Deion Sanders and the Colorado football team opened fall camp on Monday ahead of what’s expected to be an exciting 2024 season.
After going 1-8 in the Pac-12 (4-8 overall) a year ago, the Buffaloes have been picked to finish 11th in the Big 12 Conference by media members.
None of that means anything to Sanders and his football team, though. The Buffaloes expect to compete in 2024.
“We don’t have tomorrow,” Sanders told his team on Sunday for report day, according to a video posted on CU football’s X account. “We don’t have the next day or next year. We have now. I mean, right now.”
Colorado’s season opener vs. North Dakota State is exactly a month from today (Thursday, Aug. 29) and preparations have already begun.
Here are three takeaways from the Buffs’ first preseason practice of 2024.
‘This year we have depth’
The Colorado running back room is, in some ways, a microcosm of the entire team.
Each of the Buffs’ four leading rushers from last season (Dylan Edwards, Anthony Hankerson, Sy’veon Wilkerson, Alton McCaskill) hit the transfer portal, leaving Colorado running backs coach Gary Harrell with a new-look unit.
Charlie Offerdahl is the lone returner at that position and Sanders recently said at Big 12 media days on July 10 that the former walk-on-turned-scholarship-player is “the starter at this point.”
But will Offerdahl be able to hold off a pair of transfers (Dallan Hayden, Isaiah Augustave) and true freshmen (Micah Welch, Brandon Hood) for the starting nod?
The Buffaloes’ running back competition will be fascinating to watch unfold once the pads come on in camp.
“One thing is, this year we have depth,” Harrell said after practice on Monday. “Charlie is a walk-on who’s going to have an opportunity to show what he can do. The two transfers, Dallan and Isaiah, add some different things to the room. A guy like Micah, even though he was here in the spring, he’s still fresh out of high school and did some good things in the spring. Then Brandon Hood just came out of high school.
“With those guys, I feel good. We can plug those guys in and they’ll know their assignments.”
After having the worst rushing attack in the Pac-12 last season (68.9 yards per game), Harrell says he’s looking for two running backs to separate themselves from the pack.
More: Who will start at running back for Colorado football in 2024?
“We’re going to give them equal opportunity to show who the best two guys are,” Harrell said. “It’s hard to have three running backs in the game because of the reps. We have a great quarterback, we’re going to throw the ball here and there but we’re going to run the football. ‘Coach Prime’s’ main thing is the physicality in being able to run the football this year.
“Our top two guys have to understand that. We know we’re going to need two guys.”
Trevor Woods on Deion Sanders’ Brian Urlacher comparison: ‘Grateful’
Deion Sanders hasn’t been shy about what he sees as the potential for Trevor Woods.
The Colorado senior converted from safety to inside linebacker after six games of the 2023 campaign. A week later, Woods tallied a career-high 12 tackles vs. UCLA.
“The change made from safety to linebacker with Trevor,” Sanders said at Big 12 media days. “I really think this young man is going to be the next Brian Urlacher. I think he’s going to take the transition from safety to linebacker and be dominant.”
Before Urlacher spent 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears and became a Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker, he was converted to a “Lobo-Back” (a linebacker and safety hybrid) at the University of New Mexico.
Woods was asked his thoughts on being compared to one of the best linebackers in football history by Sanders.
“It was awesome,” Woods said after practice on Monday. “The next day he (Sanders) came up to me and said, ‘I gave you the spotlight. Do something with it.’ I’m grateful for it and I just have to run with it.”
Woods is projected to start at inside linebacker for Colorado in 2024 after racking up 56 total tackles last season (third most on team). His development at a new position will help determine just how good the Buffs’ defense will be this fall.
‘It has to happen now’
Colorado isn’t judged like a program that won just one game in 2022.
If a team improved to 4-8 from a 1-11 finish the year before (like the Buffs just did), it would typically be lauded as an excellent start to a rebuild.
However, any program led by Deion Sanders is graded on a different scale. It’s why his staff and players have adopted the win-now mentality of a team that’s used to success, even if the Buffs haven’t played in a bowl game since 2020.
“His (Sanders’) expectation is now,” Harrell said. “We’re not waiting for Year 3 to win. We’re not waiting until midseason for everything to click. It has to happen now. Everyday he comes into work, his mentality, his thought process, his message and philosophy is the same.
“He doesn’t deviate from that. It’s why he’s Deion Sanders.”
Follow Colorado Buffaloes sports reporter Scott Procter on X.
Source link : https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/college/football/2024/07/29/colorado-football-3-takeaways-from-first-preseason-practice/74585589007/
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Publish date : 2024-07-29 16:41:32
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