Colorado Buffaloes College Football Pregame Quote, 11/01/2021

So recapping the (Oregon) game, you know it was unfortunate that we didn’t play as well as we normally have played on a defensive side. There was a number of errors that were uncharacteristic from what their body of work has been over the course of the season. There is a sense of urgency though because for the last two games this has been challenging for them. We want to make sure that we shore those things up. We had really good meetings today both offensively and defensively. But you know, there’s a lot of pride on the defensive side. There’s a lot of experience on that side and those guys are not very happy with what it looked like last week. So it’s important for them to get those things addressed and shored up, particularly going into a good week this week with Oregon State coming in town, which has a really good football team. But there’s definitely some attention to how things have been done in the last couple of weeks. They’re eager to get those things fixed.

I would say offensively it was probably our most solid performance we’ve had, even though it was a slow start to the game. We didn’t get much done early. We got ourselves in a big deficit. But our players kind of still stayed locked in about creating some offense and creating some plays and getting some continuity. And I was really encouraged with how they kind of battled through the game. It was probably collectively our best offensive line’s performance in terms of their body work and run production and in protection. I thought that their running backs, all three were pretty resourceful for us, both in the run game and also in the passing game and in protections. I thought receivers are getting better and better. Brenden Rice had another back-to-back game where he’s had 100 yards. And then Brendon Lewis I thought played well. You know, he played well. He took a big step forward.

It’s November now. You know November is that month you want to start playing your best football. That’s in any circumstance whatever your record is. But I think it’s a critical month that we end up, this season finishing playing our best football you know, in all three phases. Our special teams I would say they’ve really played well consistently through the season. Almost had a kickoff return for a touchdown. Our coverage teams are doing well. The score team made all their kicks so, you know right now we’re getting bits and pieces of some really good performances and we just got to put it all together you know, both offensively, defensively special teams. We have a good challenge this week for us with Oregon State coming in, they’re a good team. Matter of fact all these teams that are in our last four games here are really really good teams and we need to step up to the plate and really do a great job of giving ourselves a chance to be successful and win some of these games down there. Started today with a good practice, and there’s good energy, you know, the guys understand what’s in front of them and we’re ready to move forward. So I like to open up for questions.

On offensive line’s improvement:

Probably all of the above. I think it was their attention to detail and their preparation was better. There was more energy in how they played. I felt they were very engaged and really had great communication with getting everybody on the same page. Now were there still a few mistakes in there? Yeah. But I would say the body of work was probably our best look that we’ve had so far this season. And I think it is the implementation of you know what William (Vlachos) and Donovan (Williams) has been doing you know for us in our preparation week prior to the game. And I believe it’s been a positive kind of a boost of confidence in a way you know the way that they’re coaching those guys the way they’re responding to them. And they’re having fun. That’s one thing I think they’re starting to enjoy the game a lot more and it was good to see that they were really enjoying just battling and creating some positive plays you know, probably some difficult circumstances.

There was four fourth down conversions we made, which I think was huge. We still got to work on third down. We still converted some of those third-and-shorts but there was a point in the game where we had to go in every opportunity we had because we were down so many points. And I think our guys were receptive to understanding those conditions and they made some plays, worked to get us some points on the board. So those are all real positive steps with what the offense has done.

On his confidence in the offense to convert fourth downs

It was big. You know, it was big as you can imagine. Talking about it in our huddles before the plays had been run. You know there was a lot of confidence that they can achieve what they were setting our goals to achieve in those situations. And it was fun to see that they were into it. You know, they were into it, they understood it was one of those must make opportunities and you know, they made all of them. So it’s definitely a big confidence booster for sure.

on offense moving forward

Building off of this performance that they had this last week. You know, Oregon’s one of the top teams in our conference right now. It’s not an easy place to play, and we didn’t play well early but we battled and tried to impose our will so to speak in certain situations and getting some points on the board. And I think we were able to succeed with those moments. And I believe this team has so much more to give, so much more than they can improve. I think this game gave them a shot of confidence about what they could do because after watching the tape and know like in anything whether you win or lose, there’s always things to do good or not so good. But most of it was good this week. And they feel very confident that they can shore up some things be even better. I feel it’s a big confidence boost for them.

