With bowl out of reach, CSU Rams focus on establishing foundation
After losing to Air Force this past weekend, the Colorado State Rams will go another season without bowl eligibility.
The Rams have lost four straight games to guarantee their fourth straight losing season. Their last winning season came in 2017 at the tail end of CSU’s five-year bowl streak. Toby McBride, a senior defensive lineman, played his entire career at CSU only experiencing one bowl game, the 2016 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, a 61-50 loss to Idaho in the Vandals’ premature FBS sendoff.
So when there’s two games left in the season and nothing left to chase, what more is there for McBride and the rest of the CSU senior class?
“As a senior that’s about to be out the door in two games, I take a lot of pride in setting that foundation,” McBride said. “It’s leading the way for a lot of these young guys to have the path for success. I’ll take as much pride as I can in that.”
This was the first full season under Steve Addazio, who was hired to be the Rams coach leading up to the 2020 season. The COVID-19 Pandemic messed with that season, leaving the Rams with only four games and the only win coming against Wyoming at home. The Rams started the year with back-to-back home losses to South Dakota State and Vanderbilt but a four-game stretch in which CSU went 3-1 afterwards inspired hope at 3-3 before eventually being dashed with their current four-game slide.
The Rams developed a reputation for being a stout rushing team and run-stifling defensive unit over the course of the season. CSU was seconds away from beating Utah State and had a double-digit lead against Boise State in the first half before dropping that game.
The losses against Wyoming and Air Force represent a low point for the Rams. In both games, the Rams defense allowed the Cowboys and the Falcons to have multiple 100-yard rushers. They were also the only two games senior quarterback Todd Centeio threw for multiple interceptions.
“We’re trying to build a foundation right now,” Centeio said. “We all believe we have potential.”
Despite the recent shortcomings piling up in Fort Collins, Addazio and the seniors displayed some semblance of optimism for the future during the postgame press conference.
“We’re building something here,” Addazio said. “The improvement that we have on our team outside of these past two weeks interiorly on our defense, which has really been a strong suit as we all know but it’s not right now. I like our competitiveness. I like our toughness. I like our line of scrimmage. I like a lot of things that are going on. Obviously we have fallen short and our record is not where we want it to be as a record, but our program building is where we want it to be.”
“We are building this program brick by brick. I think if everyone knew the shape the program was in when Addazio got his hands on it, they would not have this much hate on him,” McBride said. “We’ve really come a long way from the last year when he first got here to where we are now, and we continue to build. I’ve been here for six years, and this is the team I’m most proud of. I’ve been with a lot of teams with a lot of guys, but this team keeps fighting and keeps pushing. We’ve come a long way and we’re going to continue to do that.”
The Rams face one more road game at Hawaii this week, followed by senior night against Nevada.