Fired Embree Says More Time Needed To Turn Around Colorado Football

Associated Press

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-1127-college-football-notes-20121127,0,6732968.story

A choked-up Jon Embree suggested Monday that the only way he could have turned around Colorado’s flailing football program in his two years as head coach was to take shortcuts in the classroom and on the recruiting trail.

“If you just hire the next guy and say you’ve got two years, keep your fingers crossed,” Embree said at his farewell news conference in Boulder, Colo., a day after being fired.

Athletic Director Mike Bohn, who fired Embree less than two years after he signed him to a five-year deal, said, “Shortcuts are not going to be an answer and we’re not going to hire a coach that expects to use shortcuts.”

What he does expect is a quick turnaround from a free fall that saw the Buffaloes thumped by an average score of 48-17 in the Pac-12 Conference during a 1-11 season that was the worst in the program’s 123-year history.

In some ways, Embree’s quick hook might have had a lot to do with the administration’s patiently sticking with his predecessor, Dan Hawkins, through five losing seasons, resulting in the proverbial bare cupboard.

Bohn bristled at that notion.

“Jon’s results were extremely revealing in a very short period of time, and the prowess of the Pac-12 Conference revealed it a lot faster,” Bohn said.

Embree, who gets a $1.625-million buyout, suggested he got a raw deal, pointing out he had only 1 1/2 recruiting classes to turn around a program that had been down on its luck for several years.

A star tight end for the Buffaloes in the 1980s, Embree was fired Sunday night, 48 hours after a 42-35 loss to Utah left them without a home win for the first time since 1920.

In a news conference at Folsom Field that lasted more than an hour, Embree, 4-21 in two seasons, began by addressing players who had packed the Varsity Room at the Dal Ward Center and telling them to keep up the good fight without him.

“You had the highest GPA the last three semesters that this school has ever had in the football program. You stayed out of trouble. You guys represented yourselves well,” Embree said. “You set a legacy and a standard, and as I told you guys when we’re going through tough times, you’re not judged by the scoreboard at the end of the day.

“I was. But you won’t be.”