Mike Bobo: Nick Stevens a little bit ahead right now

No, Tupac and Master P aren’t on Mike Bobo’s personal playlist, but it didn’t stop the head coach from allowing the hip-hop to bump at his team’s third practice of the fall.

The music playing during individual drills helped bring energy to the practice field, not that the Colorado State Rams needed it, as Bobo praised their physicality as they donned shells for the first time this summer.

“It was good to see the energy out there, good to see the defense, in the first day of pads, come out and strike,” Bobo explained following practice. “That was a big change from the end of spring.”

Pads popping, juice flowing and excitement abounding; football is in the air.

Of course, the major story of this, Bobo’s first fall camp with CSU, is the quarterback battle. Nick Stevens is slightly ahead of Coleman Key currently, but the coach will continue to wait and evaluate before naming a starter.

“Nick’s done a nice job with the offense, getting us in and out of plays, tempo, completing balls,” coach Bobo said. “Today was probably not as good as he was the first two days. Usually we don’t throw the ball as well when we put on shoulder pads for the first time as a quarterback. But, he’s doing a nice job.

“Coleman probably had his best day today,” the coach continued. “A little bit of struggling the first two days, but did a nice job today. As we get into more team situations and start to scrimmage a little bit more it’ll be interesting to see.”

“It’s been Nick Stevens the first three practices working mainly with the ones,” Bobo said. “We’ll get Coleman some snaps with the ones and in the scrimmage we’ll rotate them in there. Nick’s a little bit ahead right now, Coleman’s going to have some opportunities with the ones. He had a better day today. If you have a better day, you deserve an opportunity.”

Of course, only part of the equation when completing passes is throwing the ball, the other half is catching the pigskin. We all know about last year’s consensus All-American Rashard Higgins, but Bobo is happy with the depth at the position.

“Really, we’ve got a bunch of receivers that can play for us,” Bobo started. “Jordan Vaden, Xavier Williams, Joe Hansley, Cole Anderson, Deonte Gaines, Robert Ruiz, Sammy Long, Elroy Masters made a couple good catches out here today. We’ve got some good depth at receiver. A lot of depth. Really excited about our receivers.”

Yes, “Hollywood” Higgins has a posse. And they’re some bad, young men.

And the first-year head man has made it clear that receivers don’t just catch footballs, they must block, too.

“They really don’t have a choice,” Bobo said emphatically about blocking. “If you’re going to play, you’ve got to block. If you don’t block you’re selfish and you’re not going to play for us. So, we’ve made that clear and they’re doing a nice job of blocking.”

In all, Bobo seems pleased with the progress his offense and entire team is making. Tomorrow brings Media Day for the team and the on to the next one (practice).