DENVER — The Colorado State football team no longer has an opportunity to qualify for the postseason. After losing four games in a row to division foes the best that the Rams can hope for is salvaging some pride with a victory over a struggling Hawaii team that’s also lost three straight. Here’s a preview of the matchup.
Considering neither side has much to play for at this point, it’s tough to know what type of game we’ll get on Saturday night. Despite their recent shortcomings the Rams are currently listed as 2.5 point favorites, which likely is due to CSU having slightly more talent at the skill positions as well as in the trenches. However, more talented or not, as all Mountain West fans know, winning on the island is no easy task.
Just about every season Hawaii upsets someone that they’re theoretically less talented than. This year it was No 18 Fresno State on Oct. 2. In 2020 they took down Nevada. Win or lose, though, the Warriors are always more competitive on their own turf. So far this season Hawaii has five double digit losses, all of which came on the road. At home they’ve beaten the Bulldogs and narrowly lost to both San Jose State (17-13) and San Diego State (17-10).
Part of their success at home likely stems from the opposing team being jet lagged after a brutal travel process. It’s a great advantage for them when defending their field, but obviously it’s a challenge for them when they go out on the road.
“It’s a long, long trip for people to go out there,” Addazio told reporters. “It’s hard on them when they go away and it’s hard on teams when they go to them. That’s obvious. They play better at home.”
In hope of giving the squad a better opportunity to acclimate, Steve Addazio elected to have the Green & Gold travel fly out on Wednesday, which is a day earlier than the usual routine. The thought behind it was that despite the 9.5 hour travel process, by going earlier the team could have as close to a normal week of preparation as possible and get some work in on the island.
“Let’s get there Wednesday night, go to bed, get a good night’s sleep and try to shake that out a little bit. And then give a couple of days to acclimate. We’ll see. We’ll see how that works out,” Addazio said on Monday.
CSU leads the all-time series 15-10 and have won seven of the last eight meetings overall. When these teams played at Canvas Stadium in 2018, K.J. Carta-Samuels set the single game program record with 537 passing yards. Unfortunately it did not translate to a CSU victory as the Warriors took down the Rams, 43-34, in a Week 0 matchup. Back in 2017, in the last game they played in Honolulu, CSU won in a dominant fashion (51-21). On that night the Rams recorded 610 yards of offense and scored seven offensive touchdowns — four through the air and three more on the ground.
It seems unlikely that the Rams will replicate the offensive production they had in the previous two meetings. As we’ve already covered, Hawaii is a much more stout team when playing at home this season. That said, if CSU is going to come away with a victory on Saturday night, winning the turnover margin will likely be a big factor. The Warriors have forced three or more turnovers in three of their four wins and they had a pair of takeaways in the other win. As we’ve seen in recent weeks the Rams aren’t built to play from behind, so the last thing they can afford to do is give away opportunities to the home team.
The past month has been particularly brutal for everyone around this football program. At least for a night, it would be nice for Ram Nation to experience some positivity while cheering them on before they completely turn all focus to the basketball teams. We’ll see.
