Offensive Front Working To Be Cohesive

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – There are parts of camp which are easier.

For instance, Jacob Gardner and Brian Crespo-Jaquez wanted to make sure the equipment staff, the food servers, the trainers and the janitorial staff know how important they are to making camp pleasant for the offensive line, just by being friendly or quick with an answer to a question.

"They always have a smile on their face and ask you how you're doing, and it just lifts up your spirits," Crespo-Jaquez said.

As Gardner put it: "They're the backbone of this place. All of them are great."

If only offensive line play in fall camp was so easy. For a group trying to come together and build depth, the first scrimmage of the fall showed them where they were. While not all of it was encouraging, they have to remind themselves they're still building and have to remain confident in the reps they're putting in during practice.

As competitors, they're in a hurry to get there. They also have to remind themselves to realize they have some time.

"It's redemption time this next scrimmage. I want my guys to be confident, and I know I'm in better football shape," Gardner said. "The guys are trying to get in because they want more reps. It's hard, but at the end of the day, it needs to be done. I want us to have a little more energy and be a bit more positive. I think the last scrimmage was a little bit dead, but that's something that's been addressed, and it hasn't happened this week."

Collectively, there is experience a host of starts. But none of those came playing side by side, and while a mixture of returners and transfers have become very close off the field, they're still trying to get there when the ball is snapped.

A veteran like Gardner knows how to keep it in perspective and having been in the position Crespo-Jaquez is in – a possible first-time starter and doing so at left tackle – he knows the internal battles his younger teammate is experiencing.

"I think communication and trusting each other are there. Like Dantae Keys, 46 starts. Jacob Gardner, 23 starts … Everybody has double-digit starts, and I feel like I have a lot of pressure on my shoulders," Crespo-Jaquez said. "After practice, Jacob and I sit together and he gives me pointers, asks me how I'm doing. I talk to him and ask him for tips, how to do certain things, and midseason, how mentally draining it will be. I talk to Keys, him being another tackle and he's done it, so we talk about different techniques, but I feel like everybody has my back. I'm just ready to prove myself.

"I've talked to Jacob about my confidence. It wasn't as high, but the more reps I get, coach Craig Watts Jr. and coach Bill Best are helping, I feel like the trust is there and they believe in me. I have that every day, and my confidence little by little is getting better. The big thing for me is getting my confidence back."

Without question, Best, the offensive line coach, said it is a major advantage for Crespo-Jaquez to have Gardner around, to share experiences and help him through some rough moments in camp. Gardner takes the time to watch his teammate on tape and they talk constantly in the locker room.

Best went through it with Gardner at Nevada, and he's helping do the same thing here at Colorado State. Nobody is questioning the drive or effort of Crespo-Jaquez, and some of the process is keeping him from questioning himself so much.

"He certainly has the ability and the strength; he's got everything he needs. It's just reps," Best said. "We're continually talking about developing his confidence. There were games Jacob struggled, but one thing he always did was compete. He never stopped straining; it was ingrained in his head. A lot of times when you run the style of offense we do, you may get beat initially, but if you learn to strain and finish … sometimes a quarterback will roll out of the pocket and launch the ball down the field, and no one ever knew. That's what he has to have confidence in as an offense. Sometimes he's going to get bailed out if he strains."

Addressing the subtle things will help build it back up. Not just individually, but as a group. And not just the top five, but Best said 11 deep. They need to get to the point where they see things as one. As far as he's concerned, the group is definitely not behind at this point in camp, considering the split practices and mixing and matching taking place.

The first step is being in better football shape. The strength and conditioning the players went through in the summer was great but throwing on pads and adding contact takes it to another level. It's no longer just core work, but it's using it while squaring up with big bodies and remaining focused when fatigue starts to set into the muscles and mind.

Crespo-Jaquez said it's making sure they're behind the ball, so if there is a fumble after a tackle or sack, they are there. It's also about picking up the extra block a ball carrier may need.

"First of all, when you make missed assignments, it's a combination of do you want to do it, can you do it, are you in shape? Our guys want to do it, they can do it, so the only thing left is are they in shape," Best said. "They are in good cardiovascular shape, but they're not in football shape. It's a whole different thing, and they realized that after the scrimmage that just getting to the line as fast as we go, and processing mentally wears on them. We had missed assignments and physicality things we're missing because we're not in shape.

"It's probably even more so mentally. If you're a little tired, you can push through a workout, but you're not going to have to make calls and make adjustments and see things at a rapid pace with pressure on you in the weight room or running sprints. Football shape is all encompassing. It's all that stuff."

The first scrimmage gave the offensive line a good look at what required their attention, and it came into view pretty clear. Gardner also knows, as Best said, they are not behind, but in the middle of the process which will get them where they need to be.

They can strive for perfection, but Gardner said they can't expect it. He learned that as a young starter, and as a group, they need to understand the concept collectively. Still, their level of play can get better, and he's confident it will.

"I think peak football is right in the middle of the season. Everybody really starts understanding each other, how we play," he said. "Right now, we're all great buddies, we spend a lot of time together and I think we all work in pretty good conjunction. There's little flaws we have to work out still, but we all want to get better. There's active listening and focus to get those little things ironed out."

Which is never as easy as getting served post-practice breakfast with a smile.

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