On a star-studded night at Six Zero Strength and Fitness that included speeches from Mike MacIntyre, Mike Bobo, Mark Schlereth, Chad Brown and more, two players who Buffs fans are hoping turn into stars were honored.
The All-Colorado banquet serves to give recognition to the top players in Colorado without putting a strict limit on how big the All-Colorado team can be.
“I do the banquet because these kids deserve more than just a newspaper article and a high-five,” Six Zero owner and former CU standout Matt McChesney said to BSN Denver. “They’re working their tails off and they have big dreams.”
This year more than 70 players were honored based on the film and, more importantly, the reviews of their peers.
“If you are on this list, one of your rivals said you should be,” McChesney told those in attendance.
Well, those rivals must have had some real nice things to say about 6-foot-6 255 pound Colorado commit, Terriek Roberts. “Riek,” as they call him, received four awards on the night, All-Colorado Offensive line, All-Colorado defensive line, Defensive lineman of the year and the Concrete Charlie award for top two-way player.
“I saw Terriek in Chili’s one night when he was a true freshman, he and his family were sitting there having a meal and I was picking up dinner for my family,” McChesney recalled. “I noticed that he was high school aged and huge so I simply asked the waitress to give him my card and she gave it to him. I didn’t hear from him for a while but, out of the blue, about two years ago he gave me a call and we started working together.”
“The kid took the bus down every day,” McChesney added. “Every damn day he takes the bus and walks a mile to the gym to do his work and I respect the hell out of that.”
As McChesney threw some love towards Roberts, the high school senior threw some back.
“A lot of the stuff I learned here helped me get the offer from the Buffaloes,” he told. “They’ve been recruiting me since my sophomore year, they noticed I had raw talent, but Six Zero has given me the technique that I needed to further my game. A lot of people have seen that I have up-side and Six Zero has brought that out of me.”
“I was extremely happy,” Roberts added of his four awards. “I felt like I worked hard during the offseason and I felt like I earned it.”
At this point, it’s not certain where Roberts fits in at the college level, but McChesney could see him playing one of the most important positions on the field.
“The thing I love about Terriek Roberts is, he’s a great football player, but is he’s such a damn athlete,” he said. “He can play both sides of the ball, I could easily see him being an extremely dominant left tackle down the road when he has major weight on him. Our goal with Terriek over the next six months is to put as much good weight on him as possible.”
Speaking of the offensive line, another future Buff was honored at the banquet as an All-Colorado OL, but this one has a bit of a bigger emphasis on “future.” Hunter Vaughn, listed at 6-foot-8, 260 pounds, committed to Colorado not too long ago, but the high school senior will take a grey-shirt year before joining the program in 2017.
“Hunter grew about five inches or six inches in a year, he went from 6-2 to about 6-8 and his frame is insane,” McChesney said of the future Buff. “Hunter is a wild animal when he gets his pads on.
“The fact that he is going to grey-shirt with me, and I’m not trying to sound egotistical,” he added. “But I’m confident that the six days a week we work, the fact that he’s on a nutrition plan and eating right, the fact that he’s totally committed to developing his technique, I think they got a huge steal who’s going to be a really, really good football player. He’s going to go up there in January of 2017, so I essentially have a year with this young man to just turn him into a freak.”
The future Buffs will continue to work with McChesney on their games and, as they both noted, on their development as men. If all goes to plan McChesney thinks they will be big time gets for the Buffs.
“As long as they are developed correctly they are going to be two extremely productive players for the University of Colorado,” he told. “And in the trench at that, which they are desperately needing.”
