SB Nation User Blog: bhsmarine

Colorado State Heads to the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Tournament

bhsmarine — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:56:35 -0000

The CSU Rams are heading to Oregon for the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Tournament. This will open their regular season play. They have three games in three days. I will preview UC-Davis Aggies, Winston-Salem Rams, and the host team Oregon Ducks. First lets check out how CSU did in their preseason to get some insight.

The suprise so far might be the minutes freshman guard Dorian Green is getting. With Jesse Carr out with an injury there was a spot open and Green has taken full advantage. He was the high scorer with 16 against Western State. Harvey Perry was also back after missing the first preseason game and he scored 14. So far CSU has dominated their small school opponents on the boards and in points. The trick will be to see how they match up against bigger faster teams.

Next Game

Colorado St. Rams
@ UC Davis Aggies

Friday, Nov 13, 2009, 4:30 PM PST
Basketball Travelers` Tip-Off Tournament - McArthur Court - Eugene, OR

Complete Coverage >

UC-Davis

The UC Davis Aggies are picked to finish 6th in the Big West. Both guards Joe Harden and Mark Payne are on the presseason all-conference teams so CSU's Green and Perry will have their hands full in their first action this year. They don't have a distinct hight advantage that has hurt CSU over the past, this game should be an athletic showdown.

Next Game

Winston-Salem Rams
@ Colorado St. Rams

Saturday, Nov 14, 2009, 4:15 PM PST
Basketball Travelers` Tip-Off Tournament - McArthur Court - Eugene, OR

Complete Coverage >

Winston-Salem
Coming in as a Independant team they have not been picked to do much of anything this year. They return their leading scorer from last year in senior guard Brian Fisher. This is a team the CSU Rams should be able to use their height on and control the boards.

Next Game

Colorado St. Rams
@ Oregon Ducks

Sunday, Nov 15, 2009, 3:30 PM PST
Basketball Travelers` Tip-Off Tournament - McArthur Court

Complete Coverage >

Oregon
The host team Oregon has been picked to finish 7th in the Pac-10. The Ducks will play an uptempo style of game and could be able to out athlete the Rams if the Rams don't stick to a game plan. The Ducks will be relying on Tajuan Porter and possible stud freshman Jamil Wilson. This will be the toughest game of the weekend for the Rams.

If CSU can come out of this with a 2-1 record they should be happy, UC-Davis is a team they need to beat if Tim Miles is going to stick around for much longer. He is in his 3rd year of coaching and its time to see some results from his recruiting classes. So far Green looks to be a great recruitment and it is show Tim Miles system is coming around.

UNLV wins easily over CSU 35-16

bhsmarine — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:49:36 -0000

Final - 11.7.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
Colorado St. Rams	0	7	3	6	16
UNLV Rebels	0	14	7	14	35

Complete Coverage >

The UNLV Rebels (4-6, 2-4) kept their bowl hopes alive while eliminating Colorado State (3-7, 0-6) from a bowl game during a 35-16 win in Vegas. The Rebels played well and made a few big 3rd down conversions and playing balanced football. The Rams drop their seventh straight game and have all but fallen completely apart after a 3-0 start. This was a very interesting game, catch the details after the jump.

UNLV came out with a great game plan of mixing run and pass and mixing up looks by using QB's Omar Clayton and Mike Clausen. Clayton got the majority of the snaps and gained 44 yards on the ground and 147 through the air with a touchdown both ways. Clausen had 15 yards on the ground and two touchdowns

So, the interesting part of this game came from CSU. After Grant Stucker started the game at quarterback and had two unsuccessful drives Jon Eastman was put in behind center. He looked decent but had obvious timing issues while coming in from back up role. Stucker came back in near the end of the game. Since this was a late game and turning into a blow out I went to bed, but I am assuming this was Fairchild playing musical quarterbacks and this was not Eastman getting hurt.

The more interesting part of this game is the absolute desperation that CSU played with. There was ten or more trick plays used by CSU. Reverses, reverse passes, wildcats, a statue of liberty, they were a hook and ladder away from the trick play cycle. By my count four players took snaps for the Rams. Two thoughts about this, if the Rams are going to lose might as well make it fun to watch. Secondly that team is in dire need of a new offensive coordinator (the current one was regulated to recruiting duties) and a new defensive coordinator as all night they had no faith that the defense could stop UNLV. Also a quarterback that Fairchild can trust because the offense has turned into wide receiver screens and runs. On the plus side the Rams ran the ball well again, Lou Greenwood had 65 yards in 13 carries and Leonard Mason had 41 on ten carries.

