Hi, everyone. Hope y'all are enjoying your Saturday.
Members of the media present for Saturday's scrimmage spoke with CU coach Karl Dorrell afterwards. I've got his comments from that media scrum below
His general thoughts on the scrimmage: “It was good to see us getting some work in. I can see that the team needs this kind of work because getting on and playing eight or 10 plays in a row is different than just two or three plays in a row like a normal practice. Getting in game shape is more challenging than just going through a normal practice. You might have seen guys dragging a little bit on both sides, but I thought the execution was pretty good. I thought the quarterbacks made good decisions. The guys made some plays. We ran the ball effectively. Defensively, we did what we needed to do on that side of the ball. It was good to see [three, I think?] out there getting a lot of reps, trying to develop our talent. I call it the first midterm. This is practice 10. Getting the work we got in, I thought it was a really productive day for us.”
On whether it seems like J.T. Shrout's timing is coming back: “It does. He’s had a really good camp, same thing with B Lew. Both of those guys are battling and doing some really good things. I’m sure he probably if you asked him was a little bit nervous because this is his first live scenario, which was the last time he got hurt. It was a similar day. It was good he got over that hurdle. I think his timing is coming back. It’s pretty good. I think he’s making good decisions.”
On whether there is any clarity or separation in the starting quarterback competition: “Between the top two, it has really been what I thought it would be. It should be that way. They’re both really good plays. They’re both different. They both have great leadership in their own way. When one or the other is in the game, the offense responds to either one of them. Those are all really, really positive things. I think the team likes both of them. It’s a good problem to have. It’s not like the team doesn’t like one of them. The offensive end feels like they can win with either one of them.”
On mental hurdles he has to address and clear at this stage in camp: “It’s the game piece of getting in game shape. That’s what I thought when I saw things today. Whenever they were out there four or five plays in a row, you could tell they’re not used to that. It’s like you do three plays and you get that wall after three plays like, wow, I’m not used to this. Just getting back in game shape is going to be a really big challenge. We’ll do that this week anyway with more situational work. We won’t be scrimmaging full speed, but we’ll start getting consecutive series of work on the field, where they concentrate on doing their assignments and execute.”
On running back Charlie Offerdahl: “I’m not ever surprised. I like Charlie a lot. He was probably one our best flashers other than Jayle Stacks, who was another flasher in the spring. For Charlie to do what he did today, I’m not surprised at all. I have a lot of confidence in Charlie. Charlie’s going to play for us. I know the team has a lot of confidence in him. We have good depth. I thought Alex and Deion ran well today, hard today. Jayle had a couple of hard runs. Charlie did, too. I think that group is starting to really get a mystique of toughness.”
On the fourth-and-goal from the 1 situations his team went through at the end of the scrimmage: “I like doing that when they’re tired and the game is on the line to see how they respond. The offense needs a touchdown to win the game. There are five seconds left. You’ve got to put it in and the defense stopped them two out of three. That’s a good thing. You want guys to respond when they need to in critical times. You know they’re tired, but you’re still trying to drive something out of them and see if they can get some stops. They did.”
On wide receiver Maurice Bell “I saw what you saw. I was pleasantly surprised just because an achilles a year ago. He’s back to his old self. He actually looked better to me than before his injury. I’m really proud of him with what he has come back to and what he is right now. Hopefully, he continues that.”
On how rare it is for a player to come back successfully from that kind of an injury: “It’s challenging for skill people. Usually, you lose a step or two or you’re not as fast as you were prior to the injury. Lately, if guys do the rehab correctly and really stay up on doing everything, you can get back close to 100% and that’s where I think he is. I’ve been very encouraged. Plus, physically, he looks better. He’s more developed. He’s put a lot of work in the weight room, too.”
On Frank Fillip and Casey Roddick's placement on the offensive line: “They’re technically on the right side when Tommy gets back in there, but they’re both going to be flip-flopping. The same thing with Jake…We’ve been trying to create the versatility. Casey is going to be playing some tackle. He has done a really, really nice job of playing tackle so far in camp. He’s really playing well.”
On freshman quarterback Owen McCown: “It doesn’t really surprise me because he comes from a quarterback family. His dad played a long time in the league. Some of that stuff he has learned at home. He’s having a really, really good camp for a first-year player that just got here this summer. It tells you a lot about what he can digest just getting here this summer and still being in a position to compete. He’s really competing for that third spot right now. To do it in such a short order tells you he’s a smart kid. I’m very proud of what he has done. We’ll keep bringing him along. He’s just really slight. That’s the only I’m scared about. He looks like he’s in high school still. But he’s a really good player.”
On whether his team has had a bad practice yet this camp: “We haven’t really had a bad practice. We had a practice a couple of days ago that was a little sloppy, but it hasn’t been like at the level of bad practices we had a year ago. It’s been much better than those practices. It’s our expectation and the team’s expectation with what they want to do with this 2022 season. They’re getting good feedback. We’re giving them good, honest feedback on both sides. They want to do some great things this year. We’re prepping them with our best way we can as coaches to get them in that position.”
