We’ve had a few weeks to fully digest spring football and plenty of question marks still remain for the Colorado Buffaloes and every other Pac-12 team.
The Athletic, which recently published a deep dive into the rollercoaster history of Colorado football, examined the Pac-12’s biggest questions in an article released on Monday. Pac-12 writer Doug Haller took the Buffs and said that a lot will depend on new OC Mike Sanford’s ability to improve the offense.
Here’s what Haller wrote:
Colorado scored 30 or more points just three times in 2021, one of which came against FCS program Northern Colorado in the season opener. The Buffaloes averaged 18.8 points and ranked 129th out of 130 FBS teams in total offense. There’s a lot of work to be done here. Complicating matters, Colorado lost leading rusher Jarek Broussard (Michigan State), as well as top receivers Brenden Rice (USC) and Dimitri Stanley (Iowa State) to the transfer portal.
Sanford spent the last two seasons at Minnesota leading a run-heavy offense. He also has had coaching stops at Notre Dame, Utah State, Boise State, Stanford and Western Kentucky, where he was head coach. He has a returning quarterback in Brendon Lewis, who played much of last season under pressure. Transfer R.J. Sneed, who had 133 catches for 1,564 yards during his time at Baylor, gives Colorado a threat at receiver. Seasoned running back Alex Fontenot led the Buffs in rushing in 2019, but overall, this group needs to make major strides.
There’s not really anything to argue with there. Although it was great to see the Buffs’ offense improve late in the season, it certainly remains an area filled with uncertainty.
Fortunately, Lewis had a great spring camp by all reports, and I’m looking forward to watching Tommy Brown set a new tone on the O-line. Fontenot, Sneed and Montana Lemonious-Craig are all weapons but as we learned last year, playmakers can’t do much without the ball in their hands.
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