The vast majority of Colorado's upperclassmen have already experienced something of a rollercoaster with respect to their college football careers, given that the Buffs have had three head coaches since 2018.
While Karl Dorrell now enters his third season at the helm in Boulder, the end of the Mike MacIntyre era, followed by Mel Tucker's lone year at CU, bred a considerable amount of instability leading into Dorrell's hire in February of 2020.
The cycling of head coaches naturally meant the cycling of assistants, and perhaps no position group at Colorado has seen that in a more firsthand manner than the offensive line.
For players like Josh Jynes, Casey Roddick and Frank Fillip, all of whom are redshirt juniors in 2022, Kyle DeVan will be their fifth position coach dating back to Klayton Adams (2018), Chris Kapilovic (2019), Mitch Rodrigue (2020-21) and William Vlachos (2021).
Last year in particular proved to be challenging for Colorado's o-linemen, with Dorrell firing Rodrigue mid-season and replacing him with Vlachos, who coached the final five weeks of the season on an interim basis.
Taking all of that into consideration was DeVan when he made his introductory rounds with his new players.
"The guys in my room have been through a lot, with two offensive line coaches this past season," DeVan said. "I think trust was a big deal. I was the new guy coming in. There’s a good foundation, so I wanted to let those guys know that I’m here to gain their trust, just like they’re currently here to gain my trust."
DeVan, 37, was hired by Dorrell from Michigan, where he'd been serving as an analyst.
Previously, he coached the o-line at Arizona (2019-20) and Ball State (2016-18), with his coaching career stretching back to 2013.
DeVan played four years of college football at Oregon State and enjoyed an NFL career from 2008-2012, notably with the Indianapolis Colts from 2009-2011, where he went on to start for the team in Super Bowl XLIV.
Since joining Colorado's staff in late December, and now with 2022 recruiting mostly wrapped up, DeVan has been able to turn more attention to getting to know his room.
“It’s been awesome," he said. "These kids, from the local ones to the ones who aren’t from the region, are here because they love Colorado and they love CU. That’s been refreshing, to see these guys come in and work their butts off. All of them want to make Colorado the best it can be. They want to win games and I really appreciate that."
While the Buffs are no longer with stalwart left guard Kary Kutsch and center Colby Pursell, Fillip, Roddick and redshirt sophomore Jake Wiley all bring back starting experience heading into 2022.
Colorado picked up some transfer portal reinforcements from Tyler Junior College's Alex Harkey and Tommy Brown out of Alabama, both of whom look like good bets to compete for starting positions.
Junior Noah Fenske enters his second season in Boulder at center and he'll be complimented by 2022 center signee Van Wells.
Other than that, the Buffaloes have sophomores Austin Johnson, Carson Lee and Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan, redshirt freshmen Edgar Amaya and Jackson Anderson plus true freshmen Travis Gray and Carter Edwards, all on scholarship for the 2022 campaign.
With a good blend of returning starters, transfer portal additions, depth pieces and freshmen, DeVan is looking to have an open playing field by the time the Buffs put on the pads for spring ball.
“Everyone’s going to start with a clean slate.," he said. "...Chandler (Dorrell) and coach Dorrell have done a great job of kind of giving me an understanding of who the guys were individually, but I want to go out there and experience it first and see if maybe my coaching style, my teachings, my technique are maybe more suitable to some of them. I’m excited for that and I think those kids are, too.”
But per DeVan, there will be time enough to evaluate the on-field talent of all his players.
For now, he's focused on building a deeper off-the-field relationship with them.
"I want them to know that I’m invested in them as a person, not just a football player," he said. "We get caught up in this profession always worrying about, you judge a player based on his poor second step or his really good punch in pass protection. I want these guys to know I care about them on the football field and outside the building, as well.”
.....
Definitely a good move to get to know the players more intimately. William Vlachos had this trait, too, but I think DeVan, being a younger coach with NFL experience, can bring a lot to the table just in how he is able to more tangibly demonstrate concepts to the players as opposed to an older coach like Rodrigue.
