FORT COLLINS — The worse the scenario, the better to prepare a Colorado State quarterback for his first career start when the opponent is Colorado.
Just ask Rams quarterbacks coach Daren Wilkinson. He’s been feeding Grant Stucker a steady diet of “slasher” films, gorier than any Halloween series. Wilkinson, after all, lived through the 1995 debacle against CU.
Ever since the series resumed on an annual basis in 1995, CSU has endured a miserable history vs. CU when it uses a first-time starting quarterback. The Rams are 1-4 in that span when trotting out a new starter, 1-6 going back a decade further.
“They try to prepare me for every scenario that could possibly happen, even if it’s the worst possible scenario,” Stucker said. “It’s funny because we watched tape of the (1995) game when Coach Wilk threw a touchdown pass. He wanted to show that he was actually legit.”
Indeed Wilkinson endured one of the worst landslides in the history of the series. CU was ahead 21-0 midway through the first quarter.
“We were just never in the game,” Wilkinson said of the 42-14 drubbing. “We were never able to regroup from that. You can’t let a game like that get away from you, especially in that environment.”
The Buffs piled up 461 yards against a CSU defense that produced four NFL draft picks the following spring.
At other times, a first-time CSU quarterback more than deserved the blame. Few Rams fans will ever forget, or forgive, then-sophomore D.J. Busch tossing a pick on CSU’s opening drive in 2001. Busch was on Cornell’s roster the following year.
The only first-time starter with a victory over the Buffs was then-junior Matt Newton in CSU’s 1999 41-14 “win for the ages” at the old Mile High Stadium. Current coach Steve Fairchild, then the Rams’ offensive coordinator, prepared Newton that week. Newton threw only 18 passes for 109 yards, but one was a 67-yard TD to Frank Rice.
Of course, Newton was helped by a defense that got six turnovers and by Kevin McDougal’s 190-yard rushing effort.
Yet Newton admitted much later he was terrified when he took the first snap that night. He was also the only CSU quarterback with back-to-back rivalry wins, taking the 2000 game 28-24.
CU’s Cody Hawkins, if he starts, could join current talk-show host Joel Klatt as a rare Buff who is a three-time winner in the rivalry. However, Hawkins, who took his first college snap against the Rams in 2007, admits that game easily could have gone the other way. CU was down 28-17 in the third quarter. Hawkins showed rare poise for a freshman, rallying the Buffs to an overtime win.
“Lucky for me, I completed some passes in a row,” Hawkins said this week. “If the adversity had started for me sooner, it would have been a little different for me. . . . The first game is tough. But once you’re out there and get into the flow, it’s just another game.”
As much as fifth-year senior Stucker applauds the series’ return to Denver next year, he said of Sunday’s first start in Boulder, “I’m expecting the best possible CU team I can imagine. It will be an unbelievable atmosphere. You have to stay calm.”
Denver Post staff writer Tom Kensler contributed to this article.
Natalie Meisler: 303 954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
