FORT COLLINS — If this seemed potentially a “trap” game for heavily favored Colorado State on Saturday, the Rams avoided it.
On the annual “Ag Day” that pays tribute to the school’s A&M/Aggie traditions, the orange-clad Rams beat the struggling Tulsa Golden Hurricane 42-17 before a similarly-hued crowd of 25,806 at Hughes Stadium.
Quarterback Garrett Grayson, sufficiently recovered from a bruised shoulder suffered at Boston College the week before, threw first-half touchdown passes of 28, 31 and 73 yards — all to wide receiver Rashard “Hollywood” Higgins — as the Rams took a 28-7 halftime lead and went on to the win that made them 4-1 for the season.
Grayson was 12-for-18 for 236 yards before giving way to backup Nick Stevens at the start of the fourth quarter. And Higgins added a school-record fourth TD reception, hooking up with Stevens for a 36-yarder with 5:02 remaining.
Also, Dee Hart ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. His usual relief in the one-two punch, Treyous Jarrells, was held out of the game with a sore knee, so Jasen Oden Jr. got more work and had 90 yards on 12 carries.
Higgins ended up with six receptions for 178 yards, and his fourth catch — actually, a 3-yard loss — gave him 100 in his CSU career. The sophomore from Mesquite, Texas, reached that career benchmark faster than any other receiver in school history. Higgins has played 19 games, and the previous fastest-to-100 was Rashaun Greer, who took 24 games in 2008-09.
The blowout in the Rams’ final nonconference game of the season gained a bit of revenge for what was the low point in Jim McElwain’s tenure as the Rams’ head coach, a 30-27 loss at Tulsa a year ago in which the Golden Hurricane scored 13 unanswered fourth-quarter points. That loss — and how it happened — made it less likely that the Rams would be complacent and overlook Tulsa this time.
And since that defeat in the second game of 2013, CSU has gone 12-5.
Maybe that’s another measure of the progress in the CSU program. CSU was favored by 20 points Saturday, and there was a time in the not-so-long-ago past when it would have been difficult to portray a game against any FBS opponent as a “trap” game for the Rams — unless the “trap” to be avoided was another stinging loss.
On the Rams’ first possession of the game, Hart’s 53-yard run to the Hurricane 11 was the catalyst. The touchdown came two plays later, when Hart, seeing no room up the middle and cutting to the sideline, went over from 14 yards out to complete the 75-yard, six-play drive.
Then the Grayson & Higgins show began. Their three TD hookups nudged the Rams to a 28-7 halftime lead.
The Hurricane did manage to close to within 21-7 after quarterback Dane Evans scored from 1 yard out with 3:20 left in the half, but the longest Grayson-to-Higgins TD play quickly got the lead back up to 21 points.
Hart fought 13 yards for his second touchdown with 9:19 left in the third, and it was 35-7. Tulsa got to within 35-17 before the Stevens-to-Higgins TD pass opened up more breathing room.
CSU, 0-1 in the league standings because of a Sept. 6 loss at Boise State, returns to Mountain West play next Saturday in Reno against Nevada.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
