Maddox Kopp excited about upcoming opportunity with the Buffaloes
Earlier this week, the Buffs added a quarterback from the transfer portal in Maddox Kopp, who joins Colorado from the University of Houston after playing his true freshman season with the Cougars.
Kopp, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound Class of 2021 signal caller native Houston (St. Thomas), was recruited by QBs coach Danny Langsdorf and Colorado originally before ultimately choosing the Cougars in September, for whom he played one season, without seeing any game action.
In mid-November, Kopp entered the transfer portal and by the end of the month, he was able to take an official visit to Colorado.
“I felt comfortable with the staff and felt like I could spend the next four years on the campus in Colorado and Boulder," he said. "A couple other (schools) came in but I just couldn’t see me passing up on Colorado again.”
While Langsdorf recruited Kopp before his original commitment to Houston, it was CU's director of player personnel, Chandler Dorrell, who went after him in the transfer portal.
“It was mostly Chandler (Dorrell)," Kopp said. "Me and him got a good relationship and it went from there. I got to finally meet him and all the coaches, but me and Chandler — he was one of the first people to reach out. I honestly didn't talk to him the first time around but the second, I think he was the main person who was reaching out and all that kind of stuff.”
Generating legitimate competition at quarterback this upcoming preseason will be important for Colorado, which wrapped the 2021 football season with one of the worst offenses in all of college football.
Brendon Lewis, who will be a sophomore for the 2022 campaign, posted a 58% competition rate with 1,540 yards and 10 touchdowns as CU's starting quarterback in a debut season that would be best described as inconsistent.
Along with Lewis, the Buffs will also have sophomore Drew Carter, Kopp, a redshirt freshman, plus incoming true freshmen Owen McCown and Oakie Salave'a.
Junior J.T. Shrout will also re-join the mix after tearing his ACL this past August; when exactly he'll be able to take the field physically remains to be seen, however.
While Lewis got some action under his belt as Colorado's full-time starter in 2021, the overall inexperience within the Buffs' quarterbacks room led Kopp to believe that there was a good opportunity at hand in Boulder to go out and compete.
“That was one of the main reasons why I was so intrigued by Colorado," he said. "It presented an opportunity to go compete. One of the main reasons I went to the portal was that I just wanted the opportunity to compete and get better."
"I think competition brings the best out of everybody. Even if you don’t get that job, I think competition is something that is the backbone of football and it also has a lot to do with life.”
As Kopp prepares to join the Buffaloes this upcoming Jan. 7, he'll do so as a number of new coaches get settled in Boulder, as well, namely offensive coordinator Mike Sanford and line coach Kyle DeVan.
Furthermore, Karl Dorrell has yet to hash out who (Langsdorf vs. Sanford vs. someone else) will be overseeing the quarterbacks moving forward, in addition to naming a new wide receivers coach.
Despite Colorado bringing in some new coaches that Kopp at this point isn't exactly tight with, he looks forward to better getting a feel for their vision for CU's offense moving forward.
"I haven’t been able to talk with all the new coaches and get to know them but I have a feel for what they want to do on offense," he said. "Their pitch to me was that Colorado thinks that what I did and can do, they want to do — they want to do a lot of the RPO stuff and then they want to do the Pro Style, mixture of both. Run the ball downfield and then take shots.”