Buffs DBs Look To Rakestraw For Veteran Leadership
October 19, 2020 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado senior safety Derrion Rakestraw is a nice example of how to take advantage when opportunity comes knocking.
Early last season, Rakestraw — who came to CU as a wide receiver, then spent some time at corner — saw most of his action on special teams. He played just 29 snaps on defense in CU's first three games, including one game in which he did not make an appearance on defense.
But in Week 4 of the season, injuries thrust Rakestraw into the starting lineup and he responded with a huge fourth-quarter interception in a win at Arizona State.
He didn't relinquish that starting spot the rest of the season.
Rakestraw finished second on the team in interceptions (three) and eighth in tackles (38) while also finishing with five pass breakups and three tackles for loss. He played a critical role in Colorado's improved defense down the stretch and had another big interception in a win over Stanford to stop a drive in CU territory.
"I can remember last year about this time when we were talking about depth," said CU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers, one of four CU assistants retained by new head coach Karl Dorrell. "I know he had played a little bit the year prior, and there were a lot of question marks. He played as solid as you could play the last five or six games for us. He made a lot of plays and he's a big reason for our turnaround the last three, four games of the season."
This year, Rakestraw's duties have increased. He's gone from being a mostly untested newcomer to the position to being a dependable veteran who will be asked to lend that experience and knowledge to a secondary that is not exactly overflowing with experience. It will be an integral piece of the puzzle as the Buffs defense tries to pick up where it left off last year and continue that upward trajectory.
Summers, who coached safeties last season along with his DC duties, believes Rakestraw can help make that happen.
"The secondary is so young, they call him 'old man' in the room," Summers said. "He's a guy that gets 'em lined up, he's a guy that communicates, he's been an example for them. He's done a great job with his leadership. Having been his position coach last year, he's special to me, for a lot of different reasons. He's playing at a high level, communicating well and I'm really proud of him."
Rakestraw believes the CU defense is ready to take another step forward. While the Buffs are adjusting to a new head coach and several new assistants, the overall defensive scheme and terminology has remained basically the same under Summers' direction.
That, Rakestraw said, will allow the Buffs to react instinctively to the calls this year — and that precious split second or two is often the difference between making a play or giving up an explosive play.
"Last year, a lot of it was just learning the playbook, knowing where we needed to be at every moment," Rakestraw said. "This year you can tell the difference. We know what to do, guys are flying around. In (Saturday's) scrimmage we didn't have too many explosives. We really limited it. We're carrying on from where we left off last season and we're going to keep that going."
A year ago, Colorado gave up 62 plays of 20 yards or more, an average of more than five per game. But over the last three games, CU cut that number down to three per game — one reason the Buffs were able to win two of their last three.
That's a trend they hope to continue this year, but it will require some younger players to step up in a hurry. While the Buffs do have a veteran starting front seven for the most part, the backups there are young. Meanwhile, the secondary will be depending on a number of players at corner and safety who have very little — or no — collegiate experience.
Rakestraw hopes to help make that happen by lending a veteran voice as well as leading by example.
"I feel like every year I've been playing, I've been trending upward," he said. "I'm trying to keep that going this season."
SCRIMMAGE FILM: Summers declined to name any individual standouts from Saturday's first scrimmage of camp, saying the defense is instead choosing to focus on improving as a group.
But he did say he saw "a lot of guys make plays."
"The first thing that jumped out to me is what I've noticed not just in the scrimmage but through our first eight or nine practices — a large amount of growth and maturity from our players," Summers said. That included more instinctive reaction from defenders, especially the veterans who have spent a year in the system.
"Fundamentals that took a lot of time and detail to get them to do it naturally — now they're running to the ball and doing a nice job," he said. "You were able to see that guys were in position to make plays."
One particularly pleasing aspect of the scrimmage was the defense's tackling. That's not to be taken lightly, given that the Buffs spent roughly 10 months — from the end of last season to the beginning of fall camp — without putting on pads, let alone participating in anything resembling full contact.Â
"One of the things I was really excited about was how we tackled," Summers said. "I thought we did a nice job with that. We're really young in the secondary. We're asking a lot of true sophomores and true freshmen to step up and play for us. I thought they did a nice job of tackling on the back end."
ILB OUTLOOK: After coaching safeties last year, Summers is back "home" coaching inside linebackers, a spot he admits has a special place in his heart.
"I really feel like linebacker is where my comfort level is and I feel like it's where I can also coordinate the best from," Summers said.
The Buffs do have some solid returning experience at ILB, beginning with All-Pac-12 performer Nate Landman, as well as veterans Akil Jones and Jonathan Van Diest.Â
 "We've made some adjustments to where we feel like those guys have a better chance to make plays and help us," Summers said.
After that, it's a group of untested players, including junior Quinn Perry and freshmen Marvin Ham II and Alec Pell.
OVERALL OUTLOOK: With the Nov. 7 season opener against UCLA now less than three weeks away, the Buffs will begin to focus even more intensely on the details.
"We've got a lot of guys that are playing well at the moment," Summers said. " We've got to play well collectively and that's really our goal overall, to be able to take our entire defense and move it up."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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