BOULDER — As Jon Embree’s first spring camp ended here Saturday night, Colorado’s defense finally showed a pulse. It’s a faint heartbeat, but it’s no longer flat-lining as it did after spring practice began a month ago.
In a controlled scrimmage strictly pitting offense against defense, Colorado’s offense scored 50 points. The good news is the vast majority of that came against defensive reserves who won’t be featured in technique videos anytime soon.
It all made Embree make one declaration about the defense that could be the theme of the 2011 season.
“The first team can’t get hurt,” he said.
One reason the defense gave up 50 is that five projected starters sat out with injuries, including safety Anthony Perkins and tackle Curtis Cunningham.
The 15,655 fans excited about a native son turning around the worst stretch of football in Colorado history had to hide their eyes occasionally. Redshirt freshman Nick Hirsch-man looked like a potential all-Pac-12 candidate against the reserves, going 11-of-19 for 170 yards and two TDs.
Even Josh Ford, a sophomore walk-on from Mullen High, rushed for 164 yards on 17 carries.
However, the first defense kept the offense scoreless on the first three drives. Junior Doug Rippy appears to have filled a hole at inside linebacker, and Conrad Obi showed he has finally come into his own at nose tackle.
It’s about time. He’s a senior.
“The offense really had their way with the defense early in spring,” Embree said, “and the defense continues to build on what they’ve done the last three or four situational scrimmages and kind of asserted themselves. So I’m happy the way the defense played.”
The top returning starter, outside linebacker Jon Major, is trying to keep the defense together through a brutal 2011 schedule that will be like trying to stop the Indy 500 every Saturday. Yet everyone knows the defense is the key to prevent total devastation.
“We made a lot of improvement over the last two scrimmages,” Major said. “We’ve been pretty comfortable with the base defense.”
Keep in mind we haven’t mentioned cornerback yet. We make this omission because it makes new defensive coordinator Greg Brown break into tears. Atop the depth chart is sophomore Parker Orms, a nickel back coming off major knee surgery.
Don’t be surprised to see a true freshman lining up against Hawaii’s stable of receivers come the Sept. 3 opener.
“Corner,” Brown said, “is the great unknown.”
The best news coming out of camp is the best player may have been senior quarterback Tyler Hansen. The returning starter went 8-for-15 for 124 yards. It included a quick out to freshman backup Keenan Canty, who turned sophomore cornerback Jered Bell into a pretzel in going untouched 15 yards for the first touchdown.
Embree said he will announce the starting quarterback Tuesday. Not that Hansen is a shoo-in, but Embree also plans to announce that Ralphie will run around the field again this fall.
Hansen said of his improvement since the start of spring: “It’s night and day. Just working with these guys and (quarterbacks) coach (Rip) Scherer and (offensive coordinator Eric) Bieniemy has really helped me a lot. This offense is really good.”
One remaining question mark is kicker. Sophomore Justin Castor missed two of his first six field goals, from 41 or 42 yards, before hitting his last four from 41, 41, 49 and 51.
In the fall he must fight off incoming freshman Will Oliver, California’s No. 5-ranked kicker from Harvard-Westlake High in Los Angeles.
“(Castor) was OK,” Embree said. “We need him to be great.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
