One of the big conversations surrounding this year’s Buffaloes has been about the late-game play-calling, even after last weekend’s conference road win, many fans were still upset that the Buffs weren’t able to kill the game on the offensive side of the ball.
We caught up with offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren to talk about the philosophy that goes into their play-calling late in the game, their running back rotation and much more.
On what goes into late game play-calling with a lead:
“There’s a number of things. It’s us on the phone communicating with the head coach and what he feels, how the game is going, how the opponent’s offense is playing. A lot of times you want to do whatever you can to get the first down, but if they only have one timeout, like they had in the situation this week, we didn’t want them to still have one timeout if we threw an incomplete pass. That was the thing at the end of that game, we felt like with a run play we had a chance to get the first down and we definitely wanted to leave them with no timeouts.”
On who makes that call to run or pass late:
“Ultimately it’s the head coach’s call but we’ll definitely talk. He’s on the phone with me talking about, ‘hey, what do you think here,’ I’ll ask him do you want to lean towards a run or a pass. There are a lot of conversations going on and it changers per play, per situation, every game is a little bit different. Our defense was playing really well on Saturday and we felt like if we gave them a long field they were going to have a difficult time scoring.”
On if the injuries on the offensive line Saturday made it harder to run the ball late:
“In those situations it’s always tough to run the ball even if you have your five guys you’ve been playing with, their packing the box and they know you’re going to run it. That’s something that we practice year-round and it was a situation where we got nine yards instead of 10. I thought there were some good things in that series but ultimately we have to be able to get the first down. It is always tougher when you’re mixing and matching guys up front, guys are playing different positions it makes if difficult.”
On the running back rotation of late:
“I thought Donovan did a nice job on Saturday, it was one of his better games that we’ve seen from him at running back, he caught a few balls for us on some check-down stuff out of the backfield and made some plays there and got some efficient runs on the ground, I was pretty pleased with his performance. We’ve been seeing more of Patrick Carr, he’s been doing a nice job in there. Christian Powell, we got him some runs that I think fit his skill set. I was pleased with the rotation, I thought [running backs and tight ends] Coach [Klayton] Adams did a nice job rotating those guys in there and I feel comfortable with any of them in there.”
On what goes into the RB rotation:
“Sometimes we give them a drive so they can kind of get some rhythm, sometimes we’ll ride the hot hand, other times I think you look at the play and you think, ‘which guy’s skill set is best for that type of play’ whether it’s an outside play or an inside play and what not. We try to find somebody that has a hot hand and Donovan got a little hot there in the game so we kept him in there tried to ride that.”
On the development of freshman QB Steven Montez:
“He’s been more with the defense [scout team] than he’s been with us, he’s still working individual drills and things with us. I’ve been pleased with his development, he’s had a good attitude working with the scout team and I think he’s a talented guy, he’s going to need repetitions and there’s some things fundamentally that we need to work out but I’m very excited for his future.”
On the development of freshman RB Donald Gordon:
“The defensive coaches have spoke very highly of Donald and they way he’s played giving those guys a look. He’s run hard and he showed some flashes in camp. He’s another guy that’s a young talented guy who is just going to need repetitions and the spring will be big for him.”
On if playing on the scout team can be tough for a guy who was the star at his high school a year ago:
“No question, I think you find out a lot about a guy’s character in that situation, when you go from where you were the star and it was all about you to scout team and kind of go back to square one. But I think a lot of guys look at it as, ‘I’ve got an opportunity to play against a Pac-12 starting defense, get myself better, adjust to the speed of the game and ultimately that’s going to make me a better player in the end.'”
On his confidence in Sefo Liufau:
“I have a ton of confidence in Sefo, I think all of the coaches do. He’s a guy that has a ton of experience and he’s a really tough guy, he’s taken some shots back there, we’ve asked him to do some things in the run game, he’s played injured, I’ve been really impressed with the way that he’s just competed and battled through that. He’s taken care of the football for us, he’s done a nice job there. There’s some plays that you can always look at that he could make, but we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”
