Clay Millen is three starts into his collegiate career and while the Rams have not managed to win a game yet, the redshirt freshman quarterback is showing growth. 

Millen is completing 71% of his pass attempts (61-of-85), which is about 8% more than Carson Strong at this stage back in 2019, an encouraging sign according to associate head coach Matt Mumme. Millen’s touchdown to interception ratio is better through three games as well.

Beyond the statistics though — which occasionally can lack context — Mumme likes that his young QB is learning from his experiences. Following Tuesday’s practice, the first-year CSU associate HC/QB coach talked about how against Washington State, Millen did a much better job of taking some of the quick throws available to him. He also praised the first-year starter for using his legs to escape pressure and extend the play on multiple first-down conversions. 

“He really showed this last game like, okay, he can pick up yards and be deadly with his legs,” Mumme said. 

Mumme would like to see more of that from Millen this season, but he also wants him to remember that throwing the football away can be a win for the offense. Living to see another down and avoiding a big loss is key when it comes to keeping drives alive or winning the battle for field position. 

“Don’t take a minus 10 on a sack or something like that. And maybe we just give a chance to our punter to kick him dead and play the field position game,” Mumme told DNVR. “So he’s just got to understand every level of it. And that’s where he’s learning hard lessons.”

Along with keeping the sticks moving, being able to escape the rush or simply toss the ball into the stands is also going to keep Millen off the turf.  Millen has proved he can take a hit, unfortunately he’s proved it far too many times through the first three games of the season. After being taken down seven times in the Week 3 loss to Washington State, Millen’s sack total is now at 23 for the year — an absurd total for a three-week period. 

While it is encouraging that the redshirt freshman has been a warrior and displayed the type of toughness that very few individuals possess — a mentality that you would absolutely want in your starting QB — clearly the Rams have to protect Millen better if they’re going to have a chance to be more competitive in 2022. Both Mumme and Jay Norvell addressed this and talked about how it’s been hard to see him getting lit up on a weekly basis.

“After the game I went over, gave his mom a hug and I just told her, I really am not trying to get him hit like that,” Norvell said Monday. “But he has some toughness, and he has gotten up at times where I didn’t think he would, and I think it’s going to serve him well.” 

Fortunately, despite taking an absolute beating through the first couple of weeks, Millen told the media on Monday that he’s a little sore, but that he has not suffered any injuries. “I’m good,” he said. “The expected soreness you’d have from those sacks, but I’m totally fine other than that.”

And much like the perspective from his coaches, while Millen would like to avoid some of the contact, he feels like he’s learned a lot about himself in the opening month of the season. 

“I think that I’m pretty tough,” Millen said. “Before you play, you don’t really know how you’re going to handle all those hits, and now I’ve gotten hit a lot, so I think I’ve realized I can take (them). I’m a tough guy, I’m competitive. After playing, you know you kind of find out some things about yourself playing college football. I think with all those hits, I’m taking them, and I’m going to keep going. That’s my mindset.”

As far as how the offense can fix things, the coaches have been attempting to shuffle some of the guys in the trenches to shore up the offensive line. After shifting from center back to left tackle, Jacob Gardner appears to be the best solution to protect Millen’s blindside. The interior is still a work in progress though, as Norvell addressed on Monday. 

While there will hopefully be improvement with the offensive line as the year goes on, ultimately it’s going to take a collective effort for the unit to produce more consistently. The staff is going to have to scheme up some easy completions, especially now that the Rams have lost a pair of veteran receivers in the last week. Millen will have to continue to work through his progressions and learning the nuances of running the offense at game speed as well. 

“Even though it looks rough to everybody in the world, and to us, there’s still a learning process to it,” Mumme said.

“We said it from the start, me and Jay, there’s going to be bumps starting a redshirt freshman. There were bumps when we started Carson (Strong) as a redshirt freshman. But it’s about trying to navigate those and figuring out how we get over them.”

The final component that would really benefit CSU’s offense would be to better establish the running game. The Rams have tried to get multiple backs going these past couple of weeks, particularly when teams have played coverage against the Green & Gold. The problem is that CSU has not been able to take advantage of those situations. 

Moving forward, if CSU is going to be able to alleviate some of the pressure that has constantly been in Millen’s face, the Rams have to be able to capitalize on the ground when opponents are scheming to take away the pass. 

“What people don’t understand about the Air Raid is that we’re true numbers guys,” Mumme said, explaining that it’s really about just trying to put the offense in the best possible position based on what the opponent is showing. 

It’s been a challenge for CSU through the first three weeks of the season. The coaches have been honest about where the team needs to improve most on the field, as well as about how they’re trying to improve the culture inside the locker room. It does not matter if you are a longtime CSU player, a Nevada transfer, or a freshman with great promise — it’s only going to be the players that show the most commitment that will be part of the future.

With this staff holding players much more accountable than what we’ve seen in recent years, hopefully it will translate to more team success in the coming weeks, particularly with a more favorable schedule over the next month. However, while winning is always the main goal, the biggest priority is to show improvement from top to bottom.

“Don’t look over your shoulder, that’s what I keep telling the quarterbacks,” Mumme said.

“Don’t even look at what we did in the last three games. We’ve got nine games in front of us, let’s look ahead. We’ve got plenty of games, plenty of competition left in front of us. This is far from being over.”