Colorado held its first spring scrimmage this evening, a short one to be sure, as it lasted about 20-25 plays, but nevertheless, there was a lot to observe and take in from the action.

The scrimmage was a brief, red zone situational exercise for both the offense and defense.

Freshman Brendon Lewis, junior JT Shrout and walk-on freshman Grant Ciccarone handled the QB duties; freshman Drew Carter did not partake, but Karl Dorrell said he expects to toss him into the mix for next Friday's scrimmage.

Suffice to say, the defense won the day handily.

Throughout the duration of the scrimmage as well as a bit prior, when the regular practice was going on, both Lewis and Shrout got picked off.

Sophomore corner Nigel Bethel had an interception on Lewis while sophomore safety Ray Robinson picked off Shrout.

As far as the running backs were concerned, sophomore Jarek Broussard handled first team duties, while freshman Ashaad Clayton took the second-most amount of handoffs.

Junior Alex Fontenot wasn't seen as much, although he did have a pretty nice rush up the middle before the scrimmage proper began that was without doubt the offensive highlight leading into the scrimmage proper.

I wouldn't bet the bank on this, but from what I saw out of the tailbacks, I'd say Clayton currently is up higher on the rep/depth chart than Fontenot.

We'll see if that sticks, but Clayton definitely was in there more regularly than Fontenot.

A final note on the tailbacks: I sincerely hope Colorado develops some goal line packages for freshman Jayle Stacks. That young man is a tank and it is very obvious how difficult a guy he is to bring down.

He was inserted for a few carries Friday and looked the part of a tough and quicker-than-he-appears back.

The only touchdown of the day by the offense came off Ciccarone's arm, as he connected with wideout and fellow walk-on freshman Michael Harrison for a score of about 18 yards.

Senior Matt Lynch was the main guy out there at tight end for the first team snaps and looked good going up against the first team defense, while junior Jared Poplawski and walk-on sophomore CJ Schmanski also were in the mix.

I was interested to see the offensive line Colorado has been rolling with, given that the position is banged up, and from left to right, it looked like this: (Fr.) Frank Fillip, (Sr.) Kary Kutsch, (Jr.) Colby Pursell, (So.) Kanan Ray and (Fr.) Jake Wiley.

Wiley in particular is a guy Dorrell mentioned as wanting to get significant reps and that appears to be the case this spring based on his grouping with the first team Friday.

As for the wideouts, the first team featured redshirt freshman Vontae Shenault, sophomore Dimitri Stanley and junior Daniel Arias.

Shenault made one grab in the leftside flats that he turned upfield for a nice gain; other than that, it was a pretty quiet day for the likes of Arias and Stanley.

Dorrell went with a freshman rotation at wideout for the No. 2 unit, comprised of Keith Miller, Chris Carpenter and Montana Lemonious-Craig, the latter of whom made a pretty nice catch and run in the scrimmage.

Carpenter, along with Stanley, also was the main guy returning punts, from what I observed.As for the defense, junior Carson Wells looked sharp, notching a few QBPs and a sack (no tackling of the quarterbacks took place) of Lewis.

Freshman Devin Grant also got in the action and had a few loud, crackling tackles.

Juniors Jon Van Diest and Quinn Perry were the primary inside linebackers, with Van Diest at the Mike position, calling the huddles and relaying the play calls from the sideline.

Freshman Christian Gonzalez and junior Mekhi Blackmon, as expected, took the first team reps at cornerback, while Bethel definitely impressed, as well. Freshman Tyrin Taylor held his own in some limited action, too.

One guy I certainly was looking to keep an eye out for was graduate transfer Robert Barnes. I admit, from my vantage point I didn't get to watch him in as meticulous a manner as I'd hoped, but he did not appear to be playing in a traditional ILB spot, even though that's how he is listed.

I'm not sure if he has been seeing reps at STAR, but Barnes seemed to be playing more of a hybrid role Friday than say Van Diest or Perry.

As expected, I saw a lot of sophomore Mark Perry and junior Isaiah Lewis on the back end of things.

Finally, with respect to the d-line, sophomore Jalen Sami, junior Janaz Jordan and sophomore Na'im Rodman I saw out there a lot.

Rodman was interesting to see out there; I think he fell a bit down the depth chart in 2020 following his essential baptism by fire campaign in 2019.

As for additional non-participants, freshman wideout Brenden Rice and junior tight end Brady Russell both were not suited up and didn't partake.

Linebackers Nate Landman and Mister Williams, both of whom were listed as injured heading into the scrimmage, spent a lot of time together; it's clear that Landman has taken him under his wing and took the time to break down various plays as they happened.

While Carter didn't get into the scrimmage, he was tutored by veteran and senior Sam Noyer, with a similar dynamic that Landman and Williams shared being visible with Noyer and Carter.

Offensive linemen Casey Roddick and Chance Lytle were also at the practice and neither of them had any boots or braces on, which seems to be a good sign.