FORT COLLINS — Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild paused to do the math in his head.
“Don’t hold me to this,” he said this week. “But I think we played 11 defensive linemen (in the Rams’ Saturday opener against New Mexico).”
In a season that already feels much different from last year’s, depth on the offensive line and defensive line is one of the reasons. CSU, which beat New Mexico 14-10 in Albuquerque, has quality depth on both lines this year. It was clearly on display defensively against the Lobos.
CSU lost junior end Broderick Sargent early in the opener to a season-ending knee injury. Not only were the Rams able to replace him, they did so with a player — sophomore Nordly Capi — who set an NCAA record by forcing four fumbles. CSU still had enough depth to continue a rotation that kept defensive linemen fresh.
Capi admitted that his forced fumble late in the game, which sealed CSU’s win, might not have been possible had he not had as much rest as he was able to get throughout the opener.
“I definitely felt a lot fresher,” Capi said. “My legs were fresh. I wasn’t winded. If you look back, we had a total of 86 defensive plays. If anybody were to play that, their legs would be killing them at the end of the game.”
Fairchild’s goal coming into the season was to have a constant rotation of at least eight defensive linemen. That depth may get tested again because junior end C.J. James might miss Saturday’s home opener against Northern Colorado.
James was demoted from first team to scout team Tuesday because of a violation of team rules and is questionable to play against UNC.
“We’ll decide that based on what we see,” Fairchild said of James’ availability.
Footnotes. Based on ticket sales, CSU is expecting a crowd of 25,000 at Hughes Stadium for the UNC game. CSU is asking its fans coming to the game to wear orange. CSU players will wear orange Aggies jerseys to honor school history. Saturday is Ag Day at CSU. . . . Fairchild said George Maumau, a freshman fullback from Valor Christian, is done for the year because of a knee injury. “He’ll redshirt,” Fairchild said.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
