There is still a linebacker competition occurring late during the Colorado Buffaloes’ fall camp.
During Tuesday’s press conference, linebackers coach Andre’ Hart discussed the group’s rotation, mentality and communication with the media.
Hart sees four players fighting for a starting spot inside: Trevor Woods, LaVonta Bentley, Jeremiah Brown and Nikhai Hill-Green. Those players have been receiving a bulk of the first-team reps at practice, fighting for who will be on the field for the home opener.
“We’ve been mixing these guys up. I always talk about competition keeping them up at night. Well, now they’re keeping me up at night,” Hart said. “They’ve been playing really well. I’m excited to see who's going to come out on top. But I feel good with any of those four guys going in.”
Schematically, Hart plans to keep his backers on the field as much as possible. Having players with diverse skill sets and athleticism allows multiple shifts and adjustments to be made. Taking away the need for substitution makes communication easier for the defense.
“Certain packages you don’t have to sub. We can just get to it right now. It keeps the offense on their feet,” Hart said. “Do we have packages for guys? We do. But then we also can be multiple and keep a couple guys on the field and go through each one of those packages.”
Coaches will rely on the linebackers to get those calls into the defense. Every team only gets one player on the field with a mic or “green dot,” although multiple players can have one. This will allow substituting backs to still give the plays.
“Because we have guys that can cover, rush and be three-down linebackers, it’ll be linebackers that’ll have that green dot,” Hart affirmed.
Covering a large area of the field, the defense needs to adjust and get set to the offense quickly. Traditional hand signals will remain a part of the calls in addition to the green dot. With the college game’s wider hashes and fast tempo, a backup plan is needed.
Still, understanding the concepts and applying them is just as important as knowing the plays. Communication is the first step. The vocal presence of the backers has been evident to Hart.
“There's a lot more talking, there's a lot more activity, there's a lot more high fives because everybody's on the same page,” Hart said.
The first duty of a linebacker is stopping the run. For Hart, it starts inside the minds of his players.
“To play linebacker you have to have the mentality to want to run down there and put your face in the fan,” Hart said. “To get in there and mix it up with the D-lineman and the O-lineman you have to have the mentality.”
Building a fast and physical defense will be important for Colorado. The intensity is at its peak as the days come closer to kickoff. A sense of eagerness has overcome many of the players and coaches.
“These guys are really acting like boy dogs. And I gotta pull 'em back, pull 'em back, pull 'em back,” Hart said. “We like it when Coach Prime says, ‘Hey, it’s thud, not tackle’. I don’t like it when he says, ‘Hey, it’s tackle, not touch. ’”
Soon, there will be plenty of tackle when Colorado has a real opponent. The offseason work from the group will have the opportunity to be displayed. It is also likely that’s when the starters will be revealed.
Cover photo by @troyfinnegan/X
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