'Hungry' Buffs Open 2017 Spring Drills

BOULDER — For the first time in more than a decade, the Colorado Buffaloes opened spring football drills with the memories of a winning season and a bowl game still fresh in their minds.

But Wednesday morning, the Buffs put those memories aside in a hurry. Last year's victories won't produce a single point next fall, and over the last two months, head coach Mike MacIntyre has reminded his players that in order to succeed in 2017, the Buffs must start over.

"Bill Parcells used to always say when you win a championship, you don't go back and start where you left off," MacIntyre said of his former boss in the NFL. "You go back and start from the bottom again. What you hope is your foundation is built higher and now you can keep moving forward."

The Buffs no doubt had some pep in their step Wednesday morning, even though it's been less than two months since they finished their season in the Valero Alamo Bowl. With bright sunshine to greet them, they hit the practice fields in shorts and helmets on the run and maintained a rapid tempo throughout the roughly two-hour workout.

"First day out, the weather was awesome, the kids flew around, we got everything accomplished," MacIntyre said. "You can tell our program is at a point that we'll keep moving forward. We have a lot of guys stepping up and a lot of guys that played a lot of football so I'm excited about where we're headed. … The energy and the flow and the new coaches out there, I thought it went real well."

Indeed, there were a host of new faces. Defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot and secondary coach ShaDon Brown took the field for the first time in CU gear while at least a dozen new players — 10 members of the recent signing class and a pair of grayshirts from last year's recruiting class — also hit the field for the first time as Buffs.

The Buffs are also making no bones about what their goal will be next fall. One year after they took aim at a Pac-12 championship — and came up just one win short of that goal — they will have the same goal in mind this season.

The only difference, as MacIntyre noted, is that this year, nobody's laughing.

"They know they can do it now," MacIntyre said. "Last year everybody was laughing at them. Now they want to go do it."

Junior running back Phillip Lindsay the work will have to be done this spring and in the summer, adhering to the work ethic that was established by last year's seniors in the offseason.

"Our foundation's already built now," Lindsay said. "We had a lot of seniors that were big players for us and they set the standard for us. Now we have to keep it going. We have to continue to keep that high intensity going. The standard is winning football games. We were undefeated in Folsom Field last year and we want to keep it like that."

Quarterback Steven Montez said he believes the Buffs are even "more hungry" than last spring, in particular because the Buffs finished the season with back-to-back losses. CU closed with a loss to Washington in the Pac-12 championship game, then a loss to Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.

"It was an extremely bad taste in our mouth coming into the offseason," Montez said. "I think it's going to benefit us this year because it's going to make people really hungry. That's really all that we remember from the end, is getting blown out in two different games."

PRACTICE NOTES: If you're looking for an omen, try this: it didn't take long for quarterback Montez and wide receiver Shay Fields to hook up on a beautiful long ball to the end zone. Montez threw a perfect deep route to Fields in 11-on-11 team drills early in practice that drew cheers from the offense. … Montez also tossed a nice back-shoulder ball to senior wideout Bryce Bobo, who looks to be fully healed from an ankle injury that plagued him down the stretch of last season. … Defensively, junior linebacker Rick Gamboa, redshirt freshman Ronnie Blackmon and newcomer Dante Wigley all came up with interceptions. … The Buffs finished practice with a "Champions Period," a stretch of conditioning that pushes players through a variety of speed and agility drills.

TIME TO EXPERIMENT: Offensive line coach Klayton Adams said spring is the perfect time to experiment with trying players at different positions. "You try to find the best combinations because sometimes guys surprise you," Adams said. "You put them next to an older guy, sometimes it helps click a little bit faster. Sometimes you put a young kid who really doesn't know what he's doing yet next to a guy that's played a lot and something happens. Sometimes you move a guy who predominantly plays tackle to guard or you move a guard to center, just to see if something clicks. Sometimes it doesn't work out and you move on, and sometimes guys surprise you. It's exciting and fun for me to look at the different combinations."

One top priority for Adams will be to find a replacement for Alex Kelley, who manned the starting spot at center for the last three seasons.

"I'd like to find three guys that can play there," Adams said. "Whether that's someone that could play another position and play center or someone who's just a full-time center, I think you need to train three of them for sure and have three experienced guys going into fall camp."

The top two candidates are Jonathan Huckins and Tim Lynott Jr. Huckins has played guard and center in the past while Lynott started every game at guard last fall. Adams said he'll try several other players out at the spot and see if they are a good fit.

BUFFS BITS: Junior cornerback Isaiah Oliver, who MacIntyre singled out as having moved to "another level," will be competing for the CU track team this weekend in the heptathlon in the MPSF Indoor championships in Seattle. … Several Buffs are trying out some new positions this spring, as coaches see if there might be places they can take advantage of those players' experience and skills. Some of the "experiments" include running back Donovan Lee getting some time at defensive back; tight end George Frazier working with the defensive line (where he played as a freshman); defensive lineman Brett Tonz working with the offensive linemen; and outside linebacker N.J. Falo — who has played inside and outside in his time here — working with the defensive ends. Such experiments are commonplace, particularly in spring ball, and by no means are the position changes permanent.

SCHEDULE: The Buffs will practice again Friday in shorts and helmets, then don pads for the first time in the spring on Saturday. NCAA rules allow 15 practices over a maximum of 34 days with three in shorts (no contact), four in pads (no tackling), five in pads with tackling 50 percent or less of the time and three in pads with tackling throughout (such as scrimmages).

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu