FORT COLLINS — After going over the video of , Rams coach Mike Bobo has decided to not change his starting quarterback.
The Rams (2-4 overall, 0-2 Mountain West) are at home again Saturday against Air Force. The Falcons are off to a 2-0 start in league play and share the Mountain Division lead with Utah State and Boise State.
“My feel on the quarterback situation is Nick Stevens will start this week,” Bobo said at his Monday news conference. “We’ll continue to get Coleman Key reps, whether he plays in the third series or not. That will be determined by this week of practice, but Nick will be the starter starting today.”
Stevens, the redshirt sophomore from Murrieta, Calif., has started all six games, but against Boise State and stuck with him until going back to Stevens late in the third quarter.
Key, a reshirt freshman from Broken Arrow, Okla., finished 5-of-19 for 56 yards. Stevens was 8-10 for 60 yards.
“You’d like for everything to be going smoothly at all positions,” Bobo said. “But it’s not. And sometimes when the quarterback position is a little bit unsettling, that’s what we all want to talk about. But there’s a lot more issues than just the quarterback.
“Nick missed a third-down pass on the first drive, a little bit behind, (but) we have to make a catch for the guy, and then should have thrown the ball away in a pressure. Then Coleman came in and we had the long drive on (his) second series. Besides the third-down pass to Joe Hansley, it was basically all runs, but there was some momentum.”
He added that he stayed with Key “because of momentum, not necessarily for what he was doing. He did a good job on that drive. … The whole position’s got to play a little bit better. We played two very, very good defensive football teams in Utah State and Boise State. Minnesota was a very good defensive football team and Colorado’s much improved from what I saw on tape from the year before.
“So we played some talented defensive football teams and (with) a first-year starter with a new system, there are some growing pains. There are more growing pains that I would like and I’m sure our fans base would like, but that’s part of it. We’ll get it right and we’ll have consistent quarterback play, I’ll guarantee you that.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @tfrei
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