Every year during the Deion Sanders era at Colorado, the offensive line has been a retooled group.
This year is no different, but as the Buffaloes go through spring practices, they are pleased with the progress.
“Just kind of the way that they’re bonding together right now,” offensive line coach Gunnar White said. “We’re in week four. We’ve had a couple of bonding things, just as offensive linemen. Like Bo (Hughley), he had everybody over at his house this past weekend, he cooked for everybody. I thought that was a pretty neat thing. ’Cause itap hard for an O-line to play together if you don’t have a relationship.”
CU returns just one full-time starter from last year’s line, as senior Larry Johnson made eight starts at right tackle. Yahya Attia made four starts and Andre Roye made two.
Eight transfers were brought in this offseason to compete for spots, and there’s a chance it could be an entirely new group of five by the time the season opener rolls around on Sept. 3.
At tackle, while Johnson and Roye are back, they’re fighting for spots, and Johnson has spent much of the spring at guard.
Transfers Leon Bell (California), Taj White (Rutgers) and Hughley (Georgia) are experienced starters from their previous stops. So is Jayven Richardson (Missouri), but he’s been injured this spring.
“We’re moving guys around, left and right, making sure that they’re versatile,” White said. “We’re switching them around so that way they stay hungry. And we gotta have two of them that come out and dominate at the end of the day. ’Cause without that, they’re gonna keep fighting and fighting and fighting until we do name them.”
Guard is a battle, too, with Johnson, Attia, redshirt freshman Chauncey Gooden, as well as Phillip Houston, who was the Buffs’ starter at right tackle in 2024. Transfers Jayvon McFadden (Ohio State) and Jose Soto (Sacramento State) are competing, as well.
And, at center, the Buffs have a pair of experienced transfers competing, as Demetrius Hunter was a two-year starter at Houston and Sean Kinney was the starter at Lafayette last year.
“Itap so interesting to see the competition because you got two guys who are fighting to take the spot,” assistant line coach Andre Gurode said.
Either way, the Buffs have a tremendous amount of experience at center.
“It helps a lot because it helps from the standpoint of them understanding the game,” Gurode said. “Now itap the nuances and the details that they need to understand for them to grow and become better players.”
During the past three years, CU has had 27 different players start on the offensive line, with at least eight different starters each season.
The numbers could be similar this year, but as the Buffs grow as a unit, there is an advantage in the fact that there is no longer a spring transfer portal window. That means, the group thatap here will be here in the fall.
“This is who we got,” assistant line coach George Hegamin said. “I heard one coach say it the best, like we all signed a one-year contract, letap be honest about it. And that one year contract basically states you love me, I love you, you’re going to be hard on me, I’m going to be hard on you.
“So it gives us an opportunity to really coach for a year and it gives the player an opportunity to develop.”
With that, the Buffs hope to have a better and more cohesiveness line this season. But figuring out the starting lineup could take the entire offseason.
“You would love to (figure out a top five), but at the same time itap a long season, so at some point, you’re going to get somebody nicked up,” Hegamin said. “You might have some issues, might have a guy that you gotta rotate him for whatever reason.
“So you would obviously like to finish spring ball knowing who your top five are going to be. The greatest thing right now is we know who our top eight or nine are going to be. … Everybody’s really striving for those top five spots.”
