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CSU football gears up for UTEP, looks to mend early-season misfortune

Damon Cook, Sports Editor

September 19, 2024

Collegian | Cait Mckinzie

Colorado State University defensive lineman Mukendi Wa-Kalonji (92) hypes up the crowd during the Rocky Mountain Showdown football game Sept. 14. Colorado State University lost to the University of Colorado Boulder 28-9.

There is no amount of makeup that can cover the stye that has been the Colorado State football program through its first three weeks of the season.

CSU has been outscored 97-47 in those weeks despite playing a game against Northern Colorado, a Football Championship Subdivision school. For a season in which many expect the bottom line to be a bowl, the start has been less than desirable.

Although everything is screaming to look away, it’s simply not time to give up hope yet. Three games equal just one quarter of the season, and this will by far be the hardest quarter of teams the Rams will face this season.

No — the preseason hype hasn’t matured quite yet, but all it takes is one week for the CSU football stock to spike, and if it does, the 1-2 start will be long forgotten.

“We got a lot of season left, and we got all of our goals in front of us that we want to accomplish in our conference and in the remaining nine games,” CSU coach Jay Norvell said. “We’re not where we want to be exactly right now, but we have to be active participants in getting ourselves where we want to be.”

Now the Rams get a UTEP team that has yet to see the glory of victory this season. Scotty Walden, the Miners coach, is in his first season coaching at the Football Bowl Subdivision level and certainly still has a lot to learn.

“We still have a lot of loyal fans that have stuck by us through thick and thin. So I think we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to them, who aren’t the ones on social media giving us as much as they want — the ones that have been patient for a while.” –Paddy Turner, CSU punter

Despite having little experience, Walden and his squad aren’t to be taken lightly. UTEP has gotten better each and every week, and one of these weeks, it’ll rattle off an unexpected win. The Rams have to be prepared and make sure the Miners don’t play spoilers in Canvas Stadium this weekend.

“They are very challenging schematically,” Norvell said. “They go fast on offense, they use a lot of fast skill players, their quarterback is very capable and they put pressure on you.”

One area the Rams absolutely have to win is the turnover battle. The Miners have given up the ball five times over the course of three games, the Rams seven.

For a ball-hawking defense that forced 20 turnovers a season ago, they’ve failed to live up to that, forcing only two over three weeks. Health is one reason; another is the new faces in new places across that CSU defense, so it may take some time to gel together.

“I just feel like as a whole collective we’re all still learning how to play together,” Navy transfer Elias Larry said. “It’s only the third week — I feel like we actually had good stretches in games where we’ve done very well. I just feel like we just have to put together a more complete performance.”

It’s not just the defense that needs to put on a complete performance — the offense needs to do so as well. However, both sides of the ball will have to do so without some key pieces. Norvell announced Tory Horton, Alex Foster, DeAndre Gill, Jr. and Nuer Gatkuoth are all expected to be out this weekend.

That means young guys like Tanner Morley and Aitor Urionabarrenechea will have to step up, Norvell said.

“I’m encouraged,” Norvell said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are emerging players that can add to some of our experienced guys that can make a big contribution.”

If the Rams who take the field Saturday can find their footing and create some momentum, there could be a huge opportunity to get things back on track once their stars get healthy.

Everything will commence against UTEP with a chance to prove CSU’s doubters wrong.

“The maturity in our locker room is at an all-time high since I’ve been here,” CSU punter Paddy Turner said. “We still have a lot of loyal fans that have stuck by us through thick and thin. So I think we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to them, who aren’t the ones on social media giving us as much as they want — the ones that have been patient for a while.”

Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.

Interested in more sports content? Sign up for Ram Report here for weekly CSU sports updates!

About the Contributors

Damon Cook, Sports Editor

Damon Cook is returning as one of the sports editors for fall 2024 at the The Collegian. He's been at the paper since August 2022. After starting as a construction management major at Colorado State University, Cook quickly found out he didn't have a passion for it. After taking a year off, he realized he could work in sports — something he has always been passionate about. So with newfound aspirations, he switched his major to journalism and media communication to chase those dreams. After a year of working as a beat writer covering volleyball and women's basketball, Cook took over as sports editor in summer 2023. Since then, he has become established in reporting on football and men's basketball and looks forward to providing that coverage this upcoming season. Cook will begin his third semester as the sports editor before graduating in December, having borne witness to some of CSU's historic feats. His passion for bringing readers the best coverage has only grown. Having started in the wake of a complete overhaul of The Collegian sports desk, Cook has watched the desk grow considerably, thanks to the efforts of so many amazing people he gets the pleasure of working alongside. Having learned so many things from so many people, including to never wear a tie, Cook looks forward to helping The Collegian sports desk reach heights never imagined before. With a much greater understanding of the power of words, one of Cook's inspirational quotes for this upcoming year has been from Eric Cartman in South Park: "Respect my authoritah."

Cait Mckinzie, Photo Director

Cait Mckinzie is a second-year student double majoring in art and journalism and media communication. She is one of two photo directors for the 2024-25 school year. Despite growing up in Renton, Washington, Mckinzie knew she wanted to go to Colorado State University since middle school. She had only ever been to Colorado twice, but she visited campus once, and that was all it took. At first, there wasn’t much in Fort Collins that Mckinzie was familiar with. But in high school, she was the co-head of visuals for her school newspaper, so she applied to The Collegian as a photographer to get back into a similar environment. Mckinzie was first introduced to photography by her grandfather, who has been a photographer most of his life. After he gifted Mckinzie her first camera in her junior year of high school, she began to take any assignment she could for her high school paper to improve her skills. Of all the memories made in her first year at CSU, most of the interesting ones came from The Collegian. One Halloween drag show assignment, a lot of mentorship and a few months of practice later, Mckinzie found herself being offered the position of photo director for the next academic school year. Mckinzie is excited for another year at The Collegian and aims to continue learning and growing during her time as one of the photo directors.

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