Jordan Gehrke (7) celebrates a touchdown with teammate Malcolm Creer (10) in the second half of the game against USC on Oct. 18, 2014. (Gray Bender/CU Independent)
Colorado sophomore quarterback Sefo Liufau suffered a concussion during Saturday’s loss to Arizona. It’s an injury that has plagued many other Buffaloes the last few months, including Addison Gillam, Christian Powell and Tedric Thompson.
Though he’s taken many hard hits throughout the year, Liufau was pulled from last weekend’s game due to injury for the first time all season. On a third down pass-play in the fourth quarter against Arizona, Liufau threw the ball (an interception) right before Wildcat defensive lineman Sani Fuimaono came down on top of him.
Head coach Mike MacIntyre said Liufau will be held from practice this week, but didn’t offer much as to what to expect for Liufau going forward.
Quarterback Sefo Liufau scrambles for yardage late in the first quarter of play at Arizona Stadium last Saturday. Liufau was injured later in the game. (Nigel Amstock/CU Independent)
“He’s doing alright,” MacIntyre said. “He’s still a little concussed…he’s doing OK and making the progress, but he’s still out for a little while.”
Luckily for the Colorado quarterback, the Buffs have a bye week, so he’ll have some extra time to recover. But according to reports from offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren, come Nov. 22 against Oregon backup sophomore Jordan Gehrke will take Liufau’s place.
Gehrke didn’t exactly show much promise in his brief stint as a replacement Saturday: he went 0-5 passing and was sacked once in the seven plays he was on the field. Gerhke demonstrated better ability in the spring scrimmages when he went 36-62, 496 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. Liufau leads the Pac-12 in interceptions (14), and has had a turnover in every game this year since the Rocky Mountain Showdown. This is the main reason, according to Lindgren, that Gerhke will try his hand at quarterback in Colorado’s next two games.
“I think those turnovers, they fall on a lot of different positions on offense,” Lindgren said. “But ultimately it’s the quarterback that is making the decision or is holding on to the football in the pocket.”
Of course, Coach MacIntyre will make the final decision as to who will play quarterback to end the season, and in the long run as well.
“We’ll see what happens next week,” MacIntyre said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jared Funk-Breay at Jared.funkbreay@colorado.edu. Follow him on twitter at @jaredfunkbreay.
