CU Football
“I’m sure there’s some plays where guys are covered. And there’s some plays where guys are open and (the quarterbacks) didn’t see,” CU head coach Karl Dorrell said. “It’s a little of both. We’ve got to be more effective in getting open as much as we can. Hopefully all the time, which is hard to do. They’re going to be covered at certain points in the game.
“But I think we can be better from a productive standpoint with really getting used to (Mccown), because he has a different style than the other two (quarterbacks). I think that would be helpful. And we have to continue to get better at all our skill positions. Really, all of them.
They’ve got to be reliable receivers. They’ve got to be able to separate versus man, and read zones and be in the proper windows. We’re still developing in all those areas.”
With Mccown set to make his second consecutive start, the Arizona game will be the first time this year the Buffs have utilized the same quarterback approach in consecutive weeks. Brendon Lewis started the opening loss against TCU, JT Shrout did the same at Air Force, and that duo alternated series at Minnesota before Mccown entered late in the game. Mccown made his first career start last week against UCLA.
The hope is a semblance of continuity eventually leads to improved production from a CU passing attack that ranks 116th in the nation (out of 131) in passing yards per game (158.5),
121st in completion percentage (.523), and 124th in yards per completion (9.46) as well as team pass efficiency (98.56).
In one instance early in the second half last week against UCLA, Mccown fired a pass into what he thought would be an open window downfield, while Sneed stopped his rout short instead. On the next play, Mccown fumbled while getting sacked, and UCLA tacked on another touchdown two plays later. For a team with zero margin for error, turning those near-misses into completions would be a huge step in the right direction.
“It (the continuity) is definitely helpful and the offense looks a lot better,” Tyson said. “We had (258) yards for the first time since 2020. That stands to show it’s really helpful and I think it will continue into the future.”