Keeping Todd Centeio healthy will be crucial to CSU's success this season

DENVER — The 2021 season is officially here and the Rams will be led by Todd Centeio, a transfer quarterback from Temple with 107 career passing attempts in his collegiate career. As a starter for the Rams last season, Centeio was officially 0-1. He saw action in three of CSU’s four contests, though, and finished the 2020 campaign 14-of-36 (39 percent) for 207 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. 

While fans have been loudly skeptical after seeing Centeio’s seemingly underwhelming performance last season, Steve Addazio has been extremely complimentary of the dual-threat QB. Addazio has raved about his leadership skills, ability to run the offense, and though it may be a bit surprising to Ram Nation, Centeio’s arm strength on multiple occasions. Really, since spring ball it’s been nothing but praise for Centeio from the coaches and players. 

At Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegas, Trey McBride praised his quarterback’s work ethic, telling DNVR that he just does everything the right way. “He’s a leader, he works hard, and ultimately he’s a winner. He’s there for one reason and that’s to win.”

Colorado State’s starting left tackle, Barry Wesley, had similar praise for Centeio, stating that he’s a really well spoken individual and that he’s extremely self motivated. “His leadership skills are very, very sharp and on point. You know, everyone circles around him. He’s a great guy to be around.”

Now, obviously all comments about a team’s starting quarterback have to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s not as if his teammates or coaches would come out and publicly criticize him even if he did deserve it. It does stand out that in three different interviews over the course of the last month or so, three of the most important leaders in CSU’s locker room all had the same good things to say about Centeio. But the truth is we’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out. 2020 was not a big enough sample size to draw final conclusions, especially when you factor in the quirkiness of the schedule and how starting and stopping repeatedly could have impacted the team’s performance. 

Regardless of how anyone might have felt entering fall camp, now that Matt Valecce is injured and out for the season, the best option for the Rams under center is clearly Centeio. The backup quarterback is Evan Olaes, a true freshman that didn’t get to play his senior season due to the pandemic. 

Olaes might be successful down the line. When talking about the true freshman Addazio has said a lot of the same things he’s said about Centeio. That he has an energy to him and maybe a little bit of “it factor”. Having to rely on him now would be throwing him to the wolves though. Even Addazio said that he still has a lot of room to improve in key situations like third down, and that he is learning how to adjust protections. To be fair, it makes total sense that he still needs time to develop in these areas. He’s a true freshman after all. It just illustrates why Centeio staying healthy is so important. 

The Rams don’t have any open scholarships. So there aren’t going to be any transfers walking in the door any time soon. Another walk-on isn’t needed either. Even without Valecce the Rams still have four other quarterbacks on the roster, not including Justice McCoy who was a QB for the first three years in the program. As things currently stand McCoy will remain a wide receiver this season as he’s earned playing time in that role. McCoy is getting some side work in at quarterback with offensive coordinator Jon Budmayr just in case he is needed though. 

“We looked at him this week at QB,” Addazio said. “I wanted to saturate him really as an emergency quarterback. So I said let’s invest one week into him. But he’s earned an opportunity to be on the field at receiver this season. So the last thing I want to do is take away an opportunity to play from him and then have him go sit and be a two.”

Keeping Centeio on the field will be a priority for the coaching staff. Addazio explained at the Blake Street Tavern on Wednesday that they don’t intend to run him very much. They might try to take advantage of his athleticism in certain situations when necessary, but they certainly won’t base the offense around it. 

He did add that in his belief, a quarterback can’t properly do his job if he is out on the field thinking about the risk of injury. “When you play, you’ve got to play,” Addazio said. “I mean we’re not going to put him in any queued run situations, like Q-Power and all those things we did with (Tim) Tebow. But he’s got to play. You start playing worried and something will happen.”

Though Addazio is right about the importance of quarterbacks not overthinking, Ram fans will likely cringe at every hit Centeio takes in 2021. Hopefully the veteran is able to take his game to a new level and take advantage of the talent at the skill positions around him. But ultimately the offensive line will need to step up in a major way. The Rams have not run the ball effectively in a couple of years now and pass protection has been just as inconsistent. If CSU is going to have any chance of keeping Centeio healthy and being competitive in 2021, the big boys in the trenches have got to do their thing.