Three takeaways from Colorado’s spring game

BOULDER — Spring camp is officially in the books.

Colorado held 15 practices over the past five weeks, which concluded with the annual Spring Showcase at Folsom Field, Friday morning. Boulder County allowed 1,000 fans to spectate inside the 50,000 seat stadium.

Here’s what we saw.

The quarterbacks were solid

It’s tough to come up with the right word to describe how Colorado’s quarterbacks performed on Saturday.

Second-year true freshman Brendon Lewis completed eight of his nine pass attempts and had a 10-yard scramble when a running lane opened in front of him. But he only produced 62 yards and he didn’t have a touchdown.

That was a good day for Lewis, especially when you consider that his ability to efficiently pick apart a defense underneath is his biggest question mark. We know that his running ability is a clear strength and there is plenty of reason to believe that he can make something out of nothing in the passing game, too. On Friday, he showed that he’s also capable of taking what the defense gives him, at least over the course of three drives.

J.T. Shrout’s passer rating came in just behind Lewis’, notching a 144.4 vs. Lewis’ 146.8. He completed nine of 13 passes, good for 77 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown came late in the scrimmage during red zone drills. The ball was snapped from the three-yard line and defenders chased Shrout out the back of the pocket. From the 15-yard line, Shrout lobbed a dime to tight end Alec Pell, who was wide open in the corner of the end zone.

On other occasions, Shrout wasn’t able to avoid the rush. On one play, his right tackle gave his defender inside leverage and Shrout stepped up, resulting in a sack. On another play, both tackles gave up outside leverage and, instead of stepping up, Shrout tried to leak out the back of the pocket, allowing another sack.

While CU’s pass rush was probably the highlight of the day, Shrout could have helped himself a little more than he did. And while the sample size isn’t big enough to criticize his pocket awareness in general, it was one of his weaknesses on Friday.

Overall, it was a solid day for both quarterbacks and you could make the case that it was a good day for either one.

The inside linebackers look good

The spring game MVP race was too close to call but Jon Van Diest put his name firmly in the conversation, as he led the defense in solo tackles. It felt like every other play was ended by Van Diest before he tweaked his hamstring and ended his day.

Van Diest has been working with a speed coach during the offseason and coaches have spoken glowingly about his performance during the spring. With Nate Landman missing all of camp, and Quinn Perry and Marvin Ham missing the latter stages, Van Diest got plenty of work, which he said was the reason for his growth. He also became somewhat of a field general, helping the younger guys line up.

Van Diest capped off his spring with a very strong performance.

Robert Barnes made some plays as well.

Barnes, who transferred from Oklahoma during the offseason, is a former safety who now plays linebacker at CU. But don’t let his status as a former safety fool you; Barnes is plenty big enough to play inside linebacker and he seems more comfortable moving forward than he does moving backward. He’s got some pop in his pads and could be a playmaker for CU.

Barnes is still learning CU’s defensive schemes, which can cause problems, some of which flared up on Friday. His performance in coverage wasn’t per

One of the defensive plays of the game came on early in practice when Barnes flew into the backfield and stuffed the running back.

Overall, there are plenty of positive signs from Barnes, but he is still learning a new position on a new team.

The Buffs are deep at the skill positions

Colorado’s offense was incredibly balanced. Four wide receivers tied for the team-lead in receptions with three. Their yards gained ranged from 26 to 38.

The Buffs used a variety of different route combinations. Both quarterbacks ran a spread-type spacing concept early in their initial drives, and similar concepts showed up throughout the morning. The offense forced the defense to decide who to cover and who to leave open, and the quarterbacks made the right reads.

On these plays, typically found receivers near the sideline and Keith Miller was a major beneficiary. The 6-foot-5 second-year true freshman did well to find space and  brought in the ball when given the opportunity.

La’Vontae Shenault made a slick one-handed grab on a short crossing route and turned it into a 22-yard gain. These sorts of concepts were effective, too.

Montana Lemonious-Craig looked sharp from the get-go, using his shiftiness to create enough space to catch the football. Dimitri Stanley caught his three balls from the slot.

Brenden Rice, however, made his impact in the return game. He caught one kickoff and brought it out to the 35-yard-line.

At running back, Ashaad Clayton was the main attraction. He led the way with five carries for 40 yards. He was patient when running between the tackles, even taking the time to let blocks develop in front of him after making it through the line of scrimmage. He was feisty in the open field and forced the defense to have multiple tacklers in position to bring him down.

On one stretch run, Clayton wasn’t able to beat the defense to the edge—which isn’t a serious concern, though a back like Jarek Broussard likely would have gotten the edge—but he was still able to push his way forward for a decent gain.

Joe Davis put together a solid outing. On the first play of the scrimmage, he was hit immediately after receiving the handoff but he spun quickly out of a tackle and carved out a six-yard gain.

Jayle Stacks and Charlie Offerdahl both ran in touchdowns.

Broussard did not participate because of an ankle injury.