Bye for the moment but not forever.
The bye week brings a Saturday away from football, a couple of short practices for Colorado State, individual drills and early preparation for the next opponent in the San Diego State Aztecs.
On Wednesday, as the rain fell along with the leaves on a cool fall day in Fort Collins, the Rams practiced indoors and out of the elements. They did get down to the elements, however, the fundamentals if you will.
“I was real pleased with how the wide receivers came out and practiced today,” head coach Mike Bobo said Wednesday, explaining the indoor surface is better than the outdoor practice field. “We always look faster and we always complete more balls inside. I thought Xavier (Williams) had a really good practice today. We just need to get him playing like that all the time, where he plays fast. He’s big, but when he plays fast he is hard to cover.
“’Bisi’” (Olabisi Johnson) is really coming along. He has had two good days of practice doing a nice job. Sammy Long is another guy who has improved. We’re very confident he’s in the game and Jordon Vaden has always had a skill set to me but for whatever reason at the moment of truth it hadn’t happened and got banged up. But thought it was really big for him last week two 3rd downs to make big plays and keep drives alive that we ended up scoring on. Getting Elroy (Masters) back who’s had a hamstring. Obviously Rashard (Higgins) is a good player for us but those other guys, if we can get them to the level that they practiced at today – consistent level – then you can see the offense come into my vision of the offense where there’s a threat everywhere. The ball can be spread around.”
Ram fans saw a glimpse of that spreading the ball around in the win over Savannah State to start the season; Nick Stevens threw five touchdowns to five different receivers, while 11 different players caught a pass. This bye week gives Masters and Higgins a chance to heal up and it sounds like nearly every one of the receivers impressed Wednesday.
And as Bobo explained, “You make plays (in practice), I’ll give you an opportunity in the game.”
Onto San Diego State. Yesterday, Bobo explained, “It’s going to be one of those games, if I had to say right now, it’s going to be hard to move the ball at times.”
He said on Wednesday the team already has their base plan in place, but coaches don’t want to overwhelm players with too much information too quickly.
“You usually get a pretty good idea in the off week of how to attack guys and what there trying to do,” Bobo said. “Have a pretty good base plan you start working on situational. We’re still trying to figure out how were going to attack ’em. And how we’re going to identify. The big thing is, you don’t want to give the guys a bunch of stuff right now. And we’re not really sure, so we’re taking it a little bit slow making sure our guys understand who’s who. How we’re communicating it. Basic plays basic passing concepts, introduced a couple of protections and some base routes.
“We can’t get impatient if things don’t go well on a series you just have to regroup and figure out how to attack them next time, they are very good,” Bobo finished, while being realistic about the now 4-3 Aztecs, who face the 4-2 Utah State Aggies this Saturday.
The game may be scary hard against SDSU on Halloween, but one thing’s for sure, Bobo will have his players ready to go.
The players love Mike Bobo as a coach and he’s the right fit for Colorado State; they’re all ready for the second half of this season to get underway. After SDSU, the Rams final four opponents are a combined 10-18, with only New Mexico (4-3, 2-1 MW) possessing a positive record.
The road to a third straight bowl game is available, Bobo just has to lead his Rams up it’s narrow, windy curves and into postseason play.
