Anticipation for the start of a football season at CSU has never been so high.

And not just because of the new $220 million stadium that allows them to play games on campus for the first time in 50 years.

There's a lot of returning talent, led by star receiver Michael Gallup and quarterback Nick Stevens.

There's a coach who's proven himself with back-to-back bowl appearances in his first two seasons.

And there's a demanding schedule that gives the Rams a chance to do what few teams outside the Power 5 conferences can ever hope to do — play in one of the College Football Playoff's six bowl games and maybe even compete for a national championship if they win them all, thanks largely to a Sept. 16 game at Alabama.

"The ceiling is sky high, our aspirations are sky high," senior linebacker Deonte Clyburn said Wednesday at the Mountain West's annual media days in Las Vegas. "We really have a chance to do something special here at CSU."

They really do.

Stevens, who has thrown 4,751 career yards and 41 touchdowns, has a firm grasp of coach Mike Bobo's sophisticated offensive scheme. And he's got a lot of talent to work with within that offense. Gallup had 76 catches for 1,272 yards and 14 touchdowns a year ago, and fellow receiver Bisi Johnson is coming off a school-record 265-yard performance with seven catches and two touchdowns in the 2016 Idaho Potato Bowl.

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Last season's top three running backs — Dalyn Dawkins (919 yards and four touchdowns), Izzy Matthews (734 yards and 13 TDs) and Marvin Kinsey (546 yards, seven touchdowns) — also return, as does Detrich Clark, who ran for three touchdowns last season and caught a pass for a fourth.

The defense doesn't have nearly that kind of star power but does return eight starters not counting Clyburn, who sat out last season while on medication for blood clots. He started the final six games in 2015 at middle linebacker and finished the year as the Rams' fourth-leading tackler with 69, including seven for lost yardage.

Bobo said his focus is sharper now, too, in his third year with the program. His family is settled in, he knows his way around Fort Collins, and his coaching staff remains unchanged from 2017, providing the kind of consistency he believes is critical for long-term success.

Players know the expectations of their coaches, and the coaches know what their players can and cannot do.

"It's no longer working out just because we have to" in the offseason, Stevens said. "It's working out because we want to dominate when we go on the field."

CSU hasn't won a conference title since 2002, when Sonny Lubick was still coaching the Rams. And the Rams have never beaten Boise State, the "bell cow" for success in the Mountain West, Bobo said. But they get another shot in a Nov. 11 home game "on green turf," Stevens said, that could determine the Mountain Division title.

This could be the year the Rams finally break through. And it's not just Bobo and his players who believe it. CSU received six first-place votes to win the Mountain Division in a preseason media poll, and every coach in the division believed the Rams will be a serious contender for the title.

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Fans have already purchased more than 14,000 season tickets, a school record, and more than 1,000 others have bought three-game mini plans, athletic director Joe Parker said last week. Single-game tickets for the Aug. 26 opener vs. Oregon State, the first game at the new stadium, sold out last week, and school officials anticipate a capacity crowd of 41,000.

Even the TSA agents checking Stevens and Clyburn through the security lines Monday at Denver International Airport were excited about the coming season, Stevens said. Four of them recognized the CSU quarterback and said they were season-ticket holders eager to see the Rams play in their new stadium.

"The excitement's growing," he said. "It's spreading to Denver and further."

Practices began Monday for the program's first-year players and a handful of others who Bobo believed needed some extra work. Full-team workouts begin Friday at the new practice facility just west of the new stadium.

Bobo is well-aware of the opportunity his team has this season. He's concerned about keeping his players and staff grounded and focused but embracing the challenge and pressure it produces.

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An unbeaten Mountain West champion would be the odds-on favorite to secure the spot in either the Fiesta or Peach bowl guaranteed by the College Football Playoff to the highest-ranked champion from a Group of 5 conference. And one playing the schedule CSU is playing this year "would be in the mix" for a spot in the four-team playoff for the national title, Bill Hancock, the CFP's executive director, said Tuesday in Las Vegas.

"It's pretty cool," Stevens said. "With all the excitement surrounding the stadium and the momentum we've built, we have an opportunity to have success in every game. That's the internal goal and the internal expectation. I know there's people out there writing us off at Alabama, so from the outside perspective we can't play in the bowl. But I think, internally, we know if have a good game, if we play really well, lights out, it could happen."

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