FORT COLLINS — Unless Colorado State coach Mike Bobo installs the wishbone this week and makes Rashard Higgins or Joe Hansley his quarterback, asking one of them to emulate option masters Jamelle Holieway or James Street, the Rams’ choices at quarterback realistically are limited against Air Force on Saturday.
Nick Stevens or Coleman Key.
Bobo on Monday said that after looking at video of the on Saturday, he isn’t changing his starter.
“My feel on the quarterback situation is Nick Stevens will start this week,” Bobo said. “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 has started all six games, but and stuck with him until going back to Stevens late in the third quarter. Key finished 5-of-19 for 56 yards. Stevens was 8-for-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.”
He added: “There are more growing pains than 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.”
The option topic came up, of course, because the Falcons still are wed to option football under coach Troy Calhoun, though not as exclusively or purely as previously under Fisher DeBerry. Bobo was asked if as a high school quarterback in the early 1990s in Thomasville, Ga., he heard from service academies before going to Georgia, where he started for four seasons.
Bobo smiled and pointed out that his father, George, was a wishbone adherent and won two championships in Rome, Ga., and a third in Thomasville, with the option offense until his son became his quarterback.
“There was this slow white kid that was going to be the quarterback,” Bobo said. “That was me. I couldn’t run the ride and the side, the veer, so we had to change the offense. … By my dad’s whole background is option. He and the coaches came and visited Air Force and Fisher DeBerry back in the day, and took a week out here.”
George Bobo is visiting his son and will be at the game Saturday.
“This is my dad’s kind of ball right here,” Mike said with a smile. “He’s going to be a consultant with (defensive coordinator Tyson Summers) this week.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @tfrei
