Colorado State’s backup QB isn’t backing down

Coleman Key doesn’t understand first-year CSU football coach’s Mike Bobo’s offense as well as he’d like.

He doesn’t get as many opportunities to work with the No. 1 offense as Nick Stevens does.

He’s never even taken a snap in a college football game.

Yet Key realizes he’s got to be just as ready to play every Saturday this fall as Stevens, who beat him out for the starting quarterback job in a competition that continued into the early portion of fall camp.

That’s just the way it is when you’re the backup quarterback. Ready or not, he could be forced into action at any moment – for a single play, a series or two, maybe even the rest of the season.

Key, a strong-armed redshirt freshman from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, gets it. There’s no time to sulk or feel sorry for himself. He can’t afford it, and neither can his team.

“My job is basically just to stay locked in, stay doing what I’m doing, and just keep competing and pushing Nick,” Key said after a recent practice. “It’s going to make Nick better, it’s going to make me better, and it’s going to make the team better.”

It’s a difficult role.

Stevens knows it as well as anyone. He was the backup last year, behind third-round NFL draft pick and Colorado State University career passing leader Garrett Grayson.

“You’ve got to prepare every day like something could happen,” Stevens said. “You never know. He could go in at the blink of an eye.”

Stevens, 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, made it into five of the Rams’ 13 games last season, completing 15 of 25 passes for 136 yards and one touchdown without an interception in former coach Jim McElwain’s pro-style offense. Key spent the season quarterbacking the scout team, running the offense each week of whatever team CSU was preparing to play.

Key, 6-4 and 220 pounds, has good mechanics and a “rocket arm,” teammates said. But he still has trouble with the up-tempo, no-huddle pace of Bobo’s pro-style offense. He knows what to do on every play against every defense, he said, he’s just not always able to process it as quickly as he needs to do to be an effective quarterback.

“I think the biggest thing is just really understanding the playbook a lot better,” Key said. “That’s the one thing that Nick does really well right now. He understands what’s going on, he understands the concepts, what coaches are talking about. He understands what the defense is trying to do.

“I think I’ve kind of got a good grasp on it, but that’s something I need to keep working on just to kind of develop my skills all around. That way, I’m not just a big arm; I’ve got a brain to go with it.”

All-American Rashard Higgins and the other receivers said they’ve caught enough passes from both quarterbacks to develop the timing and familiarity they need.

“Coleman Key, he comes out every day with the mindset of, ‘I’m the starter.’ “ Higgins said. “When I’m working with the quarterbacks, he’s on point with every throw. … When Coleman’s throwing the ball to me, it feels just like Garrett’s pass or Nick’s pass.”

Bobo, a former quarterback and quarterbacks coach at Georgia, said he’s been pleased with the development of both quarterbacks, both before and after he named the starter. And, he said Monday, both will get a chance to play in Saturday’s season opener against Savannah State and, if all goes well, in every game the Rams play this season.

It’s the only way to make sure he’s got a backup capable of stepping in and leading the Rams to a victory if the starter goes down. Players at other positions, Bobo said, can get in for a few plays on special teams to get their feet wet before playing on offense or defense. That’s not an option for quarterbacks.

“I think you always talk about building depth and getting guys in,” Bobo said. “A quarterback’s a little bit different, so we’re trying to go into the season where we’re going to play the second-string quarterback in every game.

“If he prepares and does the things he’s supposed to do, we’ll give him that opportunity.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

• Next up: Savannah State at CSU

• When: 2 p.m. Saturday

• Where: Hughes Stadium

• TV/radio: none/ESPN (FM 105.5)

• Twitter updates: @KellyLyell, @MattStephens