FORT COLLINS — Colorado State receiver Rashard Higgins was 4 years old in early 1999, when the Broncos won the Super Bowl for the second consecutive season.
Raised in the Dallas area, Higgins isn’t steeped in Broncos history and doesn’t know that one of the strengths of that team was that receivers Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey were excellent blockers in support of the running game.
So as Higgins, a consensus All-American as a sophomore last season, looks ahead for new challenges, first-year Rams head coach Mike Bobo and his staff have made him a deal.
“Coach Bobo told me if I keep blocking the way I am, he’s going to give me touches,” Higgins said. “If I’m blocking to try and get the running back open, why not pass me the ball to try and get me some yards? Coach Bobo is the man with the master plan.”
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That might be a bit symbolic and even a bit tongue-in-cheek, given that under virtually any foreseeable circumstances, getting the ball to Higgins is going to be a priority with sophomore Nick Stevens taking over at quarterback. But this all is part of the progression of Higgins, who at times frustrated then-coach Jim McElwain during his freshman season in 2013.
He had 68 catches for 837 yards and six touchdowns but remained an enigma because, as a true freshman, he wasn’t allowed to speak to the media. Plus, his sometimes undisciplined route-running and mental lapses left McElwain saying that as promising as Higgins was, he had a long way to go.
Then a year ago, McElwain after one practice almost gleefully pointed out that Higgins — by then allowed to display his confident demeanor to reporters and the public — was correcting young receivers, showing them how to line up correctly. A little thing, perhaps, but McElwain turned out to be right that it heralded progress. In tandem with quarterback Garrett Grayson, Higgins had a brilliant season and is in the national spotlight heading into 2015.
So the next step?
McElwain’s successor, Bobo, has challenged Higgins — always a decent blocker — to help out even more in the running game.
“He didn’t say I need to work on my blocking,” Higgins said. “He just made it a point of emphasis in a scrimmage that I was blocking pretty tough, and he said, ‘Man, if you keep blocking like that, we’re going to go a long way this year.’ I was telling him I want to go a long way, but more than most, I just want a championship. I never had one in high school, never had one in peewee. To get a championship, that would mean a whole lot for me and the seniors.”
Said Bobo: “Rashard in the last scrimmage didn’t have many catches, but I thought he played hard and blocked his tail off. I was really proud of that. … He doesn’t mind blocking, he doesn’t mind giving effort. He’s hungry for us to have team success and a big part of that is not just him making plays in the pass, but being a complete player.”
Higgins has said he will make his decision about whether to leave CSU after his junior season when appropriate — and that time isn’t now. If he goes out with the seniors, he wants it to be with a flourish, even if that means having to do more imitations of Rod Smith providing help as Terrell Davis — a Bobo teammate at Georgia in 1994, when Davis was a senior and Bobo was a freshman — ran the ball for Denver.
Wide receivers coach Alvis Whitted, a former NFL wideout, is one of three McElwain assistants retained by Bobo. So Whitted has been part of Higgins’ development and now this challenge to block better.
“Coach Whitted always tells me, ‘Who wants it more?’ And that blocking is a mind-set,” Higgins said.
Whitted has added credibility with Higgins not only because of his NFL playing credentials, but because he was the CSU assistant coach who recruited him and, along with McElwain, was there after Missouri and other power-five programs turned their backs on Higgins.
“Coach Whitted came to my house and said he had a scholarship for me,” Higgins said. “I committed right then and me and my mom started crying. I think about it like it was yesterday.”
He can’t block that out.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