Overall, I think DeVan will be far more relatable to those kids. It's imperative that he and them form a good relationship together and DeVan seems like he has a good idea of how to make that happen.
While Karl Dorrell now enters his third season at the helm in Boulder, the end of the Mike MacIntyre era, followed by Mel Tucker's lone year at CU, bred a considerable amount of instability leading into Dorrell's hire in February of 2020.
The cycling of head coaches naturally meant the cycling of assistants, and perhaps no position group at Colorado has seen that in a more firsthand manner than the offensive line.
For players like Josh Jynes, Casey Roddick and Frank Fillip, all of whom are redshirt juniors in 2022, Kyle DeVan will be their fifth position coach dating back to Klayton Adams (2018), Chris Kapilovic (2019), Mitch Rodrigue (2020-21) and William Vlachos (2021).
Last year in particular proved to be challenging for Colorado's o-linemen, with Dorrell firing Rodrigue mid-season and replacing him with Vlachos, who coached the final five weeks of the season on an interim basis.
Taking all of that into consideration was DeVan when he made his introductory rounds with his new players.
"The guys in my room have been through a lot, with two offensive line coaches this past season," DeVan said. "I think trust was a big deal. I was the new guy coming in. There’s a good foundation, so I wanted to let those guys know that I’m here to gain their trust, just like they’re currently here to gain my trust."
DeVan, 37, was hired by Dorrell from Michigan, where he'd been serving as an analyst.
Previously, he coached the o-line at Arizona (2019-20) and Ball State (2016-18), with his coaching career stretching back to 2013.
DeVan played four years of college football at Oregon State and enjoyed an NFL career from 2008-2012, notably with the Indianapolis Colts from 2009-2011, where he went on to start for the team in Super Bowl XLIV.
Since joining Colorado's staff in late December, and now with 2022 recruiting mostly wrapped up, DeVan has been able to turn more attention to getting to know his room.
“It’s been awesome," he said. "These kids, from the local ones to the ones who aren’t from the region, are here because they love Colorado and they love CU. That’s been refreshing, to see these guys come in and work their butts off. All of them want to make Colorado the best it can be. They want to win games and I really appreciate that."
While the Buffs are no longer with stalwart left guard Kary Kutsch and center Colby Pursell, Fillip, Roddick and redshirt sophomore Jake Wiley all bring back starting experience heading into 2022.
Colorado picked up some transfer portal reinforcements from Tyler Junior College's Alex Harkey and Tommy Brown out of Alabama, both of whom look like good bets to compete for starting positions.
Junior Noah Fenske enters his second season in Boulder at center and he'll be complimented by 2022 center signee Van Wells.
Other than that, the Buffaloes have sophomores Austin Johnson, Carson Lee and Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan, redshirt freshmen Edgar Amaya and Jackson Anderson plus true freshmen Travis Gray and Carter Edwards, all on scholarship for the 2022 campaign.
With a good blend of returning starters, transfer portal additions, depth pieces and freshmen, DeVan is looking to have an open playing field by the time the Buffs put on the pads for spring ball.
“Everyone’s going to start with a clean slate.," he said. "...Chandler (Dorrell) and coach Dorrell have done a great job of kind of giving me an understanding of who the guys were individually, but I want to go out there and experience it first and see if maybe my coaching style, my teachings, my technique are maybe more suitable to some of them. I’m excited for that and I think those kids are, too.”
But per DeVan, there will be time enough to evaluate the on-field talent of all his players.
For now, he's focused on building a deeper off-the-field relationship with them.
"I want them to know that I’m invested in them as a person, not just a football player," he said. "We get caught up in this profession always worrying about, you judge a player based on his poor second step or his really good punch in pass protection. I want these guys to know I care about them on the football field and outside the building, as well.”
.....
Definitely a good move to get to know the players more intimately. William Vlachos had this trait, too, but I think DeVan, being a younger coach with NFL experience, can bring a lot to the table just in how he is able to more tangibly demonstrate concepts to the players as opposed to an older coach like Rodrigue.
Overall, I think DeVan will be far more relatable to those kids. It's imperative that he and them form a good relationship together and DeVan seems like he has a good idea of how to make that happen.
