NDSU’s FBS opponent may not be as well known as compared to the teams of the past (Iowa State, Kansas and Minnesota twice), this is NDSU’s second foray into the Mountain West conference since the move up to Division 1, Wyoming was the first back in 2008. College football fans will remember the success that CSU had in the mid to late 90′s with Sonny Lubick, but it’s been a lot of lean years in Fort Collins since. ESPN Insiders can read a full breakdown of Colorado State with this link: http://insider.espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/BlueRibbon-ColoradoState/colorado-state-rams
Some highlights from the report that you may or may not know:
- Jim McElwain is the new head coach at CSU, he was the offensive coordinator for the national champs at Alabama, he’s bringing a pro-style offense to the Rams.
- CSU just completed a third straight 3-9 season, the seniors on this team only know losing and are eager to turn things around.
- The Rams quarterback is a sophomore; Garrett Grayson, he started the final 3 games of last season as a true freshman, throwing for 542 yards, a 55.8 completion percentage with 6 picks, certaintly will have to be better this season.
- Chris Nwoke is the stud running back, his best games came late in the season, including a 232 and 269 rushing performance against San Diego State and Air Force.
- Most everyone that reads our blog knows about the incidents that happened on the CSU campus involving a brawl between football players and students on campus, that resulted in two players being kicked off the team, including Mike Orakpo, younger brother of Brian who plays for the Washington Redskins, one of the leading tacklers on the team.
I don’t know how all of these factors will come together for Colorado State, but this is the 4th straight FBS opponent for NDSU that will have a first year head coach(Rhoads, Gill and Kill) and I’m certain that McElwain probably grimaced when he looked at his schedule and saw the defending FCS champions on his non-conference slate. The Rams will be buried in the Mountain West behind Boise State, San Diego State and probably UNLV, but anxious to see how NDSU travels to Fort Collins.
Nwoke is a stud no doubt, and the running game for the Rams was solid last year. Still, I like the Bison chances in this one. A new coach and new system bode well for the Bison I think. The lose of two defensive starters will hopefully give the Bison inexperienced offense a chance of putting some points on the board.
I hope Colorado crushes them and leaves them wounded for ndsu. Tickets go on sale Monday for this, should be 5000+ bison fans down there , can’t wait!!
That’s retarded, and a loser statement, why would you want them wounded?? funny stuff. I hope there 100% and give us all they got cause we win this by no less than 14 regardless. I want CSU to Crush Colorado and then we crush them.
Actually tickets go on sale Aug.13. For some reason they switched sale date for our game.
We’ll beat them by 17. Colorado St. is a middle of the pack Valley team at best.
And Colorado is part of the football elite? Give me a break. Both teams suck big time and will continue to do so for at least the next season or two.
They should implement running time rules for games like this. Should be little doubt by halftime. Would be better with CSU’s players at 100%, to make a statement to the rest if the FCS that the defending champs may have better team than last season. Plus it will let all you naysayers know that FBS is attainable, and sooner than you think.
Csu moved back tickets sales because they were afraid NDSU would buy 5000.6000+
Your conspiracy theory is that they are purposely trying to sell less tickets? Sounds legit.
Most schools have a set number of tickets they release to the visiting team. Hughes Stadium holds 34,400 and CSU usually only has around 22,000 -25,000 so I would guess tickets won’t be an issue.
Fort Collins is pretty much a suburb of Denver…and as with most major cities with college football teams, they compete for the sports dollars with pro teams. The Broncos are at home that weekend against Pittsburgh and I am sure there are other events happening around the Denver area. This isn’t Fargo where there is only one thing to do in the fall on a Saturday afternoon.
Good review and comments about Colorado State University – and it should be recognized that they are like Wyoming – a 1A school, but their athletic program is not of a strong level – and they do need some work. Nevertheless they play with
vigor and will be a worthy football opponent. And I look forward to seeing the game in early September – GO Bison.
I know scheduling a few years in advance you don’t know what type of team you will be playing but NDSU has been pretty fortunate to play a lot of FBS programs who are pretty low with new coaches and schemes. Minnesota, Kansas, ISU, Wyoming and now CSU. I assume that Iowa Hawkeyes will now fall on hardtimes before NDSU plays them in a few years. Nonetheless, they are all still FBS programs NDSU has competed with or beaten!
I know you never want to look ahead in the schedule, but the first game against Robert Morris and the third game against Prairie View A & M should definitely end up in the W column. They had a combined schedule of 7-15 last year. CSU could also easily be a win with the programs recent problems (3-9 in 2011).
The game that should be marked on the calendar as a measuring stick of how this season will play out is the September 29th matchup against UNI.
CSU is heading straight for a buzzsaw! The Bison should win by 20 or more if they play average. If they play poorly the Bison only win by a TD or less. THE MARCH IS ON!!!!
On paper we should roll, but playing out west still gives me visions of the game against Wyoming. We should have rolled them as well. I guess the big difference between then and now is the quarterback situation. If everything goes as planned, we win big. Looking forward to another football season.
While it is true that CSU normally gets only about 25k for a game, which is what they got for the Northern Colorado game last year, it is a new coach so there will be renewed enthusiasm.
While I think NDSU should win this game, CSU has never lost to a IAA/FCS team and if you all recall, that is what the Cowboys said a few years ago. “No matter how bad we are, we never lose to a IAA team”. We’ll see.