CU notes: Buffs pick up OL transfer from Arizona

Colorado has added some much-needed dimension and depth to its offensive line.

On Friday, Luke Eckardt introduced that he has determined to switch to CU after spending final season at Arizona.

The 6-foot-6, 290-pound Eckardt has 4 years to play and is eligible instantly.

Popping out of Richmond-Burton (Ailing.) Excessive College in 2021, Eckardt was a three-star recruit in accordance with 247Sports.com. He was recruited to Arizona by Kyle DeVan, who’s now CU’s offensive line coach. DeVan coached at Arizona in 2020 and was employed at CU in December.

CU, which now has 14 offensive linemen projected to be on scholarship within the fall, was in want of additional competitors up entrance, significantly at deal with.

Eckardt is ending the spring semester at Arizona and can be a part of the Buffs within the fall.

Choosing it up

Earlier this week, head coach Karl Dorrell mentioned the offensive line seems to be like a distinct group this spring. Left deal with Jake Wiley provides some credit score to DeVan, but in addition mentioned the gamers have been decided to be higher after a tough 2021 season.

“I believe all of us simply lit a fireplace underneath ourselves and simply mentioned, ‘What we did wasn’t good final yr. We’ve bought to select that up,’” Wiley mentioned. “I believe we took it upon ourselves to actually get it going with the crew and attempt to carry the crew on our backs and simply sort of be sure they will lean on us without having to fret about us.”

Making the soar

Final yr, security Trevor Woods made some huge performs as a real freshman. He’s taking the following step in his recreation this spring, nevertheless.

“I believe the largest soar that he’s made is his eye self-discipline and his man-to-man cowl abilities,” CU safeties coach Brett Maxie mentioned. “He spent a whole lot of time this offseason engaged on that. … He has a pure really feel for the sport. He has most likely the most effective fingers that I’ve ever seen for a security. The communication piece of it has actually been good for him.”

Woods performed 139 snaps final yr and is in line for an even bigger function this yr.

“With him having some planning expertise, he feels slightly bit extra comfy than most of them,” Maxie mentioned. “So he’s going to look slightly bit completely different by way of motion and communication and getting guys lined up.”

Straightforward transition

Going from one Pac-12 faculty to a different hasn’t been an enormous deal for cornerbacks coach Rod Likelihood. He spent the previous two years teaching the corners at Oregon earlier than coming to CU this offseason, the place he’s been reunited along with his mentor, Maxie.

“It’s been seamless,” mentioned Likelihood, who has additionally labored with Dorrell previously. “I say that really honestly. While you’ve bought folks within the constructing that you just’ve bought an amazing relationship with, it makes the transition very straightforward. Brett and I’ve labored on the identical system earlier than. A few of our language might have modified however we will deliver one another proper again to the genesis of our system — the system that all of us come from, so it’s been a extremely easy transition. When it hasn’t been, verbiage clever, Brett’s been capable of sort of simply deliver me again to the system that we’ve labored previously and actually be sure the data correlates.”