FORT COLLINS — Before you brand him a serial arsonist, know that Collin Hill had help. Or rather, he didn’t. Which was sort of the problem.
One of several, now that you mention it.
“On a blindside hit, I’ve got to hang on to the ball, regardless of whether (the defender) was free or not,” Colorado State’s sophomore quarterback said late Friday night after a 34-21 loss to Wyoming that saw him complete 34 passes on 54 attempts but also give the ball away three times, twice on interceptions.
“And with the interceptions, I’ve got to watch (film) … I think I might have led (the receiver) a little too much. But that definitely dug us in a hole. And coach talked about turnovers. They capitalized on it and we weren’t able to come back from that.”
Nine games down the pike, this much was still painfully clear after the Bronze Boot went north again: Regardless of who’s lined up behind the center, the Rams (3-6, 2-3 Mountain West) keep sticking to the poor sod with the kind of offensive line that takes chunks out of a quarterback’s soul, to say nothing of precious ligaments.
“What can you say? Itap embarrassing to have your quarterback hit,” center Colby Meeks sighed. “(Whether) itap your fault, the offensive line’s fault. Even if it isn’t.
“(We have to) make sure he stays healthy, make sure, as (offensive line coach Dave) Johnson says, he can take the dollar out of his pocket and throw the ball.”
Against the Cowboys, Hill managed to whip out about 36 cents before the roof caved in, forcing the redshirt sophomore to either run for his life or rush a throw to Heaven-knows-where.
“Collin’s a survivor,” said wideout Preston Williams, who posted 126 receiving yards on 10 catches Friday. “Nothing gets to him.”
Defenders got to him. Repeatedly. In his first start of the season, Hill’s glass was half — well, half something, depending on how you looked at it. For a guy who hadn’t taken a game snap in two years, a guy who tore his left ACL twice, a little rust was expected, and more flakes fell away as the evening unraveled.
On the other hand, the South Carolina native attempted to thread more than a few throws into double coverage, and a stat line that featured two picks could’ve easily finished with twice that total.
And yet the cat never stopped swinging. Or slinging, even if three second-half touchdown drives proved too little, too late. Hill didn’t get much love from his offensive line — a recurring theme this autumn — or from a receiving corps that dropped at least three catchable balls in the first half, including his first two passes.
“Without looking at the film, I thought he moved around the pocket, he made plays, threw the ball — at times, had some drops by guys,” coach Mike Bobo noted. “But you put too much pressure — I don’t care who’s playing quarterback — you put too much pressure on a team, on a quarterback, when you’re throwing it that many times.”
Bobo resisted the temptation to turn the clock back to senior K.J. Carta-Samuels, despite the three giveaways. The Rams are 0-4 this fall when they’ve turned the ball over more times than their opponent, but they don’t run the ball — or play defense — well enough to ask a quarterback to try to be a game manager and get the heck out of the way.
“I think the biggest thing for me is just control the things that I can control,” Hill said. “I think thatap kind of all you can handle.”
Still, 54 pass attempts is slightly bonkers against an opponent thatap in your weight class. It takes a village to move an offense, and a village that can’t rush or pass protect with a straight face leaves its signal-caller staring at the proverbial 8-ball. And a beast of a hill to climb.