Coronado, Calif. – However highly his team is picked, Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick quibbles with the preseason Mountain West Conference media poll. On Monday, he vowed to prove prognostications wrong.
CSU, coming off a 4-7 season, was picked to finish fifth in the nine-school league, with two-time champion Utah No. 1 despite losing its coach, Urban Meyer, and the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, quarterback Alex Smith. Perennial runner-up New Mexico was chosen second, followed by resurgent Wyoming and BYU. League newcomer TCU followed CSU, with Air Force, San Diego State and UNLV bringing up the rear.
“Every year it seemed we were picked first or second and I’d say, ‘Who the heck is doing that and how dumb can those guys be?”‘ Lubick said. “Well, I say this year they picked us way too low. I’m going to put myself on the spot.
“We have Justin Holland, and I think he can be as good a quarterback as there is in the league.”
CSU’s players appear to take the fifth-place prediction as a personal affront.
“You can look at it as a kind of stab at you when you’re not good enough to be in the top four, you’re behind Wyoming,” senior center Albert Bimper said.
Rams wide receiver David Anderson added, “What do those guys know?”
In the MWC’s first six years, CSU was typically chosen among the top three based on strength of reputation and returning all-league picks. When a string of five consecutive bowl trips ended, it took no time for the Rams’ reputation to plunge. CSU hasn’t been picked as low as the middle in a conference poll since 1994, when Lubick turned the program around.
Besides a healthy Holland, sidelined in the middle of last season by a broken leg, Lubick bases his cause for optimism on a much-improved running game, more depth on the offensive line and the best defensive secondary CSU has had in years.
UCLA transfer running back Nnamdi Ohaeri is expected to help the ground game.
“We’ve got every receiver and running back returning plus the addition of (Ohaeri),” Lubick said. “I don’t want to put any pressure on him, but he could be the spark that could maybe make this thing go. I say that only from the standpoint he was in a big-time program.”
Ohaeri was named newcomer of the year on the all-MWC list.
Lubick said the league is more well balanced than in years past. So, while disappointed, he could understand why voters had CSU in fifth.
“I could see us picked where we are because I think the league is going to be very strong this year,” Lubick said. “I’m sure all the teams coming to Fort Collins aren’t thinking, ‘That’s a gimme, going to Colorado State.”‘
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, meanwhile, said it always seems his team is picked around sixth. He was glad to see the pressure on Wyoming, which had been a fixture at the bottom of the league poll before breaking out with a bowl victory a year ago.
Preseason all-MWC quarterback Corey Bramlet of Wyoming said: “It’s motivation. Now we have to respond.”
Other Front Range players named to the all-MWC team included Anderson, CSU offensive tackle Mike Brisiel, Air Force offensive lineman Jon Wilson and six other players from Wyoming: tight end John Wadkowski, defensive lineman Dusty Hoffschneider (Columbine High School), cornerback Derrick Martin (Thomas Jefferson), punter Adam Brooks, place-kicker Deric Yaussi (Poudre) and return specialist Hoost Marsh (Arvada West).
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-820-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
