Colorado’s fall camp opened in a setting the program had never used before, and that was the point.
For the first time in CU history, the Buffaloes have left Boulder for fall camp, setting up base at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs while holding practices at Fountain-Fort Carson High School. The move has put the entire 104-man roster in the same bubble, away from the usual pull of life back home and locked into football for the first two days of camp.
Linebacker Gideon ESPN Lampron said the experience has already made an impact.
"The first few days have been incredible," linebacker Gideon ESPN Lampron said. "Not a lot of teams are fortunate enough to do this, and it's been great for team building."
The setup has turned camp into a near-constant team exercise. Players are together for meetings, practices, meals and dorm life, with very little space for anything else. Defensive back Cree Thomas said that kind of proximity is building something that shows up beyond the field.
"It builds community amongst the team. It builds trust," Thomas said.
"We're with each other 24/7. We're sleeping right across from one another, so it really builds that team bond.
It also gives us a chance to lock in and focus. We're away from all the distractions back home, and we've just been grinding on the field."
That closeness has been matched by the pace of practice. Both the offense and defense have had their moments early, with the two sides trading blows in a back-and-forth battle that Lampron described as a tug-of-war.
"It's been shot for shot," stated Lampron. "Offense versus defense, back and forth, and that's what camp is supposed to be. Just looking from day one to day two, the amount we've grown as a team and in the different units has been pretty impeccable."
The bonding hasn’t stopped once practice ends. Many players arrived in January as strangers, but spring work, summer training and now this shared stretch in Colorado Springs have pushed the group closer together. Thomas said the relationship-building has been obvious.
"We feel really close," Thomas said. "Everyone's hanging out outside of the building, and different position groups are meshing with each other. We're super close now."
Lampron called camp a "shared struggle" that has tightened the team even more as the days stack up.
Defensive coordinator Chris Marve said the off-campus format has opened the door for conversations and connections that might not happen in a more traditional setup.
"We're living with each other for a week, and we're having conversations that we may not have necessarily had after practice or between practice and a walk-through," Marve said. " I had this experience when I played, and it was transformative for me, so I hope it's the same for our players."
On the field, Marve and the Colorado staff are stressing discipline, communication and detail. The defense is being shaped around aggression, physicality and relentless effort, with players expected to bring intensity while handling the finer points cleanly.
Marve said the approach is built around what this roster can actually do, not around forcing a system that doesn’t fit.
"It's not about what I've done in the past," Marve said. "It's about what our players can do and what we can get taught and go do at a high level consistently."
The staff is watching production, execution and effort closely as it tries to sort out the best combination on the field. Marve said the goal is finding the best 11 who can work together, not simply stacking talent.
When asked about wanting his 11 best, not his best 11, Marve said, "You can have 11 elite athletes, but if they don't function in tandem or in unison, you don't have an effective unit."
Through two practices, Marve has already seen the defense sharpen its communication and cohesion. For Colorado, the unusual setting in Colorado Springs has done exactly what it was supposed to do: keep the focus on football and bring the group closer together.
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