The Colorado football team spent Monday morning shaking off a little rust and working out some kinks.
The Buffaloes also welcomed a few players back to the field and shifted a few to other spots.
In their first day back after spring break, the Buffaloes practiced in the indoor facility and head coach Mike MacIntyre said, “It was a good day.”
“I felt like they were in good shape (coming off the break) and doing some good things today,” he said.
Several players who did not participate in the first of spring ball are now back on the field, including receivers Bryce Bobo and Justin Jan. Defensive end Derek McCartney and linebacker Kenneth Olugbode were also back, and guard Jonathan Huckins was a full participant after being limited in the first half of spring.
During the break, coaches decided to move some players around, but nothing dramatic where players moved from one side of the ball to the other.
“We made a few changes on the depth chart and switched sides,” MacIntyre said. “One of the reasons was to look at some guys at, like left tackle/right tackle; D-line/D-end, inside receiver/outside receiver, and see how they handle that during the next few days. It’s creating more competition and also (help the Buffs) be able to handle injuries.”
One of those changes came at offensive tackle. On Monday, Aaron Haigler worked with the first-team offense at left tackle, while Shane Callahan was at right tackle, basically the opposite of where they worked in previous practices.
“Because there’s a returning starter who is not participating in the spring (left tackle Jeromy Irwin), I really need to find out, if we had to play today, who the starting two tackles would be,” offensive line coach Klayton Adams said. “In fairness to the team, we have to give them a chance at both sides to see if they can do it.”
Much-needed break
The players got a chance to go on spring break, but so did the coaches. MacIntyre said many of the coaches had not had any time off because of recruiting, but many of them took a few days to get away last week.
Prior to their break, the coaches did put in a lot of work to review the first half of spring drills.
“We overviewed the whole entire spring, watched everything again, wrote up on every kid,” MacIntyre said.
Solid up front
While the Buffs are moving parts around the offensive line, the defensive line is fairly set at the top of the depth chart.
The Buffs are relying on seniors Jordan Carrell and Samson Kafovalu up front, with junior Leo Jackson III and sophomore Jase Franke also back.
The redshirt freshman trio of Brett Tonz, Lyle Tuiloma and Frank Umu have had their good moments as well.
“We definitely need one or two of them to have an impact for us, not as a starting role right now,” MacIntyre said. “I feel like we’re solid on the starters. You can’t play every snap. We’ll need those guys to step in and play roles.”
Brian Howell: howellb@dailycamera.com, on Twitter: @BrianHowell33.
