Everything we learned from CU's second fall scrimmage

BOULDER — The second, and final, scrimmage of fall camp is in the books.

The Buffs ran about 80 plays and focused primarily on situational work. The scrimmage was closed, meaning that fans and media were not allowed to view what went down on Franklin Field.

But head coach Karl Dorrell, safety Mark Perry and center Colby Pursell spoke with the media after the scrimmage.

Here’s what we learned.

Mark Perry picks off Brendon Lewis

Why was Mark Perry invited to the podium? He made the play of the day.

“Being a safety in the red zone, I know they want to run a lot of trying. to get people’s eyes going in the wrong direction,” Perry said. “I just stayed patient, read to quarterback and broke on the ball.”

Perry, a sophomore, has bounced around the formation during his time in Boulder. He primarily played the star position as a freshman, before moving to the back of the defense last year. So far in camp, he’s played a deep safety role.

“I’ve been a lot of different positions, so just being able to focus on where I’m at now and just keep going with it throughout camp feels good,” Perry said.

Now in his third season, Perry is ready to turn a corner.

“I didn’t play how I wanted to last year so it’s just a thing of gaining my confidence back,” he said. “Making those plays for me is big.”

Perry’s interception came on a pass from Brendon Lewis.

“I went up to B-Lew and told him opposing defenses are going to try to do those kinds of things to you, trying to make it look like one thing and turn it into another thing,” Perry said. “Not just coaching me up on it but coaching him up on it as well because those type of things are gonna come during the season.”

Brendon Lewis is stepping up

Despite the interception, it doesn’t sound like Karl Dorrell is concerned about his freshman quarterback.

“You can tell that his focus is sharper,” Dorrell said. “He’s still a young player. We keep forgetting he’s a freshman, it’s not like he’s an old wily vet. He’s still a freshman. He’s gonna make mistakes and we know that and we tell him that. You’re not going to be perfect but it’s okay to strive for perfection.”

Lewis officially became the starter when JT Shrout had to drop out of the race because of a non-contact knee injury. (Dorrell said Shrout will have surgery this week and he’ll have a sense of the recovery timeline then.)

“I’ve noticed he’s been a lot more vocal (since the injury),” Perry said of Lewis. “He’s making the big-time throws. He’s been doing all that good stuff. He comes out and competes every day.”

Lewis isn’t afraid to chop it up with some of the older players.

“Me and B-Lew get into it every day,” Perry said. “He’s gonna talk. I’m gonna talk.”

The lack of competition has allowed Lewis to build more chemistry with his center, too.

“You’ve really got to get used to everyone and kind of interact, to some extent,” Pursell said. “Gun it doesn’t really matter as much.”

Janaz Jordan shows out

When asked who impressed him during the scrimmage, Dorrell named one player: junior defensive lineman Janaz Jordan, who was listed ahead of Jalen Sami at nose tackle on CU’s “pre-fall reps chart.”

“He’s starting to get in better shape and he’s running down the line of scrimmage and he’s catching people and that’s a lot of weight when that’s landing on you,” Dorrell said. “So he’s getting better.”

In particular, Jordan showed up during the short-yardage situations.

“Janaz made a couple plays in the third-down period,” Dorrell said. “That was a hard period because it was a 4th & 3 then 3rd & 2, 3rd & 1s. I thought the defense won probably half of those and the offense had a few that were real good plays, too. But I tough the interior of the line guys were really doing a great job. Janaz showed up a couple of times.”

Pursell agreed that it was a fairly balanced day in the trenches.

“We had some times where we could have executed better but there were times we executed really well, better than what was probably the standard for the situation,” Pursell said. “Today was a lot of give and take.”

Cole Becker is the “Ice Man”

We haven’t heard much about the kicker competition so far in camp, but it sounds like true freshman Cole Becker is making a name for himself.

“Cole Becker, he’s ice,” Dorrell said. “He’s got in his veins. He’s ice cold water.”

Dorrell had the team surround him and try to mess with him during one kick on Saturday, and Becker knocked it in.

“We tried rattling him down there, crowded around him,” Dorrell said. “He just does his job.”

Apparently he’s been doing his job throughout fall camp.

“He’s had a fabulous camp,” Dorrell said. “I think he missed one field goal. And he was pissed. He’s expecting perfection.”

Dorrell has incredibly high hopes for Becker’s time in Boulder.

“He’s one of those guys we targeted to come in here and be that next great kicker that we’ve had that lineage of having,” Dorrell said. “He’s on the right track.”

Dorrell said they haven’t gotten a true test of Becker’s range yet, but he said the coaching staff believes he can kick it as long as the offense gets to the 35-yard line. That’s a 52-yarder and Dorrell thinks there’s a chance he’s good from deeper.

“All indications right now, he’s like the Ice Man,” Dorrell said.

Evan Price was Colorado’s placekicker in 2020, while Mac Willis handled kickoffs. Becker could have a hold on both jobs.

The vets get some reps

In Colorado’s first fall scrimmage, a bunch of veterans were given an off day. That changed on Saturday.

“Carson (Wells) got some snaps and Nate got some snaps, Brady got some snaps,” Dorrell said. “The guys that haven’t had a lot of practice time, we wanted to give them some live reps today kind of to test them, kind of to give them that confidence.”

With key pieces on the defensive side back, Dorrell is starting to get fired up about his defense.

“When all those pieces are back and we’re ready to roll, it’s gonna be a pretty special—these guys can be a really good defense,” Dorrell said. “I think they’ll season themselves up when they’re all playing together, get better as we go, but they do have a chance to be a really good defense.”

In particular, Dorrell saw a difference with Nate Landman in the middle of the defense.

“It’s good to see Nate out there and he’s doing some good,” Dorrell said. “You can see his leadership and how confident the defense is when he’s out there.”

Perry is excited to have them back, too, but he shouted out some of the linebackers who have filled in.

“Having Nate just being who he is, just calling different things out, being a leader,” Perry said. “But it’s really no drop off from him to the twos. Having Quinn (Perry), Marvin (Ham II), other guys and there’s really no drop off. They call the same thing, pursue the ball just like Nate does. It’s really good being able to have a set of linebackers that you don’t see a lot of drop off between the two.”

A couple of jobs are still up for grabs

For the first few weeks, camp is full-day grind. But with classes starting on Monday, the Buffs are transitioning into their in-season schedule.

“We’re back to 20-hour rules and all that stuff but we feel we’re in good position,” Dorrell said. “We get to clean things up and get some fresh in our legs and come out ready to go on September 3.”

But a few of the position battles will continue into the next couple of weeks. Namely, the competition for the starting outside linebacker job opposite Carson Wells and the competition for the starting tackle spots.

“Some of that is still getting sorted,” Dorrell said.

The linebacker spot is still a three-horse race between Jamar Montgomery, Guy Thomas and Joshka Gustav.

“They all have had really good camps so it’s hard to just pick one who’s the starter,” Dorrell said. “They’ve all been very, very productive.”

At tackle, Max Wray, Frank Fillip and Jake Wiley are competing for two spots. Wiley was a dark horse to win a job before camp.

“There’s been a guy missing here and there and we haven’t had a lot of really great quality reps with the all of them, so that’s going to be worked out in the next couple of weeks,” Dorrell said.

Pursell has been impressed with Wiley.

“He improved a lot from last season to spring and another big jump from spring to now,” Pursell said. “He’s improved a lot recently and it’s really nice to see. He’s gonna come along really well.”