Colorado University Athletics
Loadholt Excited About Chance To Build Buffs' Offensive Line
March 18, 2024 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Phil Loadholt's task with the Colorado Buffaloes might be as important as any assistant coach on Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders' staff as the Buffs open spring drills.
Loadholt isn't a coordinator — but he is in charge of Colorado's offensive line. That's the group tasked with the duty of not only keeping CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders upright this season, but also establishing a foundation for an offense that struggled mightily at times last season because of the line's ineffective play.
Loadholt is in first job as an on-field assistant after working as an analyst at Central Florida, Ole Miss and Oklahoma.
Colorado held its first practice of the spring on Monday.
"I'm very fired up about it," Loadholt told the media Monday. "Being in an analyst role, I got to work with some great coaches … I've been wanting to do it for a while and I'm glad that opportunity came."
Loadholt very nearly became an offensive lineman at Colorado when then-Buffaloes head coach Gary Barnett recruited him in the early 2000s.
Instead, Loadholt — who played high school ball at Fountain-Fort Carson in Colorado — headed to Garden City Junior College, where he played for two seasons. After that, it was two years at Oklahoma, where he earned first team All-Big 12 honors as well as honorable mention All-American status.
Then came six years as a standout player with the Minnesota Vikings before having his career cut short by an Achilles tendon injury.
Now he's back "home," a short drive from where his parents and sister still live and ready to make an impact with the Buffs.
For the second year in a row, Colorado has made some major changes in its O-line personnel. CU has just one returning starter from last year, right tackle Savion Washington, while returnee Hank Zilinskas also saw some significant time last year at center. Also back is Tyler Brown, an FCS All-American at Jackson State who followed Coach Prime to Boulder but did not receive an NCAA waiver to play last year.
Still, the line will no doubt have plenty of new faces this year.
Tops on the list of newcomers is five-star recruit Jordan Seaton, ranked as the top O-lineman recruit in America last year. While it's rare for true freshmen to start up front, Seaton has the ability to become the exception to the rule.
Other newcomers include five transfers who were starters at their last school: Tyler Johnson (Houston), Justin Mayers (UTEP), Yakiri Walker (UConn), Kahlil Benson (Indiana) and Phillip Houston (Florida International).
Seaton is already enrolled and working out with the Buffs and has clearly quickly made an impression on Loadholt.
"I'm really amazed at his football knowledge, being a freshman coming in," Loadholt said. "For a guy straight out of high school, his knowledge is up there. He's a student of the game. He works hard, he comes up and watches film and does everything he's supposed to do. That's been the most impressive part of him. Obviously, physically you can see that he's advanced. But his mental part has been impressive to me."
Loadholt knows the task of building a cohesive unit from almost scratch won't be easy. He'll have to lean on the experience of the transfers to lend a hand in that process.
Colorado yielded 56 quarterback sacks last year, with Sanders taking 52 of those — the most sacks absorbed by any Division I quarterback in the nation. Loadholt knows the expectation of Coach Prime when it comes to giving CU's quarterback the best possible chance to succeed.
"He made that very clear," Loadholt said. "I went to see him at his house and spent some time with him, let him know my philosophy and how I want to take care of things. That point was definitely made, that it's important to keep the quarterback up. I'm excited to have the chance to do that."
Loadholt's vision of a quality offensive line is simple — and it's one he'll spend the next six months trying to build.
"A bunch of physical guys up there that can communicate with each other," he said. "Whether it's opening holes for the running back or keeping the quarterback clean, just more physicality up front and some guys that bring the right attitude every single day."
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