Menu
What's new
By:
Filters
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

O line - under construction, but headed in the right direction

slystone

Well-Known Member
macintyre and his S and C guy..foreman wanted his O line guys at 285 lbs. Quite the refreshing approach.


https://colorado.rivals.com/news/in...ovic-part-ii-earning-the-trust-of-his-players

Kapilovic aimed to earn that respect by showing his guys who he was.
"I gave them my background — from a kid on up, who I am, what I’ve done and where I’ve been," he said. "You just tell your story, be genuine and honest. Kids are smart — they can read through the B.S."
Once that camaraderie had begun to be built, Kapilovic could move onto the first immediate issue that required his attention: bulking up Colorado's offensive linemen.
"The thing for me when I first walked in that room and met with the [offensive linemen] was that we had to get much bigger," he said. "I think [at first] there was 17-19 guys — [out of them] were five guys that were 300 pounds or more. Everyone else was under."
And from there, the work started. Via the weight room, to the intense style of practicing that Kapilovic champions, to switching up diets, a concentrated effort is being made to beef up CU's o-line, with noticeable results."
"I don’t need everybody to be 340, but you like to have guys in that 300-310 range," Kapilovic said. "That was something we had to go to work on in the nutrition world. We’re up to 11 or 12 guys [above 300 pounds] now, so we’re making good progress."
 
also, forgot to mention that the # of O linemen was low during that period...on a good day they had 7-8 bodies to do the work of 15+ O linemen during practice. Dudes were worn down by the 2nd week of the season...
 
I think Coach K has the ship headed in the proper direction...O line guys are a different breed...they have to be athletic, smart and aggressive...K obviously knows this and is building relationships with his O line guys....Once Grimes and Bedell left...there was an extreme vacuum...the mantra was, " we have to change the culture..blah, blah, blah" the O line guys were veterans and knew better...tough to go to battle in the Pac 12 vs 320 lb D line guys after your own S and C guy treats every practice like a crossfit session which was foreman's stated mission...coach them hard and love them up...that is what works...Coach K mentions that the kids can read through the BS..injuries are part of the equation...but with proper perspective, nutrition and S and C work, the buffs will be in good shape rather quickly.
 
J.R. Ewing said:
We have 4 units with some big question marks headed into '19 (OL, DBs, RBs, DL). Of the 4, I'm starting to feel the best about OL. That feels weird to say coming out of last season.
Click to expand...

OL development takes time, not expecting to see miracles this year but do expect to see improvement.

It has been very telling over the past few years with how bad we were in short yardage situations. When it came down to push and shove we couldn't stand up.

Might be a hint that your philosophy about smaller guys isn't working when you end up trying to covert 3rd and shorts with bubble screens when you have Phil Lindsay in the backfield along with Sefo or a 1,000 yard back in McMillan and a big QB in Montez.
 
I believe it was a miscalculation with the altitude and going fast on offense.

The thinking was that a more fit OL playing at a lower weight would be able to take over in the 4th quarter.

The reality is that the guy who gets worn down will be the guy who has to try to move someone 40 lbs heavier than him (and a maybe bit stronger than him) for the first 3 quarters.

It's better to be massive. Just have to make sure that you do flexibility and functional strength (balancing muscle) training with that to help avoid injuries. It can't all be bulk when building OLs up.
 
Last edited:
I'd rather have lighter weight OL who can play with tempo for 4 quarters, especially at altitude than a bunch of big fat guys. Broncos did it successfully for years and gassed out opponents in the 90's and 00's.
 
bpc5180 said:
I'd rather have lighter weight OL who can play with tempo for 4 quarters, especially at altitude than a bunch of big fat guys. Broncos did it successfully for years and gassed out opponents in the 90's and 00's.
Click to expand...

The Broncos did not play with tempo.
 
Duff Man said:
The Broncos did not play with tempo.
Click to expand...

