FORT COLLINS — New is the word of the moment for the Colorado State football program.
Not just the new attitude, the new mental state, the new dedication to having fun and to believing in each other on the field, but in the bodies on the field as well.
Twelve players made college debuts last Saturday in the season opener against New Mexico. Sophomore transfers Shaquil Barrett and Colton Paulhus will be making their CSU debuts. Four players — Lee Clubb, Blake Jones, Charles Lovett and Drew Reilly — are true freshmen.
None were more than sophomores.
That list is expected to grow by at least one when sophomore tackle Brandon Haynes gets some snaps in today’s game against Northern Colorado. Youth is being served on a team that desperately wants to carve out success now and in the foreseeable future.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for everyone just to get a chance to step up,” Haynes said. “It shows the true character of people willing to step up and do all of the work for the team and not for selfish reasons.
“These young guys who are coming in are doing a good job with all of that. Even on the scout team, these kids are doing well on the scout teams. They have their minds focused. It’s all a good thing. That’s why we started the season off with a win.”
CSU’s first touchdown of the season was a 33-yard pass from a sophomore (Pete Thomas) to a sophomore (Crockett Gillmore). The other touchdown was a short run from sophomore Chris Nwoke. The overall star of the game was sophomore defensive end Nordly Capi, who set an NCAA record with four forced fumbles to accompany 3 1/2 sacks.
Plays were being made all over the field by a team with a youthful hue.
“It’s awesome,” Gillmore said. “I’m looking around at freshmen catching balls. Shaq (Barrett), I tell him every day he’s going to be a first-round draft pick, I have no doubt. Capi, he looks like he’s down and mopy, but when his motor turns on, he’s smiling ear to ear, he’s coming.”
The impact of younger players on any success Colorado State will have this season was a constant story line throughout preseason camp. Most of it centered on freshmen and how many of them would play, but the reality of the situation is freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores are going have sizable impacts this season.
For coach Steve Fairchild, the nerve-easing aspect about putting so many young players on the field is a large number of them have a year’s experience. CSU took a lot of lumps last season because of youth, but that experience may pay off this year in players who know the system, what to expect on the field and can simply go out and play.
“We are much more experienced than we’ve been in the past,” Fairchild said. “You look at us a year ago, we’re starting a true freshman quarterback, we had lost four senior offensive linemen to the NFL and were kind of rebuilding an offensive line. So we were kind of putting a lot of pieces together on both sides of the ball last year, and we were doing it with some fairly young players.
“There’s still young guys in our two-deep, but I feel like the experience level and the number of snaps that we actually played in games when you look at it we’re a much more experienced team.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
