FORT COLLINS — For a guy who was allegedly on the hot seat a month ago, Mike Bobo now finds himself with a team on absolute fire.
“I commended them on how mentally strong they were,” CSU coach Bobo said after the Rams stomped UNLV 37-17 on Saturday, notching the program’s third win in a row. “They didn’t fold. They didn’t listen to outside noise. And thatap a credit to the guys in that room.”
After a 1-5 start to the season and CSU faithful grumbling over the future of Bobo, their fifth-year coach, six victories and a postseason berth are —mathematically — back on the table during the first week of November.
“(Bobo) told us to focus on one game at a time,” cornerback and return man Anthony Hawkins, whose touchdown on the game’s opening kickoff opened the floodgates, said of the Rams (4-5, 3-2 Mountain West). “We put (up) in the team meeting room, ‘1-0.’ … Just take it one at a time, and that (laid) the foundation for us.”
Hawkins set the foundation for Saturday’s romp, too, as the hosts scored on four of their first five drives. Seven CSU ball carriers, including the senior cornerback, accounted for 174 rushing yards and three scores on 36 totes.
The Rebels doubled and blanketed 6-foot-6 CSU wideout Warren Jackson but still got diced for 254 passing yards, 234 coming from the Rams’ starting signal-caller, Patrick O’Brien. Jackson finished with a game-high 133 receiving yards on six grabs.
“Warren Jackson helps, (him) coming back,” Bobo said of his big target, whose 657 receiving yards over the last four games are a CSU program record over that span. “That gives us an identity on offense. The identity of this team, really, is (that) they’re never going to quit.”
With Jackson on the perimeter leading a collection of targets that include Dante Wright (108 all-purpose yards vs. UNLV), tight end Trey McBride (29 receiving yards) and tailbacks Marcus McElroy (33 all-purpose yards) and Christian Hunter (79 all-purpose yards), the Rams have averaged 37.7 points per game over the last three contests, all wins, with two of those victories coming on the road. Itap the program’s first three-game winning streak since the 2017 season, when the Rams won four in a row from Sept. 30 through Oct. 20 that year.
The tone for the first half, if not the afternoon, was set on the kickoff, which Hawkins ran back 99 yards for a touchdown to open the game. An afternoon of positive superlatives was under way, as CSU returned a kick for a score for the first time since Nov. 28, 2015, against Fresno State.
The hosts kept their foot on the floor after that, taking just 1:43 off the clock on their second possession of the contest, a 54-yard touchdown drive capped by McElroy’s 18-yard scamper into the end zone, giving the Rams a two-score lead.
After two quick possessions for the visiting Rebels (2-7, 0-4) were sandwiched around a CSU punt, the Rams ended the first quarter with another touchdown drive — this one a 36-yard jaunt over five plays.
And the special teams remained hot, too: Kicker Cayden Camper capped a 12-play, 43-yard drive with a field-goal make from 50 yards out — a season long — with 7:58 left before the half, extending CSU’s cushion to 24-0. It was the Rams’ largest first-half lead, and first first-half shutout, against an FBS opponent since last Oct. 6 at San Jose State.
With a bye up next and three games left against rival Air Force (7-2 after Saturday’s victory against Army), then Bronze Boot dance partner Wyoming (6-2) on the road Nov. 22 and finally No. 21 Boise State (6-1 entering Saturday) at home on Black Friday, the road to the postseason would be anything but a cakewalk. The Rams would have to win two of the matchups, and they figure to be underdogs in all three tests.
But itap not inconceivable, either. And given CSU’s six weeks out of the gate, thatap almost a victory in itself.