And those guys weren't fat but they also weren't small. The 97 OL
Nalen was the lightest, listed at 286 but probably was a little under that.
Schlereth was 285 and Al Wilson called him the strongest man he ever faced in the NFL
Zimmerman (HOF player) was about 295
Brian Habib was listed at 299 and was probably heavier
Tony Jones listed at 290

Not a bunch of fat guys but for the era not a bunch of midgets either.
 
MtnBuff said:
And those guys weren't fat but they also weren't small. The 97 OL
Nalen was the lightest, listed at 286 but probably was a little under that.
Schlereth was 285 and Al Wilson called him the strongest man he ever faced in the NFL
Zimmerman (HOF player) was about 295
Brian Habib was listed at 299 and was probably heavier
Tony Jones listed at 290

Not a bunch of fat guys but for the era not a bunch of midgets either.
Click to expand...

Also, they were actually athletic linemen, and we ran running plays that took advantage of that.
 
Buffnik said:
I believe it was a miscalculation with the altitude and going fast on offense.

The thinking was that a more fit OL playing at a lower weight would be able to take over in the 4th quarter.

The reality is that the guy who gets worn down will be the guy who has to try to move someone 40 lbs heavier than him (and a maybe bit stronger than him) for the first 3 quarters.

It's better to be massive. Just have to make sure that you do flexibility and functional strength (balancing muscle) training with that to help avoid injuries. It can't all be bulk who building OLs up.
Click to expand...
Miscalculation is the nice way of putting it I guess...
 
TSchekler said:
So you’d rather have the OL this program has had the last 6 years?
Click to expand...

He wants to see more bubble screens and slow developing sweeps on short yardage because we can't move anyone off the line of scrimmage.
 
BuffsRising said:
Also, they were actually athletic linemen, and we ran running plays that took advantage of that.
Click to expand...
And that may be the most frustrating thing with the OL we saw the past 6 seasons. How can you have a small OL that's not really good at running a bunch of screens, moving pockets, and pulling OG and/or OT plays? The offensive system didn't match the OL philosophy. Bizarre disconnect.
 
This also isn’t the NFL, where you can get five guys to play the same system over several years and you have no restrictions on practice time.
 
Not Sure said:
This also isn’t the NFL, where you can get five guys to play the same system over several years and you have no restrictions on practice time.
Click to expand...
Even worse than that, so many HS offenses are now wide open attacks that don't develop O Linemen who know how to go forward and move the LOS. So you need to work hard to recruit that and develop that for a college team. Really hard to make that happen if you're bringing in undersized guys who may have even been TEs on the HS level.

Maybe I'm too old school at times, but I was always taught that OL play is about leverage and violence. That there's no finesse technique that will ever work as well as knocking a guy on his ass.
 
Buffnik said:
Even worse than that, so many HS offenses are now wide open attacks that don't develop O Linemen who know how to go forward and move the LOS. So you need to work hard to recruit that and develop that for a college team. Really hard to make that happen if you're bringing in undersized guys who may have even been TEs on the HS level.

Maybe I'm too old school at times, but I was always taught that OL play is about leverage and violence. That there's no finesse technique that will ever work as well as knocking a guy on his ass.
Click to expand...

Not old school.

With all the attention on wide open offenses and athletes at all positions the NFL still places a premium on offensive linemen who can physically dominate the man across from them.

Same thing in college football. We talk all the time about quarterbacks and running back and receivers. Over the past few years the team that has won the conference most years has been one with a tough offensive line.
 
The Broncos angle on this particular topic was what San Francisco had been doing for years, shockingly enough, Mike Shannahan spent quite a bit of time there. Every move Denver made, pretty much, was to get guys that could execute what they wanted to do. The situation at CU isn't any different. You want to run a system a certain way, you have to recruit accordingly. If Tucker and staff want to be the type of team I think they do, you have to get bigger in the trenches. The system doesn't mean jack ****, if you don't get guys who fit it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top