CU Buffs Football: Monday Notebook
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The Colorado Buffaloes got wide receiver Laviska Shenault back from missing a few weeks with a turf toe injury, but the Buffs were without wide receivers KD Nixon and Jay MacIntyre, safety Evan Worthington, and special teamers Beau Bisharat, James Stefanou, and Alex Kinney against Washington State in a blowout loss this past Saturday.
CU head coach Mike MacIntyre hopes to get more of these players back for this Saturday's home matchup with Utah.
"It's still day-to-day on all of them," MacIntyre said. "We'll know more tomorrow. Today, a couple of guys were out there moving around a little bit, but I'm not sure if they're going to be able to go or not. I'll know as the week goes on."
Shenault had 10 catches for 102 yards in his return, and he didn't suffer any setbacks.
"He was a little rusty, which we (expected), but I thought he competed well and did some good things ... He's practicing more this week; it will help him be more efficient in the game," MacIntyre said. "I thought overall him gutting it out was good."
Thankfully, Colorado didn't lose All Pac-12 caliber inside linebacker Nate Landman to injury, but the Buffs did lose Landman to a targeting call in the first half of the WSU game.
"It hurts us when you don't have one of your most productive defensive players out there," MacIntyre said. "Hopefully, he won't have another targeting. Both of his [targeting ejections] were the right calls, but they're really hard -- it's not like launched, it's not like he aimed, it's not like the guy wasn't running. It's a hard deal ... It's a hard situation."
The Buffs 5-5 (2-5 Pac-12) have their final home game of the 2018 season as Utah comes to town for an 11:30 a.m. kickoff on the Pac-12 Networks. It will be Jay MacIntyre's final game at Folsom Field, which is emotional for Coach MacIntyre.
"Anytime you see your kid do the last of anything -- graduate high school, graduate from junior high, there's always those different emotions," said MacIntyre.
Utah 7-3 (5-3 Pac-12) needs to beat Colorado to have a shot at winning the Pac-12 South. The Utes need to beat CU and have ASU lose to either Oregon or Arizona to win the division.
"I see big, physical, aggressive dudes," MacIntyre said of Utah. "They're a physical football team. They play quite a bit man coverage. They're very similar to Washington in a lot of ways; they play man coverage, single high. They'll do some Cover 2 like Washington did."
