FORT COLLINS — If there was ever a must-win point of the season, Colorado State could be facing it now.
Consecutive losses have dropped the Rams to 3-3 — the first time they’ve sunk to .500 this season — and left the team scrambling to get things back on track and achieve the goal of bowl eligibility.
This weekend’s game against Texas-El Paso is the first of back-to-back road games. It’s also Colorado State’s first chance to wipe away the sting from a 50-point loss to Boise State and prove in earnest that the mindset that sunk the team last season is completely gone.
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” running back Chris Nwoke said. “As long as we stay together and keep the confidence and keep pushing, we’re still able to make this bowl game. Boise State is a great football team. We’re definitely going to do some successful things this season.”
CSU has not yet won in October after going 3-1 in September. Saturday’s game, at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, is the last non-conference game of the season for the Rams.
“All of our focus now is we’ve got to move past it,” safety Ivory Herd said. “Because if we let this linger this is going to affect us for the rest of the season. So, we’ve got to move past it and look forward to next week.”
Many players were asked if Saturday’s game was a must-win, given all the team wants to accomplish. The general consensus was a lukewarm “yes.”
“To accomplish our goal we have to win next week,” quarterback Pete Thomas said. “We have to win the week after that. We’ve got to be 4-3 after next Saturday.”
And to get there?
“Keep working, keep putting in the work,” Thomas said. “Not going to get down ourselves when we do lose. We’ve just got to keep working and build off everything we can learn from. I believe in every one of those guys in the locker room. Just got to keep playing strong.”
Everyone insisted, however, that the team’s more upbeat mindset this year will allow it to not let the season slide away.
“This team is definitely different,” Nwoke said. “We have a lot of belief in ourselves that we can bounce back. … We haven’t played to our full potential yet, but we’re going to try to do that (on Saturday).”
Said Thomas: “We changed that mentality when we came back in January. We’ve got too much leadership on this team, too much heart. We want to win for coach Fairchild, for ourselves, for our coaches. We just aren’t going to let that happen again.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
