With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, Colorado State freshman quarterback Clay Millen wanted the ball and the opportunity to lead his team to a victory.
It wasn’t a position the Rams had been in much this season, and certainly not with Millen behind center. He was making his return after missing two and a half games with a shoulder injury.
But midway through the fourth quarter Saturday against Hawaii, the Rams were behind 13-10 and Millen had that chance. A touchdown would give the Rams the lead. And with the way CSU’s defense was playing, it would probably give them the win.
“In the fourth quarter, we called timeout and he was looking over and he was just smiling and laughing because he was having fun playing,” CSU head coach Jay Norvell said. “Thatap a great sign. When you have a young kid thatap in the heat of battle, he’s got his teammates counting on him, I really have to credit his calmness. He had a much calmer sense about him after having to sit out.”
There was 8:44 left in the game when the Rams took over at their own 20-yard line. The drive started with a 14-yard pass from Millen to Tory Horton. The Rams faced a third-and-6 from their 48-yard line and Millen found Louis Brown for a 12-yard gain and a first down to keep the drive going.
Later in the drive, CSU had a third-and-8 at the Hawaii 38. A 5-yard reception by Brown made it fourth-and-3. Millen then completed a 13-yard pass to Horton to get the Rams to the Hawaii 20.
From there, Avery Morrow ran it down to the 16 and Brown took it to the 10 on a reverse. Then Morrow then ran it in from 10 yards out for the go-ahead — and eventual winning — score.
“On the fourth-and-3, it was like, ‘We’ve got to have it. We’ve got to get it right here,’” Millen said. “Tory ran a great route, got a lot of separation, our offensive line blocked it really well for me. It was just an easy throw for me.”
On that game-winning drive, Millen completed 5 of 6 passes for 45 yards. He also had two rushes for 12 yards. Horton caught two of the passes for 27 yards. Brown caught two for 17 yards. Morrow finished the drive with 22 of his game-high 147 yards on the ground.
Once the offense was off the field, it was the defense’s turn. That defense, which had only allowed Hawaii to gain 24 yards in the second half up to that point, welcomed the challenge to shut the door on the Rainbow Warriors.
“We were excited over there,” linebacker Dequan Jackson said. “We were excited for the offense going in and punching it in, but just the game being on us. Once you get that mindset like, all right, the offense did what they had to do. Proud of the offense but now itap on us. I don’t think there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that they weren’t going to score on that last drive. Just the composure and the mindset the guys had, like this is where we want to be, I think thatap a great mindset to have.”
Three short passes gave Hawaii a first down at its own 39, but with 39 seconds on the clock, CSU’s Ayden Hector intercepted Hawaii quarterback Brayden Schager’s pass, sealing the victory.
