Buffs QB Montez Knows All Eyes Will Be On Him This Year
February 06, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Nobody has to remind Colorado quarterback Steven Montez of the numbers.
No, not his passing numbers from 2017. Montez's statistics last year were actually solid: 2,975 yards (third-best in CU history), 18 touchdowns (tied for seventh most in CU history) and a 60.5 percent completion percentage (tied for seventh-best in CU history). His nine interceptions, meanwhile, are not even in the top 20 in CU annals.
From a statistical point of view, a good if not great season.
But the numbers the CU junior can't forget, the numbers that have hounded him day after day since the 2017 season came to an end?
Try five and seven. As in five wins and seven losses, a record that left the Buffs out of the bowl picture and home for the holidays — and a particularly disappointing finish in the wake of a 10-4 finish just a year before.
Those are the numbers that follow Montez and his Buffs teammates into the weight room every day. Those are the numbers the Buffs believe have made them hungry again, anxious to put last year behind them and begin the process of writing a new chapter of Colorado football.
"I'm a competitor," Montez said after a strength and conditioning session earlier this week. "I can't stand losing. ... It keeps me motivated every day. I want to keep winning. I want to build a legacy, a foundation for the dudes that come to Colorado after us and continue to succeed and get wins and send people to the next level."
A year ago, Montez entered spring ball as the assumed starter by virtue of his three starts in 2016. This year, when spring ball begins Feb. 23, he will enter as the clear incumbent after becoming the first CU quarterback to start every game in a season since 2007.
But there will be more to Montez's role this year than "just" playing quarterback. This year, Montez has to make the Buffs his team, much as his predecessor, Sefo Liufau did in his tenure.
When Montez took the reins on a full-time basis last year, he was a sophomore on a starting offense that as many as eight seniors in the starting lineup, including three team captains. In simple terms, his role as a leader was not critical.
That has all changed. This year, Montez will not only enter spring ball as the incumbent starter at the most important position on the team, he will be one of the elder statesmen as well.
All eyes will be on him — and he knows it.
"Once you choose to play quarterback, you are choosing a lifestyle — it's not just a position," Montez said. "Everybody looks at the quarterback position a lot differently than they look at safety or corner or running back or any other position in the field and you have to keep that in the back of your mind. … That's just the position and you have to learn to live with it."
Montez also knows it means his teammates will be watching him, looking to him for guidance — and expecting him to lead the way in moments of adversity. It is something at which Liufau excelled, a trait that made him a clear team leader.
"I think this year is going to be a lot of younger eyes looking at me as a veteran," Montez said. "That's how it is for me now. The reality is it's a role I have to step in and fill and I think I can fill it successfully."
Montez will be playing under a new quarterbacks coach this year as Brian Lindgren, the assistant who recruited Montez to CU, left for Oregon State in the offseason. Taking his place as quarterbacks coach is Kurt Roper, while offensive line coach Klayton Adams joins wide receivers coach Darrin Chiaverini as a co-coordinator.
Montez has already met with Roper several times and they have started the process of reviewing film.
"He's a great offensive mind," Montez said. "I think he's going to help us a lot. Understand I love Coach Lindgren. He recruited me and he was my guy coming in. But I think Coach Roper gives us a little different personality, a different set of eyes, and I think he'll be good for us."
One big key for Montez and his teammates will be their attitude in the offseason. If they can recapture the hunger that fueled the 2016 team, it could be the springboard to a successful season.
"Guys are excited," Montez said. "I think everyone's excited for the start of spring ball. Dudes are out here working. We're up early in the morning, lifting, running — I think we're all looking good right now."
But the difference will come as spring wears on and the offseason grind continues through the summer.
"I think guys are a little more hungry this year," Montez said. "Last spring, we wanted to work but I think maybe we had this false sense of security in our minds that we had already made it because we had won 10 games. Now, this year, I think all the guys realize that nothing is going to be given to us."
Last fall, Montez walked into assistant strength and conditioning coach Justin Geyer's office each week and wrote two numbers on his whiteboard. It started out well — 3-0 after three weeks. But season's end, that second number had grown larger than the first.
It's not a tradition Montez wants to continue.
"It was very difficult for me to come into Coach Geyers office every Monday to write one more number in the loss column," Montez said. "We all know that coming close and coming up short isn't good enough. We all want to make it back to that level where we were winning 10 games. I think we all want to get there, and it has to start right now."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