The stat line for CSU doesn't look awful which is the surprising thing, Time of Possession 38 to 22 CSU, total yards 424 to 321, penalties were even and CSU only had 1 turnover. The Rebels won the 3rd down efficiency battle which is no surprise as the Rams have struggled all year on 3rd downs. Last night the Rebels showed some people what they thought they would see at the start of the year.

The Rebels travel to Colorado Springs to take on the Falcons next week to keep their bowl hopes alive. The Rams travel to New Mexico in a battle of the not very good at football.

Making the Rounds 11/5

bhsmarine — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:57:48 -0000

Colorado State

CSU's special teams are improving even through the 6 game slid.

TCU

Even the scout teams for TCU are good.

Utah

Wynn looks to get the call, but Whittingham isn't saying anything.

BYU

The Cougar offense is still sharp this year.

Air Force

Any service rivalry is a big one, Army and Air Force prep for the game.

SDSU

The Aztecs look at TCU and hope to see their future under Hoke.

Wyoming

Wyoming looks to their D-Line to slow down the BYU attack.

UNLV

Las Vegas gets a return from local kid in Greer.

CSU loses player for the year... again.

bhsmarine — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:34:00 -0000

CSU loses player for the year... again.

The CSU Rams have lost another player for the season, that is three weeks in a row. This time it is Tight End Eric Peitz. It is dangerous to be wearing green and gold right now.

Colorado State Travels to UNLV as Both Teams Look to Keep Bowl Dreams Alive

bhsmarine — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:08:59 -0000

Next Game

Colorado St. Rams
@ UNLV Rebels

Saturday, Nov 7, 2009, 7:00 PM PST
Sam Boyd Stadium

Complete Coverage >

UNLV Rebels (3-6, 1-4) host the Colorado State Rams (3-6, 0-5) at Sam Boyd Stadium this weekend in a battle of struggling teams. The loser will be officially dropped out of bowl contention, while the winner can keep on hoping to finish out and get a chance at the New Mexico Bowl. Colorado is the loser of six straight and has yet to win a Mountain West Conference game this year. UNLV is fresh off a shutout loss 41-0 to #6 TCU last week.

UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton will look to get the offense back on track after being shut out last week. The week before the Rebels put up 34 points on New Mexico and average 24 points a game so chalk last week up to TCU just being dominate. UNLV's other QB Mike Clausen might get some snaps as he was the leading rusher last week and has seen some playing time the last few games. UNLV should attack the injury stricken CSU defense with Ryan Wolfe who has had a very solid season at wide receiver. On the defensive side the Rebels will have to find a way to stop Leonard Mason who is the Rams main threat these days.

The Rams need to get trust back in Grant Stucker as they attempted very few down field passes against Air Force last week and became a one dimensional team. If that trust is not there might as well see what Jon Eastman can do, but Steve Fairchild is saying that Stucker will be his starter. The good news for the Rams is they have found a running back in Leonard Mason who finishes runs and moves the chains. On defense the Rams need to get to the quarterback and force some turnovers to keep them in the game.

In more bad news for the Rams tight end Eric Peitz is out for the year. This is the third week in a row the Rams have lost a player for the year. DeAngelo Wilkinson is not likely to play either for the Rams, leaving the Rebels a big chance to exploit the Rams secondary as it has been the last 6 weeks. The Rebels have a shot at beating the Rams who have won 12 of the last 13 meetings between the teams.

Air Force dominates CSU 34 - 16

bhsmarine — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:35:25 -0000

Final - 10.31.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
Air Force Falcons	14	3	14	3	34
Colorado St. Rams	0	10	0	6	16

Complete Coverage >

The Air Force Falcons (5-4, 4-2) were in control the whole game as they took down a struggling Colorado State (3-6, 0-5) team 34 - 16. Tim Jefferson started and played well for the Falcons with two passing touchdowns. Colorado State actually won the time of possession battle but couldn't muster much against the Falcons defense.

Air Force had 271 yards on the ground and a touchdown from Jared Tew. The Falcons had little trouble moving the ball on the Colorado State defense as they only punted once and at one point scored 20 unanswered points between the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Kicker Erik Soderberg nailed a 50 yard kick as time expired in the 2nd quarter, it was 3 of his 8 points on the day.

On defense the Falcons held the Rams to only 87 passing yards on the day. No CSU receiver had more then two catches. Reggie Rembert grabbed his third interception of the year in the 3rd quarter to stop any comeback ideas the Rams had.

Colorado State was bad all day. It reflected in the play calling as Grant Stucker wasn't asked to pass the ball down the field much at all. It was a steady diet of Leonard Mason and screen passes. Mason finished with a game high 95 yards and was the Rams lone bright spot on the day. Stucker was eventually pulled for back up Jon Eastman. The Rams 2nd half woes continued as they were outscored 17-6 after halftime. This was the 6th consecutive loss for the Rams. However ugly it has been the Rams still have a shot at being a bowl team, they would need to win out against UNLV, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

A Rant on Colorado State and Their Nemesis, the 2nd Half

bhsmarine — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:11:00 -0000

Here is a table of CSU's efforts in the first and second half. Let those numbers soak in for a second.

Opponent	1^st Half (CSU-Opponent)	2^nd Half (CSU-Opponent)	Result, 2^nd half margin, Lead
Colorado	20 - 3	3 - 14	W (23-17) -11, Biggest Lead 17
Weber State	17 - 20	7 - 3	W (24-23) +4, Biggest Lead 11
Nevada	14 - 0	21 – 20	W (35-20) +1, Biggest Lead 29
BYU	7 - 21	16 – 21	L (23-42) -5, No lead
Idaho	20 - 10	9 – 21 *Blown 13pt lead	L (29-31) -11, Biggest Lead 13
Utah	3 – 3	14 – 21 *Blown 14pt lead	L (17-24) -7, Biggest Lead 14
TCU	6 – 17 *Blown 6pt lead	0 - 27	L (6-44) -27, Biggest Lead 6
SDSU	21 - 7	7 – 35 *Blown 14pt lead	L (28-42) - 27, Biggest Lead 14
Totals	108 – 81 Advantage Rams	77 – 162 Advantage Opp.	(3-5), -85, Four blown leads

So what does it all mean? Simply it means that CSU has been outscored by enough points that they have lost 5 games and won 3. Ok, past the mocking comments. They have only outscored two opponents in the second half this year, one of those teams was DII Weber State. They have been outscored by more than 200% in the second half!

Should they blame injuries? Scheme or adjustments? Defense or offense? Or are the Rams just not a good team getting lucky in the first half of games? Let's dig in...

Steve Fairchild won't blame injuries and that is fair. He recruits the whole team not just the starting 22, but losing players on a week to week basis hurts consistency. The Rams have lost two starting defenders for the year in consecutive weeks. Injuries have been a factor on every function of the team. On defense it has been the worst; defensive line has had injuries to Cory Macon and Ty Whittier, linebackers Alex Williams and Michael Kawulok have \will miss time, in the secondary Klint Kubiak is done and Gerard Thomas missed a game.

On offense it's better but not by much; lineman Shelley Smith missed time, running backs John Mosure and Leonard Mason have missed games, WR T.J. Borcky has missed games and Rashaun Greer must have missed time when he got his hands removed and frying pans transplanted to replace them. Those are just the major injuries the Rams have had. Like I said before, injuries will hurt any team but shouldn't be blamed solely.

The scheme has stayed the same and adjustments have been lacking at best. Without serious game film to study it is hard to say what adjustments are being made by Larry Kerr on defense. The Rams secondary is getting eaten alive though in the schemes they run. Zone and man defenses have gotten burnt. The frustrating ones have been mostly in zone coverage as they seem to favor it in the second half. The pass has been the main weapon of choice against them. A few SDSU players had career days last week and proved that.

What can they do about it? Throw different zones and looks at teams. Once again without film it's hard to say for sure but they seem to sit in the same zones the majority of the time. They get picked apart on the outsides in the 10-15 yard range. Need a first down against the Rams? Throw an up and out at the 1^st down marker, they haven't stopped it all year. The Idaho game was very frustrating to watch because they ran about 3 routes all night and they kept working. I would like to see more playing the ball in the air by the CB's as they have gotten beat on a few passes that could have been picks or deflected passes. You can counter this with why does the scheme work in the first half and not the second. I will say poor/no adjustments are the issue for sure, not the overall scheme.

So who's to blame defense or offense? Yes, exactly. Giving up 20.9 points a second half is unacceptable. Only scoring 9.6 per second half is unacceptable. The defense is the main culprit here, you shouldn't blow double digit leads with less than 30 minutes of football to play. The offense is not helping but the defense should be upset with their performances.

Is CSU good enough to win games? Yes. They are inconsistent and that has led to their second half blunders. But that doesn't mean they are a bad team. They did lead in all but one of their games and you could look at them and say they should be a 6-2 football team. Idaho, Utah and SDSU were all games they had in control, if you're a bad team you don't get double digit leads like they had. Good teams don't blow them but I am not writing this team off as a bad football team. They are floating in between average and good. CSU makes a couple more plays in those three games and they are 6-2, 7-1 maybe if Rashaun Greer doesn't have his frying pan hand transplant right before the BYU game. 8-0? Only if TCU gets team wide H1N1 and we play their intramural flag football team.

