Brooks: Buffs Stay Vanilla But Spirited In Sweltering Scrimmage

BOULDER – Minus preseason games, college football coaches must plan August scrimmages judiciously – resting veteran starters, allowing nicked up players time to heal, and getting freshmen and inexperienced returnees more work while fingers are crossed for continued across-the-board improvement.

Oh, yes . . . not revealing any late-summer secrets is important, too.

That's the approach third-year Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre took Saturday morning in oven-like Folsom Field with the Buffaloes' first open-to-the-public scrimmage of August camp.

“We held a few (veteran) guys out to look at the younger guys (and) tried to get a lot of repetitions in all phases – and I think we did that,” MacIntyre said, adding that the morning's work was productive overall.

If the estimated crowd of 500 wanted glimpses of what the Buffs might look like in their Sept. 3 opener at Hawai'i, not much more than a very basic look was offered. Last season's potent offense stayed as vanilla as Ben & Jerry's best summer offering, while Jim Leavitt's new defense showed up new in name only.

But as it has since camp opened on Aug. 5, the Buffs' overall effort left MacIntyre in high spirits. “Every day they've come out and tried to get better,” he said. “We haven't had a dog day yet, which is impressive to me. We keep mixing and matching (personnel) and keep working at it. You have days when some guys get nicked up and others have to step in. The most overall impressive thing is that they've come to practice every day, which is exciting to me.”

Record-setting receiver Nelson Spruce didn't compete in the 82 plays from scrimmage (98 total plays including kicks) that started nearly an hour later than scheduled and was halted just under 80 minutes later.

Quarterback Sefo Liufau, who teamed with Spruce for the bulk of the 2014 records, led the offense for one series. Starting tailback Christian Powell, last season's leading rusher, spent most of the morning trying to stay cool in the 93-degree heat after a handful of early carries.

CU's leading rusher for the past two seasons, Powell doesn't need his final camp to be a proving ground. Plus, reiterated MacIntyre, since the 6-0, 235-pound senior missed playing time last fall with a concussion, “I think I'd be stupid if I ran him a bunch right now. He's a fourth-year senior, he's played a lot of football and we know he's tough and good. It's like a preseason game – give him a few runs, get his feet wet, see that he doesn't fumble and get him out. That's what we did.”

Directed briefly by Liufau, then by backup Jordan Gehrke, redshirt freshman Cade Apsay and true freshman Steven Montez in that order, four touchdowns and two field goals – both by junior Diego Gonzalez – were produced by the first, second and third offenses. At MacIntyre's request, team or individual statistics were not made available to the media.

MacIntyre called the 6-5, 215-pound Montez “a big, good athlete . . . he showed a lot of presence. When you go with the third and fourth (teams), sometimes the line breaks down or different things happen. But he's got an extremely strong arm and is very athletic. This is just his eleventh day; I saw good signs of him so far.”

Yet barring injury, CU's QB firing order is set. Liufau is No. 1, Gehrke No. 2, Apsay No. 3 and Montez is presumably in line for a redshirt. Saturday's most noticeable highlight at the QB position: Apsay's absorption of the offense from spring drills through 11 August practices.

“He made some nice plays today,” MacIntyre said. “I would say he's made a jump from spring to fall. He's been very accurate and I was pleased with his command of the offense . . . I've been in a lot of games where I had to put the third guy in. I feel a lot better now than I did when I started camp about Cade having to go in.”

Positioned for a sideline perspective after his morning's brief work, Liufau called the QB position as a whole “strong through and through” and said Apsay “has grown a lot from last year. I'm not trying to get a knock on him but it was kind of hard for him to understand and grasp the offense last year. He knows what he's doing now. You saw him throw a touchdown (pass) today. That was good to see. And Jordan is doing really well, just as he did last year.”

Among Saturday's challenges for Apsay, said offensive coordinator/QB coach Brian Lindgren, was presenting him “some reps where he would see a little more speed out there against more (defensive) starters or backup guys and see what he could do. I was really pleased.”

On his first play from scrimmage, Apsay hooked up with redshirt freshman tight end Dylan Keeney for a nicely thrown 18-yard touchdown pass. The Buffs' other offensive TDs came on a 3-yard pass from Gehrke to receiver Joey Hall, a 39-yard pass from Gehrke to receiver Lee Walker, and a 1-yard run by freshman tailback Patrick Carr, who bounced out of a clogged hole at left tackle, pivoted outside and outran two defenders to the end zone.

Defensively, Leavitt called Saturday's work “a mixed bag.” He kept his unit out of its 4-3 front and kept starting end Derek McCartney, starting linebackers Addison Gillam and Kenneth Olugbode, and corner/nickel Chidobe Awuzie out of the heat altogether. One of the sub linebackers – redshirt freshman Rick Gamboa – intercepted Gehrke on the scrimmage's second series and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown.

Gamboa, said MacIntyre, has undergone a physical change since spring practice, shedding 15 pounds (he's listed at 6-0, 230). Moreover, added MacIntyre, Gamboa's mental awareness at his position has improved: “He's one of our football savvy guys at linebacker.” MacIntyre applauded Gamboa's pick, but wasn't complimentary of Gehrke's read, calling it the kind of play “where you're excited on one side and mad on the other.”

In the kicking game, all of the placement work went to the powerful Gonzalez, who is battling sophomore Chris Graham for the top kicking spot. Gonzalez made four of six PATs Saturday, with one attempt blocked and the other clanging off the right upright. His field goals covered 37 and 57 yards.

With another practice scheduled later Saturday afternoon, MacIntyre said the kicking approach to the scrimmage was to put Gonzalez in a stadium environment in front of a crowd and see how he responded. A “pitch count” – or in this case a kick count – was being observed for the day, which meant Graham would take all of the work in the afternoon practice.

“It's just like with a pitcher,” MacIntyre said. “You don't want them to work the whole day and tire out their arms. You want them to be as fresh as they can be.”

Gonzalez, said MacIntyre, “showed some glimpses of greatness and some others (not so great) . . . we were trying to get his nerves out of him. He's got an unbelievably powerful leg.”

WALKER GLAD TO BE BACK: Breaking into this season's receiver rotation won't be easy, but Lee Walker believes the opportunity is there for him. And Saturday's performance didn't hurt him.

Walker, a redshirt freshman who underwent shoulder surgery in the spring and wasn't cleared to practice until Aug. 4, did “a great job” on his 39-yard TD reception, MacIntyre said. “He has good speed . . . that was great.”

And it felt great, Walker added: “One thing I stressed when I was in the training room every day (last spring) was realizing that being out of this game is really bad. Every day I woke up knowing I wanted to be out here, so I knew I had to get it right (in rehab). I'm feeling great now . . . I missed it too much.”

SEFO'S OFFENSIVE GOALS: Beginning Sunday with 17 remaining practices, Liufau wants his offense to quicken the pace. He said tempo will be on his mind much of the time during the remainder of camp.

“If we huddle, getting in and out of it, and getting up to the ball faster,” he said. “Getting up on the ball after a big play – or any play for that matter. I think we can catch some teams with some of the things we're running.”

Also, he wants to eliminate his and his unit's turnovers: “Every series should end in a PAT, a field goal or a punt for us,” he said. “Taking care of the ball is going to be very important.”

SLOT RECEIVER SPOT A HOT ONE: Competition at the slot receiver spot continues to be fierce. Donovan Lee has been impressive, with Lindgren calling the 5-9, 170-pound sophomore “an exciting guy with the ball in his hands. He's done a nice job, I'm pleased with him but I'm challenging him to be consistent on a day-to-day basis.”

Redshirt freshman Jay MacIntyre has stamped himself as a playmaker in camp but did not participate on Saturday. “I obviously would have loved to have seen Jay out there a little more the last couple of days,” Lindgren said.

D.D. Goodson, last season's starting slot, improved as the season progressed – particularly in his blocking. Lindgren wants that same productivity from the graduated Goodson's successor. “We're watching that closely,” he said.

NOTEWORTHY: Lindgren and Leavitt say their “install” of the offense and defense, respectively, is all but done. Now comes the fine tuning and game-planning before the trip to Hawai'i at the end of the month . . . . CU's overall depth is improving, and one area where that should become more noticeable is on special teams. “It will show on special teams and during the season when a guy has to step in and play and he's got 250 snaps under his belt,” MacIntyre said. “That's a big difference from zero.”

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU