Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Take Big Step Forward On Offensive, Defensive Lines
October 08, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — When the 5-0 Colorado Buffaloes' season began, two of the biggest question marks may have been the offensive and defensive lines.
In Saturday's 28-21 win over Arizona State, the men in the trenches answered those questions by turning in what may have been their best overall performances of the year. The 19th-ranked Buffs (No. 18 USA Today) would like to keep that trend going Saturday when they travel to Los Angeles for an 8:30 p.m. meeting with Pac-12 South rival Southern California (FS1).
Against the Sun Devils, the CU offensive line kept quarterback Steven Montez upright all day by not giving up a single sack, while also consistently opening holes for a run game that produced 166 yards and two touchdowns.
"I thought we played more balanced, better technique," said co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Klayton Adams. "I thought the effort was pretty good. There's still a long road ahead of us in terms of the things that we want to accomplish as a group, but I thought it was a step forward, a step in the right direction."
Defensively, the Buffs' big men up front gave up just 120 yards to ASU star running back Eno Benjamin — including a scant 24 yards in the second half — to go along with a pair of sacks.
But perhaps most importantly, both groups also provided game-defining possessions.
The defense came up with a huge goal line stand that turned away an ASU threat after the Sun Devils had first-and-goal from the Colorado 3. The series included an 8-yard quarterback sack by Mustafa Johnson and a 1-yard run by Benjamin.
The offense then closed out the game by producing a punishing 13-play, 7-minute, 10-second drive to run out the clock in the fourth quarter, never allowing ASU a chance to tie the game in the final minutes.
"As each week has gone by, the guys are getting better," said defensive line coach Kwahn Drake. "They're starting to become more confident. They're believing they can play at this level and play to the level of competition we're playing in the Pac-12. That's a big step in the process."
Johnson, a sophomore junior college transfer, has had an outstanding season thus far. While slightly undersized for a Division I defensive end — he's listed at 6-foot-2, 290 pounds — he has exceptional strength and excellent speed. That combination has helped him produce 37 tackles, 4.5 sacks, six other tackles for loss and four quarterback pressures.
"His will and his want are the things we talk about," Drake said. "His whole thing is that he has something to prove every week. He told me he hates getting rotated and I told him if he's not playing well, I'll rotate him a little more. So he took it upon himself to fix that. Once he figured out he could dominate at this level, it has allowed him to play free. You can see that in his game — he's making more plays every game."
Johnson has played a position-high 224 snaps, but Drake has utilized a rotation up front that has seen five other linemen play at least 100 snaps. That list includes true freshman Israel Antwine (185), senior Javier Edwards (172), senior Jase Franke (105), freshman Terrance Lang (105) and junior Lyle Tuiloma (104. Also seeing substantial time has been senior Chris Mulumba (75).
"That's going to help us in weeks 8, 9, 10, 11, 12," Drake said. "That position creates so much wear and tear. It's not a contact sport, it's a collision sport. Those guys take a lot of abuse on their bodies, so we try to take care of them by rotating them and keeping them fresh so we'll have them for the entire year. It's helped us a lot."
One player who has made a huge stride under Drake's tutelage is Franke. The senior entered the season with two career sacks in his first three seasons. This season, he has already matched that number.
"He's doing a tremendous job," Drake said. "He's taken on his role and he's developed himself week in and week out. He's continuously getting better. He's such a strong guy and he has a burst of speed. We're trying to put him in the best positions to utilize that skill set."
Also taking a big step this year has been nose tackle Edwards. The 330-pound senior had 33 tackles and one sack last year; in five games this season he already has 18 tackles and a sack. He has become much more of a force in the middle and is proving adept at disrupting the run game as well as pushing the pocket in passing situations.
"He's put himself in a mentality that he wants to dominate," Drake said. "He wants to be a destructive force. He is more explosive. His improvement from spring to now has been tremendous. The steps he's taken and things he's doing with his hands are outstanding."
The story has been much the same on the offensive side of the ball, where Adams has mixed and matched his starting lineup and rotated players to find the best combination.
Now, that group is starting to gel, giving the offense what it needs in the pass and run games.
"Some of the younger guys that haven't played as much are getting a lot of snaps under their belt now," Adams said. "There's nothing that improves your like game reps. Having the ability to learn in a situation where you can have some success is also beneficial."
CU's starting lineup for the last two games has included a pair of redshirt freshmen — William Sherman at left tackle and Colby Pursell at center — along with junior Brett Tonz at left guard, another player who entered the season without a career start. Pursell has been a starter all season while Tonz has missed just one game because of an injury.
Meanwhile, Adams has shuffled the lineup on the right side, moving senior Josh Kaiser to tackle (from the left side) and senior Aaron Haigler from tackle to guard. That move bumped Tim Lynott Jr. from the starting lineup for the last two games, the first time the junior has not been in the starting lineup when healthy.
But against Arizona State, Lynott came on in the second half and played the final three series (31 snaps), including the go-ahead touchdown and the game-clinching drive.
"He did a great job," Adams said. "He really focused on trying to make himself better, on trying to be better mentally, on trying to break some bad habits. I told him, 'I don't know when the opportunity is going to come, but it's going to come and you need to be ready to go in there and take it.' He did. He went in and played well."
Also getting some snaps last week at right tackle was true freshman Frank Fillip.
"If you know there's a good player behind you that can take your job, it heightens the urgency in practice and it heightens the urgency of competition," Adams said.
WINFREE PROGRESSING: Head coach Mike MacIntyre said the Buffs hope to have wide receiver Juwann Winfree back in the lineup soon. Winfree hasn't played since suffering an ankle injury after being tackled out of bounds against Nebraska in the second week of the season.
"He's working on getting back," MacIntyre said. "Hopefully he can get back. It's hard seeing him not being able to play and trying to get back, Hopefully he'll be able to get back soon because he's a really good player and we need him."
Winfree was making steady progress for a couple of weeks, but that progress slowed. MacIntyre said Winfree recently received a platelet-rich plasma injection to help speed the healing.
EVERY GAME IS BIG, BUT … As every coach will tell you, all games are important.
But, MacIntyre acknowledged, a game against a Pac-12 South foe has a little extra importance because it figures so prominently in the battle for a division title.
Saturday's game against the Trojans fits that description.
"It makes it even a little bit bigger game," MacIntyre said. "They're all big. But if you can beat a Pac-12 South opponent, that puts them a notch behind you."
LANDMAN TO RETURN: After being ejected for targeting in the first half of Saturday's game, CU sophomore linebacker Nate Landman had to sit the second half. He will be available to start Saturday's game.
MacIntyre wouldn't talk specifics of the play. Â ASU was also called for targeting later in the game but a review overturned the call.
The Buffs regularly work on drills to avoid targeting calls, even using a tackling dummy that has a "strike zone" — similar to that in baseball — outlined on a tackling dummy.
"We tell our kids to hit in the 'strike zone,'" MacIntyre said. "That's what we work on all the time."
He also said he would send film into the conference and ask for an explanation so they can relay that information to the players.
"We'll send it in so we can know how to teach them and coach them," MacIntyre said. "The referees are doing a great job of making sure they protect our kids. Our game is a lot safer and a lot better because of it. That's going to happen, there's going to be targeting calls called. One side's going to think one thing and the other side's going to think the other. It's always that way. I think the referees are doing a great job."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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