4 days Ago
Just about every week, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders asks his special teams units to be special. They were on Saturday, with one player standing out above the rest. On Monday, the Buffaloes’ LaJohntay Wester was named the Big 12 special teams of the player of the week after his 76-yard punt return for touchdown gave the team an early spark in an eventual 49-24 win against Utah.
Defensive lineman Amari McNeill was also honored by the Big 12, named co-defensive player of the week in helping the 16th-ranked Buffs (8-2, 6-1 Big 12) win their fourth game in a row. While playing at Florida Atlantic last year, Wester was the special teams player of the year in the American Athletic Conference (along with finishing second in the country with 108 receptions). This season, CU has used Wester and Jimmy Horn Jr.
on punt returns, with neither one putting up big numbers. Wester had eight returns for 32 yards on the season before busting loose against the Utes. But, he found a crease against Utah and sprinted untouched for the end zone.
“We gotta dedicate ourselves to the return. That’s the thing,” Sanders said. “We put in a little more work on the return teams and putting the right personnel out there, and he can hit it, man.
I mean, he could hit it. Jimmy can hit it. “(Wester) is so versatile and so elusive, and you see that after the catch when he’s playing receiver, but that just shows his versatility and it should make him more impressive to the scouts that are looking for him to get to the next level, which is the NFL.
” Wester also caught 10 passes for 77 yards against the Utes. He now has 55 catches for 660 yards and eight touchdowns on offense. CU’s special teams units, as a group, were solid against Utah.
Mark Vassett averaged 48.4 yards on five punts, including a season-best 60-yarder. Alejandro Mata was 7-for-7 on extra points.
Colton Hood had a 38-yard kickoff return. The Buffs limited Utah’s impact in the return game. And Daniel Gerlach had three touchbacks as the kickoff specialist.
“(Assistant coach Tommie Robinson) has done a great job, first of all, and we focused on putting the right personnel on the field at the right time,” Sanders said. “But those guys were hungry today. They went out for it, and I think we almost blocked a punt.
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Special teams really are the attitude of your program.” McNeill, meanwhile, continues to step up in the absence of senior Shane Cokes, who has missed the last two games with an injury. Against Utah, McNeill had three tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and two QB hits.
He was a big part of CU holding Utah to 31 rushing yards. The previous week at Texas Tech, McNeill was even better, with a career-high nine tackles, along with 1.5 sacks and three tackles for loss.
McNeill shared Big 12 defensive player of the week honors with Arizona’s Genesis Smith and West Virginia’s Reid Carrico. Former Buffs receiver Jordyn Tyson, now at Arizona State, was the offensive player of the week, while the Sun Devils’ Sam Leavitt was the newcomer of the week. Confidence in Seaton CU’s standout freshman tackle Jordan Seaton was flagged twice early in Saturday’s game for holding – one of which was declined.
Those were rare flags because Seaton had not been penalized in any of the three previous games. Overall, it wasn’t Seaton’s best game this season, but Coach Prime has supreme confidence in the freshman. “You can’t get on Jordan too much because the kid is going to be great, man,” Coach Prime said.
“The kid is going to be a top five pick (in the NFL) when it’s his turn to go. And he loves the game, practices his butt off, and he’s fundamentally sound for the most part, probably 95% of the time. Yeah, he’s a freshman.
They gonna get him a couple times, but he’s gonna win a lot more times than he loses. And I’m proud of him. Tremendously proud of Jordan.
” Notable CU has already scored more points through 10 games this season (341) than it had in 12 games last year (338). The Buffs, in fact, have already scored more points than in any of the previous seven seasons. .
.. In conference play, CU has the No.
1 scoring offense (38.9 points per game) and the No. 3 scoring defense (23.
4 ppg) in the Big 12..
