When Colorado head coach Deion Sanders came up with the idea of moving safety Trevor Woods to linebacker, Woods didn’t flinch.
“Nah, it was (just) do whatever,” Woods said. “Whatever keeps me on the field, whatever helps us.”
And, really, there wasn’t a choice. The Buffaloes (4-4, 1-4 Pac-12) needed some help at linebacker and Woods jumped out as the man that could fill that role.
“It was more of like a dime package thing at first,” Woods said. “But then, it was working really well and they were just like, ‘Hey, get in Trevor,’ because something happened (at practice). It happened just like that two days before the game.”
For the past two games, Woods has started at linebacker and last week led the Buffs with 12 tackles.
“He did a little bit (of linebacker) in high school, but he’s a very instinctual player, knows a lot of football, high IQ,” linebackers coach Andre Hart said. “And it wasn’t really a bad transition for him. I think his instincts more than anything and his ability to cover has been a help to us.”
Inside linebacker has been a bit of a revolving door for the Buffs this year. LaVonta Bentley has been the steady force there, but even he lost his starting job for a few weeks.
Juwan Mitchell started four straight games, but has missed the last three games as he takes care of business off the field. Marvin Ham, Brendan Gant and Jeremiah Brown have also started.
But with depth at safety – Shilo Sanders, Rodrick Ward, Myles Slusher and Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig have all played well, in addition to Woods – the Buffs could afford to move one closer to the ball.
“(Sanders) came in the meeting, he just said, ‘How can we get the best 11 on the field?’” Hart said. “He wanted to figure out a different way to use Trevor because he had like three (interceptions) early in the season. He just didn’t want to take any of that productivity off the field, especially when we’re playing teams that are going to spread us out and start passing the ball, know how to RPO.”
For Woods, it wasn’t exactly like playing linebacker in high school, but he understand the need the Buffs had and he’s embraced it.
“Learn the stuff. Just learn real quick,” he said. “A lot of it, especially the coverage stuff, is kind of easy, just in terms of I know the coverage from safety. It was more just the (run) fits and blitzes and kind of stuff that I had to learn.”
Hart said bringing Woods up front safety has allowed the Buffs to have some better matchups against the opposition at times.
Bouncing back
On Oct. 13, CU sophomore Travis Hunter had a sensational game at receiver, catching 13 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns. The dynamic, two-way star struggled at cornerback, however, in the Buffs’ crushing, 46-43 double-overtime loss to Stanford.
Last week, Hunter didn’t do much offense, but had a brilliant game on defense, picking off two UCLA passes.
Sanders, who played cornerback and receiver during his Hall of Fame career, wasn’t surprised by Hunter’s bounce-back game.
“That’s why you don’t worry about him,” Sanders said. “You don’t worry about the snaps, you don’t worry about the plays. The game that Travis had that wasn’t his best game on the defensive side of the ball – because he played well on the offensive side of the ball that game – he just wasn’t focused on defense. He was more focused on his job on offense, so that’s it.”
Following the Stanford game, CU had a bye and Sanders said of Hunter, “He stayed (in Boulder) over the break and refocused.”
Earlier this week, Hunter was named as a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which goes to the top defensive back in the country. Still, Sanders said people don’t grasp how good Hunter really is at this point.
“No, because he plays for us,” Sanders said. “We’ve got some people that don’t like nothing we do, but they will. They understand. They will understand. We’ve got several players that are really, really good. Really good.”
Notable
On Thursday, Hunter was added to the watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award. … CU is 2-13 in its last 15 Pac-12 games, including 1-6 at home. Oregon State is 9-6 in its last 15 conference games, but only 3-5 on the road in that stretch.