Members of the media present for Saturday's scrimmage spoke with CU coach Karl Dorrell afterwards. I've got his comments from that media scrum below
His general thoughts on the scrimmage: “It was good to see us getting some work in. I can see that the team needs this kind of work because getting on and playing eight or 10 plays in a row is different than just two or three plays in a row like a normal practice. Getting in game shape is more challenging than just going through a normal practice. You might have seen guys dragging a little bit on both sides, but I thought the execution was pretty good. I thought the quarterbacks made good decisions. The guys made some plays. We ran the ball effectively. Defensively, we did what we needed to do on that side of the ball. It was good to see [three, I think?] out there getting a lot of reps, trying to develop our talent. I call it the first midterm. This is practice 10. Getting the work we got in, I thought it was a really productive day for us.”
On whether it seems like J.T. Shrout's timing is coming back: “It does. He’s had a really good camp, same thing with B Lew. Both of those guys are battling and doing some really good things. I’m sure he probably if you asked him was a little bit nervous because this is his first live scenario, which was the last time he got hurt. It was a similar day. It was good he got over that hurdle. I think his timing is coming back. It’s pretty good. I think he’s making good decisions.”
On whether there is any clarity or separation in the starting quarterback competition: “Between the top two, it has really been what I thought it would be. It should be that way. They’re both really good plays. They’re both different. They both have great leadership in their own way. When one or the other is in the game, the offense responds to either one of them. Those are all really, really positive things. I think the team likes both of them. It’s a good problem to have. It’s not like the team doesn’t like one of them. The offensive end feels like they can win with either one of them.”
On mental hurdles he has to address and clear at this stage in camp: “It’s the game piece of getting in game shape. That’s what I thought when I saw things today. Whenever they were out there four or five plays in a row, you could tell they’re not used to that. It’s like you do three plays and you get that wall after three plays like, wow, I’m not used to this. Just getting back in game shape is going to be a really big challenge. We’ll do that this week anyway with more situational work. We won’t be scrimmaging full speed, but we’ll start getting consecutive series of work on the field, where they concentrate on doing their assignments and execute.”
On running back Charlie Offerdahl: “I’m not ever surprised. I like Charlie a lot. He was probably one our best flashers other than Jayle Stacks, who was another flasher in the spring. For Charlie to do what he did today, I’m not surprised at all. I have a lot of confidence in Charlie. Charlie’s going to play for us. I know the team has a lot of confidence in him. We have good depth. I thought Alex and Deion ran well today, hard today. Jayle had a couple of hard runs. Charlie did, too. I think that group is starting to really get a mystique of toughness.”
On the fourth-and-goal from the 1 situations his team went through at the end of the scrimmage: “I like doing that when they’re tired and the game is on the line to see how they respond. The offense needs a touchdown to win the game. There are five seconds left. You’ve got to put it in and the defense stopped them two out of three. That’s a good thing. You want guys to respond when they need to in critical times. You know they’re tired, but you’re still trying to drive something out of them and see if they can get some stops. They did.”
On wide receiver Maurice Bell “I saw what you saw. I was pleasantly surprised just because an achilles a year ago. He’s back to his old self. He actually looked better to me than before his injury. I’m really proud of him with what he has come back to and what he is right now. Hopefully, he continues that.”
On how rare it is for a player to come back successfully from that kind of an injury: “It’s challenging for skill people. Usually, you lose a step or two or you’re not as fast as you were prior to the injury. Lately, if guys do the rehab correctly and really stay up on doing everything, you can get back close to 100% and that’s where I think he is. I’ve been very encouraged. Plus, physically, he looks better. He’s more developed. He’s put a lot of work in the weight room, too.”
On Frank Fillip and Casey Roddick's placement on the offensive line: “They’re technically on the right side when Tommy gets back in there, but they’re both going to be flip-flopping. The same thing with Jake…We’ve been trying to create the versatility. Casey is going to be playing some tackle. He has done a really, really nice job of playing tackle so far in camp. He’s really playing well.”
On freshman quarterback Owen McCown: “It doesn’t really surprise me because he comes from a quarterback family. His dad played a long time in the league. Some of that stuff he has learned at home. He’s having a really, really good camp for a first-year player that just got here this summer. It tells you a lot about what he can digest just getting here this summer and still being in a position to compete. He’s really competing for that third spot right now. To do it in such a short order tells you he’s a smart kid. I’m very proud of what he has done. We’ll keep bringing him along. He’s just really slight. That’s the only I’m scared about. He looks like he’s in high school still. But he’s a really good player.”
On whether his team has had a bad practice yet this camp: “We haven’t really had a bad practice. We had a practice a couple of days ago that was a little sloppy, but it hasn’t been like at the level of bad practices we had a year ago. It’s been much better than those practices. It’s our expectation and the team’s expectation with what they want to do with this 2022 season. They’re getting good feedback. We’re giving them good, honest feedback on both sides. They want to do some great things this year. We’re prepping them with our best way we can as coaches to get them in that position.”
