Rams are Bowl Eligible

After defeating the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday, CSU is now eligible to participate in a bowl.  The Rams took down the Cowboys with a final score of 31 to 20.  Billy Farris threw three touchdown passes to Dion Morton.  Farris finished off the game with 15 completions out of 25 attempts for a total of 235 yards.

Wyoming put points on the board first with a touchdown in the first quarter.  At the beginning of the second quarter, Jason Smith knocked in a 23-yard field goal to make the score seven to three.  The Cowboys scored another touchdown after Farris threw an interception.  With ten seconds left in the first half, Farris threw a 51-yard pass to Dion Morton for another touchdown.  This made the score 14 to ten at the start of the second half. 

The Rams came out strong with another Farris to Morton connection to put the Rams up by three.  Wyoming’s Nick Landess made two more field goals in the final minutes of the third quarter which made the score 20 to 17 to start off the fourth quarter, with Wyoming in the lead.

To start off the fourth quarter, Billy Farris threw a 31-yard pass to Dion Morton which put the Rams back in the lead 24-20.  With a little over two minutes left in the game Gartrell Johnson ran five yards to make the final score of the game 31 to 20. 

This game made the Rams’ record 6 and 6 which gives them eligibility to participate in a bowl this year.  They took down Sacramento State (23-20), Houston (28-25), UNLV (41-28), San Diego State (38-34), New Mexico (20-6) and Wyoming (31-20).

CSU Needs A Win

Colorado State heads to Wyoming today to play the Cowboys in their last game of the regular season.  This also marks the Rams’ last chance to put away a win for bowl eligibility.  If they win, CSU will finish off the season with a record of six and six. 

Wyoming is currently four and seven after a loss last weekend in Las Vegas to UNLV with a final score of 22 to 14.  The Cowboys have gotten most of their yards this season from rushing the ball.  They have nearly 2,000 yards so far this season off of the run.  Their opposition has done the most damage against them with passing yardage. 

The Cowboys play pretty consistently with little scoring during the first quarter and the entire second half.  They tend to put up a lot of points during the second quarter right before the half.   Wyoming has scored 132 points so far this season compared to their oppositions’ 302. 

Kick-off will be today at noon in Laramie, Wyoming.

CSU One Game Closer to Bowl

Colorado State defeated the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday with a final score of 20 to 6.  This puts them at one game away from being bowl-eligible. 

The Rams were the only team to put points up on the board during the first quarter as Jason Smith put away a 25-yard field goal.  With five minutes left in the second quarter the Lobos made their mark with a 36-yard field goal by James Aho to tie up the game at three points each.  At just under two minutes left in the half, Gartrell Johnson ran the ball 12 yards for the first touchdown of the game. 

Colorado State led at halftime with a score of 10-3.  Dion Morton caught a six-yard pass from Billy Farris in the thrid quarter for a touchdown.  At the start of the fourth quarter, Jason Smith put away another field goal, this time for 42 yards.  This made the score 20 to 3 with 14 minutes left to play.  12 plays and 68 yards later, New Mexico’s James Aho fired a 25-yard field goal to make the final score of the game 20 to 6.

The Lobos only had 30 less offensive yards than the Rams, but could not seem to pull their offense together.  Brad Gruner of New Mexico threw for 204 yards.  Rodney Ferguson, the main star athlete on the Lobos, rushed for 88 yards and only lost three yards during the game.

Billy Farris, of CSU, finished off the game completing 16 passes out of his 27 attempts and threw two interceptions.   Gartrell Johnson had a net rushing yards of 127.  This put him over the 1,000 mark for rushing yards which is the first time he has achieved this in his career.  Dion Morton finished the game with 92 yards and a touchdown. 

The Rams will be heading to Wyoming next weekend for their last regular season game.

Rams Last Home Game

Colorado State will be matching up against the New Mexico Lobos for their last home game of the season tomorrow at Hughes Stadium.  The Rams have won three of their five home games so far this season. 

