Developing a good rapport with quarterback Shedeur Sanders hasn’t been too difficult for Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.
In fact, it’s been fairly simple he said.
“Just being a human being, right?” he said Monday after the Buffaloes completed practice. “I mean, it’s just normal communication. I think we all understand that, just positive, normal communication. I’m certainly somebody that I give respect and trust freely and so we talk that way and communicate.”
It also helps that the two speak a similar football language. Shurmur has spent most of the last 25 years in the NFL. Sanders is only a few months away from starting his NFL career, as he’s projected as a first-round pick in the draft next spring.
So, as Shurmur, Sanders and the rest of the Buffs prepare for Thursday’s opener against North Dakota State at Folsom Field (6 p.m., ESPN), there is confidence in how the offense is shaping up.
“We’ve been able to work on all the things, really, throughout the year that we would do in, really, the first month of the season,” Shurmur said. “We’re playing a different style of defense (against NDSU) than the one that we play against in training camp so that’s been good too, because we can work on some of the things that we’ll see as the season progresses, but we feel good about our plan moving into this first game.”
As with any offense, it starts with the connection between the coordinator and quarterback. Throughout the offseason, Shurmur and Sanders have been complimentary of each other.
“There’s often times when things come up where I’m willing to talk to him about it, and it’s easy for me to do that with him, because he’s always so prepared,” Shurmur said. “At times, if you’re working with a player that you can’t get to that level, I guess, mentally and emotionally, it’s tougher, but with Shedeur, it makes it easy.”
Having a good relationship with Sanders is part of why Shurmur will call the plays from the sidelines, rather than up in the coaches’ box.
“Things change constantly when you’re in no-huddle,” Shurmur said. “That’s why I felt like being down there instead of telling somebody (from the box) to tell somebody, I’ll be right there, so that I can make those switches in real time.
“It gives me an opportunity between series to visit with Shedeur face to face, and then we can talk about things that we want to do moving forward.”
One change this year is that teams can use tablets on the sidelines. Shurmur is used to that from his time in the NFL, but he said now he can watch videos of the previous series rather than just pictures.
“They’re very advantageous when you can see what’s happened,” he said. “If you run a similar play later on, a lot of times the plays just keep changing, but you can tell how teams are playing in real time. It’s good stuff.”
Shurmur said he will go into the game with a script for the early part of the game.
“I have my first 15 (plays),” he said. “We have some initial things that we want to do because we feel like they are good plays to move the ball, but then there’s also things that within that first 15, you can see how a defense is going to respond to maybe a corresponding play that you want to call later.”
As an overall team, Shurmur believes the Buffs are in better shape now than one year ago. Hired as an analyst in the summer of the 2023, Shurmur came into a team that was not only new, but had a slew of players that didn’t arrive in Boulder until the summer.
“We’ve been able this year, from the jump, right from the turn of the year, to put a team together and work with them,” he said. “Just watching it, it’s a long way to say watching it last year to this year, we’re much more cohesive as a team.”
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