Fans and coaches alike got a good preview of the situation at tailback for the Colorado Buffaloes during the team's annual Spring Game this past Saturday. Those of you that tuned in or paid attention to the offense likely were impressed first and foremost with freshman RB Jaren Mangham, who led the tailbacks with his 149 yards on the ground via 12 carries.
He also scored three touchdowns, including an exciting 65-yard run in the fourth quarter, which overshadowed an earlier 35-yard TD he scored in the second which was equally impressive.
“The guy has a lot — a lot of potential," said CU running backs coach Darian Hagan. "He just needs to continue to work hard and that light switch will turn on [for him]. Right now, he’s a freshman so he’s not consistent all the time, but today he was. Today he did a really, really good job.”
And there we have it: consistency. It's been a big talking point this spring as Mel Tucker and his staff have gotten the operation going in their first preseason at Colorado. Tyson Summers said something similar after Saturday's game wrapped, mentioning that all spring, he felt like the defense didn't have a Monday-Wednesday-Friday week of consistently good practices.
Probably fair to assume the same, narrowing things down to just the tailbacks. Youth and inexperience define this group featuring Mangham, Deion Smith, Alex Fontenot, Jarek Broussard and Joe Davis.
As you might expect, Hagan indicated that after Saturday, nothing is nailed down in terms of determining a No. 1 guy or specifying guys' roles down the line.
"Everything is still wide open," he said. "Everybody’s young [and] nobody’s played [in a game yet]. The best guy is going to play.”
Despite issues pertaining to consistency, as Hagan alluded to, Mangham obviously did much to increase his stock in the eyes of coaches with his performance at the Spring Game.
It goes without saying that the situation at the tailback position this spring and heading into the fall is uncharted waters for the Colorado Buffaloes, at least in terms of recent memory. All through the Mike MacIntyre era (with the exception of the 2013 season) fans knew damn well who was getting 90% of the handoffs.
Now, CU is in a unique position where there's nearly half a dozen guys chomping at the bit to try to earn that starting role. Who knows, maybe that question will still be unfolding in the first few games.
Fontenot took somewhat of the backseat during Saturday's game; his 34 yards on 9 carries and 3.8 YPC average certainly wasn't nearly as sexy as the numbers Mangham put up and considering all of the standout performances by the WRs during the scrimmage, Fontenot simply wasn't on the tip of anyone's tongue.
That said, according to Hagan, Fontenot had a good spring.
""Saturday], Mangham stood out," he said. "[Over spring] Alex Fontenot, he's probably been the most consistent. All of them have done really good things, just all of them are not being consistent."
We could hammer in this nail regarding consistency until the end of time. At the end of the day, Colorado has a squad of young backs, all of whom possess no real game experience. A lack of consistency in spring shouldn't come as a surprise or warrant concern.
Here's a final tidbit from Saturday's game, and it comes in the form of rushes for 5-plus yards by each Colorado tailback. Smith led by a significant margin, as his 8 such runs were double the 4 apiece registered by Mangham and Fontenot, who tied for second.
Davis had 3 and Broussard had 2.
Which RB impressed you the most and why? Was it Mangham via his overall stat line and the big runs, or maybe Smith's consistent gains of solid yardage?
