Colorado's QB-receiver duo J.T Shrout and Montana Lemonious-Craig along with interim head coach Mike Sanford will experience a homecoming of sorts playing at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Friday night.
Shrout’s football career began just outside of Los Angeles in Santa Clarita, Calif., and Lemonious-Craig grew up a brief 15-20 minute drive from the Coliseum in Inglewood. For Sanford, his family history associated with that stadium runs deep, all the way back to Mike Sanford Sr.’s time as a USC quarterback from 1973 to 1976.
“I grew up on that sideline, truly did,” Sanford said. “From the time really starting in 1989 all the way until ‘96. I have a lot of great memories in the Coliseum and then even at Stanford, creating some great memories coaching there at the Coliseum, certainly the 2007 [Stanford vs. USC] game was one that stands out to me for sure.”
Sanford reserved about “16 tickets” for his family and friends this week.
Shrout’s and Lemonious-Craig’s family and friends will also be sitting in the Coliseum stands.
Lemonious-Craig, who was a three-star prospect out of Inglewood High School, was named this week’s honorary captain for the USC game due to the proximity and his elevated role in the wide receiver unit with the injury to Jordyn Tyson, who is out for the season with a lower leg injury.
“Man, that’s like my little brother so it really hurt seeing him go down,” Lemonious-Craig said. “Me and him have been [that] one-two punch as the season has been ongoing. We’ve been playing off each other, getting each other open.”
With the loss of Tyson, “Montana’s role is going to be critical,” Sanford said.
Along with Lemonious-Craig, Daniel Arias is also expected to step up. He played on the special teams the past two games, but Sanford and the staff elevated his role in practice today to prepare him for some critical targets on Friday.
RJ Sneed is incrementally getting better and he’s “got to be a guy this week that we utilize a lot in the pass game,” Sanford said.
Shrout, meanwhile, made some modest progress as a passer against Oregon, completing 50 percent of his passes (17 of 34) for 247 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. That marked a season-high for completions and yardage -- after he completed just 13 of 34 passes against Arizona State -- although the turnovers were costly, compounded with other missed opportunities.
(For the record, Shrout, who was a three-star prospect out of Hart High School in Santa Clarita in the 2018 recruiting class, grew up in a UCLA household as his mom is a Bruins alum.)
“We gotta execute better and put ourselves in a better position to finish drives,” Shrout said. “I thought we moved the ball a little bit better than we had been previously, but we got to finish drives and capitalize with touchdowns.”
It sounds simple in concept, but it's proven an elusive goal for the Buffs, who have yet to effectively put all the offensive pieces together. Colorado's offense is getting better, but the disparity in offensive execution is underscored in the matchup this week with USC, which is a 34-point favorite entering the game -- the most lopsided spread Colorado has had this season.
Regardless of the overwhelming margin and the Buffs’ far from fun season, Shrout, Lemonious-Craig and Sanford are looking forward to the experience to play back in Los Angeles this week.
