CU Has Final Practice Before Exams

BOULDER - The University of Colorado football team held its last session of bowl practices Thursday afternoon, as the Buffs will now take the next five days off during the university's final exam period.

Though they only practiced for an hour during the day, assistant head coach Brian Cabral said the Buffs scrimmaged hard for about 20 minutes, playing mainly with second-string younger players.

"We scrimmaged mostly our non-starters today," stated Cabral, who filled in for head coach Gary Barnett who is in Orlando, Fla. for Thursday night's ESPN's Home Depot College Football Awards Show. "We wanted to give our non-starters a chance to get some work in."

Focusing mainly on their base defense and offense, Cabral noted that he was impressed with the action the Buffs carried out in limited time. Also, with several second-string players tending to nagging injuries, Cabral said that numerous third-string players received some valuable playing time.

Missing the practice session along with Barnett were two other Buffs, as junior tailback Chris Brown and senior punter Mark Mariscal also traveled to Florida.

Mariscal, who is a finalist for the Ray Guy Award as the nation's best punter, will join Brown, who has been nominated for the Doak Walker Award as the nation's top tailback.

The award show is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. MST, while the Buffs will not return to the practice fields until next Wednesday afternoon.