Spring Practice Quotes – Offense

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Spring Practice Quotes – Offense

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After spending most springs with a dearth of information about what is going on in the Champions Center, this spring we have been inundated with videos, interviews, and quotable quotes. As the Buffs hit the midway mark of Spring Practices, here is a breakdown by unit of some of the notable quotes from the past few weeks …

Quarterbacks

With only three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster this spring, most of the attention has been focused on the presumptive starter, Shedeur Sanders. Fortunately for the Buff Nation, Sanders has been living up the billing.

Some quotes of note … 

Shedeur Sanders on working with offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Sean Lewis … “Working with coach Lewis is amazing. He’s someone I never had before. Each and every day, each and every period, he pushes me to grow in different areas. … It’s the little things that matter to him. I’m extremely grateful that he’s the OC and he’s here to run the show.”

Wide receivers coach Brett Bartolone, who was Sanders’ offensive coordinator at Jackson State: “As far as arm talent goes, he’s as good as I’ve seen at this level,” said Bartolone, who played at Washington State. “He understands what defenses are trying to do to him. As a quarterback, he has a very, very high IQ level. And he’s still developing. He’s still young.

“This is a big offseason for him but … he has the coaches around him, he has the offensive line, he’s got receivers around him. It’s just a matter of making sure everyone’s on the same page and he’s gonna do big things this year, there’s no doubt about it.”

On meeting with Tom Brady after spring practices … “After we get out of spring ball and after the spring game and all that, then I’ll have a chance to really sit down and talk with (Brady),” Shedeur said. “But right now it’s just more focused on what’s going on in the present moment and what’s here.”

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Running backs 

Kentucky transfer Kavosiey Smoke, who won’t be on campus until this summer, will have a say about who will be the starter at running back this fall. In the meantime, though, the talk of the spring has been freshman Dylan Edwards. CU has four scholarship backs returning – senior Deion Smith, junior Jayle Stacks, sophomore Anthony Hankerson, and redshirt freshman Victor Venn – but it has been Edwards (and sophomore walk-on Charlie Offerdahl) who have earned the most attention.

Some quotes of note … 

Running backs coach Gary Harrell on not prejudging what CU’s returning running backs did during the 2022 season. “I watched a little just to see what type of guy they are, but I didn’t watch much,” Harrell said. “I didn’t judge them based on their past experience. I just don’t think that their results in the past is going to be indicative of their future. I want to make sure I give them a fair play. We want to make sure we don’t jump the gun and see what they cannot do. Just go through the process and it will take care of itself.”

Dylan Edwards on his spring … “It’s been great,” the 5-foot-9, 165-pound speedster said. “The offense that (coordinator Sean) Lewis has had, it’s very hard and very complicated, but I’m getting adjusted every day. Every day I just try to come out there in practice and be the best me I can be.”

Knowing the transition to Power 5 football wouldn’t be easy, Edwards elected to enroll early at CU. “Put on some weight; that was one big thing,” he said of his decision. “Get to know my teammates (as well). This is a whole new team we’re about to start and I’d rather be in a system already knowing everything before the summer comes so I can already be down pat by fall camp.”

Coach Prime, to walk-on Charlie Offerdahl, in front of the team: “You keep on balling out, you ain’t gonna be a walk-on too long”.

“It’s huge for me,” Offerdahl said of his spring. “Spring especially is a time for me to prove myself in front of everybody, take the opportunity. All these players coming in and leaving, it really doesn’t mean much to me. I’m just gonna prove myself day in and day out, in the film room, academics, the field, everything. It’s a lot of opportunity. That’s what that is. It’s whether you’re gonna take that opportunity and seize it, really.”

“As far as the running back room, those are my guys. I love them,” Offerdahl said. “We feed off each other’s energy every day. As far as me, I definitely think my work ethic, my high IQ and side-to-side ability are my strengths.”

Darian Hagan, running backs coach at Colorado for the past seven seasons, is now the Buffs’ executive director for community engagement and outreach and a football ambassador. He’s also been able to help new running backs coach Gary Harrell during the transition this offseason.

“We come from that same tree,” Harrell said. “I was able to go to Howard University and win early in college and won a national championship. He was here (at CU) during the championship days. Anytime you have someone with that type pedigree, with the understanding they have that championship mentality, you’re able to show someone where you’re going, because you’ve been there.”

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Wide receivers 

With all of the talented wide receivers signed by the new coaching staff this off-season, you would think that having Travis Hunter hone his craft as a premier cornerback would have been a priority this spring.

Not so much.

Instead, Travis Hunter has been practicing with the wide receivers, with his efforts overshadowed only by South Florida transfer Jimmy Horn, Jr., who became the first Buff to “earn” his number this spring.

Some quotes of note … 

Wide receivers coach Brett Bartolone: “My job is to make sure the receivers are in the right spot, and we put a lot on our receivers in this offense,” said Bartolone, the Buffs’ first-year receivers coach who spent last year as the coordinator at Jackson State. “There’s a lot of different stuff going on. There’s a lot of different adjustments based off of coverage. Any time we get – walkthroughs, meetings – we’ve got to do our best and I’ve got to do my best as a coach to have that level of understanding and make sure our guys know where the heck they need to be.

