Buffed To A Shine

By Jon Rizzi

Dark clouds, like the ones that have hovered over the University of Colorado football program for the last five years, churn in the sky above Boulder Country Club. But the imminent threat of a late April shower doesn’t dampen the excitement of recently anointed CU head football coach Jon Embree to tee off with Bill McCartney, the coach who recruited him to play at CU in 1983, hired him as an assistant in 1991 and recommended him for the top job last December.

Seemingly ignoring the weather, Embree arrives at the appointed hour wearing a lightweight Nike zip tee and plaid shorts, more concerned with not showing up late than with staying warm. “I was in a panic about being on time,” Embree says.  “I know that’s important to Coach.” McCartney, layered in a windshirt and khakis, just smiles.

The two embrace, “Embo” and “Mac,” and head to the range. McCartney, who turns 71 in August, teases his one-time charge about not pulling his driver, only some irons, wedges and a putter. “Don’t want to embarrass me?” he asks.

“Hitting the ball a mile isn’t the goal of this game,” Embree says. “You score with the short game, so that’s what I work on.” He’s right, of course, and he could just as easily have said that’s why his team will work more on plays in the red zone than on 40-yard passing routes. Developing a touch around the greens isn’t easy for a guy whose NFL-career-ending football injury left him with no feeling in his ring and pinky fingers. But his competitive nature won’t allow any excuses. “I got addicted to the game a while ago, but I hated losing against guys I could beat in every other sport, so I figured out how to win. There’s nothing better than getting the ‘W.’”

It’s clear from their opening tee shots on the left-dogleg par-4 first, however, that Embo can drive it deep. McCartney’s no bunter, either. They both make bogey on one of Press Maxwell’s devious greens and move onto the par-five second, where Embo finds his second shot clinging to the rough next to the water on the left. As the new coach begins to take an awkward stance, the former coach lifts and drops the ball a good eight feet from the drink. “Life’s hard enough, Embo,” Mac says. “Now get it on there.” Embo listens and soon finds himself putting for birdie.

Given their history and badinage, you’d think the two had shared numerous rounds. “I think this is the first time we’ve played together,” McCartney says.

Embree corrects him, recalling the time they played at Indian Peaks in Lafayette shortly after it opened in 1993. “We both walked up to our approach shots, thinking the other was going to take the cart, which was way back up the fairway. So we said whoever’s next shot was furthest from the hole had to walk back to get the cart.” McCartney stuck his to three feet. “And I holed mine,” Embree says.

“Maybe that’s why I don’t remember it.” McCartney grumbles with a smirk.

What McCartney does remember is the disastrous Buffs team he inherited from Chuck Fairbanks in 1982, a struggling program that in many ways resembles the one Embree has taken over from Dan Hawkins. Recruiting Embree, a blue-chip tight end from Cherry Creek High School, along with fellow in-state stars Eric McCarty, Ed Reinhardt, Barry Helton, Curt Koch, David Tate, Sam Smith and others, Coach Mac began the turnaround that would eventually lead to the 1990 national championship.

That turnaround would not have occurred had McCartney not switched to the wishbone offense after Embree’s sophomore year—a season in which the team went 1-6 in the Big Eight while Embree caught a team-high 51 passes. McCartney’s decision to change offenses dropped the tight end’s reception totals to nine in 1985 and eight in 1986. For Embree, however, the more important numbers during those years were 4-3 and 6-1, Colorado’s won-loss records in the Big Eight. “Coach told me the only way we could win was with the wishbone,” remembers Embree. “I said ‘Let’s do it.’ And you know what? The year I caught eight passes was my most satisfying year. We beat Nebraska, 20-10. That wasn’t just a big win—anybody can do anything once. It was a program-changing win. And I want my players to experience that.”

“One word: pedigree,” McCartney says of Embree, whom he seduced into volunteering as a tight ends coach in 1991 while Embree was recovering from surgery (Embree, a communications major, says he had a television deal, but “Mac said, ‘I know you ain’t no TV guy, and by the way, you’re going to coach for free.’ What a feeling. After that first practice, I knew this was what I wanted.”). “Jon’s pedigree is pure,” McCartney says. “He leads with authority.”

To lead a Buffaloes team that went 3-9 under Dan Hawkins last year, Embree will draw not only on his playing experience but his 20 years as an assistant coach at Colorado (under Coach Mac, Rick Neuheisel and Gary Barnett) and UCLA (Karl Dorrell), as well as with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs (Herm Edwards) and Washington Redskins (Mike Shanahan). He’s surrounded himself with top-notch coaches with NFL experience (including former Buff Eric Bieniemy), and, he reports, “the players are buying into our system.” He’s made a point of having Coach Mac come by, “to be around the players so they can hear his wisdom and learn the traditions.”

For the spring practice he “blew up the locker room” and will do it again at the end of the summer. “There are no ‘Hawk’s guys’; no “Embree’s guys,” he says. “White, black, freshman, senior—we’re all University of Colorado Buffaloes. I’m not just going to play the best players, I’m going to play the best team guys—the competitors who want to win, whatever it takes: running, blocking, tackling, whatever.” He says he’s thrilled with the way the team jelled and leaders have already emerged. He’s also jonesing to compete against the Pac-12, where he spent four years as an assistant at UCLA (and where his son, Taylor, plays wide receiver). “It’s always been a dream to be part of the Rose Bowl,” he says. “And there are so many California connections with Colorado that will help with recruiting.”

Although leading this year’s team of Buffaloes will consume him, Embree won’t forsake his commitment to the Buffs of the past. He will continue to head up Buffs 4 Life, the charity he founded six years ago to help former CU athletes and their families in their time of need. “There isn’t an athlete who doesn’t feel like CU shaped them,” Embree says. “To have them help each other, to do it the Buff way, to create ways to help them in their time of need is important. People need to help people. It’s part of being a team guy; it’s not about you. It’s about teammates.” The annual weekend, which this year will chiefly benefit the ailing daughter of former CU linebacker Barry Remington, takes place the last weekend June, culminating in a 250-person golf tournament at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield.

Meanwhile, back at Boulder Country Club, the golf contest between Embo and Mac has turned into a three-hole match after both make a hash of the par-three sixth (“I have the touch of a blacksmith today,” says Embree). They halve the par-four seventh as the sky, which has been threatening to explode all afternoon, finally starts spitting—first rain, then hail.

Embree, still in shorts, calmly steps up to the eighth tee and rips one as hailstones drum the carts. “It’s just crowd noise,” he says with a laugh. He goes on to win the hole—thanks to a generous putt concession from Mac. Embree returns the favor on the ninth, squaring the match—not that either of them is counting strokes. It’s the team thing to do. Besides, the weather has changed again. Symbolically, it’s been a black-and-gold day: the round that began under threatening skies and saw rain and hail, is ending in the buttery glow of a sunshower. Walking off the ninth green, both players look in vain for a rainbow, but for Jon Embree, it appears nothing but blue skies lie ahead.

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