This game marks the end of the season for New Mexico.  They have won four games so far this season including defeating San Diego State with a final score of 70 to 7, who the Rams also defeated.  The Lobos lost to UNLV last weekend 27 to 20. 

New Mexico has nearly 1,000 more rushing yards than they do passing.  They have scored 23 of their touchdowns from running plays as opposed to only four from passing. 

Rodney Ferguson, a tailback, has done the bulk of the offensive work for the team as he has rushed for 1,088 yards so far this season and has scored 13 touchdowns.  The next closest on the team for rushing yardage is Paul Baker with 411 and two touchdowns.  Chris Hernandez has 377 receiving yards this year. 

The Lobos tend to let their opponents score the most points during the first quarter of the game.  New Mexico plays fairly consistently throughout the game.  Their total number of points in the first quarter is 69, 68 in the second quarter, 46 in the third and 64 in the final quarter of the game. 

Rocky Long, the New Mexico coach, said that this game should be a pretty even match, but that the Rams have a little more incentive than they do because Colorado State still has a chance to make it to a bowl game.  He said he is not looking to spoil things for the Rams, but he says if they (New Mexico) play hard then they will win.  This is the first time in eight years that New Mexico is not bowl eligible.

If Colorado State wins their final two games they will be bowl eligible.  Utah, TCU, Brigham Young (BYU) and Air Force are already in. 

Kick-off will be on Saturday at noon.

Keeping Fans Safe

To hear about Positive Impact at Colorado State please click on the audio track pi_audio on the sidebar or click here

The script of the story is written below:

ANGIE PITTMAN:  (soundbite of band playing during tailgating) Positive Impact at Colorado State was founded in 1991, when rowdy fan behavior caused the university to consider ending beer sales at Hughes Stadium.  This program is designed to be a first level intervention with student fans at athletic events in a positive manner to encourage responsible alcohol consumption.

RANDY HAMMOND: In participating in Positive Impact it lessens the burden on authorities by reducing the amount of situations that they have to deal with, and I think it shows that students can be responsible by holding each other accountable.  I mean, one of the main reasons Positive Impact is around is to promote responsible drinking.

ANGIE PITTMAN: That was Randy Hammond the president of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at CSU.  With nearly 22,000 people attending home games, the program likes to have 30 volunteers at each.  The TKE fraternity has volunteered at every home game so far this year.

RANDY HAMMOND: We definitely do it to support the ideals behind Positive Impact.  We think that it’s a great program, and our participation in P. I. counts toward our community service.

(soundbite of band warming up and people talking)

AMY ALLMOND: I know that I really like tailgating because it’s a lot of fun, and the camaraderie with everyone just getting ready for the big game.

ANGIE PITTMAN: As CSU fan Amy Allmond put it, tailgating is supposed to be a fun time spend with friends, and Positive Impact ensures that it stays that way.

Falcons Fly Over Rams

Rashaun Greer

Air Force beat the Rams on Saturday by a dismal final score of 38 to 17.  Colorado State played well the first half of the game but could not get any points on the board during the second half.  They were out-played 17 to nothing in the last part of the game. 

With a little over nine minutes left to play in the first quarter, the Rams were the first to score.  Gartrell Johnson ran the ball in for a seven to nothing start.  About two minutes later, Kyle Lumpkin of the Falcons tied the game up with a four-yard run.  After Colorado State was forced to punt, Air Force’s Asher Clark had a 41-yard run to put the Falcon’s up 14-7 to end the first quarter. 

At the start of the second quarter, Billy Farris threw a four-yard pass to Dion Morton for the Ram’s last touchdown of the game.  13 seconds later Air Force responded with a 74-yard throw from Tim Jefferson to Kyle Halderman to put the Falcons up 21-14.   The Rams added a late field goal from Jason Smith to finish off the half.

The second half of the game belonged to Air Force.  With two touchdowns in the third quarter, including one from a 45-yard run by Asher Clark, and an early field goal in the fourth quarter, the Ram’s could never pull their offense together enough to catch back up. 

