It is the fourth of five weeks of spring practice and the
Buffs conducted their third scrimmage Friday.
Sefo Liufau is in town this week watching practice and taking in as much
as he can so that he can jump into the team-led drills this summer. Other local recruits from the 2014 class like
Cherry Creek’s Jaeden Graham have also been stopping by practices.
Pac-12 blogs asks: Buy or Sell CU?
Athlon (who loves to rank everything) gave a 1-12 on the
Pac-12 coaches and MacIntyre is #6, fairly generous for a new coach of a
terrible team moving up a level in competition. Meanwhile Mark Helfrich, who inherits a
stocked Oregon squad is 12th and last, the other new coach Sonny
Dykes at Cal is 10th, and UCLA’s Jim Mora gets no love at 8th
but Wazzu’s Mike Leach is 5th?!
Special Teams Coordinator (man, I love writing that!) Toby
Neinas has always dreamed of working at CU after growing up in Boulder and
attending Buffs games, but he thought it wouldn’t happen. I love what his approach, attitude and
enthusiasm. This should be a vastly improved unit this season. Great article by
BG Brooks: http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=207048398
Scrimmage: Friday was the third scrimmage of the
spring and the offense had a big day, with 23 drives, 761 yards, 15 scores with
11 TDS, although 3 were starting in the red zone, where they were 8-8, and only
one turnover. They aired it out a lot
and I guess we can expect them to go for the long ball that chicks love so much
(5 receptions over 30 yards)! Of course, while this sounds great for the
offense it can’t be good for the defense, which reminded me a little of last
year’s version at times. It could also
be the combinations of players out there and maybe even the coaches wanting the
offense to have more success. They started with some regular practice drills in
position groups, did some 7-on-7s, a few “live” kickoffs, and then finally some
situational scrimmaging. I was finally
able to attend so here are some notes on players and groups based on my
observations and anything else I have been able to read.
QB Battle: Nothing has been
decided by any means, but it might have become a two-man battle as Wood and
Hirschman appear to be separating themselves from Dillon (or his play is
separating him from them). P-Rich’s
take: “It’s more than clear that Nick
Hirschman and Connor Wood are leading the pack right now. They switch off
working with our first group. I’d say they’re leading right now. Who ends up
with the job? I have no idea.” I personally just cannot
believe that Jordan Webb could possibly win it-one AllBuffs poster said he
would go on a hunger strike if it was Webb.
*If I had to put money on who the Buff starter will be
against csu, I would go with Jr. Nick
Hirschman, who seemed to stand out to me as most of his passes were crisp
and on the money. His first scrimmage
pass was a perfectly thrown ball down the sideline that hit P-Rich in stride
for a 75-yard TD. He was 10-12 for 171 yards
and four TDs on six drives, and the most efficient with the four TDs coming on
one-play drives (which Hirschman made sure to point out to reporters
post-scrimmage).
-Jr. Connor Wood had the best overall stats and looked
the best he has since he has been in Boulder.
He came first out with the #1 offense and made a lot of plays going 18-21 for 269
yards and 3 TDs; he didn’t make any glaring mistakes and had a really nice 32-yard
scramble for a TD. He was also one of
the most enthusiastic and supportive players on the sideline, meeting almost
every offensive player whenever they came back to the sidelines. He is a close second, if not first after this
performance.
-OC Brian Lindgren had said R-Fr. Shane Dillon is still a “raw passer” and he is certainly
correct. Dillon overthrew a lot of long
balls, has a dip in his shorter balls and his mechanics just don’t look that
good, even to my untrained eye. He was only 11-22 for 77 yards and 2 TDs,
getting sacked four times and fumbling a snap. He threaded the needle for a
short TD to P-Rich in 7-on-7s. He also
got the most running plays called for him and did well with them (4 rushes for
20 yards). However, at this point, I would be very surprised to see Dillon
under center this fall. Dillon tweeted something cryptic with “#SDSU” in it and
AllBuffs forum chatter has him transferring to San Diego St.-you gotta love the
internet.
-Sr. Jordan Webb, dealing with his hand injury (too many bad
jokes to be made there), watched in shorts. Incoming freshman Sefo Liufau was
also watching from the sidelines with his father, taking it all in. Schrock and Dorman shared the “4th
string” reps.
Running Backs: Josh Ford appeared to get the most reps
with more of the first stringers and continued adding to his “all-time leading
spring rusher totals” with 136 yards on only 8 carries, including a very nice,
shifty 52-yard run in some traffic along the sidelines. Christian Powell also had rumbling 25-yard run
for a score (besides Wood’s scramble, the only rushing TD of the day), with 8
carries for a 52 yards total. Tony Jones had 7 carries for 46 yards. Malcolm Creer had 8 carries for only 5 yards
as he got caught behind the line of scrimmage a few times. I am not sure where
Donta Abron was.
At wide receiver, they will be vastly
improved solely because of the return of P-Rich. As mentioned he had the picture perfect bomb
from Hirschman, scored a 2-yarder later and netted another long catch for 52
yards. Troy Walters said, “Anywhere on
the field, when he touches the ball, he can go.
