Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

They’re the new guys on campus this spring. Both quarterbacks on the CSU football team.

Faton Bauta, the graduate transfer from Georgia. And Collin Hill, a true freshman from Moore, South Carolina, who graduated a semester early from high school to participate in practices this spring and get an early start on his college education.

So it’s no surprise, really, coach Mike Bobo said this week, that they’ve formed a tight bond. Bauta, who was recruited to Georgia by Bobo and spent two years playing there while he was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, is the mentor. Hill, the mentee.

“You’re bringing in a mid-year kid from South Carolina, a long way from home; it’s tough on that kid,” Bobo said. “You’re not with your whole class. He’s not with those other 20-plus guys that aren’t here yet. He’s by himself, and he has, since Day 1, attached himself to Faton.”

The two quarterbacks have spent much of the past two months together in meeting rooms in the football offices, studying the playbook, watching film and drawing up plays on whiteboards. They need to know the offense like the back of their hands if they want to compete with returning starter Nick Stevens, a junior, and two other quarterbacks who were with the Rams last fall — redshirt freshmen J.C. Robles and walk-on Chandler Drachslin — for the starting and backup jobs.

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The time they’ve spent together has helped Bauta, who grew up Brooklyn, New York, and Hill better assimilate into the CSU program. Hill has benefited from Bauta’s knowledge of Bobo’s offensive system. And Bauta, 22, has been forced to learn it better himself in order to teach it to the 18-year-old freshman.

Bauta, who started one game for Georgia last fall, has been in Hill’s shoes before. He also left high school a semester early to get a jump on his college career. Aaron Murray, the Southeastern Conference’s career passing leader and now a backup with the Kansas City Chiefs, was the Georgia quarterback who took Bauta under his wing.

Now, it’s Bauta’s turn to tutor a promising young QB.

“Aaron Murray wasn’t the greatest athlete, he didn’t have the strongest arm,” Bobo said. “But he worked himself into the player he was. And he wasn't satisfied. … He always got better, and Faton saw that, and saw that it was the result of the hard work, and now Collin is seeing how a guy’s working, and I think it’s really, really helped him.”

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Hill threw for 3,505 yards and 35 touchdowns last fall at Dorman High School in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to earn all-state honors for the second year in a row.

He’s probably not going to be CSU’s quarterback this fall. He has too much to learn. But he could be running the Rams’ offense in 2017 or beyond. Maybe sooner, if needed.

Bauta’s helping him get ready for that opportunity, whenever it might come; he's been there before.

“He’s a very hard-working kid; he’s a freshman,” Bauta said. “Me and him kind of came here at the same time, and believe it or not, I kind of felt like a freshman just because it is a new school.

“I think I got to know the ropes pretty well, regardless of which school I’m at, just because I’m so old in this game, to be honest. So I thought I could help out a little bit, and honestly that turned into a pretty good relationship.

“He’s a good kid. I’m really excited for his future.”

INDOORS AGAIN – Although Bobo had hoped to practice outside Thursday, wet fields and forecasts of snow that never materialized forced the Rams to work out in their indoor facility for the third time in four practices this spring.

The one day they did get outdoors, Tuesday, rain fell for much of the practice.

Bobo said he hopes to get outside for the next practice Saturday. If the natural grass practice fields south of Moby Arena are too wet, he said, the team will move its practice to Hughes Stadium.

SWEET SITS OUT – Junior Justin Sweet, listed as the starting strong safety on the spring depth chart, hasn’t participated in a full practice yet because of an illness, Bobo said.

Sweet was on the field for individual drills Thursday but was sent home to rest when full-team drills started.

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

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