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2015 CU Spring Football Practices

BuffNut99

BuffNut99

Club Member
I thought I'd start a thread considering that the team started practicing TODAY. Hello? Did I miss something, is there a thread in Brazil 2 where slider has already posted his acute observations?

Anyway, here's my short list of who I'll be watching intently, hoping there has been development/progression:

A. Witherspoon - Injuries held him back last year, wished we had just redshirted him
G. Watanabe - We need him to be a starter
J. Franke - Potential to be as disruptive in the middle as anyone we have
S. Kafovalu - Likely our best pass rusher
J. Kaiser - Potential to be a multi-year starter
S. Callahan - Needs to take a Guard spot
J. Huckins - Needs to push for starter/6th man role
S. Weifels - Big question mark
L. Walker - Glad we redshirted him, could boost the WR unit
D. Keeney - Needs to be our best TE
J. Sanchez - Like his frame and what we saw last fall
C. Center - Now or never
D. Rippy - Now or never
Y. Wright - Now or never

We also need heavy competition at the RB and LB spot to prepare for the influx of talent coming this fall and the position battles that will ensue.
 
I started another thread a few minutes before this one for factual updates. This can be our Spring Discussion one. I don't see any others.

Keeney and Walker are out for spring (surgery) and I doubt Watanabe is full go.
 
If Connor Center cannot show anything with getting a lot of reps, fair to say that would further cloud an already murky TE depth chart.
 
Not a real great 10 day weather forecast. But it'll make 'em tough.
 
Last edited:
BuffNut99 said:
I thought I'd start a thread considering that the team started practicing TODAY. Hello? Did I miss something, is there a thread in Brazil 2 where slider has already posted his acute observations?

Anyway, here's my short list of who I'll be watching intently, hoping there has been development/progression:

A. Witherspoon - Injuries held him back last year, wished we had just redshirted him
G. Watanabe - We need him to be a starter
J. Franke - Potential to be as disruptive in the middle as anyone we have
S. Kafovalu - Likely our best pass rusher
J. Kaiser - Potential to be a multi-year starter
S. Callahan - Needs to take a Guard spot
J. Huckins - Needs to push for starter/6th man role
S. Weifels - Big question mark
L. Walker - Glad we redshirted him, could boost the WR unit
D. Keeney - Needs to be our best TE
J. Sanchez - Like his frame and what we saw last fall
C. Center - Now or never
D. Rippy - Now or never
Y. Wright - Now or never

We also need heavy competition at the RB and LB spot to prepare for the influx of talent coming this fall and the position battles that will ensue.
Click to expand...

Haven't seen that one yet, but we're loaded with posts of his obtuse observations.



I kid, slider. I hope you're able to continue your annual insight, and look forward to it.
 
Practices are mostly closed, guys. Media is only allowed to see first 30 minutes and fans are not allowed.
 
Practices are closed except for the first 30 mins (mostly stretching anyways from my observation)
 
Id think, with a new DC coming in, they'd do more than the usual work on, especially, defense wouldn't they?
 
DBT said:
Id think, with a new DC coming in, they'd do more than the usual work on, especially, defense wouldn't they?
Click to expand...

probably will be pretty light on installing any defensive scheme or plays. The DC will be getting all his assistants on the same page, getting the vets on the same page as far as we expects in drills and technique. Teach them terminology and all that. The DC will be working on figuring out what kind of players he has. What kind of scheme will work. What kind of players he needs.

Spring practice is not like fall camp. From what I understand there is very little install. It is more about setting them up for summer so that they know what and how to practice while the coaches have limited contact.
 
Spring practices are mostly about developing depth and getting younger guys plenty of work. But it did seem like MacIntyre wanted to figure out the PK situation amongst other things.
 
Saturdays are supposed to open to public as well I believe.

I believe the weather is not conducive to allowing 3 teams to be running at the same time since they will be in the little bubble.

Do the Buffs use a TE? Irwin showed ability to help in run/pass but would be nice to see if Center has learned enough in two years of coddling. Yes, that's what it takes to make a baseball guy a football player.

I think PK and Leavitt seeing guys in multiple roles and how they adapt will be big. His main focus is personnel. Other than maybe Falo, there isn't any immediate defensive help coming in fall.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Regarding TE: Irwin is a good blocker who will catch around 15 balls as an outlet receiver. Unless Center makes a huge jump, coaches are going to need to creatively use the "big slot" to have WRs run a lot of the offense's TE receiving routes that require more athleticism (seam, wheel, screen, deep out).
 
Coming off the discussion in the thread about Adkins, he is missing practice time with a bone bruise. Guy just can't stay on the field.

Lindsay is also missing time with a turf toe, tough to get one of those in the off-season before they even start practices unless he stumbled and snagged it doing drills on his own.
 
buffaholic said:
Lindsay had the turf toe at the end of the season.
Click to expand...

