CSU football's top QB, for now, is J.C. Robles

J.C. Robles was getting ready for a spring break trip to Florida with friends when he learned Collin Hill, the projected starting quarterback for CSU next fall, had again torn the ACL in his left knee.

His first thought, he said, was to skip the trip and get some extra work in throwing passes to roommates Bisi Johnson and Izzy Matthews. It was too late to do so without paying a substantial penalty — their flight was leaving Denver in less than 24 hours, Robles said — so he flew to Florida, stressed out the entire time about what he needed to do to prepare for the unexpected opportunity.

With Hill sidelined for spring practices, which began last week, and potentially the entire 2018 season, Robles is suddenly the Rams’ No. 1 quarterback — ready or not.

He’s got the knowledge to do the job, coach Mike Bobo said.

It’s his mechanics that need to improve if Robles, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound junior, is going to lead the Colorado State University offense this fall.

So, as soon as Robles got back to Fort Collins from that spring break trip, he was hitting up his roommates and others to join him for 6 a.m. throwing sessions to help him improve his timing and sharpen his skills.

“He’s never been primed to be the starter, so now that he has that opportunity, he’s not going to let it go to waste,” said Matthews, one of the friends with Robles on the trip to Florida. “You see him working hard. You see him getting out, throwing more balls. Things that he wasn’t really doing before, when we had Collin as the expected starter.”

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Robles, by his own admission, has never been a great passer despite throwing for a school-record 4,268 yards and 59 touchdowns at El Diamante High School in Visalia, California. He was a dual-threat QB, just as dangerous on the run as throwing the football.

“I came from a high school that didn’t really throw much, and I didn’t have much coaching growing up,” Robles said. “So, I came in kind of on raw talent. After doing it for so many years, I kind of developed these bad habits.

“I’ve got to really focus in. I’ve got to focus on keeping my shoulder down when I’m throwing. I’ve got to focus on keeping my elbow up, because sometimes I let it get a little crazy, stuff like that. So, it’s really just focusing on the little things.”

Ronnie Letson, CSU’s quarterbacks coach, and Bobo, a quarterback at Georgia, have been working with Robles on improving his throwing mechanics for the past three years. But Robles said he wasn’t as focused on it as he probably should have been, knowing he was stuck behind Nick Stevens and Hill on the depth chart.

Although Robles has played in four games over the past two seasons, he’s thrown just one pass, which fell incomplete in a 2016 game at Fresno State.

So, it would be quite a stretch for Robles to step in and do what Stevens did last year, throwing for 3,799 yards and 29 touchdowns — the second-best single-season numbers in school history.

The Rams, though, don’t need Robles — or whoever else might win the starting job next fall — to put up record-breaking numbers in the passing game, Bobo said. They need someone who can operate the offense efficiently, getting the ball out of their hands and into those of play-makers like Matthews, Johnson, receivers Warren Jackson and Preston Williams, and running backs Rashaad Boddie and Marvin Kinsey.

And, at least for now, Robles is doing that better than any of the other three quarterbacks on the Rams’ roster — redshirt freshmen Justice McCoy and Judd Erickson and true freshman Salvetti D’Ascoli, a walk-on out of Ralston Valley High School in Arvada.

But that competition might have gotten stiffer Sunday. Bobo said K.J. Carta-Samuels, 6-foot-2, 200-pound graduate transfer from Washington, is joining the program this summer. He played in 25 games over the past three seasons at Washington, where he completed 27 of 47 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns.

Carta-Samuels can’t practice with the Rams until fall camp starts in late July.

More: CSU adds QB transfer K.J. Carta-Samuels from Washington

Still, Robles was running the No. 1 offense during the first week of spring practice, Bobo said.

“You see a guy that understands our offense, can spit out the verbiage, is taking command with the line of scrimmage and the backs and the tight ends, with signals and telling them the play,” Bobo said.

The competition among the team’s quarterbacks this spring is going to be “wide open,” Matthews said. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, and the Rams will ultimately tweak their offensive game plans to fit whoever winds up playing the position next fall, said Bobo.

So, Robles is at the top of the heap for now. And he’s going to do everything he can to stay there.

“I’m hurting for Collin; he’s one of my best friends,” Robles said. “But I’m excited for the opportunity and really trying to focus on the things I need to work on and the things I can control, which is becoming a better passer in this offense and becoming a better leader for this offense.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310) and 10:45 a.m. Saturdays on Denver’s ESPN radio (AM 1600).

CSU quarterbacks

K.J. Carta-Samuels – 6-foot-2, 200-pounder is joining the program this summer as a graduate transfer for his senior season after playing in 25 games over the past three seasons at Washington, where he completed 27 of 47 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns. Carta-Samuels was rated the No. 10 pro-style quarterback in the country coming out of Bellarmine Prep School in San Jose, California. He’s the younger brother of former Wyoming and Vanderbilt quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels.

Collin Hill – 6-5, 210-pound sophomore from Moore, South Carolina, tore the ACL in his left knee for the second time in 17 months and underwent surgery March 17. He won’t practice this spring and will likely miss most, if not all, of the 2018 season. Hill threw for 1,096 yards and eight touchdowns while playing in five games and starting three in 2017 before the first ACL tear. He redshirted last season.

J.C. Robles – 6-5, 230-pound junior from Visalia, California, is the only other quarterback on the roster who has appeared in a game for the Rams. The dual-threat QB, who threw for 4,268 yards and 59 touchdowns in high school, played sparingly, seeing mop-up duty in four games over the past two seasons while throwing just one pass that fell incomplete.

Justice McCoy – 6-1, 185-pounder freshman from New Orleans was the only quarterback in the Rams’ past two recruiting classes. He sat out last season while redshirting. McCoy, rated among the top 27 dual-threat QBs in the 2017 recruiting class by both 247Sports and Rivals, threw for 5,826 yards and 38 touchdowns and ran for 976 yards and 20 TDs in three seasons as the starter at Saint Augustine High School.

Judd Erickson – 6-5, 205-pound freshman from Highlands Ranch joined the team as a walk-on last year and sat out as a redshirt. Erickson threw for 3,255 yards and 33 touchdowns in 2016 as a senior at Mountain Vista High School.

Salvetti D’Ascoli – 6-3, 205-pound true freshman joined the program this spring as a walk-on. D’Ascoli threw for 1,463 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2016 as a senior at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada in his only season as the Mustangs’ starting QB.