Colorado University Athletics
Buff DBs Prepare For Busy Saturday
September 10, 2015 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — When UMass wide receiver Tajae Sharpe gets off the bus Saturday at Folsom Field, he shouldn't be surprised if he sees a Colorado defensive back standing next to him.
If the Buffs have a choice in the matter, that will be the case all day when the Minutemen visit Boulder for CU's season opener (noon, Pac-12 Mountain). Wherever Sharpe goes, the Buffs plan on having someone in the immediate vicinity — close enough that if Sharpe decides to snap a selfie, a Buff defensive back will be in the picture.
“We have to know where he is all the time, every play,” Colorado cornerbacks coach Charles Clark said. “He's a guy that has caught a lot of balls.”
The Buffs are already quite familiar with Sharpe. A year ago, he eight passes for 83 yards in CU's 41-38 win in Foxborough. While he didn't have a touchdown against Colorado, he's no stranger to the end zone. Last year, the 6-foot-3, 188-pound Sharpe caught 85 passes for 1,281 yards and seven scores for an offense that ended up as the 11th-ranked passing attack in the nation.
The Minutemen, though, aren't a one-man show in the receiving department. Quarterback Blake Frohnapfel has plenty of targets from which to choose, including wide receiver Marken Michel (30 catches, 386 yards, 1 touchdown in 2014) and tight end Rodney Mills (30-489, 5 touchdowns).
“Their tight end does a great job of getting open,” Clark said. “No. 10 (Michel) also does a good job. We have to know where those guys are all day long.”
A week ago, the Buffs faced a pass-happy team in Hawai'i, and fared relatively well — except for a back-breaking 79-yard touchdown pass, a play that became more damaging than it should have been when cornerback Ken Crawley tried to strip the ball instead of just making the tackle.
“What you do is work on correcting those things so they understand what happened and can prevent them from happening again,” Clark said.
While Crawley's miscue proved to be glaring, what many people didn't notice was that he also had four third-down stops and a pass breakup.
“You have to teach defensive backs that there's a whole game to play,” Clark said. “You have to have a short memory — whether it's a good play or a bad play. If something bad happens in the first quarter, you don't take it with you.”
Another part of the pass coverage equation is the pass rush. While the Buffs had just one sack against Hawai'i last week, they did get good pressure on quarterback Max Wittek for much of the game.
They'll need to do the same Saturday against a quarterback who threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns in their last meeting.
Last year against UMass, CU did record a pair of sacks on Frohnapfel, along with an interception by safety Tedric Thompson. Head coach Mike MacIntyre said if the Buffs don't get pressure on Frohnapfel again, the result won't be pretty.
“We're going to have to get pressure,” MacIntyre said. “They do some max-protect type of stuff, but we're going to have to get some pressure. If he has all day to sit back there, he'll pick us apart.”
Unlike Hawaii's “tempo” offense, the Minutemen run more of a pro-style attack that will see Frohnapfel take periodic long shots down the field.
“Their protection presents a lot of challenges because they do some things that can take advantage of you if you aren't paying attention to detail,” defensive line coach Jim Jeffcoat said. “We've got to play our assignments and be very, very detailed.”
SATURDAY WEATHER: Saturday's forecast calls for a high temperature of 83 degrees, zero chance of precipitation and winds from 5 to 10 mph.
PAC-12 NETWORK CREW: Former Buff standout receiver Jeremy Bloom will be providing analysis for Saturday's game, broadcast by the Pac-12 Network. Josh Lewin will be providing play-by-play.
ZIMMER RETURNS: Longtime analyst Larry Zimmer will return to the KOA radio booth Saturday after missing the last seven games of the 2014 season due to an illness. Zimmer is entering his 42nd and final season of his career, and this will be his 479th game calling CU football.
