N.J. Falo walked on campus looking like a fifth year transfer rather than a true freshman, after just a few fall camp practices you could tell he was physically equipped to play, but the physical part wasn’t the biggest hurdle for the Northern California linebacker, it was the mental transition from the outside in.

“When I started playing football I was playing defensive end, I got moved up to varsity because of my size and I got moved to outside backer, I played outside backer the rest of my career in high school,” he explained. “[Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Jim] Leavitt met me and he loved how I looked, loved my frame and told me that I could play inside. He told me, ‘I know it’s going to be a big jump, but you’re a man that seems humble about his work, so we’re going to see what we can do.'”

Leavitt was right about that one. Not only was Falo humble, but he beamed with excitement when talking about the transition.

“From day one here, learning the playbook, it was amazing,” he remembered with a smile. “I couldn’t really believe that I was learning inside linebacker, knowing the fact that I was picking it up pretty quick, I fell in love with it like I fell in love with football when it first came into my life. Inside linebacker has really been something I really wanted to play, I love that I’m able to play it now, and I love how I’m picking up the process of learning it.”

While he’s been eased in thus far, Falo will really get to live his dream of playing inside backer on Saturday, as he will step in for Ryan Severson, who is in a walking boot after playing nearly all of last week with a high ankle sprain.

Falo was chomping at the bit to get in there to spell Severson last week.

“Last week I prepared the same way as this week because you never really know what’s going to happen in the game. Knowing that Ryan tweaked his ankle a little bit, I was ready play after play,” explained Falo. “Every time he came off of the field I asked him if he was alright, making sure that if he needed a break I could get him. I was looking at his ankle, making sure he was okay, I was right there next to him when he was getting his ankle taped, making sure he was fine. I’m prepared, I’ve been prepared since last week.”

Colorado heads into this weekends game against Arizona, with three freshman and a sophomore available at their inside linebacker positions. Redshirt-freshman Rick Gamboa and true freshman Falo starting, with sophomore Christian Shaver and redshirt-freshman Grant Watanabe behind them.

Arizona comes into the game boasting the Pac-12’s second best rushing offense at 298 yards per game, led by Nick Wilson and Jerrard Randall, who are both averaging around the century mark.

“That’s how the Pac-12 is, they have big running backs, big, fast running backs, it’s going to be like that week by week, so it’s not really a big surprise,” Falo said of the Cats stable of backs. “After playing Oregon we got a big taste of it… It gave us a lot of confidence for what we were going to see the rest of the season, so I feel like we’re going to be great from here on out.”

While Rich Rodriguez’ high powered offense, which ranks first in scoring and total offense in the conference, may not be the most friendly offense for a player to get their first start against, Falo believes spending most of the first six games on the sidelines has been beneficial.

“It helped me a lot, it helps me with the pressure, it helps me know what I have to go up against, what I have to expect, the game situations, the sudden changes, if I mess up I have to move on to the next play,” he told. “It helps me with knowing what I need to do, when I’m on the sideline I’m watching my man and if he messes up I have to tell him what he messed up on, or if he does something I didn’t know, I ask him, ‘why did you do that instead of doing this?’ So I’m learning as it goes, even throughout games.”

Also of help to the young backer has been the two upperclassmen who are sidelined for the Buffs right now, Addison Gillam and Kenneth Olugbode.

“They help me a lot, every time I mess up on the field, they tell me how to do it right, even little things like little reads, they always tell me who to read and who not to read, where to go and where not to go,” Falo said. “It helps me really a lot because when I mess up on the practice field I don’t want to mess up in the games, so I’d rather mess up in practice and do it right in the game.”

Falo is going to have his hands full trying to ‘do it right in the game’ this week, facing an offense that strives on confusing defenses. He and the rest of the Buffs will have to be at their best to avoid a three-game losing streak when the Wildcats stroll into Folsom Field on Saturday night (7 PM, Fox Sports 1).

Quotable:

Falo on Severson playing the entire game with a high-ankle sprain:

“He’s a warrior, he’s a beast. I didn’t think he was going to play the rest of that games, I respect him so much for that, to lay his heart out on the field for us like that and to play every snap on a hurt ankle, that’s unbelievable.I think he;s a really good guy for that, he’s great for that, he’s a warrior.”