Colorado's offensive line is searching for redemption in 2022

BOULDER — Colorado is through five of 15 spring practices, and 40 total practices this before its season-opener.

It’s early. There’s only so much you can get done in that time.

But does junior guard Casey Roddick think things are going better for the offensive line?

“I’m not even gonna let you finish that sentence; absolutely,” Roddick told DNVR on Wednesday.

The Buffs’ offensive line was not good in 2021. It’s hard to quantify offensive line play but we can oversimplify by looking at what Pro Football Focus has to say. According to PFF, CU was in the bottom 35 of the country in run blocking and the bottom 13 in pass blocking.

“Last year was unacceptable,” Roddick said. “To allow that to happen was not up to the standard by any means.”

Offensive line coach Mitch Rodrigue was relieved halfway through the season, about 18 months after he was hired. Grad assistant William Vlachos took over, but he was replaced by Kyle DeVan in December.

“The more we got to know each other through January, February, the more awe built that trust and that relationship,” DeVan told reporters on Tuesday. “Now they’re starting to see the that I teach is favorable to some of them. It might be a little bit different than what they learned in the past but I’m trying to figure out what makes each individual special.”

For most coaches, the process of learning what makes each player special would start with watching what they’ve done in the past. That’s what new wide receivers coach Phil McGeoghan did, even looking back into his group’s high school tape.

But DeVan took a different approach. He glanced through what happened last year, but he didn’t watch all of it and tried not to make assumptions; those were linemen playing the way a different coach told them how to play. He was much more interested in what happened in the meeting rooms and on the practice field after he took over.

“I wanted those guys to show me who they are and who they want to become,” DeVan said. “They all have talent. You don’t play in the Pac-12 without some type of talent. I’m trying to get the most out of each individual kid.”

As of now, the competition in the trenches is deep. Both starting tackles, Jake Wiley and Frank Fillip are back. So is Roddick. Two players have to be replaced: left guard Kary Kutsch and center Colby Pursell. Early in camp, that guard spot went to Alabama transfer Tommy Brown.

By the time Week 1 comes around, DeVan wants to have his linemen ranked from top to bottom. Then he’ll take the top five and figure out how to get them on the field together most effectively, based on all sorts of different evaluations.

“It’s about the best pairing of those five individuals,” DeVan said. “If you pair a guy who doesn’t talk as much next to a guy who maybe talks more, that could be a good pairing.”

The biggest question mark is probably at center, where sophomores Noah Fenske and Austin Johnson are at the forefront of the battle for the starting job. As a guard, Roddick has had a front-row seat to the competition.

“I love both of them and what they’re doing,” he said. “They can run, they can hit, they can do everything. They’re very athletic and they’re very in tune with they’re body.”

Roddick has one more year of college football under his belt and many, many more in-game reps, but he said he hasn’t been giving the centers too much help on the field.

“To be completely honest, sometimes they give me more pointers,” Roddick said. “I think one thing that both of them hold is leadership. Whenever they hold their hand up in the huddle, we all gravitate toward them. They’re two guys that we can look forward to when the game is on the line.”

Head coach Karl Dorrell mentioned on Saturday that Roddick is in much better shape than last year. Roddick missed all of spring camp last season and wasn’t cleared to participate in on-field work until the day before fall camp started. He was behind the eight ball. While he was a mainstay on the line, he thinks he’s ready to take a step forward.

“You get all that work in throughout the offseason,” Roddick said. “Being thrown in and not having the complete offseason—that was tough.”

Roddick isn’t the only lineman who should be improving individually in 2022. Frank Fillip probably would’ve started at left tackle last year but he moved to the right side because he was recovering from an offseason surgery to repair his left shoulder. If he’d played on the left side, his weak arm would’ve been protecting the edge. It’s probably a safe bet to say an extra 12 months of recovery wills serve him well.

Perhaps the biggest jump will come from left tackle Jake Wiley, who started every game last year as a freshman, going up against some of the best pass rushers in the country like Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux and USC’s Drake Jackson.

“It’s fun going out there and seeing how you can compete with other guys and seeing what you can do with some of the guys who are the top guys in the country,” Wiley told DNVR on Wednesday. “It’s definitely good to get that trial by fire.”

Wiley wasn’t happy with his performance in 2021—almost nobody on CU’s offense was—and he’s willing to admit it.

“I think the biggest thing was my pass protection and B-Lew, just making sure he’s safe in the pocket,” he said. “That’s my biggest thing, just trying to be a lockdown tackle and don’t let anybody get pressure, sacks, anything like that.”

While he’s still doing work in the weight room and growing physically, that isn’t why he thinks he’s playing better ball.

“To be honest, just learning technique, learning how to play with better poise and know what you’re doing,” he said. “Don’t try to turn too early, don’t try to oversell, just know that you’re going to be in the right spot and get your hands on the guy.”

Colorado’s offensive line still has plenty of work to do. The good news is that its in much better shape to do that work than it was a year ago when injuries struck the linemen in the spring and left the Buffs with nine healthy options. That meant Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan had to play tackle on the first- and second-string lines in practice.

Having everybody around makes it easier to build morale, too.

“We’ve always been a tight-knit group but right now we have a bond of brotherhood,” Roddick said. “You always see an offensive lineman traveling with another offensive lineman, whether they’re going to recover or whatnot.”

But that camaraderie isn’t why Roddick is hard at work.

“I feel like I owe it to the fans more than I owe it to myself,” Roddick said. “You see all the fans at Folsom come out 50,000-strong every single game to watch us lose. That’s totally unacceptable.”