Woelk: Buffs Defense Answers Questions In First Scrimmage Of Camp
August 05, 2017 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — If you're a Colorado Buffaloes fan, Saturday morning's first scrimmage of camp gave you exactly what you wanted to see: solid play on both sides of the ball, a physical mentality and a hint of good things to come.
As head coach Mike MacIntyre promised earlier in the week, the flavor of the day was vanilla. CU's offense kept things close to the vest, but still managed to produce some nice plays, both in the run game and passing game.
But if there was one big takeaway, it might have been this: a defense that came into camp surrounded by a rather large question mark provided some definitive answers in its first major test. The No. 1 defense came up with an interception on the first series of the day when Buff back Ryan Moeller snatched a Steven Montez pass, then produced a couple of stops against the No. 1 offense in goal-line situations.
It's what the Buffs needed to see from a defensive line that must replace all three starters from last season.
"Defensively I was excited," head coach Mike MacIntyre said. "Offensively I wish we would have knocked them off the ball a little more, but we did a couple of times. That was good to see the physicalness of it, especially with a lot of our new D-linemen out there, to see in that situation that they had enough girth and enough fight to them to hold the point. I was glad to see that."
Not that the defense dominated the scrimmage. The offense did produce some big plays, with Montez settling down after his opening interception to move the offense effectively on several drives, while backups Sam Noyer (three touchdown passes) and Tyler Lytle (two TDs) also threw the ball well.
It was enough from both sides to leave coaches on both sides optimistic. MacIntyre told the Buffs after the scrimmage he liked their effort and physical play — then reminded them that they had plenty of work to do before their Sept. 1 opener vs. Colorado State in Denver.
"When you have a scrimmage you want to see both sides making plays and I thought we saw that today," MacIntyre said "When one side completely dominates the other, that's when you get a little nervous to be honest with you."
Still, there's no doubt the scrimmage instilled some confidence in a defense that was considered an unknown coming into camp.
"I think we made a little statement today — but we have to keep rising," said senior safety Afolabi Laguda. "We still have a long way to go. I think you saw a lot of guys who were wearing white out here trying to make a name for themselves. Some of the young guys got their taste of what it means to be Folsom fast, but we're not there yet.
"The big thing is guys are learning, 'I can do this. I can do this on any stage.' They're starting to believe in themselves and that's what it takes — believing in yourself."
The list of defensive standouts was long, beginning with a number of linebackers. Inside linebackers Drew Lewis and Akil Jones were consistently disrupting plays and making tackles, and true freshmen Nate Landman, Carson Wells and Jonathan Van Diest each made plays. Freshman linebacker Jacob Callier, who has already had a couple of interceptions in practice, came up with another Saturday.
Up front, Michael Mathewes, Frank Umu, Leo Jackson III, Jase Franke and Timothy Coleman were all regularly in the mix, with Coleman notching a pair of sacks; while Laguda, Evan Worthington, Trey Udoffia and Dante Wigley made their presence known in the secondary.
"We were looking for everyone to know their assignment and play hard," cornerback Isaiah Oliver said. "For the most part I thought we did a pretty good job with that. With the one defense out there, we were talking, communicating, everyone knew where to be, everyone played hard, ran to the ball. That was good to see that in a full-speed, full-tackle situation."
Offensively, running back Beau Bisharat popped a couple nice long runs and Michael Adkins showed some power inside. Out wide, Juwann Winfree (one touchdown reception) and Johnny Huntley made the best of their time on the field and Kabion Ento had a 47-yard scoring catch from Noyer. Freshman tight end Jared Poplawski snared a short scoring pass, with other touchdowns produced by Donovan Lee (3-yard run), Lee Walker (48-yard pass from Lytle) and Laviska Shenault (1-yard pass from Lytle).
"I feel good about how the quarterbacks are progressing," MacIntyre said.
The Buffs' No. 1 offense kept it simple for the most part. After his early interception, Montez came back and made some nice throws, including a big third-down completion to Devin Ross, with Montez threading the needle between a pair of defenders and Ross coming up with a nice catch.
"He made a bad throw on the first drive but he bounced back," MacIntyre said. "The good thing about Steven is it didn't phase him. He learned from it and came back slinging it again. You don't want him to be hesitant."
On the special teams side, kicker James Stefanou hit five of his seven field goal tries, with the two misses both hitting the goalposts. What was clear is that Stefanou has some power in his leg. "They sure did get up high," MacIntyre said. "They were hit good. They weren't bad hits. Just barely off. As you can tell how quick his ball gets up and how strong his leg is, he'll be good. Just got to keep working on it."
Punter Alex Kinney, meanwhile, had a solid day, booming kicks in the 50-yard range with regularity.
The biggest downside to the scrimmage was an ankle injury suffered by wide receiver Jaylon Jackson, who was immediately taken in for an X-ray. Sitting out the scrimmage were OLB Terran Hasselbach (concussion), OLB Shamar Hamilton (knee) and safety Nick Fisher (hamstring).
MacIntyre said he expected Hasselbach to return to practice next week, but Hamilton will undergo surgery and will be out for the season. Fisher, meanwhile, is day-to-day.
SCORING PLAYS:
Donovan Lee 3 run
Jared Poplawski 2 pass from Sam Noyer
Kabion Ento 47 pass from Sam Noyer
Lee Walker 48 pass from Tyler Lytle
Laviska Shenault 1 pass from Tyler Lytle
Juwann Winfree 13 pass from Sam Noyer
SCHEDULE: The Buffs will have the day off Sunday and return to practice Monday. The next scrimmage is scheduled for Saturday (closed to the public).
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
Players Mentioned
