Analysis: Colorado State won’t fall far in football

There’s a new coach, a new quarterback and an entirely new offensive system to learn.

The leading tacklers from the past two seasons are gone, as is the leading rusher, who gained 1,275 yards and scored 18 touchdowns.

CSU’s football program this season seems primed for a rebuilding year. And that’s what it will be. But only to an extent.

Don’t expect the Rams to fall far, though. They’re probably not going to post another 10-win sesason — last year’s was only the fifth in school history. But there’s a good chance they’ll be in the hunt for the Mountain West’s Mountain Division title and playing in another bowl game at the end of the season.

When Jim McElwain left at the end of the regular season to become Florida’s coach, he left the program in far better shape than he found it.

He made it an attractive option for the next hotshot coordinator coming out of the Southeastern Conference looking for his first job as a head coach. When McElwain first met his team three years earlier after helping guide the Alabama offense through two national championships in four seasons, he wondered where “all the big guys were,” mistaking the Rams’ offensive and defensive linemen for running backs and linebackers.

Bobo had no such concerns last winter, saying from Day 1 that he was inheriting a deep and talented group of players capable of competing for a conference championship right away. There are no obvious holes, with plenty of players battling for playing time at every position group. Competition is strong from quarterback to the offensive line, where three starters return, through a wide receiver group led by consensus All-American Rashard Higgins to a pair of tight ends that were named to the preseason watch list for the Mackey Award.

There are eight starters returning on defense, giving new defensive coordinator Tyson Summers a veteran group to work his magic. Summers used the same attacking 4-3 defense he brought to Colorado State University last year at Central Florida, where he turned the Black Knights into one of the top defensive units in the nation.

“This defense is scary, man, the way we’re coming along,” senior safety Kevin Pierre-Louis said after a recent practice. “… We could beat some tough teams. We have a really, really good defense, like one of those defenses they’ll talk about for decades at CSU.”

That defense should help compensate for an offense that lost much of its firepower after averaging 480.9 yards and 33.9 points a game last season. Quarterback Garrett Grayson and his school-record 4,006 passing yards and 32 touchdown passes moved on to the NFL, as a third-round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints. Running back Dee Hart, the transfer from Alabama who ran for 1,275 yards and scored 18 touchdowns, left, too, choosing to skip his senior season in hopes of playing professionally.

The Rams probably won’t gain as many yards or score as many points as they did last season. But they should be just fine offensively, relying on the fast-paced, ball-control scheme that Bobo used to consistently put Georgia’s offense among the top performing units in the Southeastern Conference.

Sophomore Nick Stevens should be just fine at quarterback, and a solid trio of running backs in sophomore Dalyn Dawkins, a transfer from Purdue, and seniors Treyous Jarrells and Jasen Oden should be productive. They’re working behind an offensive line that returns three of last year’s five starters, as well as star tight ends Steven Walker and Kivon Cartwright, both seniors.

In the passing game, the Rams not only return Higgins, who led the nation last season in receiving yards (1,750) and touchdown catches (17) while catching a school-record 96 passes. They’ve also got senior Joe Hansley and his 108 career catches for 1,427 yards and six touchdowns back, along with sophomore Xavier Williams, who caught 30 passes for 430 yards and three TDs last season.

Balance, Bobo said, will be the key to the Rams’ success. They need to establish a running game to keep the pressure off their new quarterback and a passing game that punishes teams who stack the box against the run.

Bobo knows he’ll make some mistakes, as will his players. There will be some growing pains as they learn the nuances of the new offense and defense.

He also knows he’s got a program in far better shape than first-year coaches usually get.

It’s why, after turning down several previous opportunities to become a head coach, he took this job.

“They know what winning tastes like, and what you’ve got to have to win,” Bobo said Saturday. “Sometimes when you got to a program that’s never won, you kind of just accept losing, and I didn’t feel like this place had ever accepted losing. They always felt like they belonged at the top of whatever conference they were playing in and should be competing for championships.”

This year, he said, is no exception.

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