Colorado held its annual spring game during Saturday’s Black and Gold day, where fans got their first look at the second iteration of Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes.
The Buffs showcased new looks on offense and defense under coordinators Pat Shurmur and Robert Livingston, and some of the new faces on both sides were showing out on a rainy day at Folsom Field.
Here were our top five takeaways from Saturday’s showcase (which officially ended in a 28-24 edge for the offense, using an adjusted scoring system).
RELATED: Watch the postgame press conference with Deion Sanders, Shedeur Sanders and Charlie Offerdahl | Full transcript of Deion Sanders' comments
Both coordinators played things pretty close to the vest
On Thursday, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said he wasn’t going to show a lot of the new stuff that the Buffs have been doing with their offense, instead reusing a lot of what they carried over from last season along with “some wrinkles for the fans”. Aside from a few reverses from the second unit, it turns out both sides of the ball were content keeping things pretty vanilla.
Offensively, the starting unit for the Buffs did a lot of the same things seen last season. They lined up in mostly 10 personnel with four receivers and a running back and ran mostly quick-game passes with a few downfield shots to FAU transfer LaJohntay Wester out of the slot. Shedeur Sanders found Wester on the first series for a 24-yard score in the back of the end zone, and the starters moved the ball efficiently for most of the afternoon.
On defense, new coordinator Robert Livingston didn’t reveal too much either, sticking to mostly four-man pressures with traditional cover-1 man coverages with some zone coverage mixed in. Overall, the day wasn’t too revealing on what the Buffs are going to do schematically this fall.
LaJohntay Wester is going to catch a lot of passes this fall
Despite the lack of flair offensively when it comes to the play calls, one man continued to stick out. Wester repeatedly got open against all types of coverages, and Shedeur Sanders found him over and over again down the field.
The Buffs looked for Wester at all three levels of the field, and Sanders also found him out of structure for a good gain on the left side. Shurmur also drew up a slot fade for Wester against man coverage, which was broken up by Herman Smith III.
"I'm not going to say he was featured, I'm going to say that was (Shedeur's) reads," Deion Sanders said afterwards. "Shedeur reads the defense, whatever they're playing he makes the proper reads. He rarely misses reads. So Wester was the guy. One day it may be Jimmy (Horn), one play it may be Jimmy, it may be Travis (Hunter). You never know."
In the end, Wester caught there passes for 66 yards and a score. The chemistry between Sanders and Wester is clearly already there after just a few months, and the two should connect on plenty of passes this fall.
