Fast-paced CU Buffs offense has made Bryce Bobo elite

BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes offense has begun to receive recognition after their performances at Michigan and Oregon. The Buffs are using their new fast pace offense to create momentum and surprise teams within the first few drives of games. This has been in large part great for wide receiver Bryce Bobo, who has clearly proven his worth to this team thus far.

“He has the bigger receiver factor,” wide receiver Shay Fields said about Bobo. “He is a great route runner; he is a hard working guy so I mean it all pays out during the game.”

Before the 2016 season, the six-foot-two, 190-pound junior had scored three touchdowns and caught 47 passes for 422 yards. However, Bobo had not been a consistent weapon for the Buffs with all three of those touchdowns coming from his redshirt freshman year in 2014.

Bobo began capitalizing on his potential during fall camp this year with talks of him playing opposite to Fields. After recent transfer Juwann Winfree was announced to be out for the season due to a knee injury, Bobo seized the opportunity.

“I really think it has just been his mindset,” Co-Offensive Coordinator and Wide Receivers Coach Darrin Chiaverini described during Fall Camp. “I don’t think it’s anything from a technique stand point. I think he has all the ability in the world but now he has the mindset that he wants to compete every day and when you have that mindset, good things are going to happen.”

Chiaverini was not wrong, Bobo has been a key asset to the Buffs’ offense to this point. He has caught 13 passes for 215 yards and scored his first touchdown of the year against Oregon. That score, a one-handed highlight-reel catch that gave him national attention on SportsCenter’s Top 10; that was the second time that’s happened already this season.

“I think I’m just a lot more confident this past year, I put a lot of work into the offseason,” said Bobo. “The coaches put a lot of trust in me and they hold me accountable for everything I do and you know I kind of just take it to the next level.”

Bobo is not the only wide receiver who has more confidence in himself and the offense this year.

“I feel like in general we are the best receiving core in the nation. I mean I’m the fast outside receiver, Dev (Devin Ross) is the quick slot receiver and Bryce is the big outside receiver,” exclaimed Fields. “I mean you put all of those together, and excuse my language but we have one helluva of receiving core. It’s just like that change up where you can throw it to either one of us and we know we are going to make the play.”

The fast tempo, no huddle offense that the Buffs have used leads credence to the theory that CU may have one of the best receiving groups in the nation. Since the shift to the higher speed offense there has been in uptick in the aerial attack. Which, has demonstrating that this team can rightfully be considered Pac-12 contenders.

Many were worried that second-string quarterback Steven Montez would have difficulty stepping into the mix for Sefo Liufau. Given, the difference in experiences it was a fair question if Montez could play to the level of Liufau. His performance against Michigan was all too telling, going 0-for-7 in the air. But clearly the speed of the game not the offense is what was tough for him to handle. Proved by Montez’s starting debut against Oregon, he has the ability to handle the Buffs’ attack.

“I think Montez is naturally built for that offense, he has a strong arm and he is really reactive with his throws and stuff like that,” described Bobo. “You know he is going to live off and thrive off this offense.”

Throwing for 333 yards and three touchdowns and running for a game-high of 135 yards and another touchdown he thrived.

But Montez historical debut would’ve been all for naught had Bobo not come down with his third quarter catch. That catch, he attributed to the offense’s speed.

“I love the face pace offense, you can kind of see how we dismantle defenses just based on our tempo and how fast we are and we have a lot of different threats on offense so we just use our different abilities and playmakers,” expressed Bobo.