CSU football treating finale Friday vs. No. 20 Boise State like a bowl game

Kelly Lyell | The Coloradoan

Show Caption Hide Caption CSU football faces 'big test' vs. Boise State, coach Mike Bobo says Colorado State coach Mike Bobo said Boise State, the Rams' opponent this week, 'jumped on Utah State so fast I had to turn the channel'

There’s no conference championship game or bowl game for Colorado State University’s football team this season.

Yet the Rams (4-7, 3-4 Mountain West) still have a chance to make a big statement in their regular-season finale Friday at Canvas Stadium. The 1:30 p.m. game will be televised nationally by CBS-Sports Network.

Beat No. 20 Boise State (10-1, 7-0), a two-touchdown favorite, and the 2019 season won’t seem quite so bad for fifth-year coach Mike Bobo and his team.

“We’re pretty much treating this as a bowl game,” junior quarterback Patrick O’Brien said Monday. “I think they’re going to come out and play hard, but it’s an opportunity for us to show what type of football we are and play well against a really good opponent.”

Boise State football at CSU: TV, ticket, point spread, other game info

CSU hasn’t defeated a nationally ranked opponent since 2002, when the Rams beat No. 7 Colorado 19-14 a week after opening the season with a 35-29 win at No. 22 Virginia. And CSU has never beaten Boise State, which is tied with Ohio State as the winningest programs in the country since 2000 with identical 217-42 records.

Boise State has already clinched the Mountain West's Mountain Division title for a third straight year and will host West Division champion Hawaii (8-4, 5-3) on Dec. 7 in the conference championship game. The Broncos are the best team CSU will face this season, and, because of their national ranking, the score of Friday’s game will be scrolling across the bottom of TV screens during broadcasts of other college football and basketball games throughout the holiday weekend.

“It’s a big, big test for our team,” Bobo said. “But we’re excited to have at least one more opportunity and hopefully end the season on some kind of positive note.

“… Any time you’re playing somebody that’s considered one of the best teams in the country, I think that gives you an extra incentive as a football team to go out and prove that you can play with anybody.”

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That’s what the Rams like most about this matchup — the chance it provides them to show the country they’re better than they were a during a 3-9 season a year ago that ended with five straight losses. And they're better than they were during a 1-5 start this season despite dropping their past two games to rivals Air Force and Wyoming.

Boise State is the standard other MW teams are judged by. And CSU’s all-time record against the Broncos is 0-8.

The Rams, though, aren’t intimidated, sophomore linebacker Dequan Jackson said.

They’re ready to play the best game they’ve played yet this year — because it's the last game in a CSU uniform for veteran safety Jamal Hicks, offensive lineman Jeff Taylor and 11 other seniors.

“It’s just another chance to compete; that’s the way we’re looking at it, no matter if it’s the last game, no matter if we had a bowl game and all that good stuff,” Jackson said. “You’ve got the No. 1 team in the conference coming to your house. It’s Senior Night; we’ve got to play for the seniors, we’ve got to send them out with a bang.

“… We’ve got plans on upsetting them.”

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Kelly Lyell covers CSU and other local sports and sports-related news for the Coloradoan. Follow him at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and help support the work he and his fellow journalists do in our community by purchasing a subscription at coloradoan.com/subscribe.