The night before his Colorado Buffaloes played the USC Trojans, quarterback Steven Montez made a decision.
Montez went to his roommate, fellow Buffs quarterback Josh Goldin, to explain.
“I’m going to finish every run that I get,” Montez told Goldin. “I’m going to put my head down and I’m going to go get those yards and go get that yardage for us.”
And that’s what Montez did.
The fifth-year senior ran for 17 yards on one third down Friday night, his longest carry since the first game of the season, and he also ran his first touchdown in over a year. All told, his 45 yards were his best rushing performance this season.
“To be honest, I love it. I love running the football and I loved it when I first showed up here,” Montez said on Tuesday.
The throwback to his early days wasn’t just a spur of the moment change. Multiple reasons to run culminated in a calculated decision. Montez didn’t feel like refs gave fair spots when he slid and he worried it could be dangerous if he didn’t run full-speed.
“When in doubt, you need to finish the run,” Montez said. “When you let up and somebody hits you from the front or from behind, that’s when people get hurt. So, I figure just play it safe and finish the run and get that extra yardage.”
For the last few years, Montez has been pressured to become a more pro-style quarterback, focusing on passing from the pocket. This shift to running sounds like one that will stick.
“That was a big point of emphasis,” Montez said of staying in the pocket. “You have to kind of look at yourself in the mirror and, at some point, you have to go get those yards for your team because those yards are precious.”
While it sounds good to say that the quarterback is fighting for every possible inch, there’s risk involved. That risk was clear on Friday night.
Montez rolled out of the pocket late in the third quarter and threw a ball away. But after he released the ball a defender drilled him and Montez hit the ground hard. He ripped off his helmet while he lay on the sideline before the trainers walked him into the locker room.
By the time the Buffs got the ball back, Montez had passed concussion protocol and was good to go.
“I mean, we’re talking about football,” Montez said, when asked if he felt alright after he returned to the field. “If after a big hit you don’t feel a little bit woozy, then you’re just Iron Man or something. I definitely felt good, I didn’t feel like anything was too wrong. They cleared me and I passed my concussion protocol test, so I was eager to get right back in there as soon as possible. I was trying to get out of the tunnel and go get back out on the field and try to help my team get a win.”
The hit didn’t come on one of Montez’s scrambles, or on one of the several designed run calls, but it shows what can happen on any given hit. Now, the plan is for Montez to take a few more.
“You saw in the game on Friday, we lost that game by a couple inches and that stuff stings when you look back at it the next day,” Montez said. “You don’t want to have those what-ifs, you know? It’s just better to play it safe and go pick it up.”
While fighting for every inch may be new for Montez, one of his teammates has made his living off of exactly that.
“That’s just one thing I’ve been doing my whole life, really,” wide receiver Laviska Shenault said on Tuesday. “I’m going to try to get the most out of everything, every play, every catch.”
Shenault is a big-bodied receiver who can box out smaller defensive backs and bring down the ball in traffic, but what he’s best known for is his ability to make plays after the catch.
That ability was on display Friday when he caught a slant route and ran 71 yards to the end zone for a touchdown.
“That’s what makes some receivers stand out more than others: Making people miss, picking up big yards,” Shenault said.
But Shenault takes more hits than most receivers do because of his style of play. It takes two, three, sometimes four tacklers to bring him down and over the last two seasons, Shenault has struggled to stay healthy.
That’s the risk of fighting for more, but nobody is asking him to stop. Not wide receivers coach Darrin Chiavarini and definitely not Montez.
“He’s the type of guy to take a few hits and then go pick up 15 more yards, as where if I were to take one, I’m probably going to go down,” Montez said. “Whatever gives us the best chance of putting points up on the board is what I want us to do and what the coaching staff wants us to do. I think Laviska running tough is definitely better for the team, rather than him running safe.”
Shenault is nearly back to 100 percent but it’s been a long road and his production has dipped as a result. He admitted he wasn’t at his best when he returned from injury a few weeks ago.
“(I was) not nowhere near 100 percent but I was trying to do what I could.”
As Shenault has progressed in his recovery, the coaching staff has given him more responsibilities. He was targeted the most times this season on Friday, but the biggest signal that he’s back to himself is the re-installation of the Wildcat offense, bringing back the wildcat formation, where Shenault lines up at quarterback.
The wildcat was a staple of the Buffs’ offense in 2018 but was rarely employed early this season. Against USC, it was a key part of Colorado’s gameplan and Shenault was thrilled about it.
“I love wildcat,” Shenault said. “I get the ball in my hands right off the bat. I get to do what I want to do. It’s always good to have the ball in my hands.”
The dangers of exposing a player to more hits are clear, but what’s even more clear is that Colorado isn’t the type of team that can be giving away yards.
As Mel Tucker likes to say, football is a game of inches.
