making us a better team."
As Embree stood in his locker room at Aloha Stadium Friday morning with players filing in around him, he said, "I like this, I like the noise. Guys are having fun. I told them just because you're quiet and you're walking around with a stern look on your face doesn't mean you're ready. If you're laughing and having fun with each other doesn't mean you're not ready. We've prepared; we've put the work in. I'll make sure when it's time, it's time."
Among the things I've noticed in his post-practice huddles during preseason camp and after is that Embree usually reminds his team that he and his staff might seem tyrannical at times but their players will be taken care of. On countless occasions, he's said, in so many words, "What we're asking today is going to be difficult, but I promise we'll see that you get your rest. Trust me on that."
And that's how it's worked. Contact has been dramatically tapered for the last 10 days. Overall, the Buffs should be as healthy for this opener as they've been in recent years. Embree's biggest pregame concern from a health standpoint was having to leave freshman tackle Alex Lewis at home because he developed flu symptoms before the team departed. Embree didn't want to put the rest of his players at risk during a 7-hour flight.
From a strategic standpoint, the only expected game-day change will be keeping offensive coordinator/running backs coach Eric Bieniemy on the sideline rather than having him call plays from the coach's box. Taking his place upstairs will be assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach Rip Scherer, who 34 years ago this week coached in his first college game as a member of former coach Dick Tomey's UH staff. (Ironically, Tomey has returned as the Warriors' special teams coach.)
Embree said "everyone was more comfortable" with Bieniemy, who still will call offensive plays, being on the sideline and Scherer in the booth: "We can get everything we want done with him on the sidelines. And it'll help free me up to be with the defense, although I'll be involved on both sides of the ball."
And, Embree conceded, Bieniemy's fire might be felt better from near rather than from afar: "Yeah, there's a little bit of that involved, too."
Embree said he had been thinking for a long time about what to tell his team on the Friday night before its opener and his college coaching debut. But for as long as that's been and the thought he's given it, the message would be astoundingly simple.
"I just want them to understand how far they've come," he said. "And I want them to realize this is an opportunity, and that nothing's going to be given to us. We've been talking a bunch about focusing on the task at hand, going one game at a time. I'm going to let them know they've prepared well, that they're ready. Then, go out and have fun."
Oh, yes, and make it worthwhile by winning. When the long streak of road 'L's ends, the fun begins. Otherwise, it goes back on hold for a 7-hour plane ride - and beyond.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
