FORT COLLINS — As a fifth-year senior, Colorado State cornerback Bernard Blake has been through the downs and ups — in that order.
CSU was 3-9 in 2011, his redshirt freshman season. Since, he has been part of the rebuilding process under the Jim McElwain staff that has the Rams at 5-1 this season. Next up is a potentially pivotal Mountain West game against defending Mountain Division champion Utah State at Hughes Stadium on Saturday.
For the first time this season, the Rams received votes in the latest Associated Press media and USA Today coaches polls — not enough to come close to cracking the top 25, but enough to show that some are noticing CSU’s strong start.
“I didn’t know about it until you guys just said it,” Blake said Monday. “Those are things we really don’t try to get ourselves concerned with. We just focus on what we need to do in order to continue to pile up wins on Saturdays. … When I came on my visit here, I had a vision along with the other guys of restoring that tradition here that was in the program, and being a part of that. So it’s good to see it play out.”
Blake made a key interception in the Rams’ signature win, their 24-21 upset of Boston College on the road. He’s part of a secondary that returned all of its starters and has shown improvement after giving up 33 touchdown passes in 2013. CSU is allowing only about 22 fewer yards per game compared with all of last season, but the secondary is making big plays at big times.
“It just comes with more experience, more competition, more depth,” Blake said.
Saturday, the Rams will face Utah State quarterback Darell Garretson,who for the second consecutive season has taken over for the injured Chuckie Keeton.
“We had the opportunity to play against him last year,” Blake said. “He was a good quarterback, a talented kid. He was patient. He knew how to reach through his keys and everything. So first impressions are that we have to remain disciplined with our eyes. Watching them against BYU, they did some things we didn’t see from them last year.”
Garretson didn’t do much against the Rams last year because he didn’t need to. He was 8-of-18 passing for 43 yards in the Aggies’ 13-0 victory.
This season, he is 77-of-116 passing for 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns.
Footnotes. McElwain said Monday of the building excitement about the CSU program: “I’m happy that people are starting to take notice. I’m happy that we are giving them some pride in their Rams, and yet we by no means are anywhere near where we are going to be in the future. But it’s a start and, yeah, I think that’s pretty cool.” … After the 31-24 win over Nevada, McElwain said defensive tackle Terry Jackson probably would be out “a while” because of a head injury. Monday, though, McElwain said the concussionlike symptoms weren’t as severe as he originally thought. “I’m not counting on him, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as we’ve had with some other guys,” McElwain said.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
