You’re either in or you’re out. 

Henry Blackburn did not hold back during Monday afternoon’s press conference. 

In reference to the roster turnover that Colorado State has experienced in recent weeks, the junior safety out of Boulder, Colo. told reporters that everyone has their own reasons to leave but ultimately it’s a blessing in disguise for the Rams to get rid of individuals that are not fully committed to the program. 

“I care about the guys who are here, and we care about each other,” Blackburn said. “We want to be around the guys who want to be here, who want to make a difference, who want to make the changes around here. We don’t want guys on the team who are one foot in, one foot out, who aren’t going to give it their all, and are going to have a different agenda.

 “We only want guys on this team who are rough, tough guys,” he continued. “And the beautiful thing about football is it doesn’t build character, it exposes character. We saw that when things got hard around here, a lot of guys quit. And I’m honestly glad we got rid of those types of guys, because now we get to see who’s really tough and who’s really about it.”

Blackburn has been very outspoken about wanting to change the losing culture that’s plagued CSU for far too long. Earlier this year he talked to DNVR about being sick and tired of losing. And he hasn’t been afraid to express those feelings to his teammates either. 

Jay Norvell said that Blackburn brought the team together last Thursday and told them that enough is enough, and that they have to play for each other. 

“It was kind of a battle cry going into the weekend,” Norvell said. 

“We all knew this game was personal going in,” Blackburn later added. “It was a very emotional game and I wanted to make sure the team knew that we were walking into a fight.”

Blackburn’s speech wasn’t the only thing that Norvell talked about during Monday’s press conference though. Like Blackburn, Norvell emphasized the importance of being all in and willing to sacrifice for your teammates. He talked about how he’s been trying to get this team to show him their soul and that there were far too many selfish individuals present in the non-conference slate. 

Fortunately, as Norvell sees it, a lot of those guys are no longer in the picture. And the players that have chosen to stick around are really bonding together, which you could see it with how hard they played in the upset of Nevada on Friday night. 

“I think the kids that are here have a genuine care and love for each other, and it showed,” Norvell said. “When you watch a football team play, you can tell if they’re playing hard for each other. And we definitely did Friday night, and that was so great to see. There’s no better feeling in this game than when you empty your tank for your teammates, there’s no better feeling.”

Blackburn was certainly one of the individuals that left it all on the field in Friday night’s victory, finishing with a tie for the team lead in total tackles (8) and a forced fumble. All night long it just seemed like the former Fairview High School star was in the right place at the right time. And when he had a chance to put a hit on someone, Blackburn made the most of that opportunity. 

The local standout hopes the squad can build off of what they accomplished in the conference opener and continue to stick together as they advance through the season. It’s clearly been a rough start to the 2022 campaign, but Blackburn said that ultimately they will be better off for it in the long run as it showed everyone’s true colors. More importantly, the guys that are still here are not doing down without swinging. 

“The feeling around here with the guys that are here is like, we’re going to keep fighting,” Blackburn said. “You know, we lost guys, but we’re going to keep fighting. Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting no matter what. Just do everything that we can to change things around here. And that’s what we plan on doing. I think the culture is in the right direction as a program.”

We’ll see if the Rams can create a little momentum with a strong performance against Utah State on Homecoming weekend before hosting an extremely beatable Hawaii team the following week. The Mountain West is wide open at this point.

Regardless of how the Rams finish from a win-loss perspective this season though, the one thing that is extremely evident is that CSU needs more players like Blackburn if we’re ever going to turn this thing around. Football is not always about which team has more talent, it often comes down to heart. And that guy wears his on his freaking sleeve.