What CSU can learn from a difficult 2018 season

There are many ways to describe the 2018 season – the simplest is to say that it sucked.

No matter how eloquently it’s phrased, the truth is that aside from a miraculous upset of an extremely awful Arkansas squad, the highlights included almost beating Hawaii, a narrow victory over New Mexico and a touchdown that didn’t count against Utah State. That’s about it.

Colorado State’s first losing campaign since 2012 was truly a dandy. As many fans know, though, it certainly wasn’t unique. CSU went 3-9 in three consecutive seasons from 2009-11, before Jim McElwain guided the Rams to four wins in 2012. (Woohoo!)

So, as fun, as it was for the Ram faithful to see the green and gold qualify for the postseason in five consecutive years (2013-17), the other five years of the decade were equally disheartening. The key difference is that going into 2018, most CSU fans didn’t expect to be back in their “emo stage”.

Imagine if as a 24-year-old, I regressed back to my 15-year-old self – the one with braces, a “faux hawk” and an inability to successfully communicate with literally any female on the planet. Okay, honestly I still know nothing about women. But my point is that it would be a real gut punch if after getting my s*** together, I suddenly returned to my old ways. That’s exactly what happened in Fort Collins last season.

Instead of making strides as a program by finding ways to top their rivals or finally winning a bowl game – the Rams locked themselves in their room, cranked up My Chemical Romance and received a D in Algebra 1. (Shoutout to Mrs. Macri for not failing me as a freshman in high school.)

Everything about last season sucked. From losing to Hawaii and starting the season with a league loss to getting beaten by double-digits six different times – football season was one giant letdown after another.

Mike Bobo missing the majority of fall camp with health issues, at the very minimum, had an impact on the first month of the season. So if we’re playing devil’s advocate, it probably isn’t fair to criticize the Rams for losing to the Warriors; especially when also factoring in a new quarterback and first-year coordinators on both sides of the football. Losing to Illinois State by 16 at home is a different story.

What’s worse than the individual losses, the Rams never discovered their identity as a football team. The offense was impacted by the line’s poor play and probably didn’t benefit from an extremely confusing quarterback rotation either. Regardless, the unit ranked 108th in points per game (22.8).

The defense struggled to tackle and generally just didn’t know how to stop the opposing team from scoring. In total, opposing offenses averaged 36.8 points per game against the Rams, which ranked 117th out of 130 teams.

Keeping all of this in mind, there were also moments that the Rams can build off. After looking physically and mentally defeated in the early part of November, CSU actually played pretty well against Utah State and Air Force to close the year. Considering the season was over at that point, CSU’s effort over the final two weeks, showed a lot more about the team’s dedication to Bobo than anything else. But it also could be an indicator of what’s to come.

In the 2012 season when CSU went 4-8, the Rams were 3-2 in the final five games of the season. So, when the Rams followed it up with a 7-6 campaign in 2013, before winning the New Mexico Bowl, it wasn’t quite as shocking. CSU will be hoping for a similar result in 2019.

In the almost-upset of Utah State, the Rams had 13 more first downs and gained almost 200 more total yards. Unfortunately, they also had 11 penalties for 108 yards and lost the turnover battle. In the end, Preston Williams’ illegal touching penalty proved to be the final dagger – not that he should be blamed for the loss because that play was incredible.

Then in the narrow loss to the Falcons, CSU was able to keep up with their in-state rival throughout. But a lack of discipline hurt the Rams in this contest as well. CSU recorded eight penalties for 75 yards and turned the ball over twice, while Air Force had one penalty for 15 yards and no turnovers.

If CSU can match the effort that they gave in the final weeks, while eliminating the small mistakes that plagued them all last season, the Rams do have enough talent to make the postseason in 2019.

But this team needs to learn from the selfish attitudes and sloppy mistakes that became synonymous with the 2018 squad. They need to grow from the disappointment of last year and use it as a motivator. And much like a teenager going through puberty, the Rams need to remember to always keep moving forward, no matter how tough it gets.

As we saw in 2018, when the Rams were outscored, 139-59, in a three-week span – it’s easy to lose faith in yourself, your teammates and coaches when things start to go south. That can’t happen if this team is going to have any chance of success in 2019.

Considering there’s a very real possibility of starting 1-2, CSU has to look at the bigger picture next season. After a 3-9 season, the mission needs to simply get back on the right track. The best way to do that is reaching the postseason.