Notes from the first week of spring camp

BOULDER —  Colorado wrapped up its first week of spring camp on Saturday with its third of 15 practices. The Buffs have three scrimmages scheduled, two of which will be open to the public. The first is this Saturday (April 9) at 11 am and the second is the spring game on April 23. Both will be held at Folsom Field.

I’ve written up most of the stories I’ve found most interesting so far in camp, but there are plenty of other storylines that you’ll want to keep up with. I’ve rounded all of those up in this story.

Before you read through these notes, make sure you’re up to speed on all of the big stories so far in camp:

Colorado’s young DBs are relishing increased opportunities

JT Shrout is practicing but isn’t quite full-go this spring

Brendon Lewis ‘looked like a different player’ on Day 1 of spring camp

Notes from Colorado’s first day of spring practice

And now here’s everything else you need to know from Week 1 ?

Tyrin Taylor is working at two positions

For the past few seasons, Colorado has cross-trained its defensive backs; that means they all spend some time at cornerback and some time at safety. The reasoning is two-fold. First, the defensive backs become more versatile. Second, they learn where everybody is going to be on any given play.

Take Tyrin Taylor, for example. Taylor was a true freshman in the 2021 season and when injuries hit the Buffs’ defensive backfield, he had an opportunity to prove his talent. He started out at cornerback but moved to safety in the latter part of the season, where he did his best work. On this season’s roster, he’s listed as a safety instead of a cornerback.

For what it’s worth, PFF credited Taylor with 186 snaps played in the slot, 41 as a wide cornerback, 25 as a free safety and 16 as a box safety. In CU’s defense, the slot defender is called the STAR and is essentially a hybrid between a safety, a linebacker and a slot cornerback. Depending on the game situation, a variety of different players can be used in that position. In Taylor’s case, he was primarily the STAR, which could probably be considered a cornerback or a safety. It’s semantics.

On Saturday, sophomore safety Trevor Woods named Taylor as one of the safeties who has performed well in the early-going of spring camp. (He also mentioned true freshman Oakie Salave’a, who is listed as an athlete on the roster and will work at multiple positions this spring before settling into one.)

Just a few minutes earlier, head coach Karl Dorrell named Taylor as one of the young cornerbacks who is making plays so far in camp.

So there’s the catch: Tyrin Taylor is playing two positions.

Again, that isn’t the biggest surprise given the team’s approach to the secondary, or given Taylor’s history. But if you saw Taylor listed at safety and thought that was the end of the story, you were wrong.

Obviously it’s still early—the Buffs have 37 more practices before their first game—but Tyrin Taylor is a solid bet to be CU’s starting slot defender. Of all the cornerbacks on the roster, he is the only option with significant experience playing there. Safety Isaiah Lewis has plenty of experience in the slot, especially against heavy offensive formations, but the lack of depth at safety makes it more likely he stays at strong safety.

The potential combinations in CU’s secondary are virtually endless, but Tyrin Taylor fitting into the slot should be seen as a fairly-likely option.

The Buffs are cleaning up their man coverage

I mentioned this in the story about the Buffs’ young defensive backs but Colorado’s defense was zone-heavy in the first practice but moved to more man coverage in the second and third practices.

Trevor Woods is probably happy about that change, considering this was his answer when asked what he worked on over the offseason:

“Man coverage,” he said. “I don’t want to be a liability at any point. So really this offseason I worked fully on man. It’s paying off. I’ve been doing pretty good at it so far since being back but that’s definitely the focal point for the offseason.”

Woods met up with some of his buddies while back home in Texas and got some work in with a particular emphasis on defending them one-on-one.

Last season, Colorado ran man coverage often early in the year but they moved to more zone looks in the second half of the season, probably because of injuries that built up in the secondary. Now, of course, those young defensive backs that CU protected by playing zone coverage make up the bulk of the secondary.

In an ideal world, the Buffs would be capable of playing man coverage across the board without fear of getting burned consistently. Going back to the Cover 1 scheme that helped CU almost knock off #5 Texas A&M would allow the Buffs to protect other weaknesses in coverage like the inside linebackers or the young safeties.

At the end of the day, you can’t give everybody on the field an easy job. If the corners can lock up their opponents, it could give the Buffs some flexibility.

The wide receivers are short-handed

According to Karl Dorrell, the Buffs are down to six healthy wide receivers.

Senior Daniel Arias is playing with a cast on his hand and sophomore Ty Robinson tweaked his ankle after making a 40-yard grab in the first practice of spring. Senior RJ Sneed and sophomore Montana Lemonious-Craig have been mentioned often when talking about big plays in practice, so we know they’re on the field. Outside of that we can only guess who’s out there.

Seniors Maurice Bell and Jaylon Jackson are both recovering from major injuries, so they are likely among those who aren’t practicing.

“We’re in a lot of three-, sometimes four-receiver sets and there’s not a lot of receiver depth,” Dorrell said. “So we have to be playing being more 12 personnel at times because of the receiver depth.”

The big takeaway from that quote is this: Colorado plans on using a lot of three- and four-receiver formations. Considering new offensive coordinator Mike Sanford came over from Minnesota, they was plenty of reason to think that CU would instead rely on a bunch of multiple-tight end sets and jumbo packages. The offensive identity isn’t set in stone—Colorado still probably hasn’t figured out what it’s best at—but this is an early indicator pointing away from a hyper-conservative offense.

