Colorado soon will have a new scrapper in town, an under-the-radar player more than ready to remove the stigma of being a preferred walk-on and forge his path as a successful collegiate athlete.
That player is Justin Schafer, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound WR from Ladera Ranch, Calif., who became the Buffs' newest addition to the Class of 2020, committing as a PWO on Monday afternoon.
As a senior at Tesoro High, Schafer caught 80 passes for 1,091 yards and 14 TDs.
Schafer received scholarship offers from Chicago and San Diego, while Stanford and Wake Forest offered him as a PWO. For Schafer, he understands the connotation that comes with joining the team as a non-scholarship player, but he sees it as a challenge to embrace and tackle.
“I’m coming in obviously with the title of PWO but that’s not how I’m thinking of it," he said. "I want to earn my way onto the field and I fully plan on earning my scholarship while I’m at CU. I definitely have something to prove and I do feel under-recruited — (but) I’m going to show everyone what I’m capable of.”
Schafer was offered as a PWO by Colorado WRs coach Darrin Chiaverini, who liked what he saw from the former's film.
“Coach did say he likes me in the slot, which is what most schools have seen me as," Schafer said. "Obviously, he says that I need to get bigger before I can get on the field. I’ve got a lot of work to do in the weight room, but he just likes how I play aggressive, how I compete and I really appreciate that he’s taking a chance on me.”
Right now, Schafer is weighing in at 175 pounds, but between now and when he arrives in Boulder over the summer, he wants to add at least 10 pounds to his frame.
Chiaverini and Schafer have been in contact since this past April, when the latter first made it up to Boulder for a visit. It didn't take long before Schafer to decide Chiaverini was the coach and Colorado was the school he wanted to play for.
"I reached out to coach Chiaverini, sent my film to him and set up a visit," Schafer said. "That got the whole process rolling from there. I took another visit out there for the Arizona game. I honestly felt great about Colorado from the moment I set foot on campus, but the second visit really confirmed that this was the place I wanted to be. I’m just really excited to get to work.”
“Coach Chev is great. He’s honestly been my favorite coach whom I’ve met throughout the process. I feel great about my relationship with him and I’m super excited to work with him. He’s done a ton of work — his receivers are always playing well.”
Academically, Schafer plans to major in political science at Colorado with the hopes of one day following in the footsteps of his father and becoming a lawyer.
Schafer said a WR he's looked up to as he works to take the next step in his career is the Chargers' Keenan Allen, who was a third round draft pick out of Cal Berkeley in 2013.
"I really admire his route running and he’s a lot like me — he’s not necessarily the biggest or the fastest, but he knows how to get open, get off the ball, he makes plays and he makes stuff happen with what he’s given," he said.
While Colorado most definitely is talented and deep at WR in 2020 and beyond, look to Schafer as a guy who has solid potential to fly in under the radar and make a name for himself at CU, one way or another.
