Fort Collins – Quarterback Caleb Hanie was as disheartened as any of his Colorado State teammates Wednesday upon learning Kyle Bell’s season ended with a torn knee ligament.
“It makes it a little tougher,” Hanie said of his job as the starter without Bell in the backfield.
Hanie, a 6-foot-2, 236-pound junior from Forney, Texas, also had a touch of defiance in his message for any defense that wants to come after him.
“There’s a respect factor we might lose, but that’s also a good thing,” Hanie said. “If they don’t respect our running game, Gartrell (Johnson) is a heck of a back. He’ll surprise some people. I have total confidence in him and the team does, too.”
With that note, Hanie took yet another in a long series of steps toward maturity as a starting quarterback in this, his first full season running the Rams. The metamorphosis was no more evident than when he assumed the role as team spokesman in a time of crisis Wednesday.
At the start of the week, Hanie and the Rams were just eager to start the season Saturday against Weber State. There was every reason for excitement – from inaugurating the new field to showing off a shored-up defense.
Coach Sonny Lubick had talked for a month about a special team chemistry starting with summer workouts.
Then came the news about Bell, the team’s leading rusher who is out for the season with a torn ACL.
Now the pressure grows about Hanie to lead an offense that lost its biggest weapon. It could mean the Rams will count on Hanie to throw more than they had planned only a day earlier. Which is fine with Lubick.
“Caleb has really been impressive since spring ball,” Lubick said earlier in the week. “I’m not going to say he’s the best passing quarterback we ever had, but he gets it done in some other ways.”
His teammates hang around after practice, waiting for Hanie to finish interviews, the way other players did for Bradlee Van Pelt and Justin Holland, whom Hanie is replacing.
“When he was a freshman, he had that deer-in-the-headlights look, but now he’s the leader,” H-back Kory Sperry said. “He throws the ball a lot like Holland but runs it like Van Pelt. He’s grown a lot. He bonds a lot with his receivers. He has a good connection with everybody. Everyone trusts him to do his job and he trusts us to protect him.”
For his part, Hanie said, “I feel a lot more comfortable with the guys who are in there and a lot more comfortable about our defense. We’re good to go.”
The week started on a controversial note when the campus – and many alumni and fans – reacted negatively to the decision to remove the Fum McGraw third-quarter video clip from the scoreboard. And any student who hadn’t heard of Bell before this week knew him when he started a Facebook.com group to protest the move, a kind of athlete activism unseen on campuses since war protests in the 1970s. By Thursday, more than 1,500 people who weren’t students had signed an online petition, and the student body government voted to protest the move.
Then came Bell’s injury.
If there was a break amid the distractions, it was that the Rams don’t open this season against rival Colorado. That might be too much emotion to handle, not to mention the benefit of giving Johnson a game to gain some confidence.
Unfortunately, Bell’s injury provides one unneeded inspiration for a team that wasn’t looking for any more.
“We’ve had enough inspirational things happen in the offseason,” Hanie said of receivers coach Marc Lubick’s bout with cancer and the loss of offensive coordinator Dan Hammerschmidt’s wife, Karen, to cancer. “We didn’t really need another one, especially from our star running back. We’d rather have him in there serving as the top rusher in the league.”
GAME BREAKDOWN
Players to watch
Weber State – Ian Pizarro’s mobility as quarterback will challenge the Rams’ rush defense. NT Derek Johnson is 6-foot-2 and 295 pounds, and CSU won’t see many bigger D-linemen.
Colorado State – RB Gartrell Johnson, unexpected starter, will draw attention of entire stadium. DE Jesse Nading is ready for an explosive season.
Key stat
CSU lost 1,288 rushing yards when Kyle Bell tore his ACL on Tuesday at the end of practice. Weber State lost 848 rushing yards when Zach Hall tore his Achilles tendon in the first week of preseason practice.
Key for Weber State
Disrupt the Rams’ running game, which underwent a huge upheaval this week.
Key for CSU
Get confidence early for Johnson in his first career start.
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
