FORT COLLINS — It’s pretty simple, first-year Colorado State coach Mike Bobo said Saturday night. If Rashard Higgins isn’t going to be a first-round draft choice, he should consider returning to the Rams for his senior season in 2016.
“I think Rashard played well,” Bobo said of Higgins’ seven catches for 102 yards and three touchdowns in a 49-35 win over UNLV in what might be his final home game for CSU. “But I think Rashard’s got two more (regular-season) games to play, and I think we’ll do our due diligence and get the information from the NFL of where they see him.
“He needs to make a decision that’s best for him and his family. We don’t know when that’s going to come back, but my personal belief is that if a guy’s not going to be a first-rounder, I think he needs to come back to school and finish school and improve and try to get himself into that category. But I don’t know where they would rank him.”
Bobo noted that Higgins was over his nagging injuries of earlier in the season.
“He’s been healthy for about two weeks, two and a half weeks,” the coach said. “I’m going to say this too: After the San Diego State game, we had that meeting and talked about practice habits, and Rashard Higgins has practiced like a great player should practice the last two weeks. His play has been evident of how he’s practiced. … He played his tail off last week (against Wyoming), blocking, and he was very physical. He didn’t want to let anyone down. He practiced that way this week and I think he’s starting to play the way we all think he can play.”
Senior Day. The 26 Rams honored before the game included former players who for medical reasons didn’t play this season but remained involved in the program. Bobo said of that inherited group: “To me, they became my guys when I walked in the door. I told them: ‘I didn’t recruit you guys, I don’t know your background, I don’t know who’s important to you, but I want to know. I want to know who raised you, who helped you get here to this point, because if we’re going to be all in it together, we have to be all in.’
“Sometimes it’s easy to come in and say, ‘Well, they’re not all in, we’re going to move on to the next group and get ready for the future.’ But … I’m a competitor. I want to win now, and I’m really proud of these guys, of how they’ve fought and how they continue to try to get better and take coaching. … They’ve bought in and played hard for each other, for the team and for the university.”
Crowds. The announced crowd of 15,641 left CSU with a total attendance of 149,500 in six dates, averaging 24,917.
With the on-campus stadium under construction and scheduled to open in 2017, Saturday’s final home game also closed out the penultimate season for lame-duck Hughes Stadium.
