At this time a year ago, Sam Noyer was looking for a new school, JT Shrout was trying to win the starting job at Tennessee and Drew Carter was on the basketball court tearing up competition in Oregon.
Now, they are all vying for playing time at quarterback with the Colorado Buffaloes.
“Our quarterback room looks completely different than what it was last year at this time,” CU head coach Karl Dorrell said Friday.
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Just 10 months after being hired as CU’s head coach, Dorrell has almost completely overhauled the QB room.
Junior Tyler Lytle and true freshman Brendon Lewis were the only scholarship quarterbacks when Dorrell was hired, although he quickly lured Noyer out of the transfer portal.
Noyer wound up starting all six games for the Buffs (4-2) last season, with Lytle and Lewis as the backups. Lewis made his debut in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29 and looked good, leading the Buffs to three touchdowns.
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They’ve also added Shrout, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound redshirt sophomore who ranks second to Noyer in experience. With the Volunteers, Shrout completed 37-of-69 passes for 494 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions and made one start.
“We’re hoping he brings a lot to the room,” Dorrell said. “What we saw from his short tenure at Tennessee, he did some real, real positive things and the feedback that I’ve received from people that are in Tennessee, they wish that he was still there in the program. We’re glad he here.
“From a personality standpoint, he’s a great kid. He’s such a high energy, enthusiastic kid right now. He’s excited to be here, so we’re excited to get a chance to work with him and he’s obviously physically talented. He said, ‘Coach, we’re gonna win a lot of games. I’m gonna work my tail off.’ He’s definitely excited about getting a chance to compete.”
CU is hoping to start spring practices in late March, and Dorrell is eager to see the competition.
“We finally have some more depth in there and some good, young players,” he said. “Competition is going to be exactly the way it should be: nice and fierce and you’ve got great guys competing.”
Dorrell added that CU is unsure at this time if Shrout will be eligible for the 2021 season. The NCAA is considering a one-time transfer waiver that would allow players to switch schools one time without sitting out, but that has not become official.
“If it’s not going to be something that we think is going to work out, we’re already prepared to institute the waiver system to the NCAA, just in case if that is the ruling,” Dorrell said. “But we think pretty favorably that it’s going to pass.”
CU may not be done adding to its QB room for 2021. National signing day is Wednesday, and Clay Millen from Mount Si (Wash.) High School is considering the Buffs. Rated a four-star recruit by 247Sports.com, Millen recently decommitted from Arizona. He is the son of former NFL quarterback Hugh Millen.
Barnes adds versatility
CU recently added former Oklahoma safety/linebacker Robert Barnes as a graduate transfer. In 27 games (nine starts) with the Sooners, the 6-foot-2 Barnes had 77 tackles and two interceptions. At CU, Barnes could be an ideal fit for the Star position, but could also help at safety or outside linebacker.
“He’s an excellent player in space,” Dorrell said. “We see him in that role of being a safety/linebacker type that can play in space. He’s done it most of his career at OU, and we need more of those types of players with our depth in our program. He brings some versatility of size and coverage skills in that space area, like the Star position and things like that.”
Safety has been a point of emphasis for CU this offseason, as they also signed junior college transfer Trustin Oliver (6-4, 220) and prep recruit Trevor Woods (6-2, 200) from Texas.
“Those are three impactful players that are going to help us in the secondary on the back end,” Dorrell said.
Time off
Although the COVID-19 pandemic led to a shortened 2020 season, it went deeper into the year than normal and Dorrell wanted players to have time off. So, rather than starting the offseason strength and conditioning program in early January, the Buffs will start Monday.
“I wanted to give these guys a well-deserved break to get their bodies physically back to normal, back to ground zero, just to kind of get that soreness off of them from the season,” he said. “When they start the offseason, they can kind of start building it in a good, correct way without having any lingering issues.”
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