Ryan Davis was encouraged.

More than that, really. Beyond excited, he was just fired up. Colorado State’s football strength and conditioning coach had just exited the indoor practice facility on Tuesday with the rest of his staff, and he was speaking in elated tones. As proof, he pointed to his arm, covered in goose bumps.

His initial impression of the team when taking over the post in January was he inherited a group not satisfied with a 10-win season. But what Davis feels he’s seeing now is a collection of players inspired to not only get better, but one driven to reach its true goals, that of winning championships.

This summer, Davis sees a team willing to sacrifice.

“There’s no doubt. One of the things we talk about now is all in, and what that means through our summer leadership program is talking about character,” Davis said. “I think these guys, I honestly and truthfully believe, they have made decisions to put themselves second and put their teammates first this summer. I can tell by the way they come in for early morning workouts on Monday. We don’t have guys that are hung over, we don’t have guys that are sluggish, we don’t have guys missing. I think they’ve started to make that commitment.”

But that’s only part of the equation. Davis left the building because of NCAA regulations, allowing the team to go through seven-on-seven drills as the Rams’ players work on advancing their knowledge of the systems coach Mike Bobo and his staff installed over the spring.

In effect, the players will spend the summer — without the aid of coaches on the field — reinstalling those systems for a second time.

Even that process has been encouraging in the early going.

“I thought about the plays when I was home, and when I got back here, it was remembering what route concepts we had, and it came back pretty easily, to be honest,” senior receiver Joe Hansley said. “Once you kind of get it the first time like we did in the spring, I think the players got it back pretty easy.

“I know with the (Nos.) one and two huddles out here, the ones I’ve been in, we were getting the plays and no one was really confused. I can only remember one or two plays where I had to ask or think hard, so I think everybody pretty much picked up where we left off and we’re ready to go.”

The players say the key is not how much work they get in, but the quality of what is being done. Doing something wrong in a workout will only lead to hiccups once fall begins if the coaches have to work around bad habits being developed.

To that end, the spring tape they collected has been a valuable teaching aid, as each player can go to their iPad for verification.

They anticipate heading into fall camp ready to roll without having to be re-taught lessons of the past.

“That’s one of the biggest goals we have,” junior linebacker Kevin Davis said. “Not just working out, but executing in the playbook and being perfect with that. I think we’re learning the playbook pretty good. We’re still asking each other questions when we come off the field, ask the other guy in your group, ‘What can I do better, what can I do to improve?'”

Over the spring, the players learned what Coach Davis’ expectations were going to be, and he in turn learned what buttons to push to motivate each of the players individually. Armed with that knowledge, he feels the two sides have converged to the point where their work has progressed beyond the pace Davis expected.

He sees them competing at everything, from agility drills to lifts. The numbers based on strength and speed gains are great, he said, but not really what has his focus. It’s the effort being put into place, and he began what he called the Bighorn Battalion to help fuel the competition, with shirts being issued to those who excel.

“I think the difference now is they know why they weren’t satisfied. They wanted to win a bowl game, and I don’t think they knew what that was going to take,” Davis said. “I think they wanted to win a championship; I don’t think they quite knew what that was going to take. Now I think they know it’s going to take a huge commitment, and I think each and every one of these guys knows exactly what that means for him, and I think that gives them a different mindset over the summer.”

In the process, Davis has seen leadership develop throughout the roster, and the work done so far led him to text Coach Bobo to say if it continues, he has no doubt they can line up with anybody this season.

It’s taken a little extra, and Davis wasn’t the only one who came to that realization.

“You see more and more guys every day buying in and putting in extra work, and that’s a sacrifice,” Hansley said. “You get done with the workouts and you want to go home and sleep, but they stay here. That’s sacrificing your personal time to work out with the team. I definitely think the coaches have pushed that on us to sacrifice and be willing to get better and work hard.”

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