The pads have been popping down on the lower practice fields this week, but Thursday was a bit of a lighter practice in preparation for Friday's evening scrimmage that is closed to the public.
As for Thursday's practice, which was practice No. 19 for the Buffaloes in August, Buffs' head coach Mike MacIntyre liked what he saw.
"I thought they flew around, and [we] did a lot of moving the field, and a lot of kickoff/kickoff return type things today too," he said.
As MacIntyre takes a step back and looks at the entirety of fall camp, he feels that the team has really progressed.
"I definitely feel like they want to play against someone else and hit somebody else," MacIntyre said with a smile. "They've bought in completely. There's been a lot of great leadership. It's been really, really good."
The 2017 offseason was busy with news, whereas this offseason was rather quiet. There certainly weren't many distractions for the team to deal with.
"Distractions are always hard to deal with, but sometimes distractions bring you closer too," MacIntyre said. "It just depends on how the leadership on the team handles it. I definitely believe these guys have the right mindset."
Quick Hitters
-- MacIntyre raved about redshirt freshman inside linebacker Jonathan Van Diest, who has suffered a few disappointing injuries over the past few years. He even compared Van Diest to Phillip Lindsay.
"John is unbelievable," said MacIntyre. "He's kind of one of those -- he's kind of a tasmanian devil. He's kind of that high energy, high motor, high effort guy. He's that guy on defense. He keeps pushing, keeps working, keeps going. He's always ready and intense. As he keeps playing and gets better and better on his knee and gets back to feeling really, really comfortable, I think he's going to be an excellent, excellent player. He's going to help us this year too."
--MacIntyre says that the special teams unit has experience in all areas. In close games, special teams becomes even more important. MacIntyre likes James Stefanou's accuracy and loves how Alex Kinney can pin teams inside their own 15 yard line. MacIntyre calls his special teams "a big weapon."
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