Colorado football recruit Ben Gula, from Cypress Bay (Florida) High School, during a recruiting visit to the Boulder, Colorado, campus. (Photo courtesy of Ben Gula) Offensive line might be the toughest position in college football to earn a starting job as a true freshman. Ben Gula isn’t worried about history, though. He’s coming to Colorado next month with confidence. “I definitely think year one, I’ll be a contributor,” said Gula, who signed with CU last week. He is set to graduate from Cypress Bay (Florida) High School and enroll at CU in January. Since freshmen became eligible in 1972, only 16 have made starts at CU on the offensive line. Only three of those were centers, but all three of those have been recent. Van Wells was the first true freshman to start games at center for CU, in 2022 (six starts), while Hank Zilinskas made two starts in 2023 and Cash Cleveland made four starts in 2024. Gula is hoping to join that group, and he knows there’s a spot open with this year’s starting center, Zarian McGill, graduating. He also knows it won’t be easy to win the job. “If it’s not in it for me, which I believe it is, I still want to contribute to the guy in front of me, the guy behind me,” he said. “I just want to make everybody better because at the end of the day, I’m a football player at the University of Colorado, not just an individual.” The 6-foot-5, 285-pound…
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