On Tuesday afternoon, Buffs head coach Karl Dorrell joined media members over Zoom to discuss Colorado's upcoming slate of 15 spring practices, the first of which starts Wednesday in Boulder.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, this batch of spring practices represents the first since Dorrell arrived at CU in which social distancing, masks and other restrictions won't be a factor.

"We're just excited to get back on the field" he said. "But with that excitement, we know tat there's a lot of work to be done."

For Dorrell, his staff and his players, the next month represents an important period of time in which numerous to-do items will look to be tackled.

For starters, Dorrell's six new assistant coaches will take the field with their respective position groups for the first time beginning Wednesday.

The newest of those coaches, Gerald Chatman, who is overseeing the d-line, was hired only on March 7 and has been getting settled in Boulder for about two weeks.

A primary task on the plate of Dorrell's is taking the first steps at implementing first-year coordinator Mike Sanford's offensive scheme.

Dorrell made note repeatedly of CU's 4-8 2021 campaign and how players and coaches alike were eager to get to work with the intention of laying the preseason groundwork necessary to improving across the board in 2022.

Key to that happening will be the success of Sanford's offense, and over the next 15 practices, he will get his first crack at trying to better a CU offensive unit that finished 126th in passing offense last year among 130 FBS programs.

However, Dorrell did not have any illusions about forging a new identity for the Buffs' offensively overnight.

"We don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like as a breakdown, but…we want to create balance," he said. "We want to be able to throw the ball much, much better than what we (did) a year ago, where we didn’t have a lot of yards and a lot of touchdowns and a high completion percentage.

"We want to improve our running game, so, there’s definitely a lot of areas offensively that we want to make sure we address. But I think the identity part will define itself at some point, it’s hard to say what that is right now.”

The Buffaloes have a good handful of players whose level of participation this spring will be determined following in-season or offseason surgeries dating back to last year.

Perhaps most prominent among that group is sophomore quarterback J.T. Shrout, who transferred to CU from Tennessee last January but had his 2021 season prematurely ended when he suffered a knee injury in mid-August.

Shrout is closing in on a return to being a full participant in practice, but, per Dorrell, that likely won't be in the cards this spring.

While he'll be cleared for individual drills, throwing passes and taking part in 7-on-7 sequences, Shrout is not cleared for full contact or live scrimmages at the moment.

"We definitely feel he’s ahead of the curve right now, but we want to be cautious as to how much work we give him this spring," Dorrell said. "We want to make sure he comes out of spring feeling that he’s made some great progress not only from an offensive standpoint, but physically, that he feels he’s on the right track to being a full-fledged competitive player."

Junior cornerbacks Jaylen Striker and Nigel Bethel, senior wideouts Maurice Bell and Jaylon Jackson plus sophomore outside linebacker Joshka Gustav are all notable injured players who will look to take the field this spring.

Granted, all of the aforementioned players suffered different injuries, warranting an individual approach into overseeing their eventual comebacks.

“There’s a lot of guys that have had surgeries during the season or surgeries after the season that will not be full participants this spring — they’ll be limited," Dorrell said. "They may gain full participation by the end of spring but we’ll have to cross those bridges when we get to them.

"...We want to make sure we’re doing it smart, bringing those guys along safely, where they are getting some work and getting better and they also are also getting better from a rehab standpoint.”

As the Buffs prepare to get underway Wednesday, Dorrell has a firm set of expectations.

“I know the energy’s going to be there and the competitiveness is going to be there," he said. "I want us to become a smarter, more confined team which really understands the game a little bit better.

"I feel good about what this team has done to this point. I’m cautiously optimistic about how I feel we’re going to have an excellent spring. But, we still have to put that into action.”

From schematic implementation, to injury recovery, to position battles — Dorrell is confident that his players will come out swinging Wednesday afternoon.

“There’s a lot of motivation within this team in all different ways about being competitive, making their mark on this football team," Dorrell said. "We’ve got a lot to prove. Obviously, we’ve got a bad taste in our mouth from last season.

"It wasn’t the type of season we were expecting, so we definitely have some work to do and (players) understand that. They’re ready to get to work and really start developing to get this team as good as it can be.”