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.
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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.”
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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.
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