BOULDER — When Danny Langsdorf took the reins as Colorado's quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator under new Buffaloes head coach Karl Dorrell, he quickly realized one thing:
Experience is not a plentiful commodity in the CU quarterback room. Rather, it is almost non-existent.
CU currently has just two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, and only one — junior Tyler Lytle — has ever appeared in a college game, and his experience consists of six passes thrown in seven contests over the last two seasons. The other is true freshman Brendon Lewis, who last fall was still slinging it for Melissa High School in Melissa, Texas.
But Langsdorf, who has plenty of experience at his job, sees the situation as a glass half-full affair.
"You always want to have some experience in that position, so that's a little bit of a challenge, in that we don't have much game experience in our quarterback room," said Langsdorf, whose college coaching stops include Oregon State, Nebraska, Oregon and Fresno State, as well as an NFL stint with the New York Giants. "But we also have a fresh start, a clean slate — and that's not a bad thing, either. Those guys are hungry and willing to listen and learn. They're not completely set in their ways yet, which can be a good thing."
It also means that when the Buffs finally do get to hit the practice field, there will be no shortage of repetitions for the two players vying for the starting spot. It means both Lytle and Lewis will have ample opportunity to display their talents and earn the job.
"It's definitely not a very big group," Langsdorf said. "You'd like to have a little more depth there, but with a smaller group, you have a chance to give them more reps and get them more work. That's a good thing with an inexperienced group. We can get them a lot of work when we finally do get into spring practice."
Langsdorf is no stranger to the Pac-12. He spent nine seasons as Mike Riley's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oregon State (2005-13), then worked three more years for Riley at Nebraska (2015-17). He was part of six bowl teams at OSU and two more at Nebraska, and at both stops, he coached those schools' all-time leading quarterbacks — Sean Manning at Oregon State and Tommy Armstrong at Nebraska. He also spent a year as the quarterbacks coach for the New York Giants, where he worked with Eli Manning.
But Colorado will no doubt present a different challenge, one that has only been compounded by the uncertainty presented by the coronavirus pandemic. Still, the Buffs do expect to hit the field with the new coaching staff sooner or later, and when they do, Langsdorf said he's excited to see what his quarterbacks offer.
One thing CU coaches won't do, Langsdorf said, is try to force a square peg into a round hole when it comes to Colorado's offensive attack.
"We're not a group that will be real rigid on a system," he said. "We're going to fit our system around the players. We're going to tweak things to what they do best. We're not going to try to make them do things they're not capable of doing. But we do need to find out what their strengths are. With the lack of game experience, lack of film, there are definitely some things we need to find out about them — what their strengths and weaknesses are — and then build from there. There's some things we'll do philosophy-wise that are pretty standard, but we also want to evolve a little bit to the strength of our quarterbacks."
It's a sentiment echoed by Dorrell.
"A big part of the picture will be trying to figure out the skill sets of the guys we have," Dorrell said. "We're going to have a new quarterback — who is it? Is it the junior or the incoming freshman? We have to figure out the skill set we're going to roll with. That's a process that's going to be taken into fall camp, but we have to get a good idea of what both those guys can do."
While Langsdorf doesn't yet have a good idea what his Buffs quarterbacks will be able to offer, he does know there are some foundational basics that every good college quarterback must have. His top three:
"One is accuracy," Langsdorf said. "He's got to be able to throw strikes. Put the ball on the money in all different kinds of situations. That will be very important for us."
Then comes running ability. That doesn't necessarily mean a 100-yard rusher, but it does mean a quarterback who can move when necessary.
"You always want to have a guy who has some running ability, whether it's to create an explosive play or scramble and extend a play," Langsdorf said. "We're not set to one particular model. You always want them bigger, faster, stronger, but I've had them in all different shapes and sizes. But they do have to be accurate and have enough athletic ability to get you out of some trouble and extend a play when the situation arises."
And, Langsdorf said, a quarterback has to have the ability to lead, especially in times of adversity.
"They need to have some kind of tangible leadership quality," he said. "Some might be more vocal than others, but they have to be able to rally the troops and lead the offense. You need a guy the players will trust."
Langsdorf actually came to Colorado from UNLV, where he had accepted a job after spending last season at Fresno State. But when the call came from Dorrell, he couldn't turn the opportunity down.
"Being in the conference they're in and the opportunity to work for a coach who has a lot of experience in college and in the NFL was really exciting to me," Langsdorf said. "I had the chance to meet Karl long ago and I was really impressed. It was exciting to me to be able to have the chance to be a part of this."
He also sees a place that can return to the elite level — the Colorado football he remembers.
"They no doubt have some tradition here," he said. "I remember the Kordell Stewart years, Rashaan Salaam, when I was growing up. Those were exciting teams, really good teams. I want to see that again, and we just have to get it back to that level."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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New Buffs QB Coach Langsdorf Excited About Opportunity - University of Colorado Athletics - CUBuffs.com
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