Since graduating from Hart High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., in 2018, JT Shrout has been through a lot.
Shrout, 23, spent three seasons at Tennessee before transferring to Colorado in 2021. He endured a season-ending knee injury a year ago and a coaching change this year. He’s also had five different offensive coordinators and four different quarterback coaches.
What Shrout doesn’t have is a lot of playing time.
When the Buffaloes (1-7, 1-4 Pac-12) host No. 8 Oregon (7-1, 5-0) on Saturday at Folsom Field (1:35 p.m., ESPNU), Shrout is slated to start at quarterback. Despite this being his fifth year of college football, he has just five career starts under his belt – four of them this season with the Buffs.
“In a way I sort of have been around it a lot, but obviously taking live snaps, there hasn’t been a ton of it until really this year,” said Shrout, who made one start and threw just 69 passes in three seasons at Tennessee. “So, there’s definitely a learning curve and that comes with just playing more. I think every week I can get a little more comfortable out there.”
There is often a tendency to quickly judge players, and the early returns on Shrout are mixed, at best. Shrout has completed 56-of-130 passes for 729 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. His completion percentage (43.1) is on pace to be the lowest by a Buff since Sal Aunese in 1988 (41.5).
It has, however, been a very disjointed season for Shrout and the QB position in general for the Buffs.
Brendon Lewis won the starting job out of preseason camp, but Shrout came off the bench in the opener against TCU to make his CU debut. The next week, he got the start at Air Force, struggling mightily in a disastrous 41-10 loss on a rainy day.
In Game 3 at Minnesota, Shrout started again, but split series with Lewis throughout the 49-7 loss.
Former head coach Karl Dorrell, who was fired on Oct. 2, then turned the offense over to true freshman Owen McCown, and Shrout was relegated to the bench.
When McCown was injured during the Oct. 15 game against California, Shrout came off the bench and led the Buffs to a 20-13 overtime win. (Lewis left the team and put his name in the transfer portal after that win.)
It wasn’t until after the Cal game that Shrout began getting 100 percent of the first-team reps in practice. This is just his third week of getting all the reps, and it’s possible he will be the starter the rest of the way. McCown is back to practice on a limited basis, but could take the option to redshirt.
“That’s what everybody wants,” Shrout said of starting. “You want the keys to the car and you want to be the guy that goes and helps everyone get wins.”
Shrout’s last two starts have been a roller coaster. He’s thrown for 428 yards and two touchdowns, but also three interceptions and a 41.3% completion rate (26-of-63).
“The only stat I care about is wins or losses,” Shrout said. “But, there’s things that I gotta do. I’ve gotta make some better throws, for sure, and then it comes down to everyone being on the same page with routes that we’re running, where we’re breaking down on stuff. It takes 11 guys to do everything right.”
It starts with the quarterback, but the process isn’t always quick. Interim head coach/quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford is seeing progress, however.
“I am excited about his growth,” Sanford said. “I think at times JT has tremendous intensity, tremendous, just, care factor for football.”
That has sometimes led to Shrout getting ahead of himself, though. Sanford said Shrout, “almost skips level 100 to go to level 800 courses,” but that coaches need him to step back a bit.
“We just need to concentrate on our progressions, where the ball needs to go and throwing a great pass,” Sanford said. “For him, it’s more about just simplifying his pre-snap thought process and allowing his natural abilities as an elite arm talent player to take over.”
Shrout has shown his impressive arm talent at times, but the consistency is lacking. Finally settling into the rhythm of being a starter could help.
“In the beginning of the year, splitting reps every week, I didn’t even know if I was gonna play or not,” Shrout said. “It’s been more preparation the last few weeks, which I’ve appreciated, and it definitely helps me get more comfortable and feel more prepared for Saturdays.
“I think the plays are always there to be made. There’s definitely some things we’ve got to clean up and some plays that we leave out there. Especially last week (a 42-34 loss to Arizona State), there’s some throws I wish I had back that we could have capitalized on, but at the end of the day, we’ve just got to work on ourselves.”
For Shrout, that work includes getting those practice reps so he can sharpen his timing with receivers and getting more comfortable with Clay Patterson, who took over as the coordinator and play-caller on Oct. 2.
“It’s just comfort at the end of the day,” he said. “It’s so important just getting every single rep that I can get, just because I haven’t played a lot of real live reps, so getting everything I can get in practice has been important for me.”
