FORT COLLINS — Colorado State bowed out of the Mountain West Conference on Friday with its 10th loss of the season and the distinction of having the program’s worst record in almost 40 years.
The Rams lost to Air Force, 42-21, at Canvas Stadium — surrendering the Ram-Falcon trophy back to the visitors with no clear timeline for when it might make another appearance in Fort Collins. The Rams and Falcons aren’t scheduled to play again once CSU leaves for the Pac-12 Conference and the Falcons remain in the Mountain West next year.
The last time the Rams had a worse record than the 2-10 mark they finished with this season was in 1988, when the team went 1-10.
“Disappointing is a nice way of saying it,” CSU interim head coach Tyson Summers said. “Frustrating is too. It’s been hard. Any time you go through things that are hard, you’re able to find ways to balance being able to find strengths and continue to grow. And I think you’re going to see so much maturity out of these kids.”
Summers, who had been the Rams’ interim head coach since Jay Norvell was fired Oct. 19, led the team onto the field for the last time. CSU has hired Jim Mora to be its next head coach. Mora will be introduced Monday at Canvas Stadium.
First, however, the Rams wanted to go out on a positive note. While there were some positive moments against the Falcons, the result was the same as it was in nine of the Rams’ previous 11 games.
CSU trailed 21-7 coming out of halftime but scored on its first possession of the second half to cut Air Force’s lead to 21-14.
Lloyd Avant scored from 5 yards out with 11:19 left in the third quarter to make it a one-possession game again. That would be as close as the Rams would get, as the Falcons answered right back on their next drive.
With 5:37 left in the third period, Josh Johnson scored on a 3-yard run to push the Air Force lead back to two possessions at 28-14. Early in the fourth quarter, the Falcons scored again on a 6-yard pass from Johnson to Bruin Fleischmann to make it 35-14 with 9:09 left.
CSU did score one more time, on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Jackson Brousseau to Rocky Beers with 6:51 remaining. It was Beers’ seventh touchdown of the season, a single-season program record for touchdown receptions by a tight end.
“Once people caught wind that I was in striking distance of a record, they were really pushing me forward and rallying in my corner,” Beers said. “When coach (Grant) Chesnut became the OC and was kind of force-feeding me at some points of the season, I was just trying to do as much as I could for this team.”
Air Force added one more touchdown on a 7-yard run by Owen Allen, his second of the game.
The Falcons scored twice in the first quarter to take a 14-0 lead after the opening period.
On fourth-and-3 at their own 45, Johnson completed a 55-yard touchdown pass to Fleischmann to give the Falcons a 7-0 lead. Allen then scored on a 6-yard run to push Air Force’s lead to 14-0.
The Rams scored their first touchdown early in the second quarter to cut the Falcons’ lead to 14-7. Tay Lanier scored on a 20-yard reception from Brousseau with 8:48 left in the first half.
Just before halftime, however, the Falcons pushed their lead back to 14. Kemper Hodges ran one in from a yard out with 14 seconds remaining to give Air Force a 21-7 lead going into the break.
Although the Rams got within striking distance again in the second half, Air Force (4-8) was able to hold them off enough, eventually ending CSU’s Mountain West run with a loss and taking the rivalry trophy back to the base.
Through the all the adversity the team went through this season, from season-ending injuries to a mid-season coaching change and multiple offensive play callers, to athletes leaving the team before Friday’s conclusion, the players were proud of the way they persevered through it all.
“Obviously nothing really went our way this year,” CSU linebacker Owen Long said. “This is not how we intended the season to go, but something that stood out to me was we had a locker room full of guys that never really gave up and came to work every day with the same mindset. That’s something I’m proud of and something I know we are all proud of.”