“If we know where to be as receivers, we’re going to carve up some defenses this year.”

Bartolone on Jimmy Horn, Jr. earning his number … “Obviously if you earn a number, that means you got my trust,” Bartolone said. “Jimmy is a guy who’s consistently earned my trust every day up until this point of spring ball. He’s just got to keep his number now. He had some mental errors (Thursday) in some critical situations. You’re a guy with a number right now, we got to be able to rely on you and you got to be able to make those plays for us and we gotta count on you. So he’s got to keep that steady pace. Don’t get too high. Don’t get too low. He’s got to continue to play the next play for us every day.”

Travis Hunter on playing with the offense this spring … “Right now I’m focused on learning the offensive playbook because defense really comes natural to me,” Hunter said. “It’s just easier for me to go on defense and learn the playbook faster than offense.”

“We just came in and said I gotta learn the (offensive) playbook,” Hunter said. “Once I learn the playbook, then I go back to defense, learn the defensive playbook and then just all be together and I can go both ways no matter what.”

“He’s a natural receiver and he’s obviously a very gifted athlete,” CU receivers coach Brett Bartolone said of Hunter. “He’s a very coachable dude. His attention to detail is great. He’s great in meetings, he asks great questions and he works his butt off on the field. So he’s a pleasure to coach.”

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Tight ends 

“A man walks into a bar” is a cliché opening to many a joke.

So is, “The Colorado offense will feature a tight end this fall”.

This year though, the Buffs might, just might, actually feature a tight end in their offense. Arkansas State transfer tight end Seydou Traore, who caught 50 passes for 655 yards and four touchdowns for the Red Wolves last season before coming to CU, has been turning heads.

Meanwhile Caleb Fauria, Erik Olsen, Austin Smith, and Louis Passarello are the returning sophomore tight ends … and we haven’t been hearing much about that group this spring. Traore won’t be able to man the position all by himself this fall, but it would be a shock if all four of the other tight ends are still on the roster come August 1st.

Some quotes of note … 

“The tight end has got to do some things for us,” tight ends coach Tim Brewster said. “We’ve got to have a true three-down tight end. We’ve got to have a tight end that’s going to be able to block power, that’s going to be able to establish some things at the point of attack.

“I’m not about situational tight ends. I’m about a complete three-down tight end.”

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“(Traore)’s a very gifted, talented player,” Brewster said.

With Traore waiting for his turn at the podium and within earshot, Brewster then said, “He doesn’t understand right now how to work and how to push on every snap. He can flash and really do some good things and then he can take a step back; he can take his foot off the gas pedal.

“I need him to be a better performer, giving more effort every single day for him to do what he wants to do and for us to do what we’ve got to do. He’s got ability. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about that.”

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Offensive line

Coach Prime was asked after Saturday’s practice about the status of his offensive line. His response: “The team we’re playing with now is not the team we’re going to be playing with in Texas the first game. There will be new faces and new attitudes”.

Not convinced that the CU offensive line is not set? This past week the Buffs, who already had 96 scholarship players on the roster which must be trimmed to 85 by August 1st, added another offensive lineman. On Friday, former Kent State left guard Jack Bailey announced that he has committed to play for the Buffaloes. Bailey, who started all 12 games at Kent State last season, put his name into the transfer portal earlier this week.

Bailey, listed at 6-foot-3, 285 pounds, has two years of eligibility remaining. He became a starter midway through the 2021 season and started each of the Flashes’ last 18 games, starting next to fellow transfer Savion Washington.

Bailey is the seventh transfer offensive lineman added by Sanders’ staff this offseason.

Washington, Tyler Brown (Jackson State), Isaiah Jatta (Snow College) and Jack Wilty (Iowa Central Community College) were all starters at their previous school, while Yousef Mugharbil (Florida) was a backup. All of them enrolled at CU in January and are currently going through spring practices.

Some quotes of note … 

During Sanders’ first offseason in Boulder, the Buffs have revamped not only the personnel in the trenches, but the overall approach in how they’ll play. In the scheme led by coordinator Sean Lewis, linemen can’t just be big, strong dudes who push a pile.

“We pretty much changed all of how we look at an offensive linemen out of high school, and what we’re looking at,” offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle said. “Of course, now with the junior colleges and the (transfer) portal, the biggest thing I look at is how athletic they are. And I’m not just saying this as a recruiting point, but the offense we run, for an offensive lineman it’s a blast.

“I mean, you’re pulling, you’re moving. You’re not just moving from here to the end of the desk. You have to be athletic, you have to be able to play in space, change direction and it’s exciting.”

Very early on, Bill O’Boyle was frank about his charges … “There’s a lot of work to do,” O’Boyle said. “We’ve got a lot of ground to make up, strength wise. The physical part really has to come along and that’s something that jumped out right off the bat. And that’s going to happen.”

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This post, about the Spring Practices game, from the 2023 Season, is filed under Article.
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