Plati-'Tudes - University of Colorado Athletics

April 17, 2000

A weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 16th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.

With spring football coming to a close on April 17, this week's Plati'-Tudes is heavy on football. And thanks for all your comments, E-mails and topic ideas!

ALL-DECADE TEAM RECAP... Our venture into soliciting fan input into the all-decade football team was a huge success, as we received 3,596 complete ballots. We kicked out over 1,000 where voters had selected just one coach or player before submitting their ballot, many of which were at the urging of Seattle Times columnist Ron Judd to vote for Rick Neuheisel as coach. (We exchanged interesting E-mails, by the way, in which he did apologize and I in return promised not to seat him between two hygiene-deficient people if he attends the CU-Washington game at Folsom this fall.) We will be doing the same for men's and women's basketball shortly.

There weren't a lot of surprises. Someone had to be the odd man out at inside linebacker, especially with only 53 votes separating Ted Johnson, Greg Biekert and Matt Russell, with the former two making the first-team. There was some talk about Darian Hagan's selection at quarterback over Kordell Stewart, but the voting was reasonably close (Hagan won by about a 3-to-2 margin). Hagan was 20-0-1 against Big Eight competition, including a 2-0-1 mark against Nebraska; by contrast, Stewart was a solid 16-2-1 but with an 0-2 record against the Huskers. Though Stewart set about two dozen school records, voters remembered Hagan's accomplishment of leading CU to three straight league titles and the national championship.

At defensive tackle, Darius Holland received more votes than Leonard Renfro, though both made the first-team. Leonard, of course, is one of five players to leave CU early for the NFL, becoming the first junior in Buff history to declare for the draft back in 1993. Leonard actually participated in our recent pro-timing day, trying for one last shot at stardom in the NFL in concert with him being back in Boulder to finish up his degree. But Holland's receiving more votes reminded me of Renfro's best game as a Buff and how if he had stayed for his senior year he may have been a top 10 pick. I felt his best game was against Nebraska in 1991, which many should remember for the brutal wind chill that at times reached 25 degrees below zero (it was just 12 degrees at kickoff for the nationally televised game on ESPN). The Huskers led the nation in rushing coming into the game, but left Boulder that night with just 112 yards on 40 attempts. Renfro left the game early in the third quarter with a knee injury, prior to which NU had just 11 rushes for 19 yards, and only four on six attempts to his side. CU and Nebraska would play to a 19-19 tie that night, as Greg Thomas blocked a Nebraska field goal attempt at the final gun, and the two schools went on to tie for the Big Eight title with 6-0-1 records.

DRAFT NOTES... Some University of Colorado related notes following this weekend's National Football League draft:

First, some trivia. What NFL team has drafted the most Colorado Buffaloes through the years? Answer below.
Ben Kelly was the fifth player to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft prior to his senior year. All five who have done it did so following their junior years, and all five were drafted. Two were first round picks: Leonard Renfro (see above), was selected by Philadelphia in 1993, and Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam by Chicago in 1995. Two others were sixth round selections: Lamont Warren by Indianapolis in 1994 and Shannon Clavelle by Buffalo in 1995. Kelly was nabbed by the Dolphins in the third round last Saturday, the 84th pick overall.
Kelly, at No. 84 overall in the third round was the highest Buffalo selected in the last three NFL drafts. Ryan Sutter went in the fifth round (No. 133) in 1998, while Hannibal Navies was a fourth round choice by Carolina at No. 100 last year. Though he was surprised a bit by being selected by the Dolphins, we talked prior to his going home to Cleveland for the draft and told him we had a feeling that Miami or Atlanta would make the run at him. How did we know this? Those were the two teams asking for additional video on Ben as recent as 10 days ago. Saturday night, I talked with Harvey Greene, the Dolphins public relations director and a long-time friend since his days with Cleveland in the NBA and the New York Yankees. He told me the Dolphins' special teams coach was very high on Ben, and that the DB coach wanted him to come in and play nickel back in that package from the start, something which Harvey said they were in about 40 plays a game last year. So expect Ben to see a lot of action from the get-go.
One irony is Ben would have loved to be selected by his hometown Browns. Cleveland wound up taking a pair of Buffs late: Brad Bedell in the sixth round and Rashidi Barnes in the seventh. That wasn't that big a surprise, as Cleveland asked for game credentials for its area scout for four of CU's five 1999 home games. In recent years, only Pittsburgh and Carolina have had that kind of presence on game day at Folsom Field.
San Diego grabbed cornerback Damen Wheeler in the sixth round, the eighth CU player drafted by the Chargers and the first since center Bryan Stoltenberg in 1996. The previous seven before Wheeler were all offensive players.
Tennessee had eight players selected in the first 71 picks in this year's draft -- the previous most picks from a single school in the first 71 selections in NFL draft history? You guessed it-Colorado had seven in the 1995 draft. Michael Westbrook led the way as the fourth overall pick to Washington in the first round, with Salaam tabbed by Chicago at No. 21. Three players went in the second round: Christian Fauria to Seattle (No. 38), Ted Johnson to New England (No. 57) and Kordell Stewart to Pittsburgh (No. 60). In the third round, Green Bay at No. 65 snagged Darius Holland, and Chris Hudson went to Jacksonville at No. 71. All seven remain on NFL rosters to this day.
The four Buffaloes selected this year topped the three selected in the '99 draft, and is the second lowest total since 1992 (when four were also drafted). CU has had at least three players selected in every NFL draft since 1991 (and at least two in each since 1990), one of just nine programs that can state that fact. This year, there were 254 players drafted of which 217 were from the NCAA's Division I-A. There are 114 Division I-A programs, so that works out to 1.9 per school-so CU's four is well above the D-1 average.
Those players not drafted are expected to sign as free agents. Offensive tackle Ryan Johanningmeier, who was forecast to be picked somewhere between around the fifth round, has interest from four teams: Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Tennessee. Johan's stock went down a bit because of the nagging navicular bone injury he suffered last summer that has yet to fully heal (Kordell Stewart went through the same thing in the mid-90s), along with a history of minor back and neck maladies. Atlanta grabbed him as a free agent, however. Other Buffs who had signed as free agents as of Monday morning included offensive tackle Shane Cook and outside linebacker Fred Jones (both by Buffalo), defensive tackle Jesse Warren (Tennessee), tight end Brody Heffner-Liddiard (Minnesota) and wide receiver Marcus Stiggers (Washington). Quarterback Mike Moschetti might also sign as a free agent; few people know that San Francisco had Moschetti in for a comprehensive workout two weeks ago. But since the 49ers drafted a pair of quarterbacks and made a trade in the seventh round to snag Louisiana Tech's Tim Rattay, the interest may not be there anymore.
The 2000 NFL draft marked the 20th straight year that the Denver Broncos passed on selecting a Colorado Buffalo, though obviously many have dotted their roster via trades and free agent signings. The last CU player to be selected by the Broncos was nose tackle Laval Short back in the fifth round of the 1980 draft. Generally, the Broncos haven't drafted a lot of players from the state over the last two decades. The last Colorado State player selected was tight end Keli McGregor in 1985, with the only other state school player selected since then being Steve Russ of Air Force in the seventh round in 1995. But there's no reason for it -- just coincidence. The Broncos and CU have an excellent relationship, and I should know: I've been a member of the Bronco stat crew since 1980 and PR director Jim Saccomano is a very good friend. And remember, former two-time CU assistant coach Karl Dorrell is now on Mike Shanahan's staff.
The 25th "Mr. Irrelevant" was selected this year, the tag given to the last player selected in the NFL draft. This year's pick was Michael Green, a wide receiver out of Northwestern State in Louisiana. Colorado remains the lone school to have had two players selected as "Mr. Irrelevant" as Jim Kelleher went last to Minnesota in 1977 and Randy Essington to the Los Angeles Raiders in 1984.
Trivia answer: The Green Bay Packers, who have drafted 15 CU players through the years. The Cardinals franchise (Chicago-St. Louis-Phoenix/Arizona) and Philadelphia are next with 14, followed by Cleveland, Denver, New York (Giants) and Washington with 13.
Complete information on CU players in professional football can be found in the Colorado Football Media Guide on pages 273-282.

