Q&A: CU Independent editor previews Colorado football matchup with UCLA

To get some inside information on the Colorado football team, Daily Bruin Sports reached out to the CU Independent – CU Boulder’s student news publication – and asked a few questions about the Buffaloes before their upcoming game against UCLA this Saturday.

All of the responses below come from Justin Guerriero, the head sports editor at the CU Independent.

Daily Bruin: Colorado hasn’t had the most success on the ground, but can you talk me through how Phillip Lindsay’s been doing this season, and how Colorado’s overall running game is looking?

Justin Guerriero: Phillip Lindsay I think is the spiritual leader on and off the field for this Colorado Buffaloes team. Players have told me that when he talks in the locker room, everyone shuts up and listens. He’s a senior, he’s a local guy, he’s been through the thin and thick with this football program, now to a point of where last year, it got good. And he especially is looking forward to continue that in his final season.

But so far, Lindsay’s looked good. He’s got a good, upperclassmen-oriented offensive line blocking for him. He hits holes hard. He’s good in the flat as a wide receiver as well. He’s averaging close to 5 yards a carry, he has just over 450 yards on the year right now.

Overall, I think the run game is looking good. However, with that said, in a nutshell this Colorado team has been hard to gauge thus far. The first three games – nonconference opponents, non-power five opponents – all kind of had an element of shakiness to them. A lot of those problems lying offensively.

Lindsay has done well on his own. His game high this season was 151 yards, but you know Washington came to town last week for the Pac-12 opener for Colorado and Lindsay looked good in the first quarter. The first half the Buffs had a couple good opening drives. But you know what? He was shut down for the rest of the game. I think he averaged 3.9 yards per carry on the day versus Washington.

I’ve seen and we’ve seen as a community what he’s capable of in the past, but that first Pac-12 game was a little bit on the disappointing side. So hopefully he is on pace to surpass his nearly 1,200 yards that he got last year, but I think it’s going to be a week-by-week thing.

DB: Looking at your quarterback situation, how do you think Steven Montez’s play has been so far this year?

JG: Yeah, you know, a lot of the questions regarding Colorado’s offense, regarding the potential this offense should have, considering the returning cast members that have come back to it – a lot of those issues start with Montez.

The kid’s a sophomore. As a freshman last year, he was kind of thrown into the fire, really, when Sefo Liufau graduated last year. When (Liufau) was injured for a couple games, Montez went right in, led the team to a couple good wins – wasn’t flawless, but for a freshman, his football IQ, his ability to throw the ball downfield, was incredibly impressive.

Fast forward to this year, and I think he’s still a little bit jittery in the pocket. I really don’t think he’s been able to fully utilize the wide receivers he has around him. Bryce Bobo, Devin Ross and Shay Fields Jr. They’re all senior wide receivers, they’re all very talented. I wouldn’t be surprised if they turn out to be second or third rounders in the upcoming draft, potentially or better.

I think it’s kind of just a youth thing. I think he needs to get better about releasing the ball in a quicker manner. The three picks against Washington, the first one bounced right off of Lindsay’s hands, so I’ll give him a pass on that. The second one he tried to go deep to Fields Jr. in the end zone in double coverage, got picked. And the third one, I’m going to attribute that to a mental error. You saw it coming from a mile away. He gets picked off, and it’s a 35-yard pick-six return.

Overall, I know that the stat line says six picks, six touchdowns, but I’m not going to give up on Montez yet. I don’t think there’s any reason to jump ship. He’s shown quite a knack for being the future of this Colorado football program, and he’s had some struggles early on this year. Overall I think he’s been good, not great.

DB: You mentioned that Liufau graduated. I know Colorado returns nine starters on offense, but they also lost nine starters on defense. How have you seen the team dynamic play out so far, with an offense that’s pretty much the same but a defense that has had to rebuild and reload?

JG: The 2016 season, which saw the Buffaloes return to prominence after almost a decade of residing in the cellar of their respective conferences. Last year, the defense held things down for this team. It was the defense a lot of the time that was keeping the game close because of the offense’s inability to score clutch points.

I recall, UCLA last year is a good example, 20-10 Buffaloes victory, but only one offensive touchdown in that game for the Buffs. It was really was a special teams, defensive effort that won Colorado that game.

So the narrative has kind of been flipped this year. Last year, where the defense was kind of expected to hold things down, now the defense lost eight stars, and the offense is so stacked that it’s expected to score points, and it hasn’t this year.

Now, for Colorado’s defense in particular, a couple guys that are new have stepped up. Drew Lewis is an inside linebacker for the Buffs. This is his first year starting; he’s leading the team in tackles. Evan Worthington and Trey Udoffia are new starters in the secondary and they’ve both done very well.

Isaiah Oliver is a cornerback who got some experience playing last year, and he really seems to be the natural successor to the type of football defensive backs Ahkello Witherspoon and Tedric Thompson played for the Buffs last year. He plays a really physical white-on-rice style; he leads the team in pass breakups as well as interceptions, and he is going to be taking every teams’ top receiver. That much I can assure you.

