Practice Report: Buffs Prep For Friday Scrimmage Under The Lights

BOULDER — With the Colorado Buffaloes scheduled to open 2017 under the lights, head coach Mike MacIntyre will give his team a taste of the atmosphere Friday when the Buffs hold an evening scrimmage at Folsom Field.

CU opens the season Sept. 1 — two weeks from Friday — with a 6 p.m. game against Colorado State in Denver.

"We'll start practice the same time as the game, kind of simulate that, get used to catching kicks and punts and passes under the lights," MacIntyre said. "(It) shouldn't be that big of deal but I like doing that a couple times when we're playing our first game under the lights."

With two full-contact, full-speed scrimmages already in the books, the Buffs will be in full pads again Friday, but will limit the contact to "thud" work. The plan is to work on a variety of situations, but unlike previous scrimmages, the script for part of the workout will be in the hands of just one coach — MacIntyre.

The idea is to simulate game conditions and see how players — and coaches — react.

"I'll call out different situations," MacIntyre said. "Coaches won't know, players won't know. Just have them try to make it chaotic like a game is, different things happening and have them all react to it. That's what we'll do the last half of the practice."

Thursday marked the 17th practice in what will be the longest preseason camp in CU history. New NCAA rules halted two-a-day practices, meaning the Buffs had to stretch their allowed 29 practices over roughly five weeks.

So far, MacIntyre said, the response from the players has been good. No two-a-day workouts means players are fresher physically, and the coaching staff has done its best to make sure mental fatigue isn't a factor.

"It's been good, the way we set our schedule," MacIntyre said. "We had class in the first two weeks, so this week has been kind of a reprieve. We haven't tried to fill every moment of the day with meetings because that would wear them out. We've spaced it out pretty good and I think they've responded well to that."

PRACTICE REPORT: The Buffs continued to work on situation specifics Thursday morning, with the quarterbacks having solid days in the red zone work. Steven Montez hit back-to-back throws in the end zone to Devin Ross and Bryce Bobo, and Sam Noyer dropped a beautiful long ball into the hands of K.D. Nixon in the end zone. … Evan Worthington had a pass breakup near the goal line and Trey Udoffia had one in the end zone. … Linebacker Akil Jones had a nice pass knockdown working with the No. 1 defense. … The prettiest completion of the day, though, may have been a Tyler Lytle throw to tight end Jared Poplawski. Lytle threw a perfect strike down the sideline to Poplawski, who made the catch in stride, just past the outstretched arms of a defender.