Oregon plays Colorado this weekend, their first conference game on the road. The Buffaloes have suffered through consecutive 10-loss seasons, but have shown improvement under first year coach Mike MacIntyre. The Buffs are 2-1, and have a stud receiver in Paul Richardson, who has racked up 487 receiving yards and five touchdowns — already both approaching career highs.

“They’re capable,” Mark Helfrich said of Colorado. “They’ve been a little up and down. Their talent is better, they’re playing better and they’re capable. That’s why we don’t worry too much about them and we need to worry about us.”

Helfrich was the offensive coordinator at Colorado from 2006-08, and will be scheming against them as a head coach for the first time.

The Ducks will be without starting running back De’Anthony Thomas, who injured his ankle on the opening kickoff against California last weekend. Byron Marshall carried the ball 19 times for a career-high 130 yards filling in for Thomas, and he and freshman Thomas Tyner will once again see an increased workload against Colorado, who is allowing a stingy 91.33 yards per game on the ground, 10th best in the country and best in the Pac-12.

Helfrich talked about his depth and younger players needing more playing time, which they might get this weekend. Oregon is favored to win by 39.5 points according to vegasinsider.com.

“We’ve played a lot of guys. I think we have a lot of young talent that needs to play more,” Helfrich said. “I think we have a lot of guys that lack experience. Guys just need to play whether it’s linebackers, tailback, receiver, tight end. We’ve had a lot of young guys play.”