On what he wants to see from his offense:

Continuity, you know just the execution of making sure you’re having some successful run game and being able to balance that with throwing the football. And some of the playmakers are starting to make those plays in the passing game, so their confidence is high and they want the ball. And I believe our running backs feel the same way. They’ve been more of a factor in the passing game, you know this last game, which was really good, which helps their confidence with the other facets of what they do. So it is trying to create the balance that we’ve always tried to strive for offensively and we need to continue to build on those benchmarks we did last week and hopefully doing better this week.

On defensive leaders going forward:

We definitely need to improve our communication there. You know Nate’s (Landman) a natural leader. He talks on every play on every adjustment. Even hint to ‚Äòoh they’re running the ball here.’ We just need more communication. That doesn’t need to be like what Nate communicates but just making sure they’re seeing the adjustments, they’re getting clues from the offense about ‚Äòhey, watch this or watch that.’ Just more communication just to get everybody on the same page. That’s a natural thing that Nate does. It’s probably not as natural for everyone else. But there’s some capable guys. You know, Carson Wells is a very good guy that he sees things, he sniffs things out. You know I would say Mustafa (Johnson) is one of those guys too. You know, Quinn Perry, who has played more extensively this year is starting to grow in and doing some of that role too in terms of leadership and having that communication. And then our backend needs to do the same thing too. You know, Mark Perry needs to communicate better with the secondary and the adjustments that they see too. There’s some capable players for sure. And we challenge them all about those guys stepping up, you know, getting everybody on the same page and they’re eager to do that. When you have a performance like that, which I believe is not characteristic of our defense, they want to get it right. And I think you’re going to see the difference this week.

On Oregon State’s strong rushing attack:

They’re well coached and very disciplined on offense and on defense. But on their offense, they have some imposing challenges because they can run the ball in every personnel group pretty effectively whether it’s 11 personnel or 12 personnel with two tight ends. A lot of the time they roll out 13 personnel which is three tight ends and a receiver out there. I would say their best attribute is that they have that balance. They can run the football and they have certain countermeasures off of those run actions to make a defense try to defend both the play action game and in the run game. So that’s always a really common thread that I think most teams including ourselves would love to have is to be able to have a sustainable run game, and then build complements off of that because that challenges a defense to defend both. They do a really nice job with that. And their quarterback, (Chance) Nolan, he’s not the most flashy guy, but he’s a very very productive guy. Very productive because he can make plays with his legs, he does get to play to a skill outside. And I think he does a nice job of getting them into the right play at times when he was making the audibles at the line of scrimmage.

On former quarterback Sam Noyer’s return:

I’m very appreciative of Sam and what he’s done for us in that tough year that we dealt with, with COVID and half a season and you know, making the change from being where you know, he graduated and came back and was our quarterback and helped us have a successful year. There’s no question that, you know, I feel a great deal of gratitude for what he’s done and his sacrifice for us. So yeah I’m looking forward to seeing Sam. This is a good chance to shake his hand, give him a hug and see how he’s doing. I think a lot of our players are probably going to have the same type of feeling and reaction when they see him.

On defense proving they can play well without Landman:

You know what that was talked about quite a bit today because yes, they know that one guy doesn’t make a defense. And Nate knows that too and he expresses that with those guys too. But, you know we just need our guys to do their role and increase their communication within that role, you know, the things that I was talking about with those few players that I mentioned. They just need to step up and make sure everybody’s on the same page. You know, when you have someone in the front like for a defensive lineman like Mustafa that can help the other linemen with what he sees, or a linebacker like Quinn Perry or Mark Perry in the backend. All those guys need to step up and get everybody on the same page and if they see something, it’s okay to give them an alert, ‚Äòhey, watch for this watch for that’ you know, those types of things. Those are all good, outstanding clues to make sure everybody’s awareness is high, so that they can react to what they say.

