Cherry Creek soon-to-be senior offensive lineman Carson Lee and his teammates have been gearing up for the 2019 campaign, Lee's last before he'll join the Colorado Buffaloes. At this time next year, Lee will likely be conditioning and working out with the Buffs.

"[Wednesday] was our first day of contact so that was a ton of fun getting back into the swing of things and seeing how we’re going to progress," Lee said. "We’ve got a lot of key players like Arden Walker and Chase Penry who’ve already been offered by CU. It’s been awesome this summer.”

For Lee, in addition to team workouts, he's personally been taking steps to shed some weight before and throughout his senior season with the Bruins.

"I’m trying to lose a little bit of weight," he said. "I was at 335 at the end of the spring and I’m at about 320 now, hoping to get down to about 10 more pounds before the season, just so I’m a bit quicker and lighter on my feet.”

Lee said that Colorado and namely Chris Kapilovic haven't put too much emphasis on an exact number they'd like to see him at by the time he's at CU, but of course with Kapilovic's emphasis on his linemen being 300 pounds or more, it's probably fair to say Lee won't be going under 310.

"They weren’t really concerned with my weight because they know once I get up there, they’ll shape my body the way they want it to be," he said. "It’s mainly something me and my high school coach have talked about."

Lee's desire to lose some pounds is more of his own prerogative.

"I don’t want to get these bad habits to where once I get out of college and out of a routine everyday and diet, I absolutely balloon up," he said. "I want to get into better habits right now, control what I eat and things of that nature. I just didn’t want to be as heavy as I was and didn’t completely know how to do it so I got set up with a nutritionist and I’ve been meeting her once a week — it’s been going really well so far.”

As for the Class of 2020, which is now 14 members strong, Lee feels that the Buffaloes have crossed a threshold or broken the glass ceiling that comes with the territory of recruiting kids to a program that went 5-7 in consecutive seasons. That's been a work in progress that's worked almost like falling dominoes as more and more high-profile guys join the fold.

"People are finally getting the message that coach Tucker and the rest of the coaching staff have been trying to give," Lee said. "It’s as simple as kids taking a visit out here and seeing how beautiful our campus is, the new mindset that the coaches have and what the University of Colorado has to offer. I think after all these OVs have been coming through, kids are seeing firsthand that this is a special place. What does Colorado not have that other schools do? It’s very hard to find things that we don’t have at CU."

As the class grows, so does the rapport between recruits.

“For me personally, I talked to a lot of the guys before they committed so I already had an established relationship with Brendon Lewis, Jake Wray, Keith Miller III — a bunch," Lee said. It was just a matter of us getting together a few times and hanging out, and from there, everybody else is starting to get to know each other and becoming really good friends."