Bu≠s receivers adding to team’s early success Terrific trio
boulder» On a board at the front of the wide receivers room, which sits inside Colorado’s sparkling new Champions Center, there is a running tally of pancakes.
It’s not a breakfast menu but rather a chronicling of blocks by Buffaloes receivers that send opponents onto their rear ends.
Next to the board that registers pancake blocks is another one that reads “YAC,” which keeps track of the yardage each receiver picks up after he catches the ball.
The arrangement makes it clear: CU’s receivers are trying to beat up opponents and then leave them in the dust, a prevailing attitude that helps explains the success this competitive group has had during the team’s 3-1 start.
“I think Devin (Ross) is leading in yards after catch and I’m leading in pancakes,” CU junior receiver Shay Fields said with a grin. “Every week, we look for who has the most, and then we’ll calculate it up at the end of the season.”
Three of CU’s receivers — Fields, Ross and Bryce Bobo — are among the top 11 in the Pac-12 in yards receiving per game. That trio, along with reserve Kabion Ento, has a combined 10 touchdown catches. Drops have been almost nonexistent, and opposing coaches have consistently noted how well the group has blocked, an effort that has helped spring big plays on the outside.
The Buffs may not have a Paul Richardson or a Nelson Spruce on their CU receivers Shay Fields, Devin Ross and Bryce Bobo have played a key role in the Buffs’ 3-1 start. A closer look at their numbers: Receiver Rec. Ross 25 Fields 14 Bobo 13 Yds. 355 291 228 TDs 5 2 1 roster this season — two former CU receivers who are now in the NFL — but the anybody-at-any-time approach from the group has made it one of the best in the conference so far.
“It’s just the teamwork and the camaraderie that we have in the receivers room,” said Fields, who ranks second in the Pac-12 in yards per catch at 20.8. “Nobody really cares who catches or scores the ball. We’re all gonna catch and we’re all gonna score. It’s just a matter of how it gets done, and we want to get it the best way possible, whether it’s me or Devin or Bryce or Jay (MacIntyre). It doesn’t matter as long as we get the job done.”
The Buffs’ receivers say they have carried into this season a hardworking tone set by new co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach Darrin Chiaverini, himself a former CU receiver from 1995-98.
Chiaverini is constantly on the move during practice and at games, shouting instructions and demanding acute attention to detail. The 38-yearold’s approach works because of the trust he’s earned from his players.
“I just love his energy,” said Ross, who has overcome issues with drops as a sophomore to emerge as one of the league’s biggest deep threats. “He’s just so confident in us that we never have any doubt. He’s going to put us out there because he believes in us 100 percent, and I just love his coaching style. He has a great passion for the game.”
Added Chiaverini: “I played receiver for a long time, so I know what those guys are going through. I know the emotions and how they’re thinking. My job as a coach is to take them where they can’t take themselves, and I’ve been trying to do that. At the end of the day, it’s them making the plays. But from the mental side, I’ve been pushing them hard to practice at an elite level.”
That combination of confidence and preparation has allowed the CU receivers to play loose and free in games, and the results have followed. The Buffs would not have have emerged with a signature win at Oregon without some of the jaw-dropping plays made by the group, most notably Bobo’s one-handed, tiptoe catch in the end zone in the fourth quarter that held up as the winning score.
“It’s awesome when you can throw a ball and say, ‘Ah, that might not have been the best ball,’ and then we end up coming down with it,” CU quarterback Steven Montez said. “They’re just making huge, huge plays for us, and there are guys all across the board who can do that.”