Colorado head coach Mel Tucker has said on numerous occasions that his team would have a sense of urgency about them.

Through two days of spring practices, he's kept his word. The Buffs have been up-tempo with everything they do.

"I'm really excited about what I see from the players," Tucker said on Wednesday. "They're doing a great job. The tempo has been good. They're working well together. We got a lot of good work done today."

"The intensity is way higher than last year," added senior linebacker/safety Davion Taylor. "I'm really liking it. It's testing all of our characters and seeing what we can do."

Leading up to spring ball, the Buffs had several weeks of conditioning to prepare the players for what a Mel Tucker ran practice would be like. Tucker feels that his players knew what to expect this week.

"I don't think they were surprised," he said. "I know that the way we worked in our offseason program was up-tempo. We pushed them really hard for nine weeks. We were up-tempo on Monday (CU's first spring practice).

"That's the way the games are going to be. We want to make the practices harder than the games. We have to go hard every snap."

Tucker had good things to say about the Buffs' first day of spring ball and echoed those praises following day two.

"They ran to the ball a lot better on both sides of the ball," said Tucker. "We had better tempo and we stayed off the ground. I was really happy about that."

When asked about his coaching style, Tucker said that he loves to teach, motivate, and develop his players. If his staff can do those things, they'll have a successful first spring under the former Georgia defensive coordinator.

"I want to make sure when we come out of spring ball, we know what everyone can do. We know where they are and where we have to go in the summer," Tucker said. "We want to establish our tempo and our brand of football. We want to make sure we get better each and every day. If we do that, we'll be successful this spring."

PRACTICE REPORT: With Laviska Shenault Jr. still recovering from surgery, the Buffs are mixing and matching their wide receiver lineups with the No. 1 offense. Among those getting some No. 1 snaps Wednesday were K.D. Nixon, Dimitri Stanley and Tony Brown. … Also making a nice catch in the end zone was Daniel Arias. … Quarterback Tyler Lytle showed some nice speed on a long run down the sidelines. ...

CU's defensive coaches are getting Davion Taylor into a variety of roles to try to utilize his speed and size. It's likely he will end up in what Tucker called his "Star" position at Georgia, similar to a nickel back.

For more practice notes, continue reading here at cubuffs.com