RENO, Nev. — It’s the small-print disclaimer about the Colorado State football team’s 4-1 start.
*0-1.
The Rams lost the only Mountain West game they have played this season, falling 37-24 at Boise State on Sept. 6, and their hopes of winning the Mountain Division will take a big hit if they lose Saturday night to Nevada at Mackay Stadium and fall to 0-2 in the conference.
“We don’t look at it as a have-to win, because I think anytime you do that, you kind of get in the desperation mode,” said CSU senior quarterback Garrett Grayson. “We don’t ever want to go down that road, but in a sense, we do need to win this to keep our hopes along with where we want to be. If we win this game, we need Boise to lose another one, and we need to win out to get to that Mountain West championship game.”
When he goes through the postgame greeting with the opposing quarterback Saturday, it won’t just be positional protocol. Grayson and Nevada’s Cody Fajardo were roommates at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La., this past summer, also sharing a room with Utah State’s Chuckie Keeton and Temple’s PJ Walker. They remain texting buddies.
Nevada coach Brian Polian and CSU coach Jim McElwain have become friends too. Polian, the son of former Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts executive Bill Polian, is respectful of the progress CSU has made under McElwain, now in his third season with the Rams.
Polian, 39, is in his second season at Nevada after recent assistant coach stints at Notre Dame (2005-09), Stanford (2010-11) and Texas A&M (2012). He succeeded longtime Wolf Pack coach and athletic director Chris Ault, for whom the field at Mackay Stadium is named. The Wolf Pack had gone 7-6 under Ault in 2012, then was 4-8 under Polian in 2013. Nevada is 3-2 this season, with wins over Southern Utah (28-19), Washington State (24-13) and San Jose State (21-10).
“I’m not ashamed to say I see a lot of similarities in the way the thing is being developed and built, and I hope it goes along the same track,” Polian said this week, comparing the Nevada and CSU programs. “There’s nothing wrong with saying that.”
Fajardo, a senior from Brea, Calif., had a 68-yard run for a touchdown and threw for 247 yards in the Wolf Pack’s 38-17 loss to CSU in Fort Collins last year. That game was notable because Kapri Bibbs ran for a CSU-record 312 yards and four touchdowns on 30 carries.
“I don’t think he was at 100 percent when he played us on that (bad) knee,” McElwain said of Fajardo. “He’s a guy that’s a true weapon. … Anytime you have a run-threat option guy like that, he can beat you with his feet. If somebody’s taking something away, here’s a guy that can go in and finish. That’s what makes him such a good player.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
