Bye week allows Colorado State to prepare for stretch run

FORT COLLINS – It hasn’t been pretty most of the season, but the Rams are right where they should be at this point.

Sure, you can argue that Colorado State wasn’t supposed to lose to Wyoming at home. And not many people expected CSU to knock off Utah State the following week.

The schedule has played out to a tee other than those two games. So with a bye this week, head coach Mike Bobo and the Rams have an opportunity to start fresh, get back to basics and improve without game action.

“We want to get better fundamentally,” said Bobo. “Get back to fundamentals and kind of hone those down. Not necessarily a lot schematically for Fresno State. We’re really just working on ourselves, and at the same time, to get healthy. Just get recharged for the last four games. We need to play well in those games.”

Many fans compare a bye week to a full week off from football. But the Rams still practiced Tuesday and will be back at it Wednesday afternoon despite not facing an opponent Saturday.

Bobo emphasized how beneficial these days can be for his program.

The timing of the bye becomes interesting, though. In the last three weeks, the Rams came from behind to beat Utah State in what is still their biggest win of the season, stuck with Boise State until the final play and walloped a UNLV team that shared the same record.

There’s no question that CSU has more confidence now than at any point in the season. Does the bye interrupt that momentum?

“It (the bye) is kind of at an awkward time in the season,” said safety Jake Schlager. “I kind of like it because we’ve gotten through three-quarters of the season and now we get our legs back underneath us and we’re ready to approach the last quarter of the season. We do have a lot of momentum moving forward and we want to continue to grow that momentum even though we’re not playing anybody this week.”

CSU’s focus this week may be on improving themselves, but for fans, it’s time to start thinking about bowl games. The Rams’ remaining four games are home against Fresno State, at Air Force, home against New Mexico and at San Diego State.

Take care of business against dysfunctional Fresno State, find a way to beat the much-improved Lobos in the final game at Hughes Stadium and the Rams will be going bowling once again.

Current projections have CSU possibly playing in the New Mexico Bowl, Poinsettia Bowl, Idaho Potato Bowl or Hawaii Bowl.

It’s fun to consider this young, and at times, head-scratching team playing in December. However, the focus within the team remains getting better.

“There are still things we can fix,” said linebacker Kevin Davis. “There are things we can obviously get better at. And then get a bit of a head-start with the next couple weeks. They (the coaches ) aren’t really killing us this week, but we are getting work in. They’re still work days.”