Second week, second scrimmage

A few items of note from the second full week of the Colorado Buffaloes’ spring practices:

Second Scrimmage: Friday, March 21 brought the first day of spring and the team’s second scrimmage with another 80+ plays before the players departed for spring break.  While the offense got the better of the defense the first time around, they could not do much through the first seven drives of the session, including a snap out of the endzone for a safety, before Sefo broke out with four TDs, including a 51- yarder to R-Fr. WR Bryce Bobo and a 10-yarder to TE Sean Irwin.  His “competition” at QB, Jordan Gehrke, did not fare as well putting up very pedestrian stats with no scores.  Twelve different receivers had receptions, including Nelson Spruce and Keenan Canty with three each.  With a focus more on the short passing game, there was not a ton of rushing, with Malcolm Greer posting the best number with 4 carries for 32 yards. 

On defense, Addison Gillam (I hope no one is tired of writing or reading statements like this because this kid is the real deal) led the way again with 5 tackles, including two sacks and two third down stops.  Brady Daigh had six tackles, but redshirt sophomore Yuri Wright led the team with eight tackles (7 solo) and two passes broken up, which makes the secondary battles very intriguing, especially as I did not read much about newcomer Akhello Witherspoon.  Tupou, McCartney, Norgard, Henington (2) all had sacks, while S Tedric Thompson had a pick off Trent Sessions, and Richard Yates recovered a fumble caused by Josh Moten.

LB Woodson Greer blocked a Wil Oliver FG (never know if I should be happy or pissed at these) and Diego Gonzalez boomed a 50-yarder on his only punt attempt. New frosh WR Lee Walker had a 40-yard kickoff return (in addition to a couple of catches).

Coaches have started giving out Gold jerseys in recognition of “uncommon” plays and effort.  Coaches nominate and MacIntyre decides and presents it with the video of the play in front of the whole team; if you get it twice, you get to keep it. Sefo is one of the first guys to have earned one and wore it during the scrimmage.

The team expects to get RB Christian Powell, FB Clay Jones, CB Kenneth Crawley back from injury for the second half of spring ball after the break.

The Buffs, like me, are off until Monday, March 31, when they will resume two weeks of M-W-F morning practices with Friday, April 4 also scheduled to be a scrimmage. The spring game is set for noon on Saturday, April 12, and will be covered by 850 KOA and the Pac12 Networks.  They will have one last practice session on Monday, April 14.

Other roster and practice notes:

Rising sophomore LB Kenneth Olugbode continues to receive praise for both his intelligence and speed.  Although he is only around 210 pounds, coaches agree he can use his quickness to get around bigger and stronger guys, as well as track down speedy opposing RBs and WRs.  He actually played on defense in the last five games at a couple of different positions, including once when he came in and played the outside with no experience there whatsoever.  Ryan Severson, who was mostly known as a mediocre at best kickoff returner last year is also starting to learn the defense and turn some heads, but I think it’s going to be hard for him to get on the field outside of special teams.

Wide receivers coach Troy Walters likes what he has in his stable of pass-catchers and knows that it will be the group, not any one guy, that makes up for the loss of Paul Richardson to the NFL.  R-Fr. Bryce Bobo has been getting lot of attention from coaches and media, seemingly mentioned after every practice and in every interview.  He is just picking up where he left off on the scout team at the end of the season.  The Camera’s Kyle Ringo thinks he can have over 500 yards and 6+ touchdowns. We have hardly heard Elijah Dunston or even Devin Ross mentioned.

Sr. Wr Wes Christensen, who had a great set of August practices last year but was nowhere to be seen on Saturdays, was one of three other guys (plus Olugbode and Bobo) mentioned after practice last Monday by MacIntyre, along with Sefo for his improved accuracy, and DT Josh Tupou “should show up” and make big plays this year.

RB Philip Lindsay is another name that keeps popping up over and over again and I am pretty sure we will see him on the field, which makes me wonder if there is any room at all for senior Tony Jones in the rotation, or if they even care if Josh Ford is granted a 6^th year of eligibility.

Offensive line coach Gary Bernardi said that OL Jeromy Irwin will be healthy by the time fall camp rolls around and that he is still expected to compete for a starting job, probably the left tackle.  Marc Mustoe is also not recovered from his injury and is not practicing.  The other candidate for the LT position is not practicing either, as JC transfer Sully Wiefels has not yet enrolled, although some, including myself thought/said/wrote that he was.  Nembot is even getting a little time there, but BoulderDevil still thinks that if Nembot hasn’t vastly improved his pass protection (MacIntyre has said he has improved but I don’t sense the confidence), he should move back to the d-line, so maybe both tackles are not even out there yet.  Meanwhile, Kawaii Crabb originally slotted into one of the interior positions, is getting the most reps at LT.

On Defense JC transfer CB Akhello continues to impress, which doesn’t bode well for the injured Kenneth Crawley.  Witherspoon is a little raw, having really only played football for two years, his senior year in high school and one year at Sacramento City College, where he refined his game and grew a little.  Now he has the the size and speed to be a prototypical big corner.  BG Brooks did wrote a great piece on him: http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=209438187

Ringo also thinks that sophomore Tedric Thompson will win the starting safety job alongside Jered Bell, who most assume will keep his job as a senior since no one else seems ready to step up.

Defensive line is a position group in flux as many guys are switching positions inside and out.  I have mentioned numerous times that it makes me nervous how many “tweeners” this group has, but I put my trust in Coach Jeffcoat to turn this into a productive group.  Clay Norgard moved from pass rushing LB not to DE, but all the way down to DT.  Tyler Henington has slimmed down and is going to get a shot outside at end after two years inside.  And now, senior Juda Parker, who has never lived up to his four-star hype at DE, but who has put on weight and added strength, is moving inside to DT.  I don’t think this is the last of musical chairs we have seen here, with two guys focusing on academics (Kafovalu and Solis) and two more potential immediate players coming in August (Franke and Lopez).

The team picked up a preferred walk-on LB in Lance Cottrell (Plano, TX), who was rated three stars by Rivals and was originally an SMU commit.

There had been rumors of another new player or two joining the fold and Saturday afternoon it was announced that defensive lineman Leo Jackson will join the team as a late signee in the 2014 class.  He had been a full qualifier out of high school in Atlanta but played last year at Foothill College in California (had idea there were this many tiny small schools, but MacIntyre certainly knows them) and will join the squad this summer as a sophomore.  This can't be a good sign for Justin Solis and Samson Kafovalu, who are missing spring practices trying to focus on academics.

Other Buff notes: Shout out to the men’s team for making the NCAA tournament.  Congrats to the women’s basketball team for winning their first game in the WNIT against TCU, and good luck to the ladies tonight against Southern Utah (a team they crushed at the beginning of the season, but who beat little sister in moby gym Thursday night). 

Traitor report: Alex Lewis was sentenced to 45 days in jail, two years of probation, 100 hours of community service, and anger management and alcohol training for beating the crap out of a defenseless guy half his size.  Lewis will be able to finish out his semester in Lincoln, which I guess just adds to the punishment, before dealing with his time during the summer.

Go Buffs!