Maddox happy to finally get feet wet

BOULDER» Aaron Maddox chose to play football at Colorado because he wanted to make an impact. Ideally, right away.

So, when he came to Boulder in January and found out he needed shoulder surgery that would keep him on the sideline for the entirety of spring ball, he was crushed.

“It was pretty demoralizing at first,” he said. “I had to stay level-headed, and I had to stay focused on the goal.”

A transfer from Pima (Ariz.) Community College, Maddox hasn’t let the injury get to him, and as he goes through his first fall camp with the Buffaloes, he’s an important part of a safety group that sorely needs some depth to emerge.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound sophomore has been one of the top backups in camp to senior starters Nick Fisher and Evan Worthington. Maddox is also working at nickel back.

“Getting my feet wet, it’s pretty tough learning two positions at the same time,” Maddox said. “It’s a lot of different techniques and a lot of different coverages you have to play. Just taking it day by day.”

Playing two different positions — in addition to practicing punt and kickoff returns — may be a lot on Maddox’s plate, but he’ll certainly take that over standing on the sidelines.

Maddox suffered a torn labrum early in the 2017 season at Pima, but nobody there knew how bad he was hurt. So he kept playing.

“I didn’t even realize I had a torn labrum (until coming to CU),” he said.

When CU’s doctors discovered the injury, Maddox really had two choices: hang his head in disappointment or figure out a different way to get better. That choice was easy.

“I talked to my dad,” he said of Richard Maddox II, a captain on the University of Arizona’s famous Desert Swarm defense in 1992. “My dad played at the University of Arizona and the New York Giants for a little bit, so he’s familiar with the road of injuries and the road of getting through things. He told me to look at the positive side of it.”