Who/what is to blame then? Injuries? Sure, they have caused them to be inconsistent and play some guys who aren't ready. Scheme/Adjustments? Sure, they have gotten beat on the same plays and it is not because a complete lack of physical talent, this is the biggest culprit. Offense or Defense? Yup, looking at both of them. No hiding special teams we see you there in the back screwing it up too. Bad football team? Not bad, not good, kind of like the purgatory of football teams. Chalk it up to a little of everything, players and coaching staff.

What I do know is the Rams can turn this into a bowl season yet with two beatable teams in UNLV and New Mexico coming up. They can steal a home game against Air Force or Wyoming, never under estimate home field in college football. What I do know is watching another horrid second half of football in 30 degree weather isn't my idea of a fun Saturday.

Colorado State Hosts the Air Force Falcons

bhsmarine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:55:16 -0000

Next Game

Air Force Falcons
@ Colorado St. Rams

Saturday, Oct 31, 2009, 1:00 PM PDT
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium

TV: The Mtn

Complete Coverage >

The Air Force Falcons (4-4, 3-2) travel up I-25 to Hughes Stadium to take on the Colorado State Rams (3-5, 0-4). The Falcons are coming off an overtime loss against the Utah Utes 23-16. The Rams have lost 5 straight, blowing another 14 point 2nd half lead this time against San Diego State. The weather looks to be in the low 30's and sunny after snow has hit the area earlier in the week. Both teams look to get a step closer to a bowl game.

Air Force comes in ranked 4th in rushing in the nation at 276.1 yards per game. On the flip side they are ranked 119th in passing yards, but 119th in attempts only ahead of Navy in both catagories. These stats are a product of the option offense.

Tim Jefferson is listed as the starting quarterback after missing the Utah game last week. QB Connor Dietz is out with a broken hand so Jefferson will need to stay healthy. The Falcons will go with their stable of backs in Jered Tew, Savier Stephens, and Asher Clark.

On defense Air Force has relied on forcing turnovers getting 23 and only coughing it up 5 times. That is also tops in the nation at +2.25 turnover margin per game. As a group they get to the quarterback well with 22 sacks on the year as a unit.

For CSU they are looking to stop a 5 game losing skid that has been marked by 4 lost leads. On offense they have been inconsistant behind Grant Stucker and injured running backs. Leonard Mason is looking to return after missing last week due to bruised ribs. The Rams will need to be explosive on offense as the Falcons control the clock with their option offense.

The Rams lost LB Michael Kawulok for the year. There are conflicting reports on who will replace him this week as a few players are getting a chance to compete for the starting spot. It is another tough loss but people feeling bad wont stop Air Force from running. The Rams will need to play solid contain defense and tackle well.

It is tough to see the Rams straightening things out after a 5 game skid and more injuries. Air Force has looked good as their only two conference losses were close ones to TCU and Utah. The weather shouldn't be a huge factor and I expect another competitive MWC battle.

Rams lose another defender

bhsmarine — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:11:30 -0000

Rams lose another defender

It looks like the Rams will lose linebacker Michael Kawulok for the year to a knee injury.

SDSU wins one on the road at CSU, 42 - 28

bhsmarine — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:46:45 -0000

Final - 10.24.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
San Diego St. Aztecs	0	7	20	15	42
Colorado St. Rams	14	7	7	0	28

Complete Coverage >

The San Diego State Aztecs (3-4, 1-2) won 42 - 28 at Fort Collins against Colorado State (3-5, 0-4). The Aztecs victory was their first in conference and extended the Rams losing streak to 5 in a row. Ryan Lindley threw a career high 6 touchdowns in the victory. Catch more after the jump!

SDSU scored on a DeMarco Sampson touchdown pass with 9:39 left in the 4th quarter and never looked back. They were down by 14 at one half and by one going into the final quarter before Lindley put the team on his back. It was the ninth most receiving yards in Aztec history by Sampson.

Ryan Lindley behind great protection all game threw six touchdowns for 459 yards and a 67% completion percentage. Most of those passes targeted DeMarco Sampson, 15 catches for 257 yards. Most of these yards came after stud WR Vincent Brown went out with an injury. The SDSU passing game clicked all game and they had no need to rely on a running game except to throw in a different look ever so often. They picked up 72 yards on the ground, most for show.

The CSU Rams were actually up 21 - 7 at half and it looked like they were headed to victory. Grant Stuckers 48% completion percentage and two interceptions would have something to say about that. John Mosure ran for a career high 130 yards while emerging freshman Lou Greenwood got zero carries. Mosure also connected on a 23 yard pass. Once again the Rams snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as the blew another lead, the forth game in a row.

Next week the Aztecs host New Mexico and look to go .500 in conference. Colorado State will host Air Force in a in-state rivalry.