Colorado scrimmage No. 1 notebook

The Buffaloes conducted their first of three spring scrimmages at Folsom Field on Saturday afternoon. Below is a recap of the day's action complete with observations, notes and quotes from both Karl Dorrell and players.

First team OL, from left to right: Jake Wiley (LT), Tommy Brown (LG), Noah Fenske (C), Casey Roddick (RG), Frank Fillip (RT).

No real surprises there, although Kyle DeVan insists that Brown will try out at tackle sometime this spring. We'll see if that happens.

Second team OL, left to right: Jack Seavall (LT), Ben Reznik (LG), Austin Johnson (C), Jackson Anderson (RG), Travis Gray (RT).

Johnson cycled in with Fenske on the first unit but other than that, the first team and second teams were largely kept together throughout the scrimmage.

Terrance Lang, Jalen Sami and Na'im Rodman were the three starting DLs, with Allan Baugh, Ryan Williams and Chance Main taking reps with the second team.

Robert Barnes and Quinn Perry handled ILB duties, with Marvin Ham seeing some first team reps in CU's three-ILB packages, as well.

Isaac Hurtado was in along with walk-on Tommy Notarainni for second team.

At corner, Nikko Reed and Kaylin Moore saw first-team reps, with Tyrin Taylor at nickel.

Jason Oliver (no contact) and Joshua Wiggins served as the second-team CBs.

Safety was a bit of a revolving door since Isaiah Lewis is a no-contact player for now.

Walk-on Anthony Lyle saw a lot of action back there, with Trevor Woods getting in the mix, as well.

Shifting back to offense, Alex Fontenot (hamstring) didn't partake today, so Deion Smith and Jayle Stacks were the only scholarship RBs available.

Finally, at tight end, Erik Olsen, Austin Smith and Louis Passarello were the three guys rotating in, due to Brady Russell and Caleb Fauria being no-contact.

Daniel Arias made a number of nice plays today, including a 15-yard touchdown reception during red zone sequences. Earlier in the scrimmage, he elevated for a 44-yard gain to put CU's offense on the 1-yard line.

Karl Dorrell: "A guy with his size and speed, you would hope that when he gets a chance to get one-on-one coverage, we're expecting him to win those battles. He had a great battle with a jump ball in the early part of the scrimmage, so he's doing the things that we expect him to do."

Brendon Lewis: "To see him go out there, jumping over guys, that's something he's been able to work on this entire offseason. You can tell from being out there that he's getting better and better at it each and every day. It's pretty exciting watching hm go out there and catch those high-point balls like that."

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Nikko Reed and Joshua Wiggins both had a few PBUs at cornerback that stuck out. Reed had one on the first attempted pass of the scrimmage, while Wiggins broke up a pass in the endzone from Drew Carter that was intended for Smith.

Neither player is towering in terms of height; Reed is only 5-foot-10 while Wiggins in 6-foot-1, but both performed well overall Saturday in getting their hands involved and being physical.

Dorrell: "The things that you saw (Reed) do today, he was doing a year ago...He's on track — I'll tell you that. He's on track to do all the things that we expect him to do. It's good to see that he was in a rhythm. We're very pleased with him and I thought Josh Wiggins, a young man, made a nice play on the other side. There were some good pass breakups."

Reed: "I feel like Josh Wiggins — he's up there. He has a lot of technique, so he knows what he's doing."

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Olsen, at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, very much looks the part of a domineering tight end. He had a really nice play during one of the Buffs' redzone sequences where he caught a pass from Lewis near the line of scrimmage and broke a few tackles before turning up the left sideline en route to a 15-yard gain.

Both Montana Lemonious-Craig and RJ Sneed had some nice catches during the action, with Lemonious-Craig hauling in a fade off the fingers of Lewis, dragging his toes near the 40-yard line to make the reception.

Sneed played in the slot all afternoon and continues to earn the praise of his teammates.

Lewis: "He's a really smart receiver that has a lot of experience. He's a really smart guy, he knows where the holes are in the defense, how to read defenses and he's also a great teammate. He's one of the leaders in the wide receivers room and he's one of the leaders on this offense. He's a really chill guy — I love playing with him."

Lemonious-Craig: "He brings the veteran-style play to us. At the end of the day, he doesn't get nervous, he doesn't worry about anything — he's more of a calm-style guy."

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In terms of offensive efficiency, it was a mixed bag for CU's units.

Deion Smith scored a short-yardage touchdown following Arias' 44-yard catch and Arias later had the other touchdown of the day on a reception from Lewis.

But throughout the scrimmage, Colorado's defense was able to apply pressure on the quarterback, Lewis in particular, forcing numerous rollouts, notching a sack and forcing his movement throughout the pocket.

There weren't many explosive plays on the ground, either. Smith was largely contained on his runs and Stacks was stopped behind the line of scrimmage a few times, as well.It seems fair to say that the d-line won the day.

Roddick: "There were a couple of sacks. I think we've got to minimize the sacks and minimize the pressures, as well...But, if I were to grade (today), I would give us an 80. I think it was a good day."

"I really liked the work today, I really did. When you're thin in a lot of spots, it's really strategic in terms of play count, how long you want (guys) out there, how long you want to sustain a drive, things like that. I tried to do the best I could to get out of the scrimmage— I think we just have a few (players) nicked, but nothing major.

But it was good to see a lot of our guys get work. Everybody got work today, all the way down to our walk-ons that usually don't get many reps...I thought defensively, they made stops when they needed to. I think we had a couple scores offensively, but for the most part, their body of work today — they kept (the offense) relatively out of sustaining drives and keeping them out of the endzone.

It was good progress. After roughly almost two weeks, I felt it was a good idea. I would say it was a pretty vanilla scrimmage. We didn't want to show too much, given it was a public scrimmage, but we did what we wanted to do today in terms of seeing our base level schemes and how well we could execute those on both sides of the ball. I thought we did a good job of give and take. There was good competitiveness on both sides of the ball."