CU Buffs Spruce talks NFL future, says he came back 'for the team'

Nelson Spruce could have jumped to the NFL after last season, he put down the most impressive season by a receiver in Colorado football history, he was in the national spotlight as a Biletnikoff award semi-finalist and it was fair to assume he wouldn’t be able to one-up that performance this year. He came back anyway.

Why?

“It was about coming back for the team and getting some wins,” he told. “There wasn’t much left for me to prove on the field, I had a pretty good year last year.”

A ‘pretty good year’ amounted to 106 catches for 1198 yards and 12 touchdowns and while he really did have nothing left to prove he did prove that those numbers were no fluke, needing just 58 more yards to eclipse 1000 once again. He also proved he is one heck of a teammate, putting his dreams on hold in an attempt to finish what he and his teammates started.

While the wins may not have come they way he wanted them to this year, his dream still awaits.

“Since I started playing, that’s what I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” he said of playing on Sundays. “I don’t really know what else I’d be doing if it wasn’t for football, that’s something I’m really going to focus on after the season is over. I looked into it a little bit last year, thinking about coming out but I’m excited for that next step, obviously.”

And the ever-humble Spruce is realistic about his prospects in the draft.

“I’m not going to be a top round guy with my physical abilities,” he admitted before citing the feedback he received from the league last year. “A middle round guy, like three through five.

I’m more of a possession guy and I think on any team there’s room for that, that’ll be useful for any team,” he added. “I think a lot of it is going to depend on my [40-yard dash] time. that was the one thing I heard a lot, ‘the production is there, you have good hands and run good routes,’ but they put such an emphasis on speed that that’s going to be big for me.”

While his head coach, Mike MacIntyre, joked that NFL teams don’t ask anybody for their opinions on players, he did say he believed Nelson’s game can translate.

“I think he can play on the next level, I think he can play at a lot of different spots,” told MacIntyre. “He can also play on different special teams with his body size, he’s not a skinny little receiver that can’t play multiple positions on special teams, so I think he’ll have a lot of opportunities to play.”

Don’t get it twisted, though, the only thing allowing Spruce to look that far ahead is the line of questioning. Right now, his focus is on Utah.

“Regardless of the bowl being out of the picture, we’re going to come to play,” he said. “It being my last game, I know I’m going to do that. I’ve been trying to communicate that to the team. Individually, every time I step on the field I have a standard for myself that I want to play up to. The motivation is definitely there, regardless of a bowl game.”

The senior, who had his best game of the year yardage-wise last week, knows he needs to be there for new quarterback Cade Apsay.

“One of my strengths, being quarterback friendly, you know? With other guys like Shay [Fields] the big play is there, but my strengths are – I’m in the right place at the right time and I’m going to make the catch, so maybe it’s an extra feeling of security with a new quarterback.”

While the season’s goal is out of reach, a win on Saturday, coupled with that 58 yards he needs to reach 1,000 and the one more receiving touchdown he needs to become the all-time leader at CU, would go a long way towards making Nelson’s final year in the black and gold a special one.