Colorado State NCAA 12 Dynasty - arotwlv's Dynasty

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Colorado State NCAA 12 Dynasty

Posted on August 11, 2011 at 09:57 PM.

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Mid-season report for CSU Rams

It couldn't get any worse for the Colorado State Rams. The final two contests of the 2010 campaign were as low as it can get for any college football program trying to make its way up the pecking order on the gridiron. Last November was an unmitigated disaster in Fort Collins. The Rams were outscored 93-10 in the final two contests, losing in blowout fashion to mediocre BYU and rival Wyoming in consecutive weeks.

The 2010 defense was just atrocious for a program that, in 2008, won the New Mexico Bowl and had seemingly put itself on firm footing. Surrendering nearly 35 points per game this past season, the Rams were out of most games before halftime. Jason Graves, a Second Team All-MWC performer from 2010, returned and has hoped to play at a higher level to help the Rams get defensive stands in 2011. Surprisingly, defensive coordinator Larry Kerr was retained for the upcoming campaign. Head coach Steve Fairchild had moved his defensive staff around and gone exclusively to the 3-4 scheme in hopes of getting better results. This did not turn out how he had wanted. The end result wasn't only a loss on the schedule, but a loss of a head coach after just the second game.

In stepped Johnny Fudd. John was raised in Michigan and attended the University of Michigan. After an offensive cordinator gig at Western Michigan, Johnny Fudd was given the chance to coach his own team. He was given the job of turning around a pretty bad team with many problems. His task was to take over the Colorado State Rams from the Mountain West Conference. He stepped in midseason after the second game of the season. CSU had no recent success in the last 2 years. Out came Steve Fairchild and in came Johnny.

The first game was quite a shocker for many Colorado natives. The game featured an instate rivarlry against Colorado and Colorado State. Colorado lost a tight game to much improved Hawaii squad earlier in the week. Colorado State was coming off a loss to Fresno State and a recent head coaching change. The game got ugly and it stayed ugly. Colorado State's offense showed too much power for Colorado's defense. It was a blowout apart from a 14 point 4th quater from Colorado. Jason Atkins was the star of the show with 9 catches for 102 yars as TE. The final score was 35-17. At the time it wasn't thought of too much for the CSU rams, but now it means so much more. After that lost Colorado has gone on to 4-0 since then and beat some pretty good teams you could say. The Buffulo's upset the defending Sugar Bowl champs, Ohio State Buckeyes. OSU was ranked 16 at the time. Then the Colorado Buffulos pulled a huge upset the 3rd ranked team in the country! Andrew Luck and Standford lost in a BLOWOUT to Colorado. This wasn't seen by anyone. Turns out this win by CSU is a pretty big deal. The next stop for the rams was a tough game against Nevada.

After a pretty good upset win to start off coach Fudd's carrer; next came a winless Nevada team. It was a shootout from begining to end. The teams combined to score 79 points. It was lead by Nevada's defense for most of the game. The team returned an interception AND a fumble for a touchdown. Many mistakes were made by CSU's quaterbacks. One thing that didn't help the rams was that starter Mike Stevenson was knocked out very early in the game. The game saw all 3 of the quaterbacks that the rams brought. It was a very injury fested game for CSU. Shawn Jenkins, backup QB for the rams, didn't have a game to be proud of. He threw 2 TD's but also 4 Int's to go along with it. He went 19-41 but was able to score a rushing touchdown. The game came down to the only score in the 4th quater. A goal line rushing TD by Bill Odem from CSU. It put them up by 1 point and were able to hold on. CSU improved to 3-1 on the season. One bright spot for Colorado State is a recent roster change.

James Graves has been one of the biggest bright spots for the rams. He is CSU's impact SS and now leading deep WR threat. His first game ever at WR he scored 3 TD's and had 354 yards on a team high 11 catches. Jason Atkins, the league leading recieving TE, was out of the mix for the most part of the game. He had a season low 1 catch for 14 yards. Next up was a tough test against undefeted UTEP.

UTEP had found new success by starting 5-0. With CSU's early season success, this game was gaining some good hype for once. That hype didn't last long for it was nothing but another blowout by the rising rams. Colorado State Rams started out fast, and stayed fast. They scored 38 points in the first 3 quaters of the game and ending with a season high 45. Their defense had a better outing while allowing only 24 points. Mike Stevenson for CSU had a carrer day with 349 yards passing while completing 16 time on 23 attempts. He also had a career high 5 TD passes with non going to the other team. Bill Odom had yet another big game with 140 yards with 1 TD. Jason Atkins was once again on top of the catches with 5 after a dissapointing game at Nevada. He also brought in 2 scores himself. The star though was once again James Graves. He had yet another 200 yard game. He had 4 catches that went for 234 yards with 2 TD's and bringing a NCAA long 92 yard reception with 2 ticks left in the second quarter. This was preceded on a gutsy call for a fair catch on the kick off from the UTEP TD before. The next test is against #6 ranked Boise State at their almost unbeatable Blue Turf.

This game involves to potent offenses and stingy defenses. In all fairness though, Boise State is the huge favorite with their number 1 scoring offense in the nation. Al Schneider leads Boise against impact player, on both sides of the ball, James Graves. Al has 18 TD's with only 9 INT's and throwing for 1550 yards in only 5 games. James Graves has averaged 244 yards in his 2 game at WR while also bringing in 5 TD's. Boise State has Colorado State in every statistical catagory except for rush defense. Even agains the odds, Johnny Fudd expects nothing less that a win. After this tough test, CSU's schedule is up and down from here. The game is CSU's first nationally televised games in in a very long time which take place at 12:30pm

Colorado State's schedule is really bumpy after the tough Boise State game. The next 2 games are fairly easy game against a Wyoming game and UNLV. Wyoming features the 5th worst passing defense, 12th worst total defense and the 6the worst rush offense in the whole nation. UNLV is led by the nations leading interception leader with 30 in only 6 games! After that is a tough test that could possibly determine the MWC-East champion. The game is against Houston which has the top pass offense in the nation and the 4the best scoring offense in the nation. Also they have the 2nd best total offense in the nation. It'll be a huge test against the 50th best defense. Following that is an easy game against a weak New Mexico squad. To end the season are 2 tough tests away against currently ranked opponents. The frirst wouldld be the defending Rose Bowl champions, TCU. Last would be a much improved Air Force team that's ranked for the first time in a long time. This leads into the MWC championship game that CSU hopes to be a part of.

Johnny Fudd's has stepped into a messy situation at CSU and has turned it into one of the early feel good stories of the year. Undefeted in his first 3 games and hoping to build on it. He has brought big expectations to his team and has already lived up to more than expected for the whole season while only 5 games into the season. New found star Jason Atkins at TE and SS turned WR James Graves have been the best players early in the season. James Graves is leading the nation in yards per game at 244 and 32.5 yards per catch. Jason Atkins is the leading recieving TE in the MWC by leading with 27 catches and 5 TD's. Led by a high scoring offense, and a tough, but sometimes bonehad defense, CSU is here to stay and return the good o'l glory days.

Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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