Colorado University Athletics
Liufau Shakes Rust Off At Buffs' First Scrimmage Of Camp
August 13, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
Colorado QB takes snaps on Folsom Field for first time in nine months
BOULDER — When Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau first set foot Saturday on Folsom Field, he admitted it felt "a little bit surreal."
After all, the last time Liufau had taken a snap on the Folsom turf came last Nov. 13, when he suffered a Lisfranc foot injury against Southern California, an injury that sidelined him for the remaining two games of the season and the entire spring.
So Liufau couldn't have been blamed for being just a tiny bit nervous when he stepped on the field Saturday morning — Aug. 13 — for the Buffs' first scrimmage of fall camp.
"I was just glad to get out there and get it going," Liufau said. "I said a quick little prayer before I came onto the field and then just went out and played. I just felt really blessed to be able to come back out here with the guys and be able to play. Honestly, I feel lucky overall."
Liufau, by his own admission, wasn't as sharp as he'd like to be. But overall, he did have a solid scrimmage, completing several third-down throws, including one in a two-minute drill that helped set up a field goal (complete statistics were not made public).
"Honestly, I'm pretty frustrated with how it went," Liufau said. "I'm a perfectionist and I think I kind of got caught up in the moment of just being happy to be back out here. By all means it wasn't a terrible day, but I just want to make all the throws and put us in good spots to win games."
But according to his coaches, Liufau has made solid progress throughout camp. After being unable to participate in any spring drills, he's been forced to play catch-up.
"The first four or five days, you could see there was some rust," quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren said. "He missed some throws he doesn't normally miss and was a little bit late on some decisions. Part of that has been our defense is doing a really good job.
"But the last three or four practices, you could see him really starting to sharpen it up a bit. Today, there were some good things and some things I'm sure he'd like to have back. But it's definitely been an upward momentum the last week or so."
Because Saturday's scrimmage was open to the public, the Buffs kept their play calling very "vanilla." But there up-tempo pace was still clearly evident.
"A lot of guys are doing really well," Liufau said. "So far, we really haven't had a day where we've regressed. We've been trending upward the whole time. We're getting closer and closer to game week (the Buffs open the season Sept. 2 vs. Colorado State in Denver), so we've got to keep pushing. But I think everyone's going in the right direction."
One thing the Buffs did want to accomplish on Saturday was establishing some offensive consistency. Head coach Mike MacIntyre, Lindgren and Liufau all thought the offense took positive steps in that direction.
"There were definitely some times when we were clicking and moving and the defense didn't have anything to stop us," Liufau said. "There were other times when we were hurting ourselves. That's when you get into trouble, when it's self-inflicted wounds. We want to do our best to put that away as much as possible. For the most part, we did well with consistency, but we can definitely be better."
After the scrimmage, Liufau patiently posed for photos and autographs with approximately 100 youngsters, then served as a camp counselor at CU's Dare To Play Football Camp for Down Syndrome youth.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
