Colorado football's OL is not who we thought they'd be in 2024
As ESPN's Kyle Bonagura relayed, Colorado football's offensive line is not being buoyed by transfers like we thought it would be -- instead relying on many faces from last year's roster who were expected to be buried on the depth chart by the new faces.
"Through eight games, the results have been mixed. Shedeur Sanders has been sacked 25 times -- only four FBS players have been sacked more -- but the protection has improved throughout the year," Bonagura wrote. "And for all the time spent adding players through the portal, those players haven't been the ones to make the biggest impact. Of the players on the five-man line combination the Buffaloes have used the most this season, only Phillip Houston arrived via the transfer portal -- from Florida International Panthers -- in the offseason.
"Three others -- RG Kareem Harden, LG Tyler Brown and C Hank Zilinskas -- were on Colorado's roster last season, while perhaps the best is five-star true freshman left tackle Jordan Seaton. UTEP transfer Mayers and Indiana transfer Kahlil Benson have also seen extensive playing time as Loadholt has searched for the best combination, rotating as many as eight players in a game. In the last game against Cincinnati, seven offensive linemen played at least 31 snaps."
Phil Loadholt's Colorado football OL functioning like many claimed they had to for success
Colorado bringing on transfers to fix its offensive line was never a strategy expected to yield results. As the old way of thinking goes, offensive lines need time to develop together, so it's best to bring recruits in together and not try and patch it together with transfers.
And to boot, Coach Prime was criticized for where he got the transfers from.
Well, this OL is clearly gelling with players who already had time in the system from the 2023 season. And the strategy is working to perfection.
While the OL is still not a strength for the Buffs, it's no longer a debilitating weakness. And Colorado did it the right way to get them to this point.
The haters, like they've been most of the season, are real quiet on that.