Colorado University Athletics
Leavitt Sees Continued Growth With Buffs Defense
November 19, 2015 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Ask Colorado defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt about his defense and he cuts to the chase in a hurry.
“Points,” Leavitt says. “Our biggest stat that we want to be good at, obviously is points. Scoring defense. We're better than what we've been, and we need to keep improving.”
Indeed, while the Buffs have improved significantly in most defensive areas this season (for instance, did you know they're the leading pass defense in the conference in Pac-12 games?), the most important step forward has come in the category of points allowed.
A year ago, the Buffs were 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring defense, allowing 39.0 points per game. This year, that number after 11 games is 28.2 points per game, good enough for sixth in the conference.
It's that type of improvement that head coach Mike MacIntyre brought Leavitt to Boulder to produce, and the results in his first year have been solid. The Buffs have been competitive in the majority of their Pac-12 games, and one big reason has been a defense that's kept the Buffs within striking distance.
But by no means is Leavitt satisfied. He still envisions a day when the Buffs dominate foes defensively.
“We're getting better,” Leavitt said. “I'm really happy with them; I'm really proud. We've got a ways to go, we all know that. But I've seen this team start to have more confidence. We've got another tough challenge this week; we'll see how they play in this one.”
Indeed, when the 4-7 Buffs square off Saturday against 7-3 Washington State (8:45 p.m., ESPN2), they'll face the nation's No. 1 ranked passing offense, one no one has been able to stop. WSU's Luke Falk is the only quarterback in the league with a 500-yard passing game this year — and he's done it twice, in wins over Arizona and Oregon. He also has a pair of 400-yard games, and no one this year has held the Cougars under 300 yards passing in any game.
“Their quarterback is one of the best I've seen,” Leavitt said. “The timing he has with his receivers is impeccable. He's very tough. He's courageous. He's got a nice release, their receivers run very good timing routes and they don't miss. They catch the ball.”
They also keep playing until the very end. WSU has won four games in the final minutes this year, including last weekend's 31-27 win over UCLA, when the Cougars scored the winning touchdown with three seconds left in the game.
“They never quit,” Leavitt said. “They finish games. I've known Mike (Leach, WSU head coach) a long time and his teams always compete to the end.”
Leavitt's defense has no doubt been a work in progress. He arrived just before the beginning of spring ball, and had almost no time to install his new scheme, one he calls a “hybrid” of a 3-4 and 4-3.
He's also had to deal with a rash of injuries — he lost standout inside linebacker Addison Gillam in the second week of the season — and has had bring youngsters into the lineup much faster than he'd like.
Saturday, the Buffs will start just three seniors — defensive lineman Justin Solis, cornerback Ken Crawley and safety Jered Bell — five juniors, a pair of sophomores and a freshman. In two Pac-12 games, he had a pair of freshmen starting at inside linebacker.
“You've got to remember we only have a few seniors,” Leavitt said. “Overall, it's a very young group and we've got a lot of guys getting redshirted this year. They're young guys, and they've only been in this system for six months.”
But they've continued to improve. The defense came up with three consecutive fourth quarter stops to produce a win at Oregon State, had two excellent quarters against Arizona, played well for the majority of the game at UCLA and had maybe its best overall game of the year last week against USC.
“USC, we played well for the most part,” Leavitt said. “I thought we could have had the UCLA game, except for a couple of snaps. The disappointing one was Arizona because we played so well in the second and third quarters and then we didn't finish those drives out with the quarterback run game, and we gave up a couple big plays.
“But overall I think what you can see is a future. I honestly see a lot of promise.”
What Leavitt also has seen this year is a team that is still playing to win, still preparing every week with what he calls the “passion to get better.”
“They definitely feel that way,” Leavitt said. “It would break my heart if they didn't feel that way. It's a very young group, they know that they're building together. They can see where we're trying to get to. They're playing a little bit harder — they're not playing hard enough yet — but they're playing a little bit harder. What they see is that this thing can really go.”
At Leavitt's last three coaching stops — Kansas State, South Florida and the San Francisco 49ers — he's been with teams that have played at a high level consistently. He has the same goal for Colorado.
“There's no question that the University of Colorado can be a real powerful program,” Leavitt said. “I have no doubt about that in my mind, and we need to get there quicker than later.”
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
