Colorado State refreshed, refocused following bye week

After a week of focusing on themselves rather than an opponent, Colorado State was back to their normal schedule Monday in preparation of Fresno State. Head coach Mike Bobo acknowledged the team had a “sluggish” practice Tuesday before putting together better practices Wednesday and Thursday.

The Rams may have had lighter practices during the bye week, but maybe more importantly, had the chance to breathe a little bit and regroup mentally.

“Just take a step back and refocus for the month of November,” Bobo told the media Monday as he explained the mental break. “We want to put ourselves in position to play in the postseason. We’ve talked of how we want to finish the year. If we have a good week of practice, we expect to play well on Saturday. We need to be a consistent football team from here on out.”

There’s that word again: consistency. The Rams have only four games remaining and consistency continues to be the elephant in the room.

And yet, CSU should enter Saturday’s meeting with the Bulldogs as a confident bunch. But whether or not this team can carry forward with the momentum they’ve built will be a major storyline.

Said Bobo: “It’s leadership of your football team, starting with me of setting the tone in today’s meetings and practice. And anything less than a championship practice is not acceptable. And we don’t accept it. I’d rather it come from the players than me. If it’s coming from the players, then we’ve got a chance to finish strong. If it’s coming from us, it’ll be a fight. This is the time of year where you’ve played eight games, you know, it’s a grind. And the mentally tough guys are the ones that are going to push through and have success late in the season. And that’s what I expect out of this football team. But the leaders of this football team have got to set the tone. It can’t just be me and the coaches.”

Bobo went through the usual suspects of Nolan Peralta, Jake Bennett, Kevin Davis, and Jake Schlager as players who have been those go-to guys but the Rams’ coach also praised Nick Stevens and Evan Colorito for their recent growth as team leaders.

Now more than at any point of the season, the Rams’ leadership will be tested. CSU controls its own destiny as far as postseason play is concerned.

It starts Saturday at Hughes Stadium, where the Rams will be close to a two-touchdown favorite over 1-8 Fresno State. With a win, the green and gold will have three cracks at a bowl-game clinching sixth win.

But Bobo explained that the last thing he wants is for his team to look ahead.

“They know we’ve got to win six games to go to a bowl,” he said. “But it’s something that I don’t talk about as a head coach. We talk about bringing a championship mindset and attitude to every practice. That’s how you build a consistent program, by doing it that way week in and week out, win or lose.”

CSU had the luxury of a late-season bye. It gave the team a chance to get back to fundamentals, heal from injuries and recharge mentally.

Will they get off to a quick start Saturday similar to how they did at UNLV? Or will the Rams come out flat?

“Now it’s our week to go back to work,” Bobo said. “What do we want to be at 5 o’clock on Saturday? You want to be 1-0 on the week? If that’s what you want, then we better go to work this week.”