Colorado’s offensive line is planning to flip the script against ASU

At this point in the season, every college football team in the country is flawed. For one reason or another, every head coach is scratching his head trying to come up with a solution to a nagging question. The coaches who can figure out how to patch holes the quickest are the ones that will find their seasons extending into 2020.

For the Colorado Buffaloes, it’s obvious what needs to change: The team needs to play better in the first half.

In the season-opener against Colorado State, the Buffs only led 24-21 at halftime but outscored the Rams 28-10 in the second half.

In Week 2, Colorado trailed Nebraska 17-0 at halftime but outscored the Huskers 34-14 in the second half and overtime.

In Week 3, Colorado trailed Air Force 20-10 at halftime but outscored the Falcons 13-10 in the second half and overtime.

That’s a problem.

And the problem has hit no group harder than Colorado’s offensive linemen.

Against Colorado State, the Buffs rushed for 99 yards in the first half and 144 in the second.

Against Nebraska, they didn’t enter halftime with a single rushing yard, but they gained 89 in the second half.

Against Air Force, the Buffs only managed 17 rushing yards in the first half and 88 in the second.

Colorado has allowed five sacks this season and they’ve all come in the first half.

These are problems that must be fixed.

As fall camp wound down, new Buffs offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic said he would likely shuffle the offensive line during the season to find the group that played the best together. He said some players play up in live games and others let their nerves get in the way.

For the first two games of the season, Colorado played the same five guys on the offensive line for every meaningful snap. On Saturday, the Buffs began to rotate linemen. Sophomore Colby Pursell and junior Kary Kutsch left their guard spots for stretches, handing the jobs over to redshirt freshman Casey Roddick and sophomore Chance Lytle.

“It well,” Roddick said Tuesday. “It’s obviously a blessing to get out there.”

While it’s important to give guys opportunities to prove themselves, it comes at a cost. The starting offensive line had built a chemistry together, and senior center Tim Lynott said it can be difficult to remain productive when you’re rotating guys in.

“It’s always tough,” Lynott said. “A lot of guys play different. You’re playing with a guy who’s been to your right or left since fall camp and they switch it up like that. It’s kind of difficult but at the same time you have to adjust and work with it.”

But the offensive line found a rhythm after it had adjusted to its new members. As per usual, Colorado’s running game took off in the second half and quarterback Steven Montez stayed upright for the most part. Lynott thinks he knows what’s going on with the slow starts.

“We communicated better,” Lynott said. “Everyone was starting to talk more. Leaders started to show. Everyone was kind of tight in the beginning of the game.”

The senior said he thinks the group can continue to communicate better this week against Air Force. It all starts with playing better in practice during the week.

“Last week were kind of off in the beginning, and then in the end of the practices — Thursday and Friday — we were playing a lot cleaner,” Lynott said. “When you practice clean you play clean.”

Head coach Mel Tucker echoed Lynott’s comment that the practices leading up to Air Force weren’t as clean as the practices so far this week.

What it boils down to is focus, play-in and play-out. Not fleshing out every detail of the plan on every play leads to miscommunications and missed assignments.

“Every single play, like Coach Kap tells us, is like fourth-and-1,” Roddick said. “So you have to have that mindset.”