Freshman defensive tackle Nate Bonsu will miss spring football after having knee surgery.

CU wide receiver Terdema Ussery is taking a leave of absence from the program but is supposed to return this summer.

Colorado football fans might want to bookmark this for the next few months. No decision yet on whether any spring practice sessions will be open to the public. That decision will come later.

Spring practice will begin Saturday, March 6, and end with the spring game on Saturday, April 10.  The tentative dates are as follows: March 6-9-11-12-15-16-18-29-30; April 1-2-5-6-8-10; a high school coaches clinic is set for March 11-12.  The team is allowed 15 practices over 29 days; this is the first time in four years CU is starting prior to spring break (March 22-26).  How the practice sessions will break down, per NCAA rules: three in shorts (no contact), four in pads (no tackling), four in pads (tackling allowed 50 percent or less of the time), four in pads (tackling allowed throughout).  Pro timing day will be Wednesday, March 10 (8:30 a.m.).

I read Woody Paige’s column in the Denver Post today and thought part of it was a little unfair to Dan Hawkins. So I thought I would share a different perspective here.

I’ve covered the Colorado football program every year Dan Hawkins has been the coach and I can tell you it is not unusual that Hawkins “disappeared” in December and January. Hawkins immerses himself in recruiting and doesn’t do a lot of interviews or public appearances at this time of year because he spends a great deal of his time on the road or focused on recruiting.

But if you really need to talk to him about something, he will make the time. At least that has been my experience with him. Before the NCAA stupidly instituted a rule a few years ago preventing head coaches from participating in the spring evaluation period off campus, Hawkins used to fall off the grid then, too. The man likes being on the road, meeting with high school coaches, recruits and their parents.

That’s what you want in a head coach when it comes to recruiting.

Hawkins wrapped up recruiting in Hawaii last week before coming home to host a group of recruits on campus. Trust me, the man was not on vacation. He has been recruiting Hawaii hard since his days at Boise State and even earlier. CU has several prospects in Hawaii this year, as it does most years. So it was perfectly logical for him to be there.

I don’t have any problem with the rest of what Woody wrote. I’m not trying to defend Hawkins’ record or anything. I just saw something that I know to be a bit off base. So I thought I would share my view of it.

Colorado athletic department officials said going into last weekend about450 tickets had been purchased for the annual recruiting luncheon on Thursday. That number is down sharply from just two years ago when the department hosted about 1,500 fans in 2008 for coach Dan Hawkins’ post-signing day recruiting showcase in a downtown Denver hotel.

The decline actually began last year when CU significantly raised ticket prices to include $35 of every $75 ticket to be treated as a donation. The price this year is back down to $50 for one seat, $500 for a table of 10 and $600 for a corporate table at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel.

Highlights from each recruit’s high school or junior college career are shown and Hawkins discusses the class and his program afterward. Hawkins also has taken questions from fans in the past. Lunch is at 11:30 and the program begins at noon.

A recent story in the Denver Post about an idea from one of the Colorado athletic departmen’s biggest boosters trying to get 50 people to donate $1 million each to the department has generated a lot of excitement from CU fans.

I’m betting it generates far fewer results.

I’d say 10 gifts of $1 million each might be a little more realistic, but even that will be difficult at CU. George Solich, CEO of Cordillera Energy Partners in Greenwood Village, is the man behind this mission.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great idea and I’m all for shooting for the stars, but we’re talking about a department that hasn’t generated even 20 $1 million gifts in its history. Yet, suddenly there is talk of getting 50 in a short period of time to help get the department back in the fight in the Big 12 Conference.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

There is another aspect to this plan that involves giving anyone who decides to pony up $1 million a voice in at least some athletic department decisions. That’s just a bad idea for a lot of reasons.

Getting an opinion from your biggest supporters about important decisions is always worthwhile, but giving them any more control or power beyond that wouldn’t be smart and I’m not sure how that would work exactly under state rules and laws. Would there be any accountability for them? Would they have to answer tough questions when their decisions went wrong?

If you donate money, you want to feel confident and comfortable with what is being done with it. I get that. But you have to have some trust in the people running the show to make good decisions without micromanaging it. If you don’t, then don’t donate or lead the charge for personnel changes that will make you comfortable with giving your money to the department.

Now, if CU someday finds a sugar daddy such as T. Boone Pickens, an individual who is willing to give the entire $50 million, maybe you give that person more influence over decisions. But until then, it’s best to leave the decision making in the hands of hard-working people who are running the department every day and know the ramifications better than anyone.

It would be nice to see Solich succeed here, but there have been dozens of people over the decades charged with raising money for the department and their collective efforts haven’t come close to this lofty goal. There is no reason to believe that will change now.

Danny Spond joins the Fighting Irish. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/highschool/02/01/spond-irish/index.html

We spend a lot of time at this time of year talking about recruiting rankings for players and programs. Some folks live and die with the rankings from the major recruiting services. Others simply use them as a guide but not the end-all-be-all in judging a recruit or a class.

I fall somewhere in the middle. I think the rankings definitely have some merit. All you need to do is look at the teams with the highest ranked classes each year and you typically see a correlation to the top-25 polls.  There are always some exceptions. For instance, Colorado recruited a top-15 class in 2008 and didn’t sniff the polls. Boise State has never recruited a top-10 class but it has regularly been ranked in the top-10 in recent years.

There are always guys who don’t get a lot of respect on the recruiting trail but end up being good or even great college players. Here are 10 guys for my All-Under-Recruited team at CU over the past decade. They are all guys who were ranked with two or fewer stars by one or more recruiting services and I didn’t consider junior college transfers.

1. Joel Klatt — The guy became the program’s career leader in most major passing categories after hardly being recruited and a minor league baseball career and first joining the program as a walk-on.

2. Jordon Dizon — He was just a two-star player no one knew much about when he arrived. He didn’t even know what position he would be playing until three days into his first fall camp when he settled in at linebacker. Left as one of the most accomplished linebackers in school history and a runner-up for the Butkus Award.

3. Scotty McKnight — Will leave the program after next season likely holding most of the school’s major receiving records. He joined the program as a walk-on in 2006 when he could have gone to Boise State on scholarship.

4. Daniel Sanders — A one-star recruit back in 2004 who came to Boulder and found a way to contribute on the offensive line in four seasons, including being the starting center for two full years.

5. Brad Jones — A two- or three-star player, depending on the service, who was a major contributor in four seasons. Ended up starting for the Green Bay Packers at the tail end of this past season.

7. Rodney Stewart — A last minute addition to the heralded 2008 class who was an after-thought on signing day. He’s been the team’s most accomplished rusher for two consecutive seasons now.

8. Nate Solder — Originally came to CU as a tight end. Made the switch to left tackle and has started every game there for two seasons, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors from the league’s coaches last fall.

9. Cha’pelle Brown — A small guy who always played big as a four-year contributor. Played in every game during his career and finished among the top 30 tacklers in the program’s history.

10. Brian Iwuh — One of the hardest-hitting Buffs ever. Finished his career among the top-50 tacklers in the program’s history and earned second-team All-Big 12 honors from the league’s coaches as a senior.

Others: Byron Ellis, Jake Behrens,  Sam Wilder, Marwan Hage, Evan Judge, John Torp

I enjoyed reading this column from Jay Paterno. Thought Buffs fans  would like it, too, especially considering there was nearly a coaching change at Colorado last season and could be one next season.

Need a good laugh? Check out this youtube creation.