Welcome back, football fans.
The beginning of fall football camp is always a fun time of year for those fanatics. It’s a time of great excitement, anticipation and angst; can’t it just be Sept. 5 already?
Of course, a new coaching staff leading a team which made bowl games in back-to-back seasons adds to that excitement, as does a heated quarterback competition.
On Friday, the Colorado State football team went through their first practice of the year, impressing head coach Mike Bobo, who brought passion to the field while teaching. Following the practice, Bobo spoke to the media about his team, with much on the QB competition, saying, “It’s still open.”
“I talked about the growth, and was saying the whole team, but especially Nick Stevens,” Bobo explained of the odds-on favorite to win the job. “I thought he did a very nice job of leadership, command of the huddle, calling the plays, knowing where to go with the ball. We weren’t perfect in everything but a nice job.”
But Bobo hasn’t seen enough out of the redshirt sophomore Stevens, nor any of the other four quarterbacks on the roster to name a starter yet. In fact, the coach touched on all of his QBs, including the surprise in freshman J.C. Robles’ preparedness.
“Coleman [Key] and Craig [Leonard] did a nice job too. I thought Nick did just a little bit better,” Bobo continued. “And then J.C. Robles; ahead of where I thought he would be as a freshman. But he’s still lost. So, basically talked to him [and said] ‘Don’t get frustrated, you’re way ahead of where I think you were, just stay the course.’ The hard part about a freshman is, day one, you’ve got all these plays and you go look at film, you get it corrected and the next day you’re running a whole new set of plays with your second day installation. And sometimes they forget about what they went over when you come back and run them. So, you’ve got to be dedicated to keep studying and keep preparing. I think J.C.’s got the right mindset.”
So, what’s it going to take to win the job? It won’t be easy to check off everything on the list Bobo wants in his quarterback, but those lofty expectations simply come with playing the position.
“At the end of the day, it’s a guy that’s going to be able to get us in the right play, is an accurate thrower, can make good decisions, can take care of the football and he’s got to be a guy that everybody believes in,” said Bobo. “We’re going to see that as camp goes on, I think it’ll show itself.
“Nick probably had the better day today but it was day one. We’re in shorts. When we start playing football and more team situations, I want to see who can move the football with the team. It’s still a competition. When I know, I’ll let the team know and then you guys will know. When I’m 100 percent sure, I’ll name one. Right now, it’s still a competition.”
While Stevens has little experience at the college level, the four games played in are the most of anyone on the team. As a redshirt freshman, he went 15-25 for 136 yards and one touchdown. That score came on a screen pass to Rashard Higgins, who scampered 36 yards to the end zone.
Redshirt freshman Key seems to be close behind Stevens in the QB race, as the two received the most reps in the Green and Gold Spring Game back in April. Then, there’s also Fort Collins native, redshirt junior Craig Leonard, Robles and freshman Chandler Drachslin on the roster. While there’s no depth chart, our guess is that’s the order at the moment. Certainly, fluidity is natural in fall camp, so seeing how the battle takes shape will be interesting.
Bobo said during Mountain West Media Days he’d like to have the starter named by the end of the team’s second scrimmage, which is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 22. But, he admitted Friday it’s a soft deadline and the competition could go into the regular season. Of course, he and all the young men playing for the position want that to happen sooner rather than later, but someone has to step up first.
