Utah Utes vs Colorado State Rams Football Preview

Utah will certainly be a commanding favorite when the Utes host the Colorado State Rams this Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. Yet, it doesn’t seem quite appropriate to completely write off the Rams at this point in time. Perhaps a month ago, but not now.

Surely, Utah figures to remain unbeaten in advance of that looming November 6 showdown with unbeaten TCU, the Mountain West game of the year and a must-see college football event. No one’s saying that coach Kyle Whittingham will preside over a train wreck this weekend, at least not a disaster that will dent the loss column for the latest Ute movement to sweep through the Great Salt Lake. Utah has steadily gotten better over the course of the 2010 regular season, and it stands to reason that this game won’t be a white-knuckle special that will make hearts palpitate deep into the fourth quarter.

Yet, if Colorado State does make this game competitive and injects some drama into the proceedings, don’t be completely shocked. Quietly but genuinely, the boys from Fort Collins, Colorado, have gone about the business of improving themselves on a weekly basis.
October’s been a modestly encouraging month for CSU. The Rams began the month by limiting the aforementioned TCU Horned Frogs to just six first-half points. The next week, the Rams still got whacked at Air Force, but they scored what – at the time – was their second-highest amount of points in 2010, bowing to the Falcons by a 49-27 count.

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Then, last weekend, came the breakout performance everyone in Fort Collins had been waiting for. Colorado State quarterback Pete Thomas threw for 233 yards and three touchdowns as the Rams ended a 10-game conference losing streak with a 43-10 victory over UNLV. Thomas was 10 for 14 passing without an interception for coach Steve Fairchild’s club. CSU running back Leonard Mason romped for 121 yards and a score as the Rams beat a conference foe for the first time since beating Wyoming on Nov. 22, 2008. Colorado State nose guard Guy Miller also broke a school record with 4.5 sacks. Sure, UNLV isn’t great shakes, but the ability to lay down a 33-point smackdown on any Mountain West opponent is darn impressive for the Rams, given where they were at the beginning of this season.

In September, Colorado State was petrified with fright, as the Rams lost a pair of 21-point games to decidedly mediocre teams, Colorado (24-3) and Miami of Ohio (31-10). CSU scored a total of just 19 points in its first three games combined, and the entirety of this season looked like one torturous trail of tears. Now, CSU looks like a real, living, breathing football team. Utah might still crush the Rams, but Colorado State has a fighting chance of making this game somewhat competitive.

We’ll see how far Colorado State has come. Utah might be the best team in the Mountain West this season, and there’s no better way of gauging your progress than by taking on the biggest boy at the table.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer