It remains to be seen if Colorado finally will have a productive, cohesive offensive line during season four under head coach Deion Sanders.
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Regardless of how a long-beleaguered unit performs, the Buffaloes have plenty of eyes, and voices, on the situation.
Once again, CU boasts four full-time offensive line assistant coaches in Gunnar White, George Hegamin, former Buffs great Andre Gurode and Grant Hammer — all of whom return from last year’s staff.
Then there’s first-year offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, whose voice has been dominant as he installs his Go-Go offense. And, of course, there’s Sanders, whose voice lords over them all.
If you include Marion and Sanders, there are more coaches with their eyes on the offensive line than there are positions along the line. In other programs, such a glut of influences often leads to the clashing of styles and philosophies. Not so with the Buffs so far, according to those coaches as CU goes through its second week of preseason practice.
“In a certain community it says one band, one sound,” Hegamin said. “We’re all preaching the same game. That’s the beautiful thing about it. No one is telling the group something different. And you have to be intentional about how you go about that approach, which is getting together, making sure that we’re doing from an offensive standpoint what the head coach wants. The coordinator understands what the head coach wants. We all want what the head coach wants. And it’s violent play. As long as you can be violent consistently, we got an opportunity. That’s where our guys are right now.”
Getting on the same page isn’t necessarily an easy feat. Newcomer Jayvon McFadden, who is competing for a spot in the offensive line rotation, appeared in two games last year at Ohio State, a program as rich in history and resources as any in the country. Yet the second-year lineman said the messaging wasn’t always as cohesive at Ohio State as what he has experienced so far at CU.
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“What drew me to Colorado was the O-line coaches that we got here,” McFadden said. “We got four people that know exactly what they’re talking about and are giving me exactly what I want. Another thing is, it don’t matter what time of the day it is or how I’m feeling, I can always go talk to every single one of those guys. Starting from the head man on down.
“The best thing about it is, I actually had a couple of offensive line coaches last year and they all didn’t speak the same thing. This offensive line unit and coaches and staff, they speak the same thing, the same language. It really helps out.”
During the spring, White said the Buffs were rotating their linemen among multiple spots along the line, a practice White said is continuing so far during preseason camp. The glass-half-empty assessment of that approach would be that CU does not yet have five linemen the glut of line coaches feel they can depend on.
CU, of course, prefers the glass-half-full outlook, believing increased versatility will be a key virtue on Marion’s Go-Go attack. The Buffs have struggled along the line during all three of Sanders’ seasons in charge, including last year when CU boasted one of the top tackles in the country in Jordan Seaton. Versatility could be the key to success for a unit that, at this point, lacks an All-Big 12 candidate.
“We move guys around all the time,” White said. “We don’t want their first shot at a certain position during the game. Third quarter, it’s tight, and he’s never played the position before. So we’re always trying to cross-train guys and make sure that they’re ready.”
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