When the cannon fires, smoke rises and Colorado State football exits the tunnel onto the field this Saturday, they will step out into a sea of orange. In celebration of the school’s agricultural heritage, CSU will hold its annual Ag Day and celebrate the university’s agricultural roots.

In lieu of the traditional green and vegas gold, the Rams will once again don the alternate pumpkin orange and alfalfa green uniforms with boned horns on the helmet. The look is unique to CSU and pays homage to the days of the Colorado A&M Aggies. 

A chance for the players to wear unique threads and for fans to break out the Aggie-themed gear, this weekend is always one of the more anticipated themes of the football season. More than that, it is a chance to honor CSU’s unique heritage and for the players to show off their fresh threads.

Following practice Tuesday, multiple players talked about the excitement of the Ag Day festivities, including junior wide receiver Olabisi Johnson. Coming off a big performance against Colorado, Johnson is excited to play in front of the home fans and wear the uniforms that he scored his first career touchdown in in September of 2015.

“The orange is awesome,” Johnson said. “Uniforms do not win games but I think it makes it that much more exciting of a game because you’re wearing the Aggie jerseys and you see all the fans in orange. It feels like a different environment honestly.”

Junior running back Izzy Matthews also said that he really likes wearing the green and orange uniforms.

“I love them,” Matthews said. “You get out there and you’re kind of feeling yourself in those different jerseys. It just gets you excited to be out there. It’s almost the same feeling as opening up a stadium. It’s something new, it’s something special, it’s something different.”

While head coach Mike Bobo agrees that uniforms do not win football games, the Rams are 7-0 since the team introduced the uniforms in 2010. In fact the Rams have not had an opponent even stay within two scores on Ag Day in the last four years. 

With all the excitement surrounding the game, even Bobo looks forward to the annual Ag Day celebration. However, as someone that has worn orange on the sideline for the majority of CSU’s contests over the last three years, Saturday will be just another game day at the office. 

The third-year coach joked with reporters that he was never allowed to wear orange when he was a player or assistant coach at Georgia because of rivals Auburn, Clemson and Florida. Now, he’s making up for time lost.

“You never were allowed to wear orange, I grew up never wearing orange from the time I showed up in Athens, Ga. in 1992 until I left in 2015. So when I got here and orange was our color, I said, ‘Hey I want to wear that color because I’ve never worn it,'”Bobo said.

The Rams will look to move to 8-0 in the Aggie uniforms this Saturday. The matchup with Abilene Christian University is scheduled to kickoff at 1:30 p.m. MT. The Wildcats were defeated by New Mexico 38-14 in week 1.

Collegian sports director Justin Michael can be reached by email at jmichael@collegian.com or Twitter @JustinTMichael.