FORT COLLINS — The question was simple enough. The answer, however, carried more weight than Tyson Summers anticipated.

Kevin Pierre-Louis and Trent Matthews have played a lot of football together in Colorado State uniforms, patrolling the secondary at safety more often than not. Matthews started 50 games in his career — all but one that he played — while Pierre-Louis enters the Arizona Bowl against Nevada on Dec. 29 with 36 starts out of 47 games played. Of those starts, only one was made without Matthews next to him.

Now it will be two, as Matthews is slated to have ACL surgery Saturday to fix the knee injury that cost him his final collegiate game.

“It was funny, when we were practicing last Friday, I said, ‘KP have you ever played in a game without Trent right beside you?'” was the query Summers, the CSU defensive coordinator posed. “He was like, ‘Coach, I don’t know how many snaps I’ve taken without Trent right beside me.’ It’s an interesting thing. What a special bond those two kids have, and what a neat thing that they’ve got.”

Now all the Rams have to do is replace it against the Wolf Pack. Pierre-Louis knows it will be different, and it won’t be easy. Matthews has 10 career interceptions and brings a load of experience and leadership to the field.

It already has been odd with Matthews standing on the sidelines for bowl practices helping to coach up his possible replacements, which will likely be a mixture of Jake Schlager, Nick Januska and Justin Sweet.

“It’s going to be sad, but I’ve got to overcome and adapt to the new guys,” Pierre-Louis said. “As a group of safeties, we’re so close together, it’s like Trent will be out there still with me even though he’s on the sideline coaching me. The next guy has been waiting for his opportunity, and I think he’ll be ready to step up.”

The key element will be communication. Matthews and Pierre-Louis played so long together they could use a nod of the head to let the other know what was coming. For one week, that won’t be good enough anymore, a realization that is clear to Pierre-Louis.

“I think we’ve actually got to speak, say the words and over-communicate, which will help me better, too,” he said. “I’m going to know what I need to do again by repeating the words again. Sometimes me and Trent, we get the head nod and we know where each other are going, and a few times it got messed up.”

Schlager said the time off between games will be beneficial in that regard, and it’s not like they haven’t paired up before. Because Matthews has played all year with a leg injury, they’ve had plenty of practice reps in different pairings, so all have played a bit with each other at some point or another.

“Everybody does that quite a bit throughout the season, and everybody has gotten reps with somebody at some point and time,” he said. “These next couple of weeks are just critical as far as everybody getting reps with everybody again and just making sure the communication part is done, making sure everyone is on the same page and getting ready to go.”

Who will start will be up to the players involved, which is what Summers likes. He feels the competition between the three will bring out the best in them and leave the secondary better prepared for the task at hand.

While Nevada’s running game garners a lot of attention — as it should with 1,000-yard rushers James Butler (1,153) and Don Jackson (1,029) — Summers sees a passing game that is pretty efficient behind first-year starter Tyler Steward, who can also run himself (292 yards).

To a defensive coordinator, preparing for a game and the season ahead — Schlager and Sweet will both return in 2016 — is priceless. Truth is, all three of them have played a lot down the stretch as Matthews was dealing with a leg injury all season.

While the future is out there, Schlager said the most important thing for all involved is to be ready for the Wolf Pack.

“It’s going great. Every week this year me and Sweet and Nick have prepared as if we were the starters,” he said. “There’s not really any drawback. There is going to be more demanded of us, but with Trent over there helping us, there won’t be any setback at all, we’re going to be ready to go. These next two weeks will be nice to be able to get in the flow of things, and we’ll be ready to go.”

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