Air Force ended the game continuing their trend of running the ball a lot more than passing it, as they had over 100 more yards from rushing than from passing.  However, when they do pass the ball, the Falcons are very consistent as they had six completions off of eight attempts.  This was much better than the Ram’s 19 of 36 and two interceptions. 

Rashaun Greer had a strong game with seven catches totaling 145 yards.  Gartrell Johnson ran for 82 yards and put away one touchdown.  The Rams were three of four in the red zone, and they did a good job under pressure as they were two out of three in fourth-down conversions.  The Falcons just dominated the second half.  Controlling the ball for nearly 12 minutes in the final quarter. 

With the win over Colorado State, the Falcons are now 8 and 2 as they prepare to play BYU next Saturday in Colorado Springs.  Colorado State will play their last home game of the season this Saturday against New Mexico.

Time to Face the Falcons

Colorado State is heading down to Colorado Springs to play against the Air Force Falcons.  Air Force has only lost two of their nine games so far this season.  They took down the Army 16 to 7 last Saturday. 

The Falcons have scored nearly 100 more points than their opposition this year.  Yards off their running game far outweighs that of their passing and of their competitors.  Air Force has 2,470 yards rushing so far this year and only 679 yards passing.

Colorado State needs to play their hardest defense during the middle of the game, during the second and third quarters.  That is when the Falcons put up the majority of their points and stop their opposition.  They have scored 139 points during this time of the game to their competitors’ 68 total points during that same time period. 

Seven of their running backs have put up more than 200 yards this season.  Kyle Lumpkin and Todd Newell have both gone over 400 yards. 

Kick-off will be at 4 at the Air Force Academy.

Cougars Tackle Rams

Colordo State lost a heartbreaker yesterday at Hughes Stadium against BYU.  The Cougars finally put away the Rams with 22 seconds left in the game to make the final score 45 to 42. 

Colorado State was the first to get points on the board with an early touchdown in the first quarter.  Max Hall fumbled the ball which was picked up and run 20 yards into the end zone by freshman linebacker Mychal Sisson.  About three minutes later, Hall threw the ball 58 yards to Austin Collie for a BYU touchdown to tie up the game.  Then with about three and a half minutes left in the first quarter, John Mosure ran the ball in to put the Rams up 14 to 7 after the first.

The second quarter continued this offensive back-and-forth play with Collie scoring a touchdown to tie the game, followed by Dion Morton catching a 32 yard pass from Billy Farris to put the Rams back on top.  The Cougars were not willing to go into the half down, though, so with 38 seconds left in the half Hall threw the ball to Collie for another BYU touchdown.  Therefore, the teams went into the half tied at 21. 

The beginning of the third quarter faced little action until the seven-minute mark rolled around and produced a Colorado State touchdown.  Rashaun Greer caught a pass which made the score 28 to 21.  With about two minutes left in the quarter, the Cougars had to settle with a field goal from kicker Mitch Payne. 

BYU started out the fourth quarter with a quick touchdown from Dennis Pitta.  This put the Cougars in the lead 31 to 28 with 13 minutes left in the game.  Gartrell Johnson ran for seven yards to take back the lead with a little over seven minutes left to play.  Harvey Unga had an amazing 40-yard run two minutes later to put the Cougars back on top over the Rams.  Colorado State freshman Gerard Thomas intercepted the ball off of Hall which set up the Rams for their final touchdown.  With 1:44 left in the game, quarterback Billy Farris threw the ball 55 yards to Dion Morton.  The roar of the crowd would have indicated the Rams had ended the game victoriously, but the Cougars had other plans.  In only five plays, BYU had managed to drive the ball 59 yards.  The culmination of this drive was a 17-yard pass to Dennis Pitta with 22 seconds left in the game to give the Cougars their eighth win of the season.

BYU had 150 more offensive yards than the Rams, but their offensive mistakes put the Rams in good position.  Morton ended the game with six catches totaling 129 yards and two touchdowns.   

The Cougars will be set to play San Diego State next weekend as the Rams head to Colorado Springs to match up agains the Air Force Falcons.