Safety Mikial Onu and center Tim Lynott broke down how practice has been going this week for the DBs and offensive line, while looking ahead to the challenges of facing Arizona this Saturday afternoon in Boulder.
Onu on having to prep for two quarterbacks with two different skill sets: "You prepare for the worst, and by that I mean 'how can they hurt you the most?' We prepare for both QBs (Khalil Tate and Grant Gunnell) as if they're both running quarterbacks, as if they're both extremely accurate downfield and extremely accurate on intermediate throws — that way we're prepared for either so whoever they roll out there, we'll be ready."
***Arizona practices in the evening and as of the Wildcats' post-Monday night sequences, head coach Kevin Sumlin did not provide an injury update on Tate (hamstring) and tailback J.J. Taylor (ankle). It's possible later this evening new information will emerge but Sumlin and Arizona may take the route of the Buffs and Mel Tucker in keeping the cards close to chest on the statuses of the above offensive standouts.
Onu on the spread offense of Arizona / the challenges it presents for safeties and DBs: "I take it back to Air Force, not that it's the same kind of offense at all, but it's the same kind of eye discipline. At safety a lot of the time we're on the WRs but Arizona) run RPOs. They get people by getting people sucked in or (stuck) outside. We have to be sure we're not peeking inside because the moment peek inside and it's a fake, (the play is beyond us and moving) down the seam."
***Arizona has faced difficulty in the traditional run play department with the absence of Taylor, averaging just 3.3 YPC vs. UCLA last weekend, although three separate ball carriers for the Wildcats had runs of 15 yards or more. Versus UCLA with Gunnell under center, the offense looked far more traditional than what has been featured in the past with Tate leading the charge.
Lynott on building off of the good offensive line outing against ASU: "Coach Kap mentioned to us 'that was a great game, you guys looked prepared.' I believe he wants us to go with the mentality of being prepared, and just knowing all the plays and what a defense is going to do. That helped us a lot against ASU which is a team that was a chaos type of defense and all over the place...we came out firing, (didn't) question anything and just played."
***Kapilovic said similar things during the week leading up to and in the immediate aftermath of CU's win over Arizona State. He labeled the Thursday and Friday practices before Colorado flew down to Tempe as the best of the season. Now with a truly respectable 60 minutes of play under their belts and another game in which the starting five o-linemen played every snap of the game together, Colorado's o-line has a nice foundation to keep building from.
Lynott on the o-line's identity and continuing to play well: "Something that we're trying to incorporate is (to) keep trying to play physical every single play...(coach Kap) makes sure we finish through the whistle (in practice) and it's showing on the field...when we play well, the offense plays well. When the o-line is firing off on all cylinders everyone gets going."
***Mel Tucker commented earlier this week how he's noticed an increased physicality among the offensive line and no doubt that in part comes from how hard Kapilovic coaches those guys during the week. It doesn't seem much of a secret that for the offense to look as good as advertised in the preseason, the o-line has to win its battles in the trenches on a play by play basis. The performance vs. ASU was a lot to be excited about, but ultimately, that needs to be happening every week now , especially if CU's defense stays on track in giving up around 30 points per game.
