FORT COLLINS — Colorado State coach Jim McElwain never misses an opportunity to preach to his team the value of cutting through the clutter, all that holds a player back from doing his job to the best of his ability.
This week, there is a lot of clutter.
It’s CU week, and that comes with as much excitement on campus as any game on the schedule can provide. Yet all McElwain requests of his players is that they not focus on Saturday, or even the next day. Only the next practice — and in that practice, only the next repetition.
“Get caught up in ‘What do I need to do right now, on this rep in practice, so I’m prepared to go out and play my best, play fast, play with tempo and not apprehension?’ ” McElwain said.
The ability to block out the outside world might be easy to discuss, but difficult to do, especially for those who grew up in Colorado in a CSU household. That’s what Jake Levin did, and the junior H-back from Legacy High School is doing his best to tune everything out.
“It is hard to contain your excitement, but you focus on practice to practice,” Levin said. “You don’t look too far forward, because it’s all about what’s happening right now instead of what’s happening Saturday.
“This game is a pretty big one. Always got to love playing CU at (Sports Authority Field), all of those people around at Mile High, the beautiful grass in the stadium. Definitely as a Colorado kid, you’ve grown up with the rivalry and you understand how big it is.”
If Colorado State is to beat CU for the first time since 2009, it will have to start by slowing down new Buffs quarterback Jordan Webb.
“He’s got a quick release … got a very strong arm,” McElwain said Monday. “Now, how does it fit in their system is kind of to be determined.”
Webb, who transferred from Kansas in July, got the starting nod over Connor Wood and Nick Hirschman in a competition decided by the college graduate’s ability to consistently make plays and move the team in practice.
“Here’s a guy that’s played at a high level in a very good conference,” McElwain said. “And we’re starting a quarterback that, yeah, he got some reps last year, but how valuable were they? He hasn’t played in this rivalry game. Obviously their quarterback has played in rivalry games. And it sounds like he has done a great job rallying and becoming a leader of that team, and that’s a credit to him, to be able to come in like that and take over from a leadership standpoint. That speaks volumes about who he is.”
McElwain danced around the question of what specifically concerns him about the Buffs, but offered: “They’ve brought an NFL mentality. They’ve brought a physical mentality. They’ve got very good coaches on both sides of the ball and in special teams. I think they are very sound. They are not going to try to beat themselves, yet pick their spots to take their shots. You break down all of last year’s stuff, but they may have totally changed who they are offensively and defensively.
“In that standpoint, that’s where you need to have the foundation of your plan to adjust to whatever. Because they had summer studies, so they’ve got new wrinkles. It isn’t just what they did last year. That’s where as a coach we’ve got to be able to make game-time changes, game-time adjustments based on the things we haven’t seen. And that’s all part of that first game.”
Christopher Dempsey: 303-954-1279, cdempsey@denverpost.com or
