FORT COLLINS – Emmanuel Jones’ outstretched paw tossed the tragic script that was Colorado State’s season in the shredder Saturday night.
Arkansas faced third-and-4 from its own 36-yard line and Hogs quarterback Cole Kelley couldn’t find a white jersey open. He scrambled right, hoping to find someone streaking along the sideline, but Jones threw off his blocker and with his left hand grabbed Kelley’s leg and sacked him for a loss of 12 yards.
One punt and an touchdown run later, the Rams did the unthinkable. They beat a Southeastern Conference team with an 18-point second-half comeback in front of more fans wearing Razorback red than those in green and gold at Canvas Stadium.
CSU 34, Arkansas 27.
’s defining victory? It finally happened. And that 2018 script — the one that wrote the Rams off after two straight blowout losses? They thought we were idiots for writing it in the first place.
And maybe they’re right. If this is the CSU team we see the rest of the season, I’ll take your finest recipe for fried crow.
The show CSU put on in the final 18 minutes after most of the 31,894 in attendance ducked out early was unlike anything we’ve seen since Jim McElwain’s final season as coach, in 2014, when a game-winning touchdown pass from Garrett Grayson to Charles Lovett in the final moments at Boston College signaled the start of a memorable season.
Grayson and his deep stable of receivers are long gone, but quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels showed Saturday night that all Bobo needs to do is let him and Preston Williams play catch and this season will take care of itself. No need for a balanced offense — CSU had 40 rushing yards on 23 attempts. Just throw the football and anything can happen.
“It’s about the knowing. Knowing you can get it done,” Bobo said. “I loved the look in every guy’s eyes all week. … They didn’t faint in the face of adversity. That’s hard for, really, anybody to do. That’s hard for a grown man to do, but 18 to 22-year-olds when they’ve got adversity and people want to (talk about) everything is going wrong, and they didn’t faint? That’s what we’ve been talking about since preseason — having character now.”
Bobo said after last week’s blowout loss to Colorado that he didn’t have any “magical” answers on how to fix his team. His defense was spent, and the offense struggled to find any footing. He said again Saturday that the magical answer everyone sought didn’t exist, that it was old-fashioned hard work. Well, how’s this for magic: 389, 154, 107.
Carta-Samuels’ 389 passing yards Saturday give him 1,102 for the season (and eight touchdowns).
Williams had 154 yards receiving — 121 of them, and two TDs, came in the second half.
And tight end Cameron Butler’s 107? It brought flashbacks of Crockett Gillmore, Kivon Cartwright and Kory Sperry.
Air it out.
“No matter what, if our passing isn’t working some nights, our run game has to be working,” Carta-Samuels said. “I mean, really, we just have to play to our strengths and right now our pass game is a huge strength. … There’s a lot more that’s possible.”
Shortly before CSU began its stunning victory that had the student section rush Sonny Lubick Field, the Buffs completed an equally as dramatic win over longtime rival Nebraska in Lincoln. And out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, which had a dominant win at Canvas Stadium just two weeks ago, is receiving Top 25 votes.
One win over a Power Five opponent won’t chase the taste of how this season started, but it does provide hope. And with a $2 million game upcoming at Florida next weekend — the same Gators who lost at home to Kentucky on Saturday for the first time in 31 years — as long as CSU keeps the ball in the air, anything is possible.
Maybe we were wrong. Maybe Colorado State can still be great.