The only other position Dorrell has noted as being short on depth is the running backs but that’s a symptom of only having four on the roster, not of injuries.

The young tight ends are making plays

As noted above, Colorado is running more two-tight-end sets than they expected, but so far the results are very positive.

Senior Brady Russell is the clear No. 1 option at the position and he’s joined in this camp by four freshmen who are in their second or third years on this team. Out of any player at any position, Erik Olsen has gotten the most buzz so far in camp. According to Dorrell, Olsen caught eight balls in the first practice, five in the second and four in the third. Those are solid numbers, especially considering CU completed less than three passes per game to tight ends in 2021.

The other tight end mentioned so far this spring is Austin Smith, who was a late signee in the 2021 class. He’s an athletic tight end who came out of a high school that put him at receiver since it runs a spread offense and doesn’t use a tight end.

Getting production out of the tight ends is a priority for Colorado this season, and that’s part of the reason why Dorrell made Clay Patterson, the new tight ends coach, the passing game coordinator.

The Buffs have an early first-string offensive line

Nothing is set in stone, of course, but as of right now the No. 1 starting offensive line looks something like this:

Jake Wiley-Tommy Brown-Noah Penske-Casey Roddick-Frank Fillip

We don’t know which side of the line the tackles and guards are aligning on but Wiley was the left tackle last year while Fillip was the right, so we’ll guess that’s staying the same. Brown and Roddick could be on either side but Roddick played exclusively at right guard last year so we can guess he’ll stay in place as well.

The biggest surprise is probably that Brown is playing guard. The 6-foot-7 Alabama transfer seemed poised to play tackle but he’s starting out at guard. Maybe that’s where he’ll play this season, or maybe the Buffs are giving their incumbent tackles the first chance to hold onto their jobs.

Colorado lost two starters from last year, left guard Kary Kutsch and center Colby Pursell. Brown seems poised to take Kutsch’s job, but the competition at center is wide open. Fenske, a sophomore, is currently playing with the starters and sophomore Austin Johnson is working with the second-stringers. Sophomore Carson Lee is also competing, but he’s working as a second-string guard at the moment.

The defensive communication has improved

Despite losing a bunch of key pieces over the offseason, including stud inside linebacker Nate Landman, Karl Dorrell is thrilled with the level of communication he’s seen from the Buffs’ defense so far.

“It was great to hear the communication on defense,” Dorrell said on Saturday. “That’s something that I think has been really important for our defense to be a really good defense is if we can get all 11 guys really understanding their role and having great discussion, communication, in their adjustments. That was as good as I’ve ever seen and heard. They did a really good job. Even the second team, I thought they did a really good job.”

Dorrell credits the better discussion to a better understanding of how the defense is supposed to work.

“Our defensive coaches are doing a good job of really helping them understand our package and understanding the adjustments and the nuances with it,” He said. “I’m very pleased with that. I remember my first year it was helter skelter out there, it was different, but this year, even coming off of last season, you can see that development, definitely with some of the players.”

Second-year cornerback Kaylin Moore sees the same thing.

“The defense right now looks great, we look clean,” Moore said. “We still have to work on a few things—running to the ball, pursuing the ball—but overall our effort, our technique, everything looks really good right now in the first few days.”

JT loved Tommy Brown’s underwear shoot

Quarterback JT Shrout might be Tommy Brown’s biggest fan.

“Tommy’s great,” Shrout said on the first day of camp. “I’ve been super happy that we got him in here and he’s one of my buddies on the team so I could not be more pleased with having him out there.”

Brown recently signed a sponsorship deal with an underwear company.

“Oh, that was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in my life,” Shrout said. “So he told me he’s like, ‘I got a underwear model deal, dude.’ And I was like, ‘No, you didn’t.’ He sent me that video before I posted it and I was laughing my butt off.”

Here’s the video, in case you haven’t seen it:

Tommy Brown: Boulder legend already 👀

(via @JT_Shrout12 on Instagram) pic.twitter.com/aMU0fK248z

— DNVR Buffs (@DNVR_Buffs) March 16, 2022

B-Lew’s go-to meal at The Sink

Quarterback Brendon Lewis signed a sponsorship deal with The Sink, a Boulder staple on The Hill since 1923.

On the first day of camp, Lewis was asked what his favorite meal there is.

“Oh my gosh, they’ve got it all up there,” Lewis said. “I love everything. Actually the strawberry lemonade is the best I’ve ever had. That’s really nice, so good. But I get the Sink Burger. You get to make it yourself and I always get the buffalo chicken mac and cheese. Always. It’s a must-get.”

I’m convinced.

And it looks like he’s got another deal too ?

Notes on number changes

That’s it for the important notes, but there are a few more fun stories worth knowing.

First up is the reasons for the number changes…

Kaylin Moore switched from #21 to #0: “I wanted a single-digit number. It was open, so I took it.”

Trevor Woods changed from #42 to #43: “43 is what I’ve worn my entire life. My dad wore it so it’s just what I wore when I was little. There’s one game of junior high and I got moved up to playoffs freshman year in high school. Those are the only games I’ve ever played without it, not including this freshman season (at CU). So 43 is what I’ve always wanted to feel more comfortable this spring. I love it.”

JT Shrout changed from #7 to #5: “I was never a big fan of seven. That’s what I was given last year but I wore five in high school a little bit. My sister wears number five as well. So that was kind of the idea and when Vontae (Shenault) left it was open.”

That’s important stuff.