BOULDER — Day 1 of fall camp is in the books!
Colorado is hitting the field for 25 practices during the month of August, leading up to its season opener under the Folsom Field lights against Northern Colorado on Friday, Sept. 3.
Media isn’t allowed to watch the practices, outside of a pair during the middle of camp, so we don’t have any first-hand accounts of what went down. However, head coach Karl Dorrell, All-American linebacker Nate Landman and reigning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year Jarek Broussard took to the podium after practice on Thursday to talk about what happened and all sorts of other things.
Here’s what you need to know.
The quarterbacks made Karl Dorrell smile
Plenty of storylines exist but the quarterback competition is the headliner in a landslide. Freshman Brendon Lewis and sophomore J.T. Shrout are battling for the starting job, and the early results are positive.
To nobody’s surprise, Dorrell was asked early in his media availability about the quarterback’s performance.
“I would say that is why I’m smiling,” Dorrell responded. “I thought both Brendon and J.T. really performed well today.”
The pads still aren’t on and the intensity of practice probably isn’t at the level it will be in a week or so, but good news is good news. Dorrell added that neither quarterback made significant mistakes.
“They may have missed a throw here and there but I would say overall they showed great command and great presence today,” he said.
Dorrell also said that he probably wouldn’t make a determination on the starter until later in camp, though he does want to have the decision made in time for his starter to prepare for Northern Colorado.
It’s just another camp for Jarek Broussard
Jarek Broussard was the breakout performer in the Pac-12 in 2020. After not playing a down in his career, primarily because of injuries, the sophomore won conference offensive player of the year honors after running for nearly 150 yards per game.
At fall camp, though, nothing has changed.
“I don’t really feel like people treat me different,” Broussard said. “Before I got hurt most of the guys on the team knew what I was capable of, it’s just that nobody had ever seen it. Now I’ve finally gotten an opportunity to show it. I mean, yes, there’s a little more clout but everything’s pretty much the same still.”
There’s no doubt that Broussard is capable of putting up all-star numbers, but he carried the ball almost 30 times per game last season. That workload may not be sustainable over a 12-game season.
He isn’t worried.
“I ain’t tripping off of getting the ball,” Broussard said. “Obviously, I would want the ball.”
He realizes that the workload is likely to decrease, though.
“We have a good room and it’d be very beneficial to see more guys contribute to the team success,” he said. “We all feed off each others’ success.”
Broussard was also asked about whether he’s going to be faster this season, since he isn’t wearing his knee brace anymore. Dorrell mentioned late last season that he expected Broussard to gain a step, and during spring ball the reports were positive.
“I guess you’ll see Sept. 3,” Broussard said.
Nate Landman participates in every drill
Nate Landman suffered an Achilles tear late last season, which prompted him to return to Colorado for a final season. The recovery timeline could have kept Landman out for a significant portion of the season, but so far he is way ahead of schedule.
“Feels good to be out there playing football,” Landman said. “It was tough not playing in the spring, but it feels great.”
Landman went through every drill on Thursday—it’s worth noting that it wasn’t a padded practice so there was no full-speed football being played—but he did sit some reps out as a precautionary measure to decrease his workload.
Landman also spoke about the recovery process. The first couple of months were the toughest since he couldn’t drive and knew he had a long recovery process in front of him. He never felt isolated, though.
“I was around the team for most of my rehab, so I didn’t feel alone,” he said. “I had a great support staff and I was working with the training staff and the new strength coach.”
We’ll monitor how much Landman participates throughout camp, especially once the pads come on.
Karl Dorrell shouts out the transfers
Dorrell touched on all sorts of topics in his opening statement, but none were as newsworthy as his thoughts on the transfers Colorado added over the summer.
“It was good to see a lot of those transfer players—you know Max Wray, Noah Fenske, all those guys—kind of get entrenched and seeing them work,” Dorrell said. “It is definitely a better football team than we had a year ago.”
Wray is an offensive tackle who comes to Boulder from Ohio State. He was the favorite to win Colorado’s starting right tackle job and Dorrell’s opening statement name-drop on day one of camp only makes it more likely.
“He’s a good-looking guy,” Dorrell said, when asked to expand. “In terms of his height and length, we don’t have anybody quite like that and we’re hoping that he gets entrenched in doing some really good things for us.”
