Preston Hodges and Blake Nowland no longer with Rams football

On an evening in which coach Mike Bobo worked to build excitement with a tweet that suggests big news on the horizon, Colorado State Rams football have officially parted ways with two upperclassmen in defensive back Preston Hodges and offensive lineman Blake Nowland.

Celebrating #RAMPAGE17 tonight!! Big news tomorrow for the ram family!! #neversatisfied #Edge pic.twitter.com/ULx5fZBbXQ

— Coach Mike Bobo (@CoachMikeBobo) July 1, 2016

Nowland, a junior from Castle Rock, has had an injury riddled career in Green and Gold, missing all of last season with a broken leg. Nowland was already off the team by the spring.

Hodges is a bigger loss for the Rams. With CSU losing some of its best defensive talents in the secondary the last two offseasons, an experienced player such as Hodges, who’d started eight games in 2015, undoubtedly hinders the Rams DB depth.

Per the Reporter Herald, Hodges departure is a dismissal as he’d become no longer eligible academically. The loss of Hodges puts that much more pressure on guys like Jordon Vaden and A’Keitheon Whitner, who’ve never started for CSU before in the secondary.

While we await the big news, which seems like a new commit that could be announced today, the Rams defensive depth just became that much thinner.