Day 4 Camp Notes: Danny Langsdorf outlines the format of his quarterback competition

BOULDER — 26 days to game day!

Colorado put on shoulder pads for the first time during fall camp on Saturday, and full pads are on the way on Tuesday.

Saturday was also the first time that the two quarterbacks who are competing for the starting job have spoken with the media since camp opened up. Head coach Karl Dorrell took a day off from talking to reporters, sending quarterbacks coach Danny Langsdorf to the podium instead.

Here are our (quarterback-heavy) notes from Day 4 of fall ball:

The quarterback competition formula

In his second year as Colorado’s quarterbacks coach, Danny Langsdorf is holding his second quarterback competition.

“We’ve had a much better year,” Langsdorf said. “We were able to start quarterback school in the spring and really dive into some things that we didn’t get to do last year. We had a full spring practice, which was great. I think we’re much further along because of that.”

During the competition, which is likely to be decided a week or two before the season-opener, the two quarterbacks are typically switching off who works with the starters and the second-team every period during practice. There are some tweaks, though, to make sure both quarterbacks get equal opportunity. For some of the situational periods they’ll play rock, paper, scissors to decide who goes first.

Despite the differences between the quarterbacks—Lewis is more of a dual-threat prototype, while Shrout is more of a pocket-passer—Langsdorf puts in a concerted effort to make sure both quarterbacks are asked to do the same things.

“When one has to do something that maybe the other one’s a little bit better at, you also have to kind of flip that and make sure both of them are getting equal opportunity on a lot of different style and different system of plays,” Langsdorf said. “We don’t just put one in and throw deep balls all day and then the other one hands off. It’s gotta be equal reps, so that takes some time to organize.”

Every single play the quarterbacks run is graded, whether its in 7-on-7s or full-team drills. Stats are recorded for every play and posted every day for the quarterbacks to see.

“We can see how we’re doing,” Lewis said, before noting that he wasn’t sure who was ahead in the competition. “That’s a question for Coach Lang.”

The offense is the same regardless of the QB

With two different styles of quarterback, one concern heading into camp was whether the offense would have to be overhauled when a starter is named in order to best cater the system to whoever is chosen.

Langsdorf said that the offense will be the same regardless of who is playing quarterback.

“They’re a little different style,” Langsdorf said. “They’ve both got strengths and weaknesses but they can manage all of what we’re doing. Both of them can do that. We’re not going to have a different offense when one guy goes in and when the other guy goes in.”

Part of the reason for that decision is that Langsdorf doesn’t believe that the two guys aren’t as different as the “pro-style” and “dual-threat” monikers might suggest.

“I don’t want to pin those guys under those labels that much,” Langsdorf said. “Brendon, they say, ‘Oh he’s a dual-threat guy, runs around, that means you can’t throw well.’ Well, he throws great. ‘J.T. is a pro-style guy, he throws better, he can’t run.’ That’s not true either.”

So what is the offense?

Shrout gave us a hint.

“I think we’re a little more multiple here,” Shrout said. “Tennessee we were more of a run the ball, run the ball, if we need to let’s go out and throw it and let’s go back to running the ball. I think we can spread them out here, be a little bit more multiple throwing the ball with some zone read and everything like that, too.”

Not much of a surprise given what we saw last season, but a complete overhaul could have been in the cards given the success Colorado should have running the ball.

Opposing leadership styles

While Langsdorf said that the playing styles of his two quarterbacks weren’t different enough to necessitate different offenses, he noted that they have different leadership styles.

“They have their own personalities,” Langsdorf said. “You probably hear a little bit more out of J.T. than you would Brendon.”

Langsdorf isn’t concerned, though.

“Brendon sets the example in the weight room and in meetings and that’s just his personality,” Langsdorf said. “He’s come out of his shell a little bit more. I think he’s been more vocal but I don’t want the guys to be something that they’re not. I don’t want him to fake it. I want him to be genuine.”

Lewis agreed with the assessment.

“I’m not a big ‘rah-rah’ guy,” Lewis said. “I like to lead by example but I will speak up when I need to but I like to let my play do the talking.”

The impact of losing Sam Noyer

The quarterback competition is a two-man battle, but that wasn’t always the case; last year’s starter, and second-team All-Pac-12 quarterback, Sam Noyer was involved during the spring before transferring to Oregon State.

“You never want to lose good players,” Langsdorf said when asked about Noyer. “He did some great things for us.”

At the same time, Langsdorf noted that there are advantages to having two competitors instead of three.

“When you have a three-man battle it’s hard on everybody because you’re in thirds rather than halves,” Langsdorf said. “I don’t wish that he was not here—I don’t want to say that—but to answer your question it’s probably easier to organize reps for two and even those reps out than it would be for three… Not that we don’t wish he was back.”

There’s a lot going on in that answer but here’s my read: Colorado isn’t too concerned about losing Noyer.

The other QBs are taking steps

Although they’re stealing all of the headlines during camp, Colorado actually has quarterbacks on the roster not named Brendon Lewis or J.T. Shrout.

Jordan Woolverton and Drew Carter are true freshmen who joined the Buffs this spring, and Langsdorf has liked what he’s seen.

“They’re coming along,” Langsdorf said. “They’ve got a lot to learn. I think they’re both trying to figure out the speed of the game and how much it’s different from high school.”

Having them for spring ball made the transition a little easier.

“I think that they’re much further along than in the olden days when you just came in in August and you had to go to school and your first time away from home and it was a lot,” Langsdorf said. “It was overwhelming.”

Langsdorf is happy with his four quarterbacks on the roster.

“They get a lot of work and they get a lot of good conversation in our meetings,” Langsdorf said. “I think it’s a really solid group right now.”

Practice is moved inside

On Friday, the Air Quality Index climbed throughout practice, causing Dorrell to question whether his team would be able to finish practice.

On Saturday, Dorrell didn’t take the risk.

Colorado practiced in its indoor practice facility, which means having one field to work on instead of the three that they typically use during camp. I’m no weather man, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they stay inside in the coming days until the smoke subsides.

Thank goodness they built the indoor practice facility. ?