With three years of eligibility remaining, Wray could serve as a mainstay in the trenches for the foreseeable future.
And he could be lining up next to the other name that Dorrell dropped in that opening statement: Noah Fenske.
Fenske was the backup center at Iowa last season, but he could fit into a variety of roles at Colorado. The Buffs return four of five starting offensive linemen and Fenske still has four years of eligibility, so Fenske didn’t figure to factor into Colorado’s plans in 2021, but maybe it’s time to rethink how he’ll fit in this season.
Nate Landman praises the linebackers
Speaking of transfers, Landman had some good things to say about a pair of transfer linebackers on Thursday.
“Watch them practice and you can see that they’re contributing well to the team and adding to that competition—making me better, making the other guys better,” he said.
Robert Barnes, who came to CU from Oklahoma, received praise from coaches and players during spring ball and is the favorite to win Colorado’s second starting inside linebacker job.
“Rob’s a vocal guy, great leader,” Landman said.
Jack Lamb, a transfer from Notre Dame, didn’t participate in spring ball but apparently he was flying around on the first day of fall camp.
“Jack’s a super-, super-athletic guy,” Landman said.
Lamb sustained a potentially career-ending hip injury in 2019, which knocked him out of the linebacker rotation at Notre Dame. He didn’t regain his spot in 2020.
Dorrell says he’s at full-strength now, though.
“He’s in our leadership group and you know I think that tells you a lot about a guy that’s new to your program he just gets here in May,” Dorrell said. “He’s running around and he’s in great condition. I think our team is in great condition just overall with what our strength staff has done, but he’s kind of fell in line with what everyone else is doing.”
This is probably the most important line from Dorrell about Lamb.
“He’s going to impact us for sure defensively.”
The vaccination efforts are working
While things seem to be back to normal, Dorrell was quick to note that the situation can change on the drop of a dime.
Luckily, Colorado is, at least according to Dorrell, one of the most-vaccinated teams in the Pac-12; the team is 92% vaccinated and the staff is 97% vaccinated. Plus there are some people who have gotten the first dose of the vaccine but not the second, so those numbers are still going up.
“We have to do our due diligence about wearing masks for people who aren’t vaccinated and really trying to take care of each other from a day-to-day standpoint,” Dorrell said.
The foundation has been built
Heading into year two, Dorrell feels much better about where his team is.
“I feel the foundation has finally—it’s curing, it’s now done, it’s been made, you know?” Dorrell said. “We’ve made it as strong as possible and it’s a good foundation.”
Dorrell says he can see the changes in his players.
“They know how we handle ourselves within our program and the expectations of that,” Dorrell said. “It’s very comforting to see that they’ve kind of bought into that, but more importantly they’ve bought into each other. I always tell them, ‘I don’t play the game. I’m the guy sitting on the sideline in the painted white and I don’t play the game.’ They’ve got to ultimately become, and meld themselves into being a great football team. I’m just trying to guide them in that process.”
Landman see the changes, too.
“It’s hard to come in and change the culture and tradition right away,” he said. “We built this foundation last year and I think we had a great year last year and through the spring and summer you can continue on that tradition. His culture is working hard and just playing football the way that the game is supposed to be played. I think that foundation that was built last year is going to be brought up a lot this year.”
It sounds like “foundation” may be one of the buzz words of camp.
Realignment?
Dorrell isn’t spending much of his time thinking about conference realignment, but he’s happy with how the Pac-12 is handling things.
“We had a chance to meet with (new Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff) in our meetings in the media day,” Dorrell said. “He’s so much more of an optimist about our situation, our conference, where we’re headed. He has a great vision about where we can be and what we’re going to become, and that struck me.”
So far, the Pac-12 hasn’t made any moves in response to Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 out to dry by moving to the SEC. That may or may not change.
“He looks at this as an opportunity for our conference, not as ‘woe is us,” Dorrell said. “He looks at this more as an opportunity for us getting a chance to bolster our conference and maybe that’s an addition of people coming into our conference.”
Again, Dorrell doesn’t have realignment on his mind at the moment.
“I’ve got 12 guys that I’ve got to worry about here.”
