Given the opportunity at an extra season of eligibility, Robert Barnes was intent on making the most of it.
Now that he’s entering his final month with the Colorado Buffaloes, he’s soaking it in even more.
Barnes and the Buffs (1-7, 1-4 Pac-12) won’t be going to a bowl game this year, but they are still enjoying the game as they head into the final stretch. CU will host No. 8 Oregon (7-1, 5-0) on Saturday at Folsom Field (1:30 p.m., ESPN).
“That was my goal for this entire season was just to take each game one game at a time,” said Barnes, a senior linebacker, who got a sixth season because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. “For about three or four games, it wasn’t what I had planned it to be, but I think that’s just sometimes … life happens, and you’ve just got to take your punches and roll with them.”
For Barnes, that has included a mid-season position change that has reinvigorated him.
A year ago, Barnes transferred to CU after playing four seasons at Oklahoma. With the Sooners, he mainly played safety, but was transitioning to linebacker. He has been at linebacker since coming to CU, but has struggled with some consistency.
“I think that the transition to linebacker was a long transition and it was something that I could do, but it wasn’t necessarily feeling comfortable,” he said. “I would even say that I felt more comfortable at safety, but I feel more comfortable being out the box, being able to do things I do well.”
This year, Barnes started the first two games and played 91 snaps. Then, he was moved to the bench, playing a total of 42 snaps in the next three games.
After a 43-20 loss at Arizona on Oct. 1, CU fired head coach Karl Dorrell and defensive coordinator Chris Wilson. Interim head coach Mike Sanford and new defensive coordinator Gerald Chatman quickly went to work revamping the defense.
One of the key changes they made was with Barnes. They created a new position, the “star” backer, with Barnes in mind, as it combines his skills at linebacker and safety and gets him more into space.
“It’s definitely a hybrid-type position that takes a specific body type to be able to execute it, but I’ve been enjoying learning the position, and it’s been really fun,” he said.
Barnes played a season-high 55 snaps in the first game under the new defense, on Oct. 15, racking up seven tackles and a tackle for loss in the 20-13 overtime win against California. The next week, he played 53 snaps and had four tackles, including a sack.
In Saturday’s 42-34 loss to Arizona State, Barnes played only 25 snaps, but Sanford said that was more about the opponent than Barnes. Nickel Simeon Harris played a season-high 61 snaps against the Sun Devils, who didn’t use as many two-tight end sets as previous opponents.
“Robert didn’t have as many at-bats in this particular game but he made his snaps count,” Sanford said. “He graded out at a victory club level, graded out at 87%. He was solid. His one missed tackle, he did an awesome job of ball searching and really attempting to strip the football, but overall, we’ve gotta get our pad level down at the strike point. That will help us be able to gang tackle in a more effective manner.”
Barnes continues to work on improving his craft, but even as the Buffs take their lumps on defense, he’s enjoying the position he’s in as he closes his career.
“I definitely go into each game with more confidence, knowing that there’s more freedom and leeway in kind of doing what I want to do,” he said.
“It’s a lot of fun. I think it was a perfect change for me, the perfect position for me on the field. I’m grateful that coach Chatman found a way to get me out there and be able to be in a position to make these plays that I’m capable of making.”
In the final month, Barnes hopes to make more plays and finish his college career on a high note.
“This defense, we’re having fun again,” he said. “(At practice) you just see and hear the joy that coach Sanford preaches. You can see us out there flying around, having fun and just savoring each game for exactly what it is. It’s being able to play a football game in Folsom or wherever we go, just being able to play the game that we’ve loved — and I’ve loved since I was five years old.”
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