Matt L. Stephens

matthewstephens@coloradoan.com

There’s a 185-step prayer Faton Bauta repeats every weekday.

Along the 185-step path between the CSU locker room and practice field, Bauta takes time to reflect. Back to how his parents immigrated to the United State from Albania; his father only bringing with him a few dollars in his pocket.

Back to the job his father got as a building superintendent in New York to provide his family a place to live. Back to the sacrifices his five older siblings made to help him achieve his dream of playing quarterback.

For 185 steps, Bauta prays to say, "thanks."

“If I’m praying for something, then it’s just wishing for things. And, honestly, no. I’ve never wished for anything in my life,” Bauta said. “Do I have dreams? Do I have goals? Do I have all these huge aspirations? Of course, I do. But it’s not about wishing for it. It’s about working for it.”

Bauta hates it when people talk about his work ethic. He wants to vomit every time someone tells him he’s the hardest worker on the Colorado State University football team. To him, hard work is irrelevant without production.

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His parents produced. They worked hard to get his eight-person family out of a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and into a house in New Jersey with a yard.

His siblings produced. They all earned master’s degrees. His four older brothers played Division I football.

Faton?

He made one start in four years as a Southeastern Conference quarterback at Georgia, completing 46 percent of his passes for 154 yards, no touchdowns and four interceptions. As you might expect, he hates being reminded of it.

The only thing Bauta has ever wanted in life is to be a quarterback. The quarterback. In his entire football career, he’s only been that for one season, his senior year of high school.

He’s been passed over his entire life.

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It started in a New Jersey Pop Warner league shortly after moving to the Garden State at age 10, his mother, Myra Bauta, said. He was the best athlete on the team and scored most of the touchdowns — as a running back. He was supposed to be given the team MVP award at the postseason banquet, but the coach never presented the trophy. It wasn’t until months later when spending time at the coach’s house that MVP award was on a shelf. Just not Faton's shelf.

The coach gave it to his son. The quarterback.

From that point, Bauta wanted to be a QB. He tried, but he never got the chance in youth football. So he left the sport and focused on baseball until it was time to decide what high school to attend.

He ultimately settled on Poly Prep in Brooklyn — where his older brothers attended — because, as Myra said, football coach Dino Mangiero promised him he’d be the starting quarterback.

That never happened as a freshman. He was slotted at running back and forced to watch an upperclassman take the snaps. As a sophomore, Bauta’s family was again promised Faton would be the one to take the snaps.

Nope.

The next year? Same story, though he was named an all-state linebacker. But Bauta didn’t want to be a linebacker. He wanted to be a quarterback.

His parents knew it.

So in spring 2011, they decided to leave the family’s successful New Jersey real estate business in the hands of their five other children and moved to Florida with Faton so he could play quarterback for Palm Beach Gardens’ Dwyer High School.

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The move earned him a scholarship to Georgia, but the rest of the story remains the same. There was always someone else who, at least in the eyes of his coaches, was better under center.

Now Bauta sits hours before beginning his final season of college football, a graduate transfer at CSU playing for Mike Bobo, the same coach who recruited him to Athens five years ago. And he’s again in a position to be passed over as the starting quarterback.

Bobo won’t announce who his starter is for Friday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown against the University of Colorado until the first snap. But Bauta is the presumed backup to junior Nick Stevens.

He’s not angry about it. He doesn’t believe he’s entitled because he played in the SEC.

He’s a 22-year-old so focused on his craft that his mother doesn’t mind if there’s a line in the newspaper saying Bauta’s entire family will be in the stands Friday at Sports Authority Field in Denver to surprise him. She knows he won’t read it because “he’ll be too busy working on becoming a better quarterback.”

“There are faith-based people and there are works-based people,” Bauta said. “You can work hard and believe that it’s going to pay off, or you can just work, work, work and get your results. I’ve always been a work-based person.

“I’ll never ask God for anything. I go out there and give thanks for the opportunity to put in the work and get the results. Now let me make everyone proud by making the most of it.”

Bauta likely won't start Friday. He may never get that chance again. If that time does come, he’ll know it’s because his hard work finaly means something.

But his 185-step prayer won’t change.

For insight and analysis on athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports editor and columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting