Colorado Football Film + PFF Takeaways:  Elite Pass Pro, Run-Game Woes and the Case for Kaidon Salter

Kaidon Salter should start against Wyoming.  There are 3 factors that drive this decision for me:

First, Ryan Staub had a very poor game against Houston.  In fact, it was so poor that it should end any discussion of Staub starting going forward.  He was 19 of 35 for 204 yards, with 2 interceptions and 1 touchdown.  While he played hard, he constantly made bad decisions and had bad reads on RPOs.  

Pat Shurmur takes a lot of heat for his playcalling and, while some of it is deserved, there were many big plays right there if Staub makes the correct read.  Unfortunately, he didn’t on those plays.  Staub’s PFF score of 28.8 is the lowest I can remember seeing – anything below 50 is considered poor.  

Second, because Colorado still is playing for bowl eligibility, it makes sense to start Kaidon Salter against Wyoming.  Playing Kaidon Salter gives the Buffs the best chance to win now.  He isn’t the long-term answer at quarterback and he has shortcomings.  But he’s played better than most fans think, and his ability to run can give defenses headaches.

Third, if (when?) CU is no longer bowl eligible, it will be time to start Juju Lewis. Most experts believe Lewis is the future of CU football. The future isn’t now – however, if the Buffs no longer are playing for a bowl, it’s time to hand the reins to Lewis so that he can build confidence and CU can see whether the large financial investment in Lewis makes sense.

Other Football Notes

— One of the most damning factors against Staub starting going forward is that that CU’s pass protection against Houston on Friday night was very good.  CU’s offensive line is pass blocking at an elite level.  Jordan Seaton is an absolutely colossal pass blocker – his PFF pass blocking score of 91.1 against Houston is beyond elite.  Other linemen were elite, too:  Zarian McGill had a pass blocking score of 85.8, Andre Roye Jr. had a pass blocking score of 82.3, Zylon Crisler had a pass blocking score of 79.3 and Zavier Hill had a pass blocking score of 69.7.  This is top-shelf pass blocking, folks.  For reference, PFF considers a 60 grade to be average.

— The flipside for the offensive line, however, is that run blocking remains a real work in progress.  All five offensive linemen had run blocking scores of between 55 and 65, which is just average.  The offensive line had a difficult time with the gap-replace schemes that Houston used defensively.  

— Psst, Pat Shurmu — start Simeon Price at running back. It’s time to feed the ball to Price, while sprinking in DeKalon Taylor.  Price is CU’s best running back.  Equally importantly, his pass blocking is also very good.  While Micah Welch runs hard, he hasn’t impressed and his pass blocking has been abysmal.  

— Dre’lon Miller has disappeared. It’s time to shorten the wide receiver rotation and play Sincere Brown, Omarrion Miller and Joseph Williams the large majority of the game.  

— Defensively, Houston dared CU to stop the QB run.  CU couldn’t. Conner Weigman’s career-high 83 rushing yards and two TDs was the difference in the game.  Willie Fritz copied Georgia Tech’s gameplan and it worked to perfection.  Houston played with an extra tackle while in 12 personnel (2 tight ends) and used formation, motion, and pin/pull techniques to create gaps in CU’s defense.  Opposing coaches are going to run the Georgia Tech offense against the Buffs until CU can stop it.  Some real changes need to be made on defense.

— One of those changes needs to be made on the defensive line.  CU needs to replace Brandon Davis-Swain with Tavian Coleman (or Jaheim Oatis if Oatis is healthy / out of the doghouse).   While CU coaches love Davis-Swain’s potential and work ethic, he is creating major headaches for CU’s defense.  Davis-Swain isn’t gap sound and CU’s linebackers are forced to cover both their own gap and Davis-Swain’s gap.  CU’s linebackers are not good enough to do this, and therefore CU is getting gashed in the running game. I actually think Reggie Hughes and Martavius French are better linebackers than it appears because of the real issues in front of them. Obviously, however, they’re not good enough to cover for mistakes made in front of them.  

— CU needs to find a way to get Alexander McPherson on the field more.  This summer, BuffsBlog wrote that McPherson was impressing returning players with his pass rush ability, and now fans are starting to see why.  McPherson had a PFF score of 83.2 on Friday night, which is elite.  He only played 25 snaps, however, which is a problem.  As a point of comparison, Arden Walker played 64 snaps and Keaton Wade played 60 snaps. 

— In the secondary, it’s silly that Tawfiq Byard isn’t starting.  He led CU with 14 tackles (and he had half a sack) while playing “only” 59 snaps.  Ben Finneseth, by way of example, played 67 snaps.  One player that is getting fewer snaps is Carter Stoutmire.  Stoutmire played 30 snaps and is getting pushed out of the rotation by Byard and Finneseth.   If I were Rob Livingston, I’d line the secondary up like this:

Cornerbacks:  DJ McKinney and RJ Johnson

Nickleback:  Makari Vickers

Free safety:  Preston Hodge 

Strong safety:  Tawfiq Byard

One other note about the secondary — since CU has seen so many running QBs, CU has played more zone defense.  It’s difficult to play a lot of man-to-man defense in the secondary against a running QB because the cornerbacks are not typically looking back at the QB in man-to-man defense and therefore offer little run support.  To combat this, Rob Livingston has the defense playing more zone. The problem is that CU has recruited cornerbacks that excel in man-to-man defense (because that’s what Deion Sanders loves) and CU isn’t nearly as good in zone. That’s created some issues for the defense as well.  

To read more in the BuffsBlog blogosphere, check out Commander Ace Hunter’s piece on improvements that need to be made by Deion Sanders to raise the ceiling of the football program, only at:

CU’s Prime Problem: Lazy Recruiting and Sloppy Hiring