Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Get Back To Work As Tucker Vows Improvement
October 14, 2019 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado head coach Mel Tucker kept it straightforward and simple Monday when his Buffaloes returned to practice.
"The question is, can we get better? The answer is yes," Tucker told the media after practice. "Each individual guy has to get better and fix his individual issues whatever they are, on the field, off the field, whatever it is. Then we can get better."
Tucker and his staff spent a long weekend reviewing film of Friday night's 45-3 loss at Oregon. Tucker also met with a number of players on an individual basis Sunday, and when the Buffs (3-3 overall, 1-2 Pac-12) returned to practice Monday, his message at their morning team meeting went straight to the point:
"Being truthful about everything — that's the fastest way to get better," he said. "If you're in denial about anything or you're delusional about a situation or any aspect of the program, that just delays progress. We want rapid progress so we're hitting these things straight on."
The Buffs do indeed need their improvement to come quickly. Now sitting on a two-game losing streak, they hit the road again this week with a 5 p.m. (Mountain Time) game Saturday at Washington State (3-3 overall, 0-3 Pac-12), a team that is anxious to end its three-game skid (ESPNU).
While Tucker saw plenty of things to address in the Oregon game, Friday's loss didn't present any new problems. Rather, issues that have plagued them recently were simply magnified against the Ducks. That includes a season-high 14 penalties for 114 yards, three empty trips into the red zone (out of four total) and a rash of other mistakes that turned what might have been a close game into a runaway.
"When you play against a really good team, you can get exposed in areas," Tucker said. "We've had some penalty issues before, going back a couple of weeks. We've had some red zone issues. Maybe some undisciplined penalties. So we're going through it. It's very uncomfortable for everyone involved. But in order to get better you have to address it."
That also meant some heart-to-heart conversations with players on an individual basis.
"Trust goes both ways, communication goes both ways," Tucker said. "Really homing in and drilling down, digging down deep about what we need to do to fix some things, then putting things into place to fix those things. It's not just stating it, but how do you fix it."
And that, Tucker said, is up to him and his staff.
"That's what I'm here to do," he said. "I believe our team expects me to do that. They're not surprised about it. But it's going to get done. The program is in place. There are certain things that have to be done on a day-to-day basis to have a chance to be successful. (If) we do those things, we get what we want. We don't do those things, we will not get what we want."
One of Tucker's fundamental tenets revolves around discipline — "Doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it how you're supposed to do it."
The reward of discipline, he reminds his team regularly, is success.
"Pain of discipline versus the pain of disappointment — which one would you rather have?" he said. "It's going to be one of the two. We'd rather have the pain of discipline. Pain, pressure, address the issues. That's what we're doing."
COUGARS IN SIMILAR SITUATION: After starting the season with three non-conference wins, Washington State reached No. 19 in the national polls.
But then came a wild 67-63 loss to UCLA in a game the Cougars led by 32 in the second half, followed by losses to Utah and Arizona State. The 38-13 loss to Utah resulted in the resignation of defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, but last weekend the WSU defense again gave up a lead in the second half, yielding the winning touchdown with just 34 seconds left in the game.
True to form for a Mike Leach team, offense has not been a problem for the Cougars. Washington State is averaging 43.0 points per game (first in the Pac-12 and seventh in the nation) while quarterback Anthony Gordon leads the nation with 435.3 yards passing per game.
But defensively, the Cougars and Buffs have experienced similar woes. The Buffs are giving up 33.8 points per game; the Cougars are yielding 31.8 per contest.
The Cougars, though, aren't accustomed to losing streaks. Their current three-game Pac-12 skid is their longest single-season slide in five years.
STILL SOME POSITIVES: Despite the final score, Tucker said he did see some positives from the Oregon game.
One was CU's rushing attack. The Buffs finished with 168 yards on the ground against a defense that was holding teams to less than 100 per game
"I talked to the squad about that this morning," Tucker said. "I pointed out some things that I see that were positive. Our ability to run the ball consistently is improving. That was a good defense. That bodes well. We need to be able to run the ball. We've talked about that from Day One."
Tucker also said he saw an improvement in giving up explosion plays in the pass game. The Ducks had just one pass for more than 25 yards.
"We really worked hard last week to find ways to eliminate or reduce the explosive passes defensively," he said. "We had less explosive passes in the game. The score doesn't reflect that, but as a coach I'm looking for where we are improving, and that was an improvement for us."
YOUNG PLAYERS GETTING TIME: One more positive, Tucker said, is that CU continues to get young players some significant playing time, something that bodes well for the future.
"We've got some young players playing that we initially thought were going to be good players and those guys are getting opportunities to play now," said Tucker, who mentioned defensive backs Mark Perry and K.J. Trujillo and defensive linemen Na'im Rodman, Jeremiah Doss, Janaz Jordan and Austin Williams as some young players who got quality snaps against the Ducks. "We're getting young guys some opportunities to play some ball."
One more youngster who might see some action soon is cornerback Tarik Luckett, a freshman who made the switch from wide receiver in camp.
"He's pretty much where Mark Perry and K.J. were a couple weeks ago, getting reps in practice, getting a little bit better, waiting for an opportunity to play," Tucker said. "We have guys that can step in and get the job done for us. It's just a matter of time, but all these guys are going to play."
That, Tucker said, is part of building a program.
"We recruited these guys, we signed them — we told them we're going to get you ready to play right now," he said. "Some guys are earlier than others, But our program is set up to develop these guys so when we need them, they can step in and make plays for us."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
