How transfer tackle Max Wray fits in with the Buffs

BOULDER — Colorado is still short on offensive linemen, but it added a key piece this weekend.

Max Wray, the brother of former-Buff Jake Wray, announced on Sunday that he was transferring from Ohio State to Colorado. He was a four-star prospect out of high school in 2018.

At 6-foot-7 and 308 pounds, Wray is a prototypical tackle. The bulk of his work has come on special teams but he did start Ohio State’s 2020 game against Michigan State at right tackle and held his own.

The transition from the Buckeyes to the Buffs shouldn’t be too tough. Ohio State runs a zone blocking system and Colorado uses zone blocking more often than gap, but the Buffs change it up more often than the Buckeyes.

Regardless of the fit, Colorado needs Wray.

“It’s a (game of) musical chairs,” offensive line coach Mitch Rodrigue said last month during spring camp. “We’ve got so many injuries from last season and compounded by the injuries we’ve had in the spring. We’re just real thin.”

At one point during camp, Colorado was so short on linemen that freshman Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan had to play every practice rep at left tackle, because the Buffs couldn’t fill out a full two-deep.

”It’s not really good for anyone because you don’t have any continuity,” Rodrigue said. “We’ve been fighting through it and it’s given us an opportunity to play people at different positions, so that’s been a positive.”

Despite the lack of bodies in the offensive line room, there shouldn’t be too much turnover in 2021.

Colorado started four different combinations along the offensive line during the six-game season, due to injuries. The opening day lineup was the same as the bowl game lineup, so it’s safe to say that was the group the Buffs would’ve trotted out there all year, if healthy.

Of those five starters, only left tackle William Sherman is no longer with the team. (He was drafted by the Patriots in the first round.)

Frank Fillip is likely to flip from starting right tackle into Sherman’s spot, leaving the right tackle job wide open for the taking. Jake Wiley and Kanan Ray—who started a game at left guard in 2020—were the primary competitors for the starting spot, but a new face could be the favorite.

While all of the jobs on the offensive line are technically up for grabs, I expect it to look like this in Week 1:

Fillip-Kutsch-Pursell-Roddick-Wiley/Wray/Ray