FORT COLLINS — On the heels of an emotional rivalry win last week against Wyoming, the Colorado State football team had one of its more prolific offensive performances in recent years as an encore Saturday.
CSU amassed 678 yards and scored seven touchdowns in a 58-24 victory over FCS Southern Utah at Canvas Stadium to improve to 2-0 under first-year head coach Jim Mora.
The Rams ran all over the Thunderbirds — for 296 yards on the ground — while quarterback Hauss Hejny outperformed his Week 1 debut with 325 passing yards and four touchdown passes to go along with 85 rushing yards and a TD.
Defensively, the Rams forced four turnovers for the second week in a row to complement an offense that was unstoppable for most of the game. And while CSU did allow 442 yards of offense to the Thunderbirds, it held Southern Utah to only three second-half points.
“I thought it was another step in the right direction,” CSU head coach Jim Mora said. “We were explosive on offense. They were explosive on offense as well, so there’s some disappointment there. But they are things that we can correct and we will correct.
“It was a good win, but I think there’s just so much more out there for us. And we have a ton of improvement that we can make in the moment.”
The game couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start for CSU as it scored twice and forced a turnover in the game’s first two minutes.
On the Rams’ first drive, Hejny found Cedric Ross for a 68-yard touchdown to put CSU up 7-0. It was the second game in a row that Ross scored the first points of the game for the Rams.
CSU forced and recovered a Southern Utah fumble on the Thunderbirds’ first offensive possession and capitalized when Hejny completed a 38-yard touchdown to Terrence Smith Jr. to push the Rams’ lead to 14-0 just 99 seconds into the game.
The two long touchdown passes to start the game were just an omen of things to come as the Rams capitalized on explosive plays in all four quarters.
“Big plays are great,” Mora said. “You love big plays. I also like sustained drives, and I think we could have done a little better job there.”
After the Thunderbirds scored their first touchdown to cut the CSU lead to 14-7, the Rams answered with a 40-yard field goal by Kali Nguma to go ahead 17-7 and wrap up the first-quarter scoring.
In the second quarter, the Rams’ run game made an appearance in the form of Mel Brown. Brown broke off an 80-yard run down to the 1-yard line early in the period and then took it in himself from there to increase the Rams’ lead to 24-7.
However, the Thunderbirds scored back-to-back touchdowns on runs by by Floyd Chalk and cut the CSU lead to 24-21. Those would be the last touchdowns of the first half by Southern Utah, leaving the door open for the Rams to extend their lead, which they did.
CSU scored 24 unanswered points in the final 3:24 of the first half.
Brown scored his second touchdown on a 73-yard run. Jackson Harper caught a 17-yard scoring pass from Hejny, and then Smith caught his second TD pass of the game on a 33-yard toss by Hejny.
“Coach (Pryce) Tracy, he calls a very diverse offense,” Harper said. “He likes to switch it up a lot, a lot of different formations. He called a great game today. I love playing for coach Tracy.”
A 51-yard field goal by Nguma gave CSU a 48-21 lead at halftime.
The Rams had 489 yards of offense in the first half alone. Brown had eight carries for 168 yards and two scores. Hejny passed for 296 yards and four touchdowns. Harper had five catches for 92 yards and a touchdown while Smith had four catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
The 48 points the Rams scored in the first half were the second-most in a half in program history. CSU scored 49 in the second half of a victory over UTEP in 1984. The 48 first-half points, however, were the most the Rams have ever scored in the first 30 minutes of a game.
In the third quarter, the Rams added a 23-yard field goal by Nguma to go ahead 51-21. Those were the only points scored in the period.
After the Thunderbirds kicked a field goal early in the fourth quarter to make it 51-24, Hejny answered, not with his arm but with his feet. A 75-yard run by the quarterback pushed the Rams’ lead to 58-24.
Brown finished as the Rams’ leading rusher with 171 yards on nine carries. Harper had six catches for 102 yards.
Defensively, the Rams got interceptions from Oumar Diomande and CJ Blocker. Tre’shawn Moore and Diomande each recovered a fumble to give CSU eight defensive takeaways in two games.
“Our (defensive) mentality is just playing with elite effort on every single play,” said defensive lineman Jack Moran, who had six tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a half-sack. “And I think itap really turned out for us with those turnovers, for sure.”
CSU will be back at Canvas Stadium for the third week in a row next Saturday, hosting nationally ranked BYU at 5:30 p.m.
