Collin Hill tears ACL for the third time, ruled out for remainder of 2019 season

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Mike Bobo confirmed the worst on Tuesday. Colorado State’s fifth-year head coach told reporters that starting quarterback Collin Hill tore his ACL against Arkansas on Saturday and will be out for the season.

This is the third major injury of Hill’s collegiate career. The redshirt junior out of Moore, South Carolina, first tore his ACL against Utah State in October, 2016. A true freshman at the time, Hill had won the starting position a few weeks prior and likely would have have kept the gig, had he stayed healthy. But with Hill out of the picture, Nick Stevens was able to take back the reins and keep the No. 1 role through the end of the 2017 season.

Heading into 2018 spring ball, Hill would have been the clear favorite for the starting position with almost no competition — Justice McCoy was on the roster but would not have realistically beaten out Hill. Everything changed, though, when Hill tore his ACL again early March of that year.

Although Hill was incredibly able to return for the 2018 campaign, his injury resulted in K.J. Carta-Samuels opting to spur UCLA for a chance to start at CSU.

Carta-Samuels set a single-game record with 537 passing yards in his first career start against Hawaii. But Hill still ended up splitting time with Carta-Samuels throughout the year — likely because the offense never consistently found an identity — and also because the staff basically started to focus on 2019 halfway through last season and wanted to prepare No. 15 for the future.

Now, in 2019, Hill was playing some of the best football of his career. In roughly two and a half games played, Hill has completed 67.6 of his pass attempts (69-of-102) for 840 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions. Unfortunately, the game the game is cruel and a questionable hit has derailed CSU’s plans for the season.

Without Hill, CSU will turn likely turn to Patrick O’Brien, who has been working with the ones this week. In relief of Hill last weekend, O’Brien completed 8-of-11 attempts for 135 yards and one touchdown. But as Bobo explained after the game, the offense was not able to function as well without Hill. The staff will hope that a full week of preparing with the ones will make a difference against Toledo on Saturday.

The Rams and Rockets will kick off at 8:15 p.m. in Canvas Stadium. The game will be the first chance for the Ram faithful to get a close look at one of, if not both backup quarterbacks on the roster.