Salt Lake City – Colorado State offensive coordinator Dan Hammerschmidt moved from the sideline to the press box Saturday for the first time this season.
“I like it better, I see the coverages better,” he said. Of course it didn’t hurt to move inside for the first bad-weather day with a cold rain falling much of the game.
That wasn’t the only change for the offense, which put up its most points in the five-game losing streak but lost 35-22 at Utah. Center Nick Allotta moved to guard, and the Rams started rotating Scott Benedict and Adrian Martinez on the other side.
CSU had its sixth offensive-line combination in 10 games. It opened up room early for starting running back Nnamdi Ohaeri and Caleb Hanie on the quarterback draw.
“We didn’t need new plays, we just needed to make a play,” Hammerschmidt said.
Backup quarterback Billy Farris drew raves from Hammerschmidt for orchestrating a five-play, 90-yard scoring drive on the Rams’ final possession. He completed 2-of-3 passes for 49 yards and carried twice for 26 yards.
“He looked good. He runs quicker than Caleb,” Hammerschmidt said. “I liked the way he handled the red zone.”
Other personnel tweaks included getting third-team running back Michael Myers in for two carries and using redshirt freshman Alex Square as a kickoff returner.
Pagnotta returns
Safety Mike Pagnotta started as a nickel back after missing four games because of a knee injury. He was the Rams’ leading tackler before spraining his knee at Air Force. He finished with seven tackles Saturday.
“I hate to say we were flat, but they were more amped for the game than we were,” Pagnotta said.
Although redshirt freshman linebacker Jeff Pottorff didn’t start the game, he finished with seven tackles. Zac Bryson started at strong safety, becoming the 36th player to start a game for the Rams this season.
Inflated crowd count?
Although Utah announced a Rice-Eccles crowd of 39,532, little more than half the 45,017 seats were occupied on the rainy afternoon. As some carryover from the undefeated 2004 team, Utah has a season ticket base of 24,000 seats.
Punting duel
Utah’s Louie Sakoda, despite being ranked third in Mountain West Conference punting, showed why he is a finalist for the Ray Guy Award. All three punts were downed inside the 20-yard line, and he still averaged 48.7 yards for the game. CSU punter Jimmie Kaylor had more work and punted six times for a 41.3-yards average.
Milestones
Hanie had a career-high rushing day with 13 carries for 75 yards. … After being outscored 62-9 in the second halves the past four games, the Rams were only outscored 14-9 on Saturday after halftime.
