While the pleas from fans for a coaching change grow louder after a disastrous 0-3 start, Colorado coach Karl Dorrell continues his efforts to salvage the season and his tenure while hoping to shift the Buffaloes' narrative Saturday against UCLA.
Entering Week 4, Dorrell’s main focus remains on the issues at quarterback and he's exploring more options ahead of the Buffs' Pac-12 opener.
True freshman Owen McCown is taking first-team reps this week after his performance on Saturday, where he passed for more yards (52) on 7 attempts in the final 4 minutes at Minnesota than Brendon Lewis and J.T. Shrout combined for (38) in 17 attempts.
“We’re [trying] them all,” Dorrell said. “They’re all doing that so we are going to continue to get everything ready. … Those are the three primary guys that are getting the reps so we’re seeing how [McCown's] week goes and B-Lew and J.T. had some really good days too. So we’re evaluating still.”
For the quarterbacks, the Buffs' Wednesday practice focused on pocket presence in third down scenarios as well as running pressure drills. Dorrell aims to minimize all of his QBs from prematurely breaking out of the pocket, a common reflex this season he hopes to correct, and “they’re really getting better,” he said.
The close quarterback competition now consists of three options with their own questions, and reaching for McCown despite his lack of collegiate experience and limited time in the program period demonstrates the current desperation to create any offensive breakthroughs.
If that were Dorrell's only problem ...
On defense, defending the rush has been a consistent weak point as the Buffs have allowed an average of 348 rushing yards per game. UCLA presents another solid rushing attack (211 yards per game), in which both veteran running back Zach Charbonnet (189 rushing yards, 5.6 yards per carry) and dual-threat quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (114 rushing yards, 8.1 per attempt) demand consistent defensive attention.
Dorrell and defensive coordinator Chris Wilson have drafted up some new wrinkles to address the run defense struggles.
“We put in a couple new plays in terms of where the defensive standpoint, from a front perspective, but we know what our ills are there,” Dorrell said. “It just comes down to a point of just making plays and getting guys in position.”
So far it’s been another “good week” defensively in practice, per Dorrell, but the Buffs are a 21.5-point underdog at home vs. a Bruins team that barely escaped with a 32-31 win on a final second field goal against South Alabama last weekend.
But the Bruins handled business easily against Colorado last year with a 44-20 win in Pasadena, Calif., while outscoring the Buffs 34-0 in the second half (another area of weakness for this CU team as well.)
“There’s still a veteran presence there,” Dorrell said. “[Thompson-Robinson] really helps that process because he’s been in close games before. He’s been behind and came back from some games.”
Colorado continues to juggle various challenges across the board. But if fans are looking for any ray source of optimism, UCLA has lost in its last three trips to Boulder. So there's that.
Perhaps UCLA may give CU a window of opportunity to turn Dorrell’s words into action, but the trajectory for the Buffs is less than encouraging.
Alex Fontenot to miss a second straight game
Running back Alex Fontenot will not play on Saturday due to a chest injury he endured against Air Force. The coaching staff hoped to have Fontenot running by the end of the week, but he is having difficulty breathing.
Deion Smith is CU’s lead back, and Dorrell explained how Smith needs to build more consistency in his reads as he missed the corner blitz on the first snap of the game last week, causing Shrout’s fumble.
