With respect to a true freshman starting at cornerback for Colorado, it should go without saying how an opposing offense's scouting report is conducted in hopes of taking advantage of that when facing the Buffaloes.
Of course, Christian Gonzalez is the aforementioned true freshman corner and CU's opponents have certainly looked to test him.
No clearer was this than against Stanford, when receivers Gonzalez was covering saw a whopping 13 passes come their way, nine of which were catches.
Gonzalez, far from surprised, had a good idea that weekly opponents would be probing in his neck of the woods to see if his youth correlated to a weak spot within the Buffs' defensive backfield.
“I knew that was going to happen coming in, especially if I was going to play early," Gonzalez said. "(Teams are) going to target freshmen — that’s always a go-to. It’s in the back of my head but it’s really just football. I’ve been playing this game forever, so it’s nothing really different. (You have to) play, don’t think.”
In his first collegiate action vs. UCLA, Gonzalez was targeted five times, allowing one catch. That said, he was flagged for a pair of defensive pass interference calls in the process.
Then came a road trip to face the Cardinal, which saw Gonzalez flagged once more for pass interference.
If those first two tastes of college football taught him anything, it was the need for a Pac-12 defensive back to have the memory of a goldfish.
"The penalties got to me, but I just learned to push on and move to the next play," he said.
The Buffaloes on the whole had a nice defensive turnaround this past Saturday vs. San Diego State, allowing just a field goal to the Aztecs' offense.
For his part, Gonzalez allowed three catches on five targets, but was quick to limit the damage, evidenced by two yards after the catch he allowed on all three receptions.
In three straight games he's played as Colorado's starting right corner, Gonzalez's overall grade from Pro Football Focus has improved: he graded out at 53.4 vs. UCLA, 54.8 against Stanford and last Saturday, earned a 59.8.
Join the conversation on Christian Gonzalez at Buff Nation, the premiere message board community serving countless CU fanatics.
As this season has gone on, Gonzalez has been constantly tutored by position coach Demetrice Martin. He also singled out a specific fellow corner who's been a good friend and teammate to him.
"'Coach Meat’s' been on me — not in a bad way — but he’s a great coach and a great technician," Gonzalez said. "I’ve been using a lot of that and I’ve really just been with (junior) Mekhi (Blackmon). He’s taken me under his wing. He’s been helpful, funny — everything.”
And then there's Colorado's wide receiver corps, all of whom enjoy comparing techniques and counter techniques with their defensive back practice adversaries, and vice versa.
“(Senior) KD (Nixon) has helped me a lot — he’s given me his little pointers on what he reads so I know how to play other receivers," Gonzalez said. "Pretty much all the veteran receivers talk it out about what technique I use, what they need to beat that and what I can use to beat that with them.”
The win against San Diego State saw an impressive tightening of the bolts on defense, in the sense that the Buffs were exponentially better in many areas compared to the UCLA and Stanford games.
That included a season-low 24% third down conversion rate allowed to SDSU. Also of note, against UCLA, the Bruins had 16 plays go for 15 or more yards. Stanford had nine such plays.
The Aztecs, however, were limited to three. Coming off the best performance to date in 2020, Gonzalez and CU's defense look to be similarly as effective on the road this Saturday at Arizona.
“After that win, holding (San Diego State) to three points, that was definitely a huge confidence booster after the first two games," Gonzalez said. "It’s all about practice — we’ll just keep getting after it and keep working.”