Unless they are severe though I though they usually would improve enough with this much time to let him practice.

Either he had a really bad one or he re-injured it in rehab. They are painful though, especially for a guy who does a lot of cutting.
 
Shldr2Shldr said:
Powell looks slimmer. Looks like a RB and not a converted FB.
Click to expand...

Thought the same thing.

In regards to Liufau this spring, part of the article on cubuffs.com is him limiting turnovers and that is one of the keys offensively. It is a HUGE part of what Sefo must do. I went through all of his 15 INTs and here is what I saw (Rating: 1-Minor to 5-Horrible:

1. UMass-Not his fault. Great play by defender wrestling from Fields. R: 1
2. ASU (Simone)-Too much air under it. Not on Fields. Good distance, just allowed DEF to make a play. R: 2
3. ASU (Sam)-Killed any chance at comeback. Awful decision. Tried to force it to Spruce w/ triple coverage. R: 3/4
4. Hawaii (Phillips)-Triple coverage forcing it to Spruce. Underthrew it. Bad decision but at beginning of game. Still set a bad start. R: 3
5. Hawaii (Taimatuia)-Hit as he threw it but should have ate it since Spruce could not be seen in picture. More blame goes to Slavin getting worked.R: 2
6. Cal (Kearney)-Should have ate it or thrown down out of bounds. Great game, but that was huge swing in momentum. Backside pressure was allowed per scheme. Should have hit Lee quicker. R: 3
7. Oregon State (Alexander)-Completely missed LB that was sitting. First of a few of those. R: 2.5
8. USC (Cravens)-The start of a blow-out. Threw it in double coverage. Bad pass. All on him. R: 3.5
9. USC (Seymour)-Not his fault, but floated the ball. Bobo got rocked and tossed right to defender. R: 1.5
10. UCLA (Kendricks)-Kendricks was sitting there. Totally missed him. A lot like Alexander INT. Dug the hole deeper. Defense was to thank for saving CU after this. Otherwise, we never would have had a chance. R: 4
11. UCLA (Rios)- Completely overthrew Fields. Rushed it. Did not have to throw it. Idiotic. The beginning of my real disappointment in Liufau R: Off the charts/6
FUMBLE 1. Washington-Fumble in 2nd-Outplaying Washington and ball slips out of hand. Awful.
12. Washington-Down by 1-Throws a Pick 6 when still in the game. Again completely missed the LB that was there. Higher rating due to putting team out of game and also add the fact he had done same thing twice before in the season. R: 4.5
FUMBLE 2. Arizona (Bondurant)-Bad protection, classic QB fumble R: 2
FUMBLE 3. Arizona (Tevis)-Jones is beat by Tevis but he is holding the ball poorly. R: 3.5 Sucks more w/ undermanned defense playing out of its mind and getting more **** thrown at 'em.
13. Arizona (Grandon)-Can't remember but I know it was a diving interception. It really hurt the Buffs because they went from going into half with a lead to going into half down after their defense tried to hold on. R:2.5
14. Arizona (Holiday)-Pressured but eat it or get rid of it sooner. You are within a score. You just threw it up. It was a bad pass and a prayer. On replay he appeared to be ready to get rid of it before he saw the pressure. R: 4.5 Would have been a 5 or off chart if not for pressure on him.
15. Utah (Hatfield)-Unforgivable. LOL, it was like the rest of the last half of the season with the interception. Bad timing. Just dumb. And killed any chance OL is supposed to allow pressure. He let the play take too long and then threw it to outside. Should always go inside your outside blocker and he paid dearly for it. r: Off the charts and final nail in the coffin.

Sefo has a lot of qualities to him. Good arm. Good size. Doesn't take many sacks. But his turnovers are an absolute dagger. In the modern game you must eliminate turnovers, especially with a bad defense.

With an average to bad defense, you take a solid QB and add turnovers to them and they will be a losing team, i.e. CU in 2014. Average to bad defense, take a solid QB that minimizes turnovers but allows his team to stay in games and you have around a 0.500 team. I look at Utah and Cal as these types. Defense should be better but even with that, if we turn the ball over 15 times by interception and then sprinkle in some bad fumbles with it, we aren't going to be much better. Sefo eliminating turnovers is the key to 2015 success.
 
Digger,

Rep for the work on Sefo's INTs.

One thing overall to note is that as the season went on it seemed to me that Sefo was feeling a lot of pressure to score on every possession which of course leads to mistakes.

The defense was playing like they couldn't stop an Omaha Crack hooker with a $100 bill in their hands. We were giving up ridiculous amounts of points.

I hope that if we can see a notable improvement in the defenses ability to stop opponents drives at least on occasion along with a more consistent and effective running game Sefo doesn't feel like he has to win the game on every play.

As your post highlights there are plenty of times when a "bad" play like a sack or an incomplete pass is much better than a turnover. If Sefo can turn even some of those bad decisions into different results we are a much better team.
 
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