Mike Bobo on scrimmage: Trying to identify who we're going to go to work with

After 10 practices, it’s time for a scrimmage. It’s time for football.

Things are really ramping up in Colorado State Rams camp, as the team started in full pads Tuesday and head into their first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday. Following practice Friday, Bobo talked of what he wants to see in that scrimmage and what his coaches will be looking for.

“Well, the first two weeks are install, fundamentals, those types of things,” Bobo said post-practice Friday. “We’re trying to identify who we’re going to go to work with. We’re looking for guys, who obviously, can execute the plan. Guys that can make plays, too.

“It might be a guy that maybe doesn’t have everything right, but we got him in a scrimmage setting and he just made tackle after tackle after tackle on defense. He kept showing up. If it’s a guy like that it’ll tell us, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this guy ready,” the head coach said with excitement in his voice.

This scrimmage is about truly evaluating the talent on CSU’s football team, in a game-like setting, at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium, nonetheless. And this is Bobo telling those fringe starters if they show up and show out, they could steal a spot.

“If it’s a guy we feel really good about and he’s not performing, in a scrimmage setting then we’ve got to reevaluate where we’re at. So, we’re trying to figure out the two-deep and how we go into the next scrimmage.”

“The main thing is to identify, ‘This guy here needs to get more reps than this guy here,’” Bobo said.

They’ll make those tough decisions after coaching (almost) real football. With no preseason like the NFL has, scrimmages like this are the way to determine the best players. Which is no small task.

“Any time you can put the ball down and play, it’s exciting,” Bobo explained of the scrimmage. “It’s the closest you can get to a game atmosphere and when you start scimmaging it makes guys realize, ‘Hey, this is like a game.’ They’re a little bit more focused, a little bit more serious.”

“The main thing is to identify, ‘This guy here needs to get more reps than this guy here,’” Bobo said. “Not that we’re going to throw him away but maybe ‘Guy X’ needs to get more reps than ‘Guy Y.’”

Colorado State’s head coach went onto say they already have their first, second and third teams set going into the scrimmage, but this gives the a chance to see everything without coaches on the field.

He also admitted he could name a starting quarterback after the scrimmage tomorrow, though that will have to be seen. Performance in the scrimmage will be key.

Notes:

Kivon Cartwright will not participate in the scrimmage tomorrow, Bobo said, and Trent Matthews and Rashard Higgins will be decided upon later. Higgins pulled a groin Friday, but it doesn’t sound too serious.

Deron Thompson is the fourth running back Bobo said he feels good about at this point. If we had to guess at a depth chart, it’d be Jasen Oden, Treyous Jarrells, Dalyn Dawkins and then Thompson, apparently. There isn’t an official depth chart out yet, so don’t put too much stock in that educated guess.

Full Mike Bobo post-practice interview here: