FORT COLLINS — The Colorado State Rams’ injury list includes head coach Jim McElwain.
McElwain underwent a minor procedure on his troublesome hip on Monday and designated two assistants — Dave Baldwin, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; and Tim Skipper, the assistant head coach who handles the linebackers — to represent him at the Rams’ Monday news conference.
This is one of CSU’s two bye weeks during the season, and the Rams don’t play again until Sept. 27 at Boston College, so they didn’t practice Monday. They’ll be back on the practice field Tuesday, and McElwain is expected to be present.
CSU also received word Monday morning that the BC game, in Chestnut Hill, is set for a 10:30 a.m. MDT kickoff. Previously, the game time was listed as TBA and there was a significant chance it would end up being played at night.
Baldwin, the former head coach at both Cal State-Northridge and San Jose State, said he watched at home on Saturday night.
“I went from being very happy to saying they’re a darned good football team,” Baldwin said.
Said Skipper: “Any time a team beats the No. 9-ranked team in the country, it’s going to get our attention. They play hard. Boston College traditionally is a team that’s going to play physical, so you have to strap it up and be ready to go.”
Baldwin was hopeful that left tackle Ty Sambrailo, the Rams’ only returning offensive line starter from 2013, would be able to return to the lineup against BC. He has been out since suffering a sprained knee in the first five minutes of the Colorado game.
“He’s going to go through some practices this week, not full-padded, but he will be in some reps, so we’ll see what happens with him,” Baldwin said.
He said he didn’t yet know the status of H back Kivon Cartwright, who didn’t play against Boise State and UC Davis because of an ankle injury.
Skipper said of the bye week: “We had a staff meeting and we talked about how it’s going to look like fall camp or spring practice, the style, the way we practice. … Just doing fundamental stuff, not necessarily scheming.”
Skipper said that most of the assistant coaches will take advantage of the bye week to hit the road later in the week to make recruiting visits. He recruits the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas.
“In state, I think we’re going to have two or three coaches handling the state and having select areas to go,” Skipper said. “As coach Mac says all the time, we start here in state, that’s our main emphasis. We have to target the guys we’re going to go see. Recruiting’s a big part of this week also. Our plans are to take care of our guys here in the beginning and once we get to Thursday, start to look towards the future.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
