Avery Morrow has been the heartbeat of the Colorado State offense over the last month. 

With the Rams having to play three different quarterbacks in as many weeks, the passing production has been unsurprisingly inconsistent. A lack of roster continuity from week to week has definitely been a factor in CSU’s struggles to produce points this year in general.

Fortunately for the Green & Gold, while the offense has been far from perfect, Morrow, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior running back that transferred over from Nevada this past offseason, has been running the ball like his life depends on every yard since the Rams broke into conference play. 

Morrow has 500 rushing yards on the season, which means he is halfway towards becoming CSU’s first 1,000-yard rusher in five years. The last was Dalyn Dawkins who had 1,399 yards and eight touchdowns in the inaugural season of the on-campus stadium (2017).

What’s insane though is that the bruising back has essentially done all of his damage over the last three games. After producing just 69 yards on the ground over the first four weeks combined, Morrow has exploded for 431 rushing yards since the start of the Nevada game. 

The numbers are impressive on paper and clearly demonstrate how important Morrow has been to CSU’s 2-1 start against the league, what’s been even more impressive is how hard he’s run though. Morrow’s ability to produce yards after contact is something that Ram fans have been missing for a long time. And his effort has been undeniable on every touch. 

One play in particular that stood out in the win over Hawaii was the game-winning 10-yard touchdown run to cap off a 13-play, 80-yard drive. After CSU had struggled to capitalize on a couple of Red Zone trips early on, a determined Morrow ran through multiple defenders and seemingly willed his way into the end zone to put CSU ahead for the first time all game. It was the type of play where he simply wanted it more than the defenders did, and what’s more, it was on his 26th carry of the night. 

During the postgame media session, Jay Norvell praised Morrow for refusing to go down on the play. When Morrow was asked about it, he said that his mindset on the run was to finish. “Coach Norvell always talks about emptying your tank,” Morrow said. “That was a game-winning drive and you gave me the ball, and I just left it all out there.”

Morrow did also add that he’s starting to get annoyed with CSU’s struggles in the Red Zone and that the game against the Warriors wouldn’t have even been close if they made the most of every trip. But that just shows the type of back he is. Most guys would have been satisfied with close to 150 yards on the ground and a couple of scores, including the winning touchdown. Morrow, on the other hand, was still thinking about how he could be better. 

Coming into the 2022 season there was quite a bit of hype surrounding the Nevada transfers, especially redshirt freshman quarterback Clay Millen and the veteran wide receiver duo of Tory Horton and Melquan Stovall. 

Obviously things did not work out with Stovall and he ended up leaving the team after the loss to Washington State, which was disappointing on multiple levels. Morrow has been so much better than anyone could have hoped for though. In fact, they always knew he was talented, but Morrow has even surprised his teammates and coaches with the level he’s taken his game to. 

“We’ve always known Avery is a great player,” Millen said postgame. “I think that he’s had a little bit extra lately. He’s always been a great back, but he’s running really, really hard. I think we’re all really excited about him. Whenever he gets hit, on the first contact, it’s not going to be the guy tackling him. It’s going to be the second or third guy. So it’s just great to have that as a running back.” 

Norvell had high praise for Morrow’s effort as well, telling reporters that it’s not always a matter of being perfect, sometimes you just have to try and make the most of what you can. That’s what Morrow has done a terrific job of in his coaches’ eyes — just refusing to make anything easy on the defense. 

We’ll see if Morrow can keep up this blistering pace he’s started the conference portion of the schedule with. Norvell has brought up a couple of times how challenging it can be to deal with the physical demands of being a bell cow back for the offense. 

“He’s learning what it’s like to be a real back, where you carry the ball a bunch of times, and you get beat up and sore,” Norvell said postgame. “It’s probably not until about Thursday, where he’s starting to feel good enough to play. But this is what he’s always wanted. I’m just really proud of him, how he’s maturing and taking on more responsibility. And he’s getting an opportunity to show what he can really do.”

In addition to being exciting to watch, both Norvell and Millen emphasized that it’s not just about highlight plays for Morrow, he brings stability to the offensive approach. Millen talked about how comforting it is to be able to check down to Morrow and know that he can take advantage when opposing defenses are trying to drop guys in coverage. 

“I just feel comfortable that whenever we are in a run play, we are going to get good yards and move the ball,” Millen said. “So it’s really nice to have that as a quarterback.” 

Again, we will have to see if Morrow can continue to produce at this level as the weeks and carries continue to mount up. Prior to 2022, Morrow had never gotten more than 10 touches combined over a three-week period. After getting 22 carries in the first four games combined, Morrow has had at least 24 carries in each of the last three games, so this is a much different role than what he is used to shouldering. 

Having said that, if Morrow can continue to rack up the rushing yards, he has an opportunity to put himself in rare company. He became the first CSU back since Dalyn Dawkins in 2017 to rush for 100 or more yards in three consecutive weeks with his monster performance against Hawaii. 

If he can go over the century mark against Boise State, he’d be just the sixth player in program history to record 100 or more rushing yards in four consecutive games. The last to do so was Dee Hart back in 2014. And while we do not want to get ahead of ourselves, technically Steve Bartalo’s program record of seven consecutive 100-yard performances is within reach at this point (1986). 

Even if Morrow’s streak ends against Boise State, if he has one more 100-yard game this fall, it will be just the 21st time a CSU player has had four or more in a single season. The last was Dawkins, who had four total in 2017. The high water mark is nine, also set by Bartalo in 1986. He had eight in 1985 too, though he never had a streak of more than two consecutive 100-yard games that year. 

The point here is that while the Rams have not exactly been SportsCenter material with their passing attack, Morrow has been must-see TV since taking over as the team’s primary running back, and what he has accomplished is already pretty dang impressive.

Hopefully he will be able to keep it up as CSU goes on a challenging two-game road trip to face Boise State and San Jose State, but it’s safe to say that the Rams have a rising star in the backfield. I can’t wait to see what he does next.