Freshman WR thomas to “grayshirt” season
BOULDER — The Colorado Buffaloes are counting on a large number of freshmen to play significant roles this season.
Jeff Thomas will not be one of them.
Jon Embree said the 6-foot-3 wide receiver from Dallas has returned home to deal with personal issues. Thomas plans to “grayshirt,” which means he will delay his enrollment at Colorado until January.
CU’s second-year head coach had already suspended Thomas for the first two games of this season for his involvement in an airsoft gun incident with Boulder police just before fall camp began.
Thomas, who Embree expects to take classes at a junior college this semester, will not be suspended for the first two games of the 2013 season.
“Now he misses the whole year,” Embree said. “It kind of evens out.”
Gerald Thomas, a 5-11 freshman wide receiver from New Orleans, is expected to have an immediate impact for CU.
Paul Richardson, the Buffs’ top pass-catching target, has already been ruled out for the first two games as the junior continues his recovery from last spring’s ACL tear.
New starting quarterback Jordan Webb said after last Saturday’s scrimmage that he has a lot of confidence in sophomore Tyler McCulloch and redshirt freshman Nelson Spruce.
Showdown ticket update. CU has sold 23,000 tickets to the public for the Sept. 1 opener against Colorado State at Sports Authority Field in Denver. Sports information director Dave Plati said CU has about 5,000 tickets remaining in its allotment for this year’s Rocky Mountain Showdown.
CU has also sold about 5,000 student tickets and expects that number to double before kickoff, bringing the estimated total to about 34,000 overall tickets sold on the black and gold side of the rivalry.
The CSU ticket office has dropped the price for its student tickets from $30 to $25 and extended the deadline for purchase to Wednesday. Only about 3,000 students have bought tickets to support the Rams so far.
As far as season ticket sales go, CU has sold about 23,000 to date, which is close to last year’s number at this time.
Ryan Thorburn,
