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A stalwart tight end for the Buffaloes in the mid-1980s after an outstanding prep career at Cherry Creek High School, Embree returned to his alma mater from the National Football League's Washington Redskins, where he was in the process of completing his first season as tight ends coach under former Denver Bronco coach Mike Shanahan. Embree, 45, is the first African-American ever named to the position at Colorado. He signed a five-year contract through the 2015 season upon being offered the position one month after previous head coach, Dan Hawkins, was relieved of his duties. Embree concluded his tenure as tight ends coach with the Redskins the day before he was introduced by athletic director Mike Bohn as CU's new head coach. "This is a dream come true," Embree said. "When I stepped on the field for my first spring practice here as a volunteer coach (in 1991), I started to envision what it would be like to come back one day and be the head coach of this great university. It's truly a privilege when you have the opportunity to become head coach at your alma mater. Colorado has a great tradition and with the staff I've assembled, our aim is to restore the program to national prominence."" Embree, in fact, is just Colorado's third head football coach and the first in nearly 50 years who also graduated from the school, earning his degree in Communication in 1987. The last was Bud Davis ('51), who coached for one season (1962) to steady the waters after the Sonny Grandelius era, with the only other, Harry Heller, also coaching just one year, leading Colorado to an 8-1 record in 1894; Heller was an 1885 CU graduate. Embree will become just the fourth African-American head coach in Pacific-12 Conference football history when CU joins the league next July. Dennis Green was the first when he coached Stanford (1989-91), followed by Ty Willingham, also at Stanford (1995-2001), and then former Colorado assistant Karl Dorrell at UCLA (2003-07); Willingham also was the head coach at Washington (2004-08). Nationally, Embree is the fifth African-American head coach among the 66 BCS schools and the 15th minority overall at the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision programs. After a stellar prep career at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, Embree would become a four-year letterman for the Buffaloes, playing immediately as a true freshman in 1983 when he earned the school's Lee Willard Award as the school's most outstanding freshman. The following year, he earned first-team All-Big 8 honors in setting school single-season records for receptions (51) and receiving yards (680). When CU moved to the wishbone on offense for his junior year, his receiving numbers naturally went down but he established himself as one of the premier blocking tight ends in the game. He ended his career in the top five in both catches (80) and yards (1,116), numbers which still have him in the school's top 20 today. A sixth round draft pick by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1987 NFL Draft, Embree played two seasons with the Rams before suffering a career-ending elbow injury in 1989 while a member of the Seattle Seahawks. He then soon turned his attention to coaching, and thus brings 18 years of coaching experience to the CU program, including 10 seasons (1993-2002) as an assistant on the Colorado staff under three different head coaches, Bill McCartney (1993-94), Rick Neuheisel (1995-98) and Gary Barnett (1999-2002). He began his coaching career as a volunteer coach under McCartney in 1991. He then worked as an assistant coach at Douglas County (Colo.) High School the following year before returning CU for his first full-time position in the profession, coaching the tight ends for the last two year's of McCartney's tenure. Under Neuheisel, he swapped sides of the football and tutored the defensive ends for those four seasons, before mentoring the tight ends once again in Barnett's first two years. He then switched to coaching the receivers and placekickers the next two years (2001-02), helping CU win its only Big 12 Conference title in '01, while both those squads claimed North Division titles in going 14-2 in league play over two seasons, one of the best two-year marks in the now-defunct 12-team conference's history. Embree left Colorado to join Dorrell when he was named head coach at UCLA ahead of the 2003 season. Embree coached the receivers there his first season, and then was promoted to assistant head coach and passing game coordinator in addition to tight ends coach for the 2004 and 2005 seasons. He then made his move into the NFL, where he coached the tight ends for three seasons (2006-08) under Herm Edwards with the Kansas City Chiefs. In his career, Embree coached four of the best tight ends to ever play the game, including John Mackey Award winners Daniel Graham at Colorado and Marcedes Lewis at UCLA as well as CU's Christian Fauria, a 12-year professional, and perennial All-Pro Tony Gonzalez while with the Chiefs. Embree is married to the former Natalyn Grubb, and the couple still has one child at home, daughter Hannah (14). They have raised two football-playing sons, who, in keeping with the CU family theme, are playing for two former Buff coaches. The eldest, Taylor, is a junior wide receiver at UCLA, where Neuheisel is head coach (he has 117 career receptions for 1,548 yards and two touchdowns), while Connor redshirted as a freshman receiver at UNLV under head coach Bobby Hauck, who was an assistant at Colorado under Neuheisel. Jon Embree was on coaching staffs with both Neuheisel (five seasons) and Hauck (four). And of course, as many older Coloradoans will remember that his father John played two seasons (1968-69) with the Denver Broncos. He had several big plays at receiver in catching 33 passes for 519 yards and five touchdowns, including a 79-yard score. |
