I will focus on CSU in this post. The Rams are led by first year coach Jim McElwain who was the offensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick Saban who just won the National Championship. CSU fans who love to drink the kool-aid (I do too) will be giddy that they have a coach who coached a National Championship team. Who would't be giddy in that case? The reality is that CSU is in the Mountain West which would be too great of a barrier at this point and in the future towards a National Championship but the Rams can try to duplicate the greatness of the Sonny Lubbick years. Did you know that McElwain was one of the three finalists for the open CU coaching job that went to Jon Embree? I can only imagine Mike Bohn's agony if CSU wins in Denver this year and will provide fuel for the rabid CU fans to run Bohn out of town sooner than later.
In what seems like perfect timing, Sports Illustrated released an article on why Nick Saban has been successful at LSU and Alabama. McElwain is mentioned in the article but so is former Washington Husky great Don James and former CU coach Eddie Crowder who coached the Buffaloes in the 1960's and 1970's. McElwain is attempting to duplicate what Saban has taught him at a school that has less resources to work with despite strong backing from Jack Graham, the ambitious CSU athletic director who aims to build a new on-campus stadium in Ft. Collin which is something that I personally support despite my disdain for the Rams.
Garrett Grayson is widely believed to be the starting QB for the Rams against the Buffs. In his time as the QB for the Rams, he was 43 of 77 passing for a TD-INT ratio of 2-6 and 542 yards passing. He was sacked eight times and that most likely will be a concern given that the Rams OL gave up 27 sacks in a spring scrimmage (Coach McElwain counted 32!). I'm not sure who the backup QB for the Rams will be but if the OL continues to struggle like that, Grayson might not last the full season. But if you look at the stats posted on the CSU website, Grayson seems to have some potential as he threw for 242 yards against TCU because the Rams didn't give up a sack. He did decent against Air Force despite being sacked four times but he had a dismal performance against Wyoming where he was sacked three times and threw three picks in a 22-19 loss to the hated Cowboys. In McElwain's offense, the idea is for Grayson to be a game manager instead of being a hero and I am not sure where Ram fans will put Grayson in that regard. The good news is that in a recent summer scrimmage, pass protection was better so the CSU OL apparently worked hard over the summer. It doesn't change the fact that the OL will have to open holes for the running game and I would expect the Rams to go after CU's front seven which the Rams didn't do very well against the Buffs last season.
Alabama had some very good RBs while McElwain was in Alabama and the general idea is that good college football teams are able to run the football. It is being stressed in Boulder for the Buffs as well but that's for Part II next week while the focus is on the Ram RBs. It appears that there are injury concerns at RB behind Chris Nwoke, who is believed to be the starting RB. According to the CSU site, Nwoke rushed for 1,130 yards and nine TDs. Grayson appears to be a good running QB and I'm impressed with his stats against Air Force and Wyoming. Despite those seven combined sacks, Grayson still ran for 134 yards on 32 carries which averages 4.19 yards per carry. Grayson didn't play in last year's Rocky Mountain Showdown but Nwoke ran for 29 yards on seven carries in the loss to the "dirty hippies" (as CSU students call CU). Nwoke had a high of 269 games on 29 carries against Air Force for 2 TDs so Nwoke is capable of having a big day on the ground.
I am not too familiar with CSU's passing game but the top two returning WRs when it comes to yardage had zero yards last year against the Buffs. There is also the pass protection issue from the spring game plus Grayson having a 2-6 TD-INT ratio. The CSU OL will be up against an exprienced DE and DT plus some talented newcomers & returning players could make it a difficult against the OL. The WRs are going against a very young group of CBs for the Buffs and at least one CB will be a true freshman making his first collegiate start in an intense game like the RMS. I expect Grayson to go after Yuri Wright or Kennth Crawley, who are both east coast kids with some swagger as it is being said in Boulder.
There are some defensive concerns entering summer camp for the Rams after Mike Orkapo in addition to two other defensive players were kicked off the team for his involvement in an off campus fight that led to serious injuries. Even if those three came back, the question would be how would CSU improve on defense after a season where they gave up 4,959 yards or 413.2 yards per game last season. According to the CSU website, the Rams D yielded 5.5 yards per carry and 11.9 yards per catch and those are not very good stats for any defense since teams could just require two downs to get another first down on the ground while allowing QBs to have 61.8 passes completed against a Rams secondary that is said to be a team strength this year.
For anyone curious about how the CU offense fared against the CSU defense, the Buffs had 360 total yards (145 rush and 215 pass) for an average gain of 5.5 yards against the Rams defense. That was against a more experienced group of skill position players for the Buffs as the Buffs will have new starters at QB, RB, FB, TE, and both WR positions due to the injury of Patrick Richardson in the spring. CU's offensive line is said to be a team strength. We'll see how both teams play soon enough but at the same time, I would expect a sloppy game due to the Rams having a new offense and the Buffs having so many new starters on offense.
I want to cover special teams for the Rams but information is scarce at this point and I will attempt to address that in Part II.
One intangible that I am curious about is whether CSU's President will go ahead with the construction of the on-campus stadium during the week of the RMS to fire up the Rams and their fans & alumni. But recent talk is that decision has been delayed to October so we'll see about that.
One thing won't change and that is the intense hate that both sides have for each other. That's a good reason to tune into FX on the day of the football game. I plan on eating at Buffalo Wild Wings for that game with my wife. I do support eating buffalo burgers since they are healthy. I do have one small request and that is to cut off CAM's balls...people aren't interested in the size of a bighorn ram's balls during a football game.
Good write-up. Small correction though. It is Paul Richardson not Patrick.
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