GOODS THINGS DO HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE... Three cheers for CU senior golfer Ben Fiala, who's peaking at the right time to help coach Mark Simpson's golf team make a run at the Big 12 championship. Simpson's Buffaloes have been ranked between No. 23 and No. 35 all spring, but the team has needed someone to step forward and be a solid number five for the traveling team. Simpson elected to play a junior varsity schedule, using the six rounds to find a formidable fifth performer. It turned out to be Fiala, who was named the No. 5 man prior to CU's participation in the Intercollegiate at MacGregor Downs this past weekend. Fiala answered the bell, as he turned in a 73-75-69-217 scorecard to tie for ninth in a field that featured nine schools ranked in the nation's top 46. It matched his best career finish in a major tournament-which came at last year's Big 12 Championships, so this could bode as a good omen for the Buffs. Fiala will also be named first-team Academic All-Big 12 for the fourth time in his career later this month (he owns a 3.845 grade point in Accounting). Simpson and Fiala, by the way, are both Durango natives.

THIS WEEK'S NUMBERS... Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education released athletic department budget figures from across the United States. In the Big 12, Texas had the biggest budget at $56.2 million, followed by Nebraska ($39.1), Texas A & M ($27.0), Oklahoma ($26.3), Colorado ($24.7), Missouri ($22.6), Kansas ($21.7), Kansas State ($19.9), Oklahoma State ($19.1), Baylor ($18.1), Iowa State ($17.8) and Texas Tech ($17.5). While CU ranks fifth in overall budget, one needs to look inside the numbers. Excluding Baylor (a private school), Colorado has the third highest in-state tuition of $2,386 annually (trailing only Iowa State's $2,786 and Nebraska's $2,483). CU has the highest tuition for out-of-state residents ($14,868-a full $5,000 up on the next closest school, which happens to be Baylor at $9,870). Iowa State is third in that department ($9,346), followed by Kansas ($8,693), Texas ($8,550) and Kansas State ($8,490). CU has the second highest room and board ($4,908), trailing only Baylor ($5,008). In short, let's take 150 out-of-state student-athletes and compute the cost differences alone if they have full scholarships. At Colorado, that figure is $2,966,400 for tuition, room and board, or at least $1 million more than all league competitors other than Baylor. A sampling of the same costs at other public schools: Texas ($1,963,050), Missouri ($1,807,800), Kansas ($1,895,100), Texas A & M ($1,649,100), Nebraska ($1,592,250) and Oklahoma ($1,556,100). CU also doesn't have that one conference football road trip and at least one men's and women's basketball trips that it can bus to like all other schools in the conference can, which accounts for about 15% more in charter air service alone. So that's about a $1.3 million swing in just two line items. Thus, you can't just go by a simple number in looking at where a school's athletic budget ranks since all expenditures don't come close to being equal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Plati-'Tudes" features notes and stories that may not get much play from the mainstream media; offers CU's take on issues raised by those who have an interest in the program; answers questions and concerns; and provides CU's point of view if we should disagree with what may have been written or broadcast. Have a question or want to know CU's take on something? E-mail Dave at david.plati@colorado.edu, and the subject may appear in the next Plati-'Tudes.