BOULDER — Frequently the numbers have been gruesome. Arizona piled up 616 yards of offense against Colorado, Oregon 537, Colorado State 500.
The visuals have been ugly, too. Opposing quarterbacks running free for big gains. Defenders out of position, missing tackles. Receivers running wide open.
this year, but it’s still a construction zone, and it faces another daunting challenge Saturday when CU faces UCLA’s outstanding freshman quarterback, Josh Rosen.
“We’re not all there, we all know that,” Leavitt said, adding there are “moments you see us get a little better: End of the Colorado State game was a good thing, and the last game was good. Arizona was very bad. There were moments in the other games. We’re starting to build a little foundation, maybe.”
Under Kent Baer last year the CU defense was ranked 111th in total defense, 116th in scoring defense. This year CU is 114th in yards allowed and 57th in scoring defense.
“We have a lot of things we have to improve,” Leavitt said. “We don’t tackle good enough. Our pursuit angles have got to be much better. We’re playing harder than I think they’ve played in the past, but it’s not good enough.”
It didn’t help when they to injury — Addison Gillam and Kenneth Olugbode — who were replaced by freshmen. Olugbode has returned and made a difference last week in a 17-13 win at Oregon State, but Gillam is out for the season.
“We’ve played very good in some pretty long spurts and then played really bad in some spurts,” said head coach Mike MacIntyre. “We need to be more consistent. We’ve had issues with tackling where we were in the right spot, right check, right everything and just didn’t make the play.”
Senior defensive tackle Justin Solis said he tries to be “the heart and soul” of the defense because of the position he plays.
“We’re down a lot of guys, we have a lot of young guys playing,” Solis said. “This season it’s not going to become what we want it to be, but it’s definitely going to become an improved defense over time.”
Leavitt is shifting CU from a 4-3 to 3-4 defense, although he doesn’t like to be pinned down on specifics and said he using more of a hybrid approach.
“We do a lot of different things,” Leavitt said. “We try to do whatever we can do to keep our head above water. We could be in all kinds of different fronts, coming from different angles. We’re still trying to figure out our best people. When you get people down (with injuries), you’ve got to keep shifting around. We’ve had to be creative.”
Perhaps changing formations and doing “a lot of different things” is a confusing adjustment.
“It’s hard, coach Leavitt coming in the spring, and for us to perfect the 3-4 defense in a short amount of time, but it’s something we work at,” Solis said. “It’s going to take a while. I won’t be here next year, but these guys are going to work hard. I’m sure having the whole spring , having next summer, having next fall camp, they’ll get really good at it.”
Last week’s performance at Oregon State brought a glimmer of encouragement. Beavers running back Ryan Nall punished the Buffs for 122 yards on 20 carries, but when the CU offense stagnated protecting a lead in the fourth quarter, the and ended CU’s 14-game Pac-12 losing streak.
But that was Oregon State with two mistake-prone freshman quarterbacks, and 0-4 in the Pac-12.
“It’s important when you win in the fourth quarter,” Leavitt said. “That hasn’t happened around here very much. Colorado’s not going to win big unless they play really great defense, and that hasn’t happened in a long, long, long time. We’re not there. If this program wants to win, and win like they used to win, they’ve got to play great defense.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
