How Marvin Kinsey's suspension impacts CSU's offense

FORT COLLINS, COLO. — Colorado State football will potentially be without its leading rusher for the rest of the season.

Following Tuesday’s practice, Mike Bobo told reporters that senior running back Marvin Kinsey is suspended “indefinitely”. When asked why, the fifth-year head coach said that’s the “only comment he’ll make about it”.

This is the third time in four years that Kinsey has been suspended. When the Rams went to the New Mexico Bowl in 2017, Kinsey was suspended for a violation of team rules. Kinsey was suspended again for an unspecified rules violation during fall camp of his junior season (2018).

Despite having more on-field experience than any other running back on the team, coming into the season Kinsey wasn’t even listed as the team’s starting running back because Bobo said repeatedly that the senior from Atlanta, Ga., needed to prove that he was trustworthy.

In an interview with DNVR Rams earlier this season, Kinsey joked that he loved to get under Bobo’s skin but swore he had learned from past mistakes and was ready to be CSU’s lead back.

“The clock is ticking,” Kinsey said. “It’s your last chance to prove what you’ve got. I want to go to the league, so it’s my last chance to prove to everyone that I can do it.”

So far this season, Kinsey has made Ram fans feel a variety of emotions. He’s had phenomenal scoring plays and been a human highlight reel at times. Through the first seven games, Kinsey has been CSU’s most productive running back by far with 703 yards on 121 carries. The veteran also leads all skill players with eight touchdowns from scrimmage (six rushing and two receiving).

As productive as he’s been, though, Kinsey’s ball security issues have repeatedly hurt the team. Almost on a weekly basis, the veteran ball carrier has committed the cardinal sin for a half back and coughed up the football.

Even in spite of all the fumbles, most assumed that No. 5 would receive the majority of the team’s carries for the remainder of his final season — turnovers aside, he’s definitely made the most of his opportunities. No other running back on the roster has more than one rushing touchdown, Kinsey has six. He averages at least two more yards per attempt than every other back in Bobo’s stable as well.

Unfortunately for the Rams, it seems that Kinsey just is not a reliable option for the offense. Clearly he’s a phenomenal talent but the coaching staff can only put up with so much.

The question of course is how Kinsey’s absence will ultimately impact the offense.  According to Patrick O’Brien, the unit will miss Kinsey but said that their mentality is the next man up. Similarly to how the redshirt junior quarterback had to step up when Collin Hill tore his ACL again, O’Brien talked about how the Rams need the running backs to do the same.

With a chance to be the featured running back on the line, there is potential for multiple guys on the roster to earn more touches down the stretch.

Junior running back Marcus McElroy is the frontrunner to take over as the team’s No. 1 running back on paper but Bobo said that he needs to go out and do the things that will allow him to earn the right to be there. In limited action this year, McElroy has totaled 123 yards on 33 carries for an average of 3.7 yards per attempt. The former Mullen High School standout knows that he needs to be more consistent if he’s going to be a fixture of the starting lineup.

“Any chance that I get the ball, I take it as an opportunity to assert myself as the number one back,” McElroy said on Tuesday. “You don’t really try and count your reps, you try and make your reps count. That’s what our big thing is — if you want to change something than you’ve gotta make sure you put it on tape.”

Along with McElroy, the freshmen, Christian Hunter and Jaylen Thomas, both will likely get some chances as well.

Following Tuesday’s practice, Bobo specifically mentioned that Thomas is a young player on offense that has a good chance to see the field more. However, Bobo said that both of the first-year running backs looked good.

“Christian (Hunter) had a couple of missed assignments but I think he’s running the ball extremely well,” Bobo said. “We just gotta be careful what we give him — he’s a smart kid but there’s a lot for a running back to learn with what we do offensively. So we’ve gotta do things that put him in a position to be successful.

“Jaylen (Thomas) always runs hard, it’s good to have him back healthy,” Bobo continued. “And I think Marcus (McElroy) has had a good week as well.”

CSU isn’t going to abandon the ground game — a strong commitment to running the football has always been the foundation of Bobo’s offense — so regardless of who it ends up being, the Rams desperately need one or two of these guys to step up and produce.

Going up against an aggressive and experienced defense like Fresno State’s, Bobo said that his offense must be balanced or it’s going to put O’Brien in a difficult position. Really, this could be said about the offense every week — as we saw in the loss to San Diego State, if CSU struggles to run the football, it makes it difficult to set up the passing offense. If they are able to run the ball well, though, Bobo believes that it will open up some opportunities for his quarterback to take shots down the field.

“We’ve been pretty committed to the run all year, which I think has opened up our passing game and has helped us become more balanced,” Bobo said. “We haven’t been exceptional in the run game every game, but we’ve been committed to it, which I think has helped the passing game.”

Through seven games, CSU is averaging 151 rushing yards per contest as a team — about 45 more than they averaged in 2018. With five games left on the schedule, the Rams will need to try to keep up this production without the player that has accounted for most of it.

Although there may be some struggles at first, when it’s all said and done, it could actually be better for the program in the longterm if Kinsey doesn’t play again this season. As high as his ceiling is, getting the young guys some playing time will be invaluable for their futures. It’s not like the Rams will be going to a bowl game anyways, so the team might as well develop some talent.

We’ll get our first taste of the Kinsey-less offense at Fresno State on Saturday. In Bobo’s five years at CSU, the Rams are 2-0 against the Bulldogs but both of those wins came prior to Jeff Tedford.