On Guy Thomas and other players injury status:

He is. He’s got a lower extremity injury, a sprain so he’s going to even be out this week. You know Nate’s, I call it week to week, but I want to make sure he’s healthy. And I mentioned that to you guys after the game. I’m not going to put him at risk. Even though he would probably try to play with one arm if it was up to him. I’m not going to let him do that. So I just don’t want to put guys at risk doing that. So we’re gonna have to treat it week-to-week. And he’s feeling better, but I would say he’s doubtful this week to play.

On a brighter note, La’Vontae (Shenault). So he practiced this morning and you know he’s excited to be back so that will give us one more piece on the offensive side. So that’s probably what’s needed right now too, is now that the offense is starting to pick up if we can get a couple more pieces back, from that standpoint that might give us another extra little boost as well.

On how mutual opponents between them and Oregon State factor in:

Sure does. You know, particularly opponents that we’ve played. You know the common ground thing which you’re mentioning. So yes, that’s a big factor in terms of our study and what they’ve done and things like that. But I think the biggest factor is more than anything if there’s similarities in what we do with teams that Oregon State has played with that have similar schemes. That’s where you gain the most knowledge and ground is when they’re doing something against something that we do ourselves and know how to obviously use that in your preparation. But that’s a big factor. What you got to be careful of is because this game would particularly, if that was in week one of the season and now we’re in week nine you know, sometimes it’s a physical game you lose players through injuries and stuff like we’ve lost players along the way too. A lot of a lot of teams are in that mode right now where a piece or two are missing because of injury. So sometimes the effectiveness of what you’re studying might have been good early on in the year but they may not be doing as much now, particularly if you start missing some of those pieces along the way. You’re absolutely right though. If there’s some common ground with some other teams in the conference that are playing against some of our opponents we try to see how effective those teams have played.

On what opponents Oregon State is similar to:

We’re different than most because we’re not like we’ve been in the last couple years. You know, our defensive line and our defensive front’s probably different than most. I would say Oregon State’s defense is similar to ours in terms of them using some 34 personnel and some we call under front type looks. We have some under fronts as well. But we played against them this week, so that doesn’t really help. But I would say you know, obviously USC is a good barometer because that’s an odd front team that Oregon State went against and we play some odd but we’re not all odd. We’re also 4-down so, there’s bits and pieces we can draw from a lot of teams that they played so far from their schedule.

On confidence in Brendon Lewis and Brenden Rice connection:

I’m extremely happy for both of them because they’re discovering new steps of their progress and they’re gaining confidence along the way. So both players being young are very confident with each other about making plays and getting the ball to them and things like that. There’s always that connection when the quarterback has a great feel of one of his receivers and I think that’s starting to be developed right now. But we need that feeling with a lot of our skilled-vets that’s playing right now. You know Montana’s (Lemonious-Craig) kind of some dirty plays in the game this last week. Fourth downs, you know, conversions. A lot of these guys are starting to step up in these critical moments, and we need them to continue to do that where Brendon Lewis feels confident he can throw to anybody. That’s the goal, is that whoever his progression takes him to, that he has confidence that that player is going to make the play. But there’s definitely a connection between both, and obviously the last two games have shown a lot of that success with those guys working with each other. But we need the whole group to feel that way. And we need Brendon Lewis to feel confident in anybody that’s open that they’re going to make those plays.

On running a formation with both Jarek Broussard and Alex Fontenot in the backfield:

It gives us some run potential which we’re able to do and also to help with the passing game and in protections too. I think the best thing, why we use that is because it was something we used to do in the past years and I believe it’s always good to have a new wrinkle each and every week that the defense maybe hasn’t prepared for. And that’s the same thing I would say what teams do to us. They’re going to do a new wrinkle that maybe CU hasn’t seen, that’s an unscouted look. So that’s usually part of the process of why you implement some of those things, things that you haven’t done in a while. You tend to bring it back just because they probably haven’t had a lot of reps in their preparation to utilize some of those things. I think a lot of people do that though. If you think about it, that’s kind of the nature of game planning is whether you have a new defensive front or a new coverage or a new formation or new personnel group. I think everyone kind of does that just to throw teams off a little bit and create a little bit of stress and in the environment of the game.