Day 2 Camp Notes: A back-and-forth practice, Shannon Turley is doing good work and Terrance Lang is almost back

BOULDER — Day 2 of Buffs camp is in the books!

Colorado will hold 25 practices in August as it gears up for the 2021 football season, which gets underway Sept. 3 at Folsom Field against Northern Colorado.

Media isn’t allowed into practices, so I don’t have first-hand accounts, but I do have daily reports from head coach Karl Dorrell and a couple of players. Here’s what we learned on Friday.

‘Another good practice’

The Buffs are two-for-two!

“Another good practice,” Dorrell said to open up his media availability.

He followed with his philosophy for the fall.

“I think we’re maturing as a football team and really understanding how camp goes; it’s a marathon, and the things that I try to stress with these guys is that we’ve just got to keep stacking up practices—good practices—back-to-back-to-back-to-back, etc., etc., etc., so that we’re inching our way to doing some really great things and executing and being the caliber of team that I think that this team has the potential to be,” Dorrell said. “So we had another good practice.”

A good practice isn’t really news, but a bad practice absolutely would be.

But moving on from all of the deep stuff, Dorrell shared a couple of details, including that the offense and defense have been competitive.

“I always like give and take,” Dorrell said. “I’d be nervous if it was all one-sided.”

Here’s what Dorrell had to say about his offense:

“We had one period that was a lot of screens, draws and stuff like that,” Dorrell said. “There’s some good plays that the offense made, good plays where the quarterback made some good decisions and adjustments.”

And the defense:

“I saw some really good things with the defense,” Dorrell said. “It had some good read and react and shut down some plays.”

Shannon Turley receives praise

Colorado’s new strength coach has been brought up a few times during the first two days of camp, and he was a topic at Pac-12 Media Day when Dorrell brought up his contributions unprompted.

Shannon Turley comes to Colorado following a year off and a 12-year stint at Stanford before that.

“I’ve been impressed with him ever since I met him,” Dorrell said. “When my son was one of those student-athletes at Stanford we went on an official visit. I went through the whole process with how they do things.”

Turley has earned national recognition for his abilities as a strength coach, and Dorrell credits him as part of the reason Stanford turned around its football program a little over a decade ago.

“There was some consistency and longevity of things that they were doing that were very much instrumental to their success,” Dorrell said. “They didn’t lose a lot of players in terms of injury. A lot of that is due to the training and conditioning of his, and he’s got a great track record.”

Terrance Lang is at 95%

With Mustafa Johnson moving on, Colorado will need a new stalwart on its defensive line.

The best candidate? Preseason second-team All-Pac-12 lineman Terrance Lang.

“You haven’t seen the best of his game yet,” Dorrell said. “You saw glimpses of it and a lot of things because he’s such a really good athlete.”

At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, Lang should probably be leading Colorado off the bus. His combination of size and athleticism, as Dorrell noted above, was crucial for him as he picked up four tackles for loss last season and 5.5 sacks the year before, but apparently Lang has even more in his toolbox this time around.

“Now the mental side of the game—his football knowledge of his role and an understanding of the defensive system—I think that’s really going to be enhancing,” Dorrell said. “We’re excited watching him play when he gets his chance.”

Lang underwent surgery to repair a shoulder injury over the offseason and didn’t compete much during spring ball. The recovery is going well though.

“He’s about 95% right now and he should be, in another week’s time, going and doing some stuff,” Dorrell said. “But right now I just see a great level of maturity, and guys like him that have the physical size and talent, it’s great that the mental side is picked up at a really, really high level.”

Jayle Stacks provides versatility

If it was possible to be too deep at running back, then Colorado absolutely would be.

Jarek Broussard is the reigning conference player of the year, Ashaad Clayton is one of the most talented players on the roster according to recruiting rankings, and Alex Fontenot was the team’s bell-cow back in 2020.

But Jayle Stacks, a second-year true freshman out of Cherry Creek, could provide some abilities that nobody else in the room is capable of.

“You know what he reminds me of?” Dorrell said, when asked about Stacks. “There’s a couple of NFL fullbacks that sometimes they’re playing in a number of spots, even though they’ve been labeled a fullback; they’ve been the one-back runner behind the quarterback, they’ve obviously been the fullback in some two-back offense, and they’ve also played at the tight end positions.”

That’s an intriguing skillset for sure, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stacks start to show some of that versatility on the field at some point this season.

“He knows he’s unique,” Dorrell said. “He’s got some size advantages when he’s in the backfield and he understands he’s a great ball-receiver, catch-and-run stuff, some secondary routes from the backfield, too.”

Brady Russell isn’t alone at tight end

Brady Russell is back at full health but Colorado has nine other tight ends who are trying to get onto the field.

When asked whether there have been any standouts in the rest of the group, Dorrell threw out four names.

“Alec Pell looks good,” Dorrell said. “He made a couple big plays today. I think he’s done well.”

Pell joined Colorado in 2019 out of Cherry Creek as a linebacker but shifted to tight end before last season.

Next up was Caleb Fauria, the son of Christian Fauria and one of Colorado’s top recruits in the 2020 class.

“He’s jumped out there and made a few plays, too,” Dorrell said.

Colorado’s top recruit in the 2021 class was Erik Olsen, who was next in line for Dorrell.

“Erik Olsen is learning and getting better,” Dorrell said. “He’s definitely lightyears ahead of where he was in the spring.”

Finally, Dorrell shouted out Nico Magri, who played sporadically last season after shifting from defense line to offense.

“He even looks more comfortable playing tight end now and he looks like a tight end,” Dorrell said. “He’s putting in a lot of work with trimming down a lot of weight. He’s been working on his ball skills, things like that.”

It’s anybody’s guess who will see the field behind Russell this season but we have a few names to watch.