That’s a game changer.”
The
other starters were sophomores Nelson
Spruce (5-122) and DD Goodson,
who continues to make plays from the slot (5-64, 2 TDs) and did so even after
popping a dislocated finger back into place after Thursday’s practice.
So. Tyler McCulloch was 4-62 with a 38-yard TD. He also made a great fingertip catch and
stayed on his feet to run into the endzone in 7-on-7s. I want to see how he is
doing when covered or in traffic-if he is open and gets a decent ball, he’ll
catch it, but struggled when he had to fight for it last season.
T-Fr. Jeff Thomas, who is only listed 4th on
the depth chart, was a full participant for the first time and hopefully he can
move himself up. He has moved on from
some “bad family issues” and poor choices, and is fully recovered from a pre-spring
hamstring tweak. He looks like a wide
receiver and made plays at his first few practices. He caught three balls for
62 yards. P-Rich has said, “He’s
definitely going to be a threat.”
Jr.
Keenan Canty had a TD but it will be hard for him to break into this offensive
lineup as he struggles to create separation (but look for him to contribute on
special teams).
It
is such a shame that Jarrod Darden looks like he should be a prototypical big
receiver, but does nothing on the field with his physical frame. Not sure where
Gerald Thomas was but MacIntyre only said he didn’t participate for reasons
that were between the coach and the player, and now there is rampant internet
speculation that he is (maybe always was) planning on leaving after spring
ball.
Tight End: I didn’t see the tight ends do much but Jr.
Kyle Slavin did haul in five balls
for 37 yards and Scooter Fernandez had a 2-yarder out of the jumbo set near the
goal line. I had hoped to see R-Fr. Austin Ray or Sean Irwin do something. They
could really use Vincent Hobbs if he decides to come back after taking care of
his father. Some have said Tyler
McCulloch might be able to play some here, but he is a stick and not very
physical of a player.
The
offensive line did not look stellar,
but they are missing two key cogs (Lewis and Munyer) and they were rotating
guys a lot. Gus Handler at center is probably the only spot we know for sure
(at least 90% anyway), and probably a healthy Munyer at a guard (80%). Nembot and Harris each played tackle on both
sides (65% they are the tackles). I
wonder if Alex Lewis will be able to surpass one of them when he is healthy
(15%), or if he will end up at the other guard (75%) opposite Munyer. Line coach Gary Bernardi was doing a lot of
coaching with guys throughout the scrimmage as they came off the field.
Linebacker Addison Gilliam said even he was
surprised he was atop the depth chart at Mike LB, but when the defense came
onto the field for the scrimmage, it was actually Brady Daigh with the ones. Daigh (also had a forced and recovered
fumble-the only turnover) and Webb led the team with 8 tackles each and Gilliam
still had 7 of his own. I didn’t see
Greer do much, nor really any other LBs.
Defensive line. Chidera Uzo-Diribe and
Samson Kafovalu combined for 5 sacks but many of those probably would have been
avoided if QBs were “live” (it was basically “one-hand touch” for the QBs). The
middle of the line didn’t appear to get much push up front, QBs generally had
time to throw and RBs had holes to go through up the middle. Jeffcoat’s still got a lot of work to do
here.
It
turns out the R-Fr. D’Jon Wilson, who tore it up on the scout team and was
expected by many (myself included) to compete for playing time, has actually
not participated due to “personal issues” according to Kyle Ringo of the
Camera.
The
defensive secondary did not have a
great day and did not record an interception (although Josh Moten had a nice
shoelaces grab in front of his receiver in 7-on7s). Crawley let Spruce get the best of him on one
long ball and pounded the ruf in frustration afterwards. Parker Orms stood on
the sidelines watching-he can’t ever be #1 on the depth chart because he can’t
be counted on to stay healthy enough.
Yuri Wright is deep down the depth chart and although he made a nice
pass breakup in the endzone during 7-on-7s, his time as a buff may be short.
Special Teams: The kickers again made most of their
kicks with Justin Castor missing a PAT and Oliver hitting a 42 and a 39 yard
FG. Both of them each put both of their
kickoffs deep or out of the endzone. Coaches then gave a returned a ball so
they could go “live”. Goodson, Canty,
Ford and Spruce each got a chance to return with Canty’s going almost to
mid-field. Darragh O’Neill boomed and
bounced both his punts for a 53.5 average, while his “competition” DJ Wilhelm
nailed a nice one and shanked one staright up into the air. Crawley and Canty each sat back for the punt returns
but most were fair caught. Canty is
small and shifty and could end up being best suited for return work rather than
receiver work.
Here’s
the remaining Spring practice schedule, most sessions 3:45-6:15PM on the lower
Boulder Creek fields.
Tuesday, April 9 Practice (no tackling)
Thursday, April 11 Practice
Saturday,
April13 Spring Game, 10:30AM, televised
on Pac-12 Network
Tuesday,
April 16 Final practice (shorts/helmets
only)
Other Buff Notes: Congratulations to women’s hoopster
Chucky Jeffrey for earning honorable mention to the AP All-American team.
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