The biggest problems thus far for the defense: Pressuring the quarterback has been an issue. (Washington’s) Jake Browning had a lot of time to throw the ball last week when the Huskies were in town, a lot of time. I do consider Josh Rosen to be on a similar pedestal to Browning, and if you give a quarterback who’s going to be taking 50 attempts more than three seconds to throw the ball every time, you’re going to run into trouble.

From the Buffs, that’s something that our defense is going to have to iron out at some point, because they are going to get themselves into trouble if they can’t start sacking the quarterback some more.

It has been quite an adjustment for these returning starters as well as the new faces who have stepped up, but overall I think they’ve handled themselves well. Yes, Washington did just score 37 points on this defense, but I think a lot of offensive miscues – a blocked punt, three interceptions – I blame that more than I blame the defense for giving up 37 points to a No. 7 team in the country.

DB: UCLA’s running attack has been going under the radar. Against Stanford, Soso Jamabo became the first UCLA running back to go 100 yards since 2015. How has Colorado looked against the run and how have they looked against the pass this year?

JG: When I say this team has been hard to gauge, the question that you just asked is kind of the reason that it is so.

Against the Buffs’ three opening opponents – Colorado State, North Colorado and Texas State – they won all those games and the defense overall performed well, yet there was certainly room for improvement. I think it’s fair to use this game against Washington as a compass to tell us where this team is at.

The Buffs gave up 254 yards to Washington, good for 6.5 yards per carry average. (Washington running back) Miles Gaskin was a little bit slow to start the game, but he really started to light things up, especially after half time. The lack of pressure from the front seven I think is a contributing factor.

As conference play continues, I think the defense is going to show that it’s not as invincible as it was in 2016. The Buffs are going to find themselves in a lot closer games, higher scoring games, and the defense is going to have to buckle down big time.

In specific regards to the pass, the Buffaloes did lose two key defensive backs last year in Thompson and Witherspoon, but the guys who have taken their places, I think have performed pretty well.

Oliver, his resume speaks for itself. Worthington is a guy that served a year suspension, missed the entire 2016 season, then came back in spring and fought for a starting position, which he won, and I think he’s been earning his chops.

And Leo Jackson, on the defensive line, has been a good anchor against for the Buffs, especially against the run. He actually seems to be the one exception in terms of pressure. He’s actually got five sacks on the year, which leads the team.

But the Buffs do have Javier Edwards at nose tackle. He’s a junior college transfer. He’s a big man. He’s over 300 pounds. He’s the one wrecking ball that the defense has. He can plug holes and make things tough for the opposing teams’ offensive line.

In direct regards to UCLA, I think 300-plus yards and three or four touchdowns from Josh Rosen isn’t too far off the mark. If 100 yards plus are earned on the ground, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised, either. The Buffs are just coming off a 250-plus yard offensive giving up game to Washington. At this point, it’s kind of just week-by-week, but I would not be surprised if the Bruins clicked both with the run game and in the air.

DB: One more question, who do you expect to be Colorado’s X-factor in Saturday’s game, and can you give me a prediction of the final score?

JG: It’s gotta be Steven Montez, our quarterback. He’s not played to the best of his ability in these four straight games. He’s coming off a three-interception game which he really beat himself up about after the game was over last Saturday.

I think, the Buffaloes having lost their first Pac-12 game, now they’re on the road in Los Angeles. This almost turns into somewhat of a trap game. If the Buffs lose this game, it really puts a damper on the rest of conference play.

This is a team that won 10 games last year, and regression from that, it will sting. It will hurt these players, it will hurt these seniors. For the football community in particular, it will leave a bit of a sour taste if this team regresses to a certain extent.

Montez, this has to be the game where he utilizes the weapons at his disposal. The Buffs have the tools on the field to compete with the best teams in the Pac-12 and … we’ll just leave it at the Pac-12. The team hasn’t really played up to its potential, especially offensively.

For Montez, being smarter with his decisions, releasing the ball in a quicker fashion, and being a bit wily in the pocket. I think if he does that, he’s going to have a good game.

It comes down to turnovers for me. I think this will be a high-scoring game. Both of these offenses are capable of putting up a lot of points. Defensively, I think we’re going to see a decent amount of points, touchdowns scored.

But for the Buffs, it’s going to come down to Montez. If he’s right in the head, and he handles his business, I think good things will happen.

Score prediction, I think the Buffs are capable of winning this game. I more see it as just a bounce back. In a sense, I think Colorado does have its back up against the wall. Starting the season with two straight Pac-12 losses would be tough to swallow, especially for a team hell-bent on making a bowl this year.

I’m going to say Colorado comes to Los Angeles, all things go to plan, the offense clicks, Montez looks good, Lindsay runs the ball effectively, and I think the Buffs escape LA with a 35-24 victory.