BOULDER — Two weeks ago, when the Pac-12 media picked Terrance Lang as a second-teamer in its annual preseason all-conference team, Colorado’s junior defensive end was uninterested.
“I really didn’t pay attention to it,” Lang told DNVR on Monday. “And it was second-team so I didn’t… it was kind of… I don’t like all that.”
Lang didn’t say exactly what he was thinking, but it’s clear what was in his head: a second-team all-conference honor wasn’t going to excite him.
Monday was Lang’s first day back working in team drills since he underwent offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum. With full pads on the way for the first time in fall camp on Tuesday, Lang will continue working in full-team drills.
“I’m pretty much close to 100% now,” Lang said. “I’ll tell you I’m 95%.”
Colorado will need Lang at 100% this fall. Mustafa Johnson, the leader of the defensive line group for each of the last two seasons is gone and that means the rest of the group needs to step up.
“I wouldn’t call it really pressure,” Lang said. “I do have to step up and we’ve got a lot of young guys in our room, especially the D-line, so I feel like I do have to be a little bit of a leader, which I try to be every day.”
Even if there was no pressure due to the absence of Johnson, there could have been some pressure provided by the NFL scouts from nine teams that were on-hand during Tuesday’s practice, according to CU recruiting assistant Andy Wang, which saw Lang on the field in 11-on-11 drills for the first time since last season.
“I don’t pay attention to them,” Lang said. “I just continue doing what I’ve gotta do.”
Not even a little?
“I’m doing what I do every day.”
Surely, the scouts were paying much more attention to Lang; he’s a 6-foot-7, 285-pound defensive end who has a 5.5-sack season under his belt and moves better than players six inches shorter than him. And he says he’s moving better now than ever before, with the credit going to new strength coach Shannon Turley.
“Coach Turley is great,” Lang said. “I was just talking to some of my teammates earlier today about how I feel the difference in my body after having this summer with Coach Turley.”
Turley’s impact has been noted repeatedly by various players and coaches since camp opened up last week. Lang says the difference is obvious from the entire team. He says everybody is faster.
“Coach Turley is a really smart guy and he approaches everything with a scientific approach, so he knows what he’s talking about,” Lang said. “I feel stronger and I feel a lot more flexible, like I can move looser.”
Jalen Sami, the team’s nose tackle, has seen the same improvements.
“I love him,” Sami said. “He’s a good, hard-nosed worker but he knows what he’s doing. He knows everything. He’s very technical on a lot of stuff. Based off of what we did this past summer, I feel the benefits of the workouts, the training, the conditioning and just all his drill work that he did that correlates to football. It really correlates to football and it ties into what we do every day. In my body, I feel better. I feel conditioned. I feel loose, like mobile and stronger. So I love him and I appreciate what he does.”
Sami is only a sophomore, but he was part of the team’s 2017 recruiting class. He’s the only other defensive lineman as experienced as Lang, and there isn’t anybody else who comes close. Unlike Lang, Sami says that there’s definitely more pressure without Johnson around.
“Pressure is a privilege, that’s what Coach Wilson tells us,” Sami said. “With me being one of the oldest cats here, I have to step up and be that vocal leader, as well as leading by example.”
Sami noted that he and Lang have taken on that responsibility together, even though being a vocal leader hasn’t always been natural for him.
And who was it that told Sami it was time to step up?
“Coach Turley during the offseason training, he wanted that leadership between the players—player-led team—to be more vocal,” Sami said. “It’s definitely a challenge but it’s a challenged that we accepted and we’re fighting every day to work on it. I’m getting to enjoy it. People know they trust me. They know I love them, I appreciate them, and I’ll do anything for them and the team.”
Despite the loss of Johnson, there’s potential for the defensive line to take a step forward in 2021.
First of all, Na’im Rodman seems to be ready for an expanded role. Plus, other young linemen drew rave reviews from Lang and Sami (though none of the praise came close to what was said about Turley).
Secondly, this is Colorado’s second time around in the one-gap system that defensive line coach Chris Wilson brought to town.
“There’s for sure more confidence now that I have a season under my belt,” Lang said. “I feel like I know what Coach Chris is looking for so it makes it a lot easier to execute.”
In the simplest terms, the change was for the linemen to attack a predetermined gap, rather than reading where the play was going and moving either to the right or left.
“We’re not a read team any more,” Sami said. “We’re attacking. We’re setting the line of scrimmage. We’re trying to meet the offensive line before they meet us. They have the advantage of knowing the snap count and where the ball is going. We need to just get off and run. Wreak havoc.”
Between Lang, Sami, Carson Wells, Nate Landman and the rest of the talent in Colorado’s front-seven, there should be plenty of havoc wreaked on game day.
