tennesseeboy

I second the thank you note. I have been on a number of high level search committees, and there is ALWAYS a positive reaction to those who send nice thank you notes.

he's the 32nd coach because that is the position he earned after taking a mediocre team and making it into a bad team, at least based on wins and losses. I wouldn't fire him for not getting to the playoffs in year 2 but would fire him if he didn't get nine wins. I would have (and did) expect him to get nine wins last season, but the play of the team in the second half of the season earned him this season to show improvement. You gotta hold folks accountable if you want a viable program. Chan made a bunch of mistakes...edwards, too early to change to a 204 without the personnel, failure to keep quality players, failure to acknowledge or address glaring talent gaps. He has hopefully addressed them, but don't kid yourself. He has not shown enough to warrant any extension past next year without showing significant results in the won/lost column. whoops...too early to change to a 3-4.

I agree that the jury is out, AND that there have been positive signs in the last part of last season, but Chan deserves a number 32 ranking at least considering his Buffalo tenure. I sincerely hope that will change in the coming season, and there is reason for hope. I will also say this...if there isn't a significant improvment this season Chan should be gone.

you gotta win if your are going to be respected. He was slow on the pickup when he got here, overplayed Trent Edwards long beyond the time he should have given up on him, failed to address a pathetic offensive and finished with a worse record than the guy he preceded. That makes him 32d. However...he has found his qb, has what looks to be a good draft at least on the defensive side of the ball, has his system in place, had a nice run at the latter part of last season...so I think he will be moving up this year. I was a nay sayer when he was hired, was puzzled at a lot of things he did, but I'm starting to see progress so I'm cautiously optimistic about him as a coach. That being said...fix the offensive line Chan...

Try "What do you think are the three or four most important things that I would be concentrating on when I first start here?"

kind of agree with his analysis...especially the part about the offensive line. Hopefully that will be addressed in free agency.

gotta go with OJ since your said RUNNING back. There are three hall of fame quality running backs in our history, Gilchrist, Simpson and Thurman Thomas.

I'll go with Bobby Burnett who was the AFL rookie of the year at running back in 1966. He was really outstanding before his injury. from wikipedia... A halfback from the University of Arkansas, in 1966, his first year with the American Football League's Buffalo Bills, Burnett had a combined total of 1,185 yards rushing and receiving, with over 12 yards per catch and 4 touchdowns on 34 receptions.[1] He had 766 yards on 187 rushes, with 4 rushing touchdowns. He was that year's AFL Rookie of the Year, and was also selected to the 1966 AFL All-Star team.[2][1]

At first I gagged, but frankly your reasoning makes a lot of sense. Keep Losman and a first or second year qb for this year. Might actually work if the fans could stand it.

yup..instead of making crappy picks at 3 through 10 we could have been making crappy picks at 20 to 30. I think our coaching and management staff was sophisticated enough to make crappy picks wherever they ended up.

Ponder is dead meat. He should be celibate until he makes the pro bowl. With a honey like that all of his creative juices will be squandered (but on a very attractive young thing, come to think of it.) before he hits the playing field. He's the next Trent Edwards...some to think of it..did Trent have a hot girl friend?

Positives? I think there are a lot. Defensive front seven should improve tremendously. I think CJ Spiller should come into his own and I HOPE our offensive line gels, although our offensive tackle problems don't look like they've been resolved yet. I think Fitz is a better qb than most give him credit for and to have him with his own term in his own season should show us just how good he might be. I think that Gailey is a solid game day coach and should get the most out of what we have. I'm thinking nine wins is about what we SHOULD expect and with a break or two we might do even better.

it is interesting, that's for sure. I can't see the matter being resolved in court, with appeals, stays and injunctions galore, and little happening. I also don't see the parties coming together soon. The owners did a "replacement" season once before and I don't think the fans, tv, or advertisers would buy into that. I see the eyeball to eyeball thing going on until well into "training camp" season and possibly preseason, and I think whenever the parties blink there will be some "contingency" schedule along the lines of what I'm seeing here.

The impression I got was that the playoffs and superbowl stayed on the schedule with the changes being the elimination of some preseason games and two to four regular season games.

As I have said before going to a 3-4 without the personnel was a mistake. Once that was announced Schobel was pretty much going to retire. Same thing happened when Greggo came in and decided to move to a 4-3 from a 3-4 resulting in Hansen retiring. Had Schobel been coaxed to stay, perhaps with the promise of a mixed 3-4 4-3 defense for a year or two (which we ended up doing anyway), we would have had a much better defense. Offensive tackle is and has been a mess since Peters left. Why we didn't draft Oher is beyond me.

I was on an airplane ride from a guy who was connected with the NFL and he said there were contingencies for a shortened season depending on how long the lockout went and that the owners saw this as the "final option" in negotiation to avoid losing an entire season, with there being almost no preseason, a revised schedule to allow the home and away divisional games and a playoff and superbowl. He said it was his uncerstanding that losing a seaosn is not an option. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or not, but It does kind of make sense.

At the end of the day you earn a spot on the roster of you don't. You show an ability to start or you don't. So far Maybin has earned nothing but a ticket out. He isn't going to get much of a shot this year, and he'd bettr bring his A game to camp...the smart money is on him not being around come the regular season unless he shows a lot more than has to date.

I could see him buying the bills, but I do not see him keeping them in Buffalo. He has properties in a lot of places which would love to have the bills and could place them in places which would be located near to his other ventures. I don't think a Trump purchase would be at all good for Buffalo.

good for him. I hope he feels like that every sunday and makes the pro bowl and gets rookie of the year honors. While we're at it he can go a long way toward getting us INTO the playoffs....Go Dareus!!!

or...there is always the more recent curse of Doug Flutie...

I'm not sure that there is a general answer to the question of drafting defensive or offensive players. If we look at our team the area that needed the most help was defense, by looking at last year's play, by looking at our change from a 4-3 to a 3-4 or even by looking at our significant inability to stop the run, which caused the other's team's offense to be on the field most of the game. Given that situation I don't think there was any real option but to go defense. I might have gone offense in the second or third round to get a good offensive tackle, but other than that I think improving the defense was the top priority.

Ahhhh...those were the days...Let's do it again!

well..I just bought a number of tickets for the UB vs. Tennessee Vols game in Neyland Stadium in October. A number of us UB alums are going to watch and root for David against Goliath. 120,000 some Vol fans and about 30 or 40 of us UB fans! Go Bulls.

So far so good. The proof will be in the pudding but it would not surprise me at all to see picks 1 and 2 start immediately and I've got a lot of hope for Jasper. There will almost certainly be another starter in the mix.

I think its time for him to whistle in the dogs, pee on the fire, and turn his horse homeward. Those injuries you described are hardly the kind of thing that is going to go away or even get good enough for him to play at a top level, and I can't see him hanging out just to play and not be competitive. Wish him well, even though a goodly number of the crises in his life were of his own doing. Then again isn't that true of all of us?