Let’s start at the beginning: Nick Stevens

Players graduate, teams move on. Some teams just do it better than others. The Colorado State Rams believe they have the right players to repeat successful seasons.

Nick Stevens and Coleman Key have a healthy competition going on right now as CSU football fall camp heats up. There will be plenty of stories written about these two young players but this conversation is going to start with a 17-year old Nick Stevens.

The first highlight reel from his junior year on hudl showed, most of all, his ability to throw to open space. For those of you who aren’t big football fanatics, what that means is if the quarterback is wearing a white jersey and the opponent is wearing black jersey, then your QB is throwing to the area with the most white and the least black. Amongst the many things that makes the mind spin about this QB is he showed confidence in the pocket and made smart decisions. He didn’t crack under the pressure. He ran the ball when he needed but his priority was the down field play. The impressive part was he did it in time while making moves. That is right, he makes moves.

As a svelte junior standing 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, he was poised in the pocket. You better believe this guy is a threat and a worthy competitor to the redshirt freshman Coleman Key, who is also vying for the job. As you may or may not know, Garrett Grayson, who threw 17 TDs to Rashard Higgins (one more than the top of the NFL Dez Bryant) was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the third round. This has left a power vacuum at CSU. No one can say for certain yet, but Rams fans should be excited to see what this young man can do with an accomplished coach (have you looked into his supporting staff!) and a proven offence.

For your benefit; here is a breakdown for you.

Rhythm throws: You could set a pendulum to time this guy’s delivery.

Throws on time: He took bad snaps and still got the ball to the short crossing route.

Finesse: Yes he underthrew balls that would have been picked in college ball but he was only a junior in high school. We’ll check back in with his improvements in our next analysis. For the period of his life in question, he threw to the pylons, made something out of bad snaps as well as broken blocking schemes.

Arm Strength: Stevens has shown he can throw the long ball, with several successful plays down field as a junior.

Read time: This stat explains the time something happens to the time he reacts. There were several broken plays in which the time from when he catches a bad snap to the time he gets his head up and his feet moving is impressive. He is a true north-south runner. He also enjoyed a few plays in which he read a covered primary receiver and checked down to the receiver with space.

Stevens still has a lot to prove, but he certainly is a strong candidate for CSU’s starting quarterback.

His junior year highlight reel here:

Find Coleman Key’s junior year breakdown here.