Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: CU's O-Line Eyes Productive Game vs. UMass
September 04, 2014 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Not to pick at scabs, but to find a run defense as porous as Massachusetts showed last weekend against Boston College, Colorado's football coaches know exactly where to start their search.
A day after Colorado State had rushed for 266 yards and three touchdowns on CU, BC shredded UMass for 338 yards and a pair of TDs.
Being a team guy, the Rams' rushing success in the Buffaloes' 31-17 loss didn't sit well with CU offensive line coach Gary Bernardi. But let's just say it was UMass' vulnerability to the run in its 30-7 opening loss that captured his attention.
Well, kind of.
Conventional wisdom suggests that Bernardi and his Buffs are salivating at the prospect of confronting the Minutemen Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. MDT) in Gillette Stadium. Recent history - including last weekend - shows UMass' run defense to be pretty far south of suspect, with the struggling three-year MAC member allowing an average of 215 yards a game (106th in FBS) last season.
Bernardi might or might not have been aware of that stat a couple of days ago, but in answer to my query about UMass' difficulties in stopping the run he posed this scenario:
"I don't know the course of the game. (Our) first series, do they pick up a fumble and go all the way? Do they return a punt for a touchdown and we're down 14-0? Then we might not be thinking about running the ball."
That might not be a doomsday scenario for the Buffs, but neither would it be one brimming with promise. Mike MacIntyre and his coaches haven't shared Saturday's game plan, but I'm guessing it will be fairly close to what BC's staff formulated last weekend. The Eagles' 338 yards came on 61 rushes; they dominated time of possession by a ridiculous 42:11 to 17:49. Why pass? BC did only 25 times, completing 17 for 173 yards and a TD.
Fifth-year CU senior guard Kaiwi Crabb hadn't been apprised of the Minutemen's shabby run defense history, but he noticed this from studying last weekend's game tape:
"Watching the BC game it seemed like their run was working pretty well," he understated. "But we always want to run the ball, whether it's against UMass, SC, Colorado State, anybody. We want to run the ball. If we feel like we can take advantage of that, then hopefully we can do a good job and run it effectively."
Had CU's second half last weekend against CSU unfolded like the first, then MacIntyre believed his offense was well on the way to a 200-yard rushing game. Instead, it was the Rams who found their legs and forced the Buffs into playing a final quarter of catch up - which is not very conducive to a ball controlling ground game. CU rushed for 105 of its 134 yards in the first three quarters. The Buffs averaged 120.8 rushing a game last season.
"In general, I think we try and keep everything balanced," said Crabb, who on Tuesday night in a low-maintenance, keep-it-cool move, buzzed away his shoulder length hair. "We were running the ball real well (in last Friday's first half).
"As an offensive line you always want to run the ball and get 200 or 300 yards rushing. But in a situation like that when we have to throw the ball we have to protect the quarterback. We have to do that just as well as we want to run the ball."
First-game miscues usually stem from technique issues, which Crabb said was the case with the Buffs' O-line: "We had some mishaps, some technique issues, a couple of hiccups here and there. But we did what we prepared to do and executed our game plan."
As for his performance, he offered, "I did all right, but after watching the film there were some things I should have done better as a veteran, kind of recognizing fronts. I put that on myself and need to do better at it. But there were also things I did well in practice and it showed in the game."
Crabb, said Bernardi, "played good, OK . . . he didn't get us beat, that's for damn sure. I think he can play better and that's what I told him."
Bernardi's unofficial grade for his O-line's 2014 debut was passable, but like his boss, he believed there were plenty of running yards left on the field. "We ran the ball adequately (134 yards, 34 attempts); we had the opportunity to run it very well," he said. "We didn't finish that part of it."
On the plus side, although quarterback Sefo Liufau took a couple of hits, he wasn't sacked. "There were a lot of things we did good," Bernardi said. "You try to find the positives and we didn't have minus yardage plays."
CU's O-line opened with a pair of new starters - redshirt freshman center Alex Kelley, sophomore left tackle Jeromy Irwin. Plus, right tackle Stephane Nembot started the 20th game of his football career - the 13th in MacIntyre's offense. That's not many for a fourth-year junior.
Said Bernardi: "This year was the first time for Jeromy and Alex to start and you've got the on-going process of developing Stephane. I came away feeling positive, but it was the first game. You better get better. Period. There's going to be even stiffer competition down the road."
The line's veterans are Crabb at left guard and right guard Daniel Munyer, also a fifth-year senior as well as a captain. Bernardi said the leadership Crabb and Munyer have provided throughout the summer and August camp has been "great, not good, great . . . .
"When we go to the hotel (on road trips) and we bring 11 guys there's two seniors, two juniors and the rest sophomores and freshmen. Somebody has to have a handle on things and they do a good job. They have (leadership) roles I've given them and they have some leeway to be leaders. They do a great job. It's really important at all positions but more so at this one."
O-lines might need to be more cohesive than most other units on a football team and Crabb said this one "has come together well . . . it's my fifth year, so I've been through five different sets of offensive linemen. I think since spring ball we've all gotten together really well. In the locker room, outside football, on the field, we all get along well and that translates to the field. I think our cohesiveness is one of our advantages."
If it shows, even improves, on Saturday, the Buffs ground game should be a four-quarter weapon against the Minutemen rather than the three-quarter flash that it was against the Rams. But Bernardi, of course, is cautious about forecasting success.
"I've tried to talk to my guys about the (UMass) kids, where they come from," he said. "I think to those kids in that school, football is very important. They're tough, blue-collar, eastern kids . . . the setting, the situation is entirely different (from the opener). I want them prepared for that."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
