ALBUQUERQUE — This is not the legacy Colorado State’s seniors had in mind last summer when they worked up a storm in anticipation of a return to Mountain West glory.
On a rare Saturday, they played offense and defense like the Rams of old, competing down to the last second for a victory. Their opponent, this time New Mexico, still found a way to win.
“There’s a lot of seniors. There’s no next season for us,” said defensive tackle Erik Sandie, one of many introspective Rams heading into the final two weeks of their careers. “We’re not going to give up. We want to leave something with this team. If the only thing we can leave with this team is, ‘As Rams, we don’t give up,’ then that’s what we’re going to leave.”
Indeed, there are just two games left in CSU’s first season with nine losses since going 1-10 in 1988. That’s the year when most of the freshmen on this team were born.
There’s no counting an automatic “W” this week from a rare late-season Division I-AA (officially termed championship subdivision) visitor in 7-3 Georgia Southern, ranked No. 11 in its division before falling to Furman.
By the day after Thanksgiving, the Border War could get really ugly, given CSU’s season-long struggles and Wyoming’s meltdown at Utah going into this week’s game with MWC leader BYU. Also likely this week is a league reprimand against Wyoming coach Joe Glenn for an obscene gesture (now starring on YouTube) directed at the Utah bench.
The Rams, however, have kept their composure. When reporters stood outside the locker room, it was so silent the only proof anyone was in there occurred when players came out to cross the hall for the training room. For lack of any more words to say to each other, the players talked readily, as always, to the media.
“If you told me we’d be 1-9 last summer when we worked our butts off, … and this week we worked our butts off. It hurts,” Sandie said. “No one is giving up – the defense especially. There’s no giving up, no surrender at all.”
Wide receiver Johnny Walker, who had a career day with 177 yards and two touchdowns, said this many losses is hard, “but that’s no excuse to hang up the shoulder pads. We got to come back out Monday, watch film and get ready for the next game.”
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
