Montana Lemonious-Craig is having a productive and promising spring

As has been the case in every year of the immediate past, wide receiver is a strong position group, in terms of depth, for the Buffaloes.

In a crowded room full of capable performers, freshman Montana Lemonious-Craig has had himself a solid spring thus far, one in which he's been able to showcase his abilities and force himself into the conversation of players that deserve consideration for reps heading into the fall.

During Friday's scrimmage in Boulder, the Buffaloes' second of the spring, junior tailback Alex Fontenot undoubtedly took home game MVP honors.

In total, (stats were not formally kept) he appeared to finish the day in the realm of 100 all-purpose yards, coupling some impressive, powerful runs with a handful of receptions out of the backfield.

But closely behind Fontenot in terms of players who had solid performances, was Lemonious-Craig, who had four receptions for roughly 40 yards and a touchdown.

He scored the first touchdown of the day for Colorado's offense, which came off the arm of junior transfer JT Shrout.

Interestingly, Shrout, a Newcall, Calif., native, and Lemonious-Craig, who grew up about an hour south of Shrout within Los Angeles proper (Inglewood), had a prior relationship before both wound up at CU.

Clearly, Shrout and Lemonious-Craig are in the opening stages of developing a robust working relationship with one another.

"When you’re talking about Montana, he’s a super hard worker," Shrout said. "I actually knew him in high school, played some 7-on-7 with him back in the day and then to really see him develop from when I got to throw with him back then to where he’s at now and how much of a hard worker he is and how much he cares, it really speaks a lot about his character and how much he really wants this."

"It’s been really good to see him grow and I think he’s going to be a special player here.”

By all indications, Lemonious-Craig has done some good work in terms of earning the trust of coaches and his quarterbacks alike.

As he continues through this spring, Lemonious-Craig has made a case for himself to see first-team reps and extended action on offense in general.

With fellow freshman Brenden Rice still out, nursing a finger injury as well as awaiting COVID-19 clearance to practice with the Buffs, and with redshirt freshman Vontae Shenault also not partaking in Friday's scrimmage, Lemonious-Craig got a lot of action in alongside junior Daniel Arias and sophomore Dimitri Stanley.

For Karl Dorrell, seeing Lemonious-Craig develop an on-field bond with his signal callers is a sign of maturity.

“Montana’s growing into being, I call it a comfort piece for the quarterback," he said. "You know, guys that are open that are usually productive and they do something good with the football."

"Montana is kind of getting in that role with the quarterbacks and they’re really comfortable with him. For a young player, that’s a good thing."

As Dorrell has stated in the past, spring ball is more about coaches evaluating the players than it is establishing a concrete depth chart.

There is much work to be done throughout the rest of April and heading into August's camp before all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled regarding the depth chart, but be that as it may, Lemonious-Craig is on track to end this spring in good shape leading up to the summer.

"We know that he’s going to be a big part of what we do going forward," Dorrell said. "It’s good to see that there’s some comfort there that the quarterbacks feel with him.”