During Colorado's scrimmage Friday evening in Boulder — the first of four "spring showcases" that the team will conduct — freshman Brendon Lewis and junior transfer JT Shrout took the lion's share of snaps at quarterback, rotating in and out for the majority of the brief, 20-ish minute exercise.

Friday's scrimmage had an emphasis on the red zone, with interchanging units on both offense and defense facing off in controlled sequences from the 25-yard line.

The third quarterback to enter the fray Friday was freshman walk-on Grant Ciccarone, who ironically enough, threw the scrimmage's only touchdown pass, which was caught in the right corner of the endzone by fellow walk-on Michael Harrison from about 18 yards out.

Notably missing from the action was freshman Drew Carter, the lone quarterback Colorado took from the high school level in its 2021 recruiting class.

Carter, a native of Tigard, Oregon, enjoyed a pretty prolific preps career, starting at quarterback for Tigard from the time he was a freshman.

By the time his high school career had ended, he'd thrown for 6,955 yards and 54 touchdowns in a three-year stint as the Tigers' starter.

The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled his fall senior season, after which he ended up enrolling early at CU this past January.

For Carter, high school is the past. Learning the ropes and getting ready for Power Five, Pac-12 competition is the present.

Ciccarone getting some action at quarterback while Carter watched from the sidelines may well equate to Colorado's freshman signal caller getting a slice of humble pie.

“Drew is progressing," Karl Dorrell said. "He’s not quite ready to trigger in a scrimmage yet. I would say he’s still learning and digesting a lot of information."

In Carter's defense, Dorrell indicated that he likes where he's at in terms of getting acclimated.

Additionally, Carter wasn't just sitting idly during the scrimmage. He spent a lot of time next to senior Sam Noyer, who is out for the spring recovering from shoulder surgery, going through some snap motions and asking questions.

At the end of the day, Carter is a newcomer to the program. Him not being 100% ready to run the show of the offense during the first scrimmage of spring shouldn't be seen as indicative of him struggling.

"If you can imagine how 'B-Lew' would have been last year when I got the job, if we’d had a spring practice, he would have been swimming, just figuring out what we were doing offensively," Dorrell said. "That’s what Drew feels, where he just stepped on campus a few months ago and he’s learning the system."

Carter will doubtless see some action as this spring continues to go on, but Dorrell, Darrin Chiaverini and Danny Langsdorf don't want to rush him into anything he's not fully prepared for.

For those that do want to get a glimpse of Carter, don't worry. That could happen as early as next week, when the Buffs will go through scrimmage No. 2 of the spring this upcoming Friday.

"The goal though is to get him some scrimmage time next week, when we have a bigger scrimmage and to get him some exposure to some things," Dorrell said. "We’re bringing him along at a pace that’s probably about right for him.”