Take a look at the Colorado Buffaloes’ defense.
Gone are defensive tackles George Hypolite and Brandon Nicolas. Outside linebacker Brad Jones isn’t rushing the quarterback at CU any more. Free safety Ryan Walters isn’t cleaning up the mess as the last line of defense.
They are four of the seven starters from last season’s defense that the team must replace due to graduation.
When a team loses that many starters – whether it’s on offense or defense – they usually have a hard time replacing them.
With this team, they don’t see it that way.
“Each year, you should have guys waiting in the wings who can step up and play,” defensive coordinator Ron Collins said. “Now, people don’t know who those guys are going to be, but when you get an established program, you got guys that are ready to step and ready to go.”
Collins said his goal is to put the best 11 players on the field.
One player who’s ready to step up and play is Marquez Herrod. The junior defensive end played in only 22.4 percent of the defensive snaps last season. However, with Hypolite, Nicolas and defensive end Maurice Lucas gone, he has a chance to fill their departed shoes.
“I come out here everyday, I’m on the grind,” Herrod said. “Everyday, I’m thinking about what can I do to get better and what can I do to improve from yesterday. That’s basically my focus every single day.”
Another player who’s ready to make a name for himself is middle linebacker Marcus Burton. This is Burton’s last chance since he’s a senior and through two scrimmages, he’s led the defense with 13 tackles.
“I think if the backups didn’t have significant playing time, then it would hurt us a lot more,” Burton said, a backup who played in seven percent of the snaps last year.
Collins also said middle linebacker Michael Sipili and defensive tackles Taj Kaynor and Eugene Goree are a few players who have stepped up this spring.
Now even if the defense can effectively replace seven starters, the defensive players know there’s still a lot of work to be had. Just ask Cha’pelle Brown, he of 24 career starts.
“Stopping the run and [limiting] explosion plays,” the senior cornerback said. “That’s the biggest thing for us.”
Through two scrimmages so far, stopping the run hasn’t been a problem. But in the first scrimmage, the defense got lit up for big play after big play en route to allowing 11 touchdowns. As bad as it looked and sound, it didn’t bother Collins much.
“What we’re trying to do is work on concepts,” Collins said of the non-problem. “We don’t worry too much about what the offense is doing because they are doing their own thing. It’s not like we’re sitting out here trying to scheme them up. What we’re trying to do is put in our defense and each week, try to improve on what we’re doing.”
In the second scrimmage, the defense improved and allowed only four touchdowns.
Another problem that the team must correct is forcing turnovers. In the two scrimmages, they have only forced one turnover.
After practice on Monday, the defensive players had to run because they didn’t meet the goal of forcing three turnovers during practice. However, Herrod said they haven’t run nearly as much as it seems.
“I think we’ve ran less for not getting our three turnovers than the offense has for giving up three,” Herrod said.
News and notes
There hasn’t been any new news from the quarterback battle between Cody Hawkins and Tyler Hansen.
“They are both playing really good. We’ll let it play out,” head coach Dan Hawkins said.
Over the past week or so, a few players have caught the flu and it’s spread. Coach Hawkins said it’s still creeping around and he doesn’t know how long it would take for it to pass. He just hopes it doesn’t affect the rest of the staff.
Finally, coach Hawkins held practice on an unofficial holiday known as 4/20. A reporter asked him how it felt to have practice on 4/20.
“Any day is a good day to have football practice,” coach Hawkins quipped.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Cheng Sio at Cheng.Sio@colorado.edu
