It’s no secret that things were ugly in 2022, especially in the opening month of the season. 

Colorado State was outscored 164-43 in non-conference games, including a 31-point loss to Washington State in Week 3 (38-7). 

“We really couldn’t have played any worse than we did a year ago, especially in the first quarter, the first half,” Jay Norvell recently said of the performance. 

If last September was a musical act, it was Ashlee Simpson at halftime of the 2005 Orange Bowl.

Fortunately for the fans, these are not the same CSU Rams. And the redemption tour begins with Washington State on Saturday. 

Here’s everything you need to know going into the matchup. 

Cam Ward leads the Cougars 

Cam Ward is back this season after an impressive 2022 campaign in which he threw for 3,231 yards and 23 touchdown passes to only nine interceptions. After making the jump from the FCS, the dynamic QB showed he’s just as capable of making plays in the FBS as he was at Incarnate Word. 

As far as defending Ward goes, keeping him contained within the pocket will be key. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound playmaker is great at buying time with his legs. And unlike a lot of quarterbacks at this level, Ward typically stays composed while scrambling around. 

He’s got nice touch while on the move, the ability to make guys miss in the open field, and as we saw in the 2022 game, Ward is patient. He has the ability to take off for 20 yards at any point, but a lot of the time he’s just trying to give his receivers an opportunity to get open downfield. The more he backtracks and scampers around laterally, not only does it exhaust the pass rushers but it’s really hard for the defensive backs to be in coverage for that long. 

“He’s a good quarterback,” Norvell said of Ward. “He’s a guy that can move the pocket, he can scramble and he’s got experience. We’ve got to do a good job of containing him. And then we’ve got to get after him and make him uncomfortable.”

The one area where CSU must be especially wary of Ward’s rushing abilities is in the Red Zone. Ward had five rushing touchdowns in his first season with the Cougars. So if the Rams don’t play assignment sound football when the field shrinks, the slippery QB can definitely make them pay. 

Can Mountain West transfers hit the ground running?

Cam Ward may be back this season, however, his four leading receivers from a year ago are not. Taking their place are a couple of Mountain West transfers in Josh Kelly (Fresno State) and Kyle Williams (UNLV) — both of which were pursued by the Green & Gold at various points last winter. 

While I do expect both wide receivers to have productive seasons in Washington State’s Air Raid scheme, it’s going to be interesting to see what type of chemistry the offense has as a whole in Week 1. Though they did win both games, the Cougars didn’t exactly light it up offensively in the first two weeks of 2022.

Considering CSU’s defense is projected to be much more stout than the group that rolled into Pullman, Wash., the Rams could have a chance to disrupt a Wazzu offense that’s still trying to come together in the first game of the year. 

The key is in the trenches 

You could probably say this for every opponent this season but the Rams have to be better in the trenches this time around. Wazzu had seven sacks and held CSU to an abysmal average of 1.2 yards per carry in 2022. Quite simply it was a recipe for disaster.

At his weekly press conference on Monday, Norvell spotlighted defensive ends Brennan Jackson Jr. and Ron Stone Sr., calling them the strength of the unit. As the second-year Rams coach explained, the duo are extremely sound. They don’t try and do too much, they simply do their jobs and make it hard on you to break anything big. 

“We’ve got to handle their pass rush,” Norvell said. “We didn’t handle their pass rush very well last year. The minus yardage plays were a big part of the game”

Norvell continued, emphasizing the importance of being more productive on the ground. He talked about his team’s inability to sustain drives and how it’s pretty much impossible to win games when you can’t run the ball. 

“Those areas are really big,” he said. “We’ve got to do a much better job of hammering the line of scrimmage this year than we did a year ago.”

Info

Kickoff: 5:00 p.m. MT

Location: Canvas Stadium

TV: CBS Sports Network