CSU players healing Colorado State coach Mike Bobo was encouraged after Wednesday’s practice, seeing two of his offensive standouts making progress. Running back Treyous Jarrells, who missed the opener, was back on the field — sans a red jersey — and looked sharp. Running backs coach Bryan Applewhite said Jarrells’ appearance raised the level of his position group. “He looks good. He looks real good,” Bobo said of Jarrells. “I’m really happy how fast he got back from his surgery, and he’s going to help us a lot offensively.” Rashard Higgins, absent Tuesday, was out early Wednesday for individual drills then back inside for treatment on a sprain. Bobo said he’s expecting him to play. Kicker woes — Wyatt Bryan, who missed a field goal and a PAT attempt in the opener, looked good in field goal drills Tuesday by making all four attempts. Bobo said Bryan will be back in the same role again against Minnesota. Kickoff duties will be handled by Braxton Davis, who showed good drive in practice. Bobo thinks they both just have to relax, trust their stroke and do what they do.

FORT COLLINS — The in-game battles can be as entertaining as the games themselves. Sometimes more so.

Colorado State takes big leap in competition this week with Minnesota coming to Hughes Stadium (1:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network), a Big 10 team coming off successive eight-win seasons with bowl-game appearances. It’s a Gophers team where the strength lies on the defensive side of the ball (nine returning starters), and the most experience can be found in the back end with a secondary that has 147 games played combined.

The hosts have won 18 games the past two seasons, and the Rams have gone to two successive bowls on the strength of an explosive offense. It has been balanced, but last year the ledger leaned more toward the pass and an opening week 65-13 win over Savannah State suggested nothing different.

“It’s another week and another challenge for us, another week to test how good we are,” said Minnesota cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun. “Colorado State has a good receiving core, and we think we have a good secondary. There’s no other way we would have it. We like to play good on good all the time.

“It’s better than playing somebody that you obviously know you’re better than. Coming in and playing a team where the receivers are good and we’re a good secondary, it’s going to be a fun matchup.”

Boddy-Calhoun was an all-conference selection a season ago after registering five interceptions. As a defense, the Gophers have intercepted 39 passes in the past 40 games, and last week in a loss to No. 3 TCU, the four Gophers in the secondary were the four leading tacklers for the team.

Colorado State coach Mike Bobo watched them on film, and a lot stood out. One, it was clear to him they knew what they were doing and they do it well. Two, they don’t miss tackles. They just don’t.

More impressive to him was the straight-forward approach the Gophers take.

“It doesn’t look all that complicated,” he said. “Usually when you see a team that you know what they’re going to be in, that means they’re pretty good at what they do.”

From watching the TCU game, the CSU wideouts noticed the Minnesota secondary knows how to cover guys very, very well.

“They’re better than some of the opponents we’ll face, but you still have to prepare like you’re playing the best every week,” CSU senior Joe Hansley said. “They definitely have some guys in the secondary that are pretty talented, some all-Big 10 guys, so it kind of flips the switch in your mind that you better get ready to go or they’re going to lock you down.”

Naturally, the outside world goes directly to Rashard Higgins after the All-American season he had in 2014, and Minnesota coach Jerry Kill was sure to take a good, long look. He was definitely impressed, but he and Boddy-Calhoun both said the challenge goes well beyond the talents of Higgins.

Nick Stevens started his first game and threw for 289 yards and five touchdowns, each to a different receiver. In all, 11 different Rams caught passes in last week’s victory, six with touchdown catches. To Stevens, that same approach is key in trying to pass on the Gophers.

“It’s been proven last week if I just take what they give me, there’s going to be something open,” Stevens said. “That’s how defenses work; there’s an opening somewhere. If I just go through my progressions and take the reads, I think we’ll be all right. We’re going to move the ball and get first downs and hopefully score enough.”

The Rams hope to find strength in numbers. If too much attention is paid to Higgins, then a Hansley, an Xavier Williams, a Deionte Gaines come open. Or tight ends Kivon Cartwright or Steven Walker. Or a back sliding out.

“It puts the stress on them. It’s not like we have just one guy that they can put a man and a safety over him,” said Hansley, who had five catches in the opener. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can attack you from everywhere on the field, but they have a lot of DBs who are pretty sound at what they do. Hopefully when they come up here we hit them in waves and we kind of run them to death and tempo them.”

Naturally, both sides of the equation will depend on their friends to make the plan work. Stevens will need time against a physical Minnesota pass rush, one that Boddy-Calhoun said makes life easier in the back. As a whole, the Gophers communicate well and flow to the ball.

“I think we learned that we’re a confident group and that we can pretty much hang with anyone in the country,” Boddy-Calhoun said. “Ohio State is No. 1, and we lost to them by seven points last year. You’ve got TCU, we held them to 30 points this year and first game this year we come out and hold them to 23. It just shows that we’re a group that’s strong on defense and we’re going to play good defense.”

Both sides like their group, feeling it bolsters their chance at picking up a win. If there’s an edge one way or another, that won’t come until Saturday.

“It’s yet to be determined if it’s an advantage or not,” Bobo said of his receiving depth. “(Minnesota’s) very talented. The way I look at, if we have a chance to make a play, we better make it, because we’re not going to have many opportunities against this defense.”

Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard