FORT COLLINS — Plans started changing and Garrett Grayson’s cellphone started ringing more than it ever had about 7 p.m. Saturday.
His family called to congratulate him after he played for the first time this season, in place of injured Colorado State starting quarterback Pete Thomas. Grayson’s high school coach, who was going to skip coming to see him this season because the freshman was headed toward a redshirt year, will now likely attend one of the Rams’ last two games.
Grayson, a 6-foot-2, 209-pound quarterback with the Justin Bieber haircut — according to jokester teammates and coaches — is having a life-altering week off the field. He’s preparing for his first start as a collegiate player, at TCU on Saturday.
Grayson’s father, Brad, had one message to get across to his son: “It’s your time to shine.”
“I’m really excited,” Grayson said. “Preparation-wise, I feel like I’ve studied like I was going to be the starting quarterback, but now that I really am, there’s another dimension to it.”
He’s also finding out about the headaches and distractions of getting everyone to the game. His sister and her husband live in Austin, Texas. His parents, who live in Washington, plan to attend. He estimates he needs about 10 tickets. One problem: Players get just two tickets to away games, and a large percentage of the CSU players from Texas already made trades to get their friends and family taken care of.
“Now I’m panicking trying to find tickets,” Grayson said, smiling. “It’s a mess. I’m asking anybody I can, but half our team is from Texas. It’s hard.”
Grayson ended up in Fort Collins, in part, because it reminded him so much of his hometown of Vancouver, Wash., where hunting and fishing remain his passion away from the field. Grayson got his hunter-safety license at age 9.
He arrived on campus in the spring and has gone about the task of learning the quarterback position since.
CSU coach Steve Fairchild raves about Grayson’s potential. It’s part of the reason the coach so badly wanted to redshirt Grayson — to give him another year of separation from Thomas’ tenure and maximize his playing potential once he got more experience.
In addition to a good arm, Grayson brings the ability to create plays with his feet. He ran for 958 yards as a senior at Heritage High School in Vancouver. CSU got a glimpse of his running ability against San Diego State on Saturday, when he ran for a third down and ran in the two-point conversion after his quarterback-sneak touchdown.
For the game, he was 6-of-15 passing for 26 yards and an interception, and he had 6 yards rushing.
Around coaches, he carries himself with a quiet confidence.
“You can’t shake him,” Fairchild said. “I deliberately try to do that to young quarterbacks in practice, and he’s one of the harder kids to rattle that I’ve been around in my entire career.”
His demeanor will be tested. Fairchild was asked if he expected to see a confused, panicked look in Grayson early on.
“You never know when somebody goes into a game for the first time what the look in their eyes is going to be,” Fairchild said. He then quipped: “The Horned Frogs may bring that out. They may bring it out in me.”
Grayson said any butterflies he may have had about playing this early in his college career have come and gone.
“To be honest, the first drive last week, I don’t know if he saw me, but I felt like that was the deer-in-the-headlights look, and then everything started to calm down and slow down for me,” Grayson said. “But I feel a lot more confident going into this game.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Three questions for Colorado State
1. Can Colorado State continue the momentum from last week? It was a different, more confident CSU locker room despite its 18-15 loss to San Diego State. Questions about the team’s resolve had been answered in a positive fashion, and now the team sets out to build on that against TCU.
2. Will Chris Nwoke continue his stellar run? Colorado State had no trouble running the football the past two games, and that was, in large part, because of the sophomore, who had 388 yards and two touchdowns and averaged 8.6 yards per carry over that span.
3. Will quarterback Garrett Grayson stay strong in the face of a tough TCU defense? It’s the first start for the true freshman from Vancouver, Wash. And, well, welcome to the NCAA, Garrett. Deal with TCU. It’s not an ideal opponent for a new quarterback, but Grayson will cut his teeth against what has been, year after year, one of the nation’s best defenses.
Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
