I as curious as to what I could get out of Mike Sanford recently, looking ahead to spring ball and the ensuing quarterback battle that's about to take place between the likes of Brendon Lewis, J.T. Shrout (everything I've heard indicates that he'll be at full health sometime before spring ball ends), Drew Carter, Maddox Kopp and Oakie Salave'a.
Essentially, I asked Sanford if he views things as an open playing field, or, if heading into spring, it's Lewis' job to lose. From what I said, I think Sanford is playing no favorites and is looking at things as an open competition. Whomever does emerge as the starter will have to earn it in Sanford's eyes — that's what I deduced from his remarks:
“That position is always open for competition and really, every position is. I know that’s a very open-ended, standard answer, but you’re only as good as your last practice and you’re only as good as your last game. So, we’re always going to compete — and we’re going to compete with each other, not against each other. I’ve made that very clear to the offensive units.
There’s not going to be a ‘Team J.T.’ or a ‘Team Brendon’ or a ‘Team Drew’ — this is going to be our offense. We’re going to work together and there’s not going to be throwing sessions that are just with Brendon and certain receivers or throwing sessions with J.T. We’re going to build a really tight-knit room that’s going to compete well with each other.
Based off of what I heard a year ago, when both J.T. and Brendon were both healthy, they were seeing the best out of each other — the competitiveness between each other to bring out the best in Brendon and bring out the best in J.T. That’s what I want. We’re going to get that.
Now, speaking of Brendon, what I was so impressed by last year watching film was his toughness. That is the No. 1 characteristic that I’m looking for in a quarterback: the traits that we’re going to play with here at CU is going to be all about the toughness of that position. As challenging as the season was mentally, and frankly, as challenging as the season was physically for Brendon, he never batted an eye. He continued to come back, he’s a fighter, and then, while all that was going on, he took tremendous care of the football.
What my job is, and our offensive staff’s job, is to make sure he has all the tools, and the quarterback room is all given the tools, that they know exactly where they’re going with the football, that their progressions are clear, and I can’t hold anything against him that I don’t know, because I wasn’t here.
We’re going to give him a fresh start, we’re going to give the entire room a fresh start to go out and compete, and it’s our job to give them every tool that we can possibly give them so that they can go make the reads that they need to make and know where to go with the football.”
Seems like anyone's job to win, to me. Sanford appears to be praising the job Lewis id last year, but far from endorses him as coming into spring ball with a starter's gig.
Essentially, I asked Sanford if he views things as an open playing field, or, if heading into spring, it's Lewis' job to lose. From what I said, I think Sanford is playing no favorites and is looking at things as an open competition. Whomever does emerge as the starter will have to earn it in Sanford's eyes — that's what I deduced from his remarks:
“That position is always open for competition and really, every position is. I know that’s a very open-ended, standard answer, but you’re only as good as your last practice and you’re only as good as your last game. So, we’re always going to compete — and we’re going to compete with each other, not against each other. I’ve made that very clear to the offensive units.
There’s not going to be a ‘Team J.T.’ or a ‘Team Brendon’ or a ‘Team Drew’ — this is going to be our offense. We’re going to work together and there’s not going to be throwing sessions that are just with Brendon and certain receivers or throwing sessions with J.T. We’re going to build a really tight-knit room that’s going to compete well with each other.
Based off of what I heard a year ago, when both J.T. and Brendon were both healthy, they were seeing the best out of each other — the competitiveness between each other to bring out the best in Brendon and bring out the best in J.T. That’s what I want. We’re going to get that.
Now, speaking of Brendon, what I was so impressed by last year watching film was his toughness. That is the No. 1 characteristic that I’m looking for in a quarterback: the traits that we’re going to play with here at CU is going to be all about the toughness of that position. As challenging as the season was mentally, and frankly, as challenging as the season was physically for Brendon, he never batted an eye. He continued to come back, he’s a fighter, and then, while all that was going on, he took tremendous care of the football.
What my job is, and our offensive staff’s job, is to make sure he has all the tools, and the quarterback room is all given the tools, that they know exactly where they’re going with the football, that their progressions are clear, and I can’t hold anything against him that I don’t know, because I wasn’t here.
We’re going to give him a fresh start, we’re going to give the entire room a fresh start to go out and compete, and it’s our job to give them every tool that we can possibly give them so that they can go make the reads that they need to make and know where to go with the football.”
Seems like anyone's job to win, to me. Sanford appears to be praising the job Lewis id last year, but far from endorses him as coming into spring ball with a starter's gig.
