Two weeks from now, the Colorado State football team will be in the early stages of fall camp preparing for the 2025 season, the fourth under head coach Jay Norvell.
CSU is coming off an 8-5 season in which the Rams went 6-1 in the Mountain West Conference and played in their first bowl game since 2017. They lost to Miami (Ohio) in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl, 43-17.
The Rams’ first four games of the 2025 season feature a trio of home contests after a season-opening trip to Washington, including a showdown with an in-state rival at Canvas Stadium in Week 2 and a game against a future conference opponent in Week 5.
This is the first in a three-part series profiling Colorado State’s 2025 opponents. This first installment focuses on the Rams’ four nonconference opponents.
Aug. 30, at Washington, 9 p.m., in Seattle
CSU will open its season on the road at Washington. The Huskies went 6-7 last season, earning a bid to the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, which they lost, 35-34, to Louisville.
Two years removed from playing in the national championship game, Jedd Fisch enters his second season as the team’s head coach. After finishing the regular season last year with a .500 record, Washington is expected to be better in 2025.
Offensively, the Huskies are led by sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who passed for 944 yards, eight touchdowns and just one interception while rushing for 282 yards and two scores on 83 carries last season. Denzel Boston is back at wide receiver after leading the team with nine touchdowns. Jonah Coleman returns at running back where he rushed for 1,053 yards and 10 touchdowns last year.
Defensively, the Huskies have a new coordinator this season in Ryan Walters, a former Purdue head coach and defensive coordinator at Illinois and Missouri. Washington’s defensive strength will be its inside linebacker corps, which is made up of mostly transfers. Taariq Al-Uqdah had 116 tackles and four interceptions over the past two seasons at Washington State. Xe’ree Alexander made 68 tackles with six tackles for loss last season for UCF, and Jacob Manu had 116 stops, 6.5 sacks, and 10 tackles for loss for Arizona in 2023 and is getting over a knee injury.
This will be the first-ever meeting between the Rams and Huskies.
Sept. 6 vs. Northern Colorado, TBA, at Canvas Stadium
CSU will play its first home game of the season against Northern Colorado for the second year in a row. The Rams won last year’s meeting, 38-17.
Ed Lamb enters his third season as head coach of the Bears. UNC has gone a combined 1-22 in Lamb’s first two seasons in Greeley. His only win with the program came last season when the Bears defeated Weber State, 21-17.
The Bears offense is led by a pair of returning receivers. Carver Cheeks caught 20 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns last season while Brayden Munroe had 37 catches for 477 yards and three touchdowns. Cheeks entered the transfer portal but eventually decided to return to Greeley for another year. Peter Costelli will lead the team at quarterback where he passed for 591 yards and four touchdowns in five games last season.
Defensively, UNC returns a big contributor on that side of the ball in defensive back Cam Chapa. Chapa registered 83 tackles, two tackles for loss and four interceptions last season. Defensive lineman Ezra Ekuban also returns after finishing last season with 18 tackles, five tackles for loss, three sacks and one fumble recovery.
This will be the 23rd meeting between the two schools, who first faced each other in 1899. Last year’s contest was the first time since 2016 that they played. CSU leads the all-time series 21-0-1.
Sept. 20 vs. UTSA, TBA, at Canvas Stadium
After its first bye week of the season, CSU will play its second home game against UTSA. The Roadrunners and Rams haven’t faced each other in almost 10 years.
In head coach Jeff Traylor’s fifth season, UTSA went 6-6 in the regular season last year. After starting the season 3-5, they went 3-1 over their final four games to qualify for a bowl game. They defeated Coastal Carolina, 44-15, in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
Quarterback Owen McCown returns to lead the Roadrunners’ offense. He passed for 3,424 yards and 25 touchdowns last season. Five of UTSA’s top six receivers from last year also return, led by Willie McCoy, who caught 28 passes for 536 yards and four touchdowns. Robert Henry Jr. returns at running back after rushing for 706 yards and seven touchdowns a year ago.
Defensively, the Roadrunners allowed more than 30 points per game, but the unit has gone through an overhaul in the offseason, mostly through the transfer portal. One of the team’s top returners on defense is linebacker Owen Pewee, who had 42 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and two interceptions last year. Jermarius Lewis returns in the secondary where he had 28 tackles and an interception last season.
CSU and UTSA have only met twice before. The Rams won both of those contests — a 33-31 win in San Antonio in 2015 and a 23-14 victory in Fort Collins in 2016.
Sept. 27 vs. Washington State, 5:30 p.m., at Canvas Stadium
CSU will close out nonconference play against future Pac-12 opponent Washington State in their third of three straight games at Canvas Stadium.
Under first-year head coach Jimmy Rogers, the Cougars are coming off an 8-5 season a year ago. Despite losing their last three regular-season games — to New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming — they appeared in the DirecTV Holiday Bowl, where they lost to Syracuse, 52-35.
The Cougars lost quarterback John Mateer to the transfer portal, so their top returning signal caller is Zevi Eckhaus, who threw for 424 yards and four touchdowns in three games. Josh Meredith is the team’s top returning receiver after finishing third on the team with 39 catches for 472 yards last year. After their leading rusher transferred, the Cougars have a pair of incoming transfers from South Dakota State they will rely on.
Defensively, most of Washington State’s returners are linebackers. Keith Brown made 26 tackles as a backup while Parker McKenna made 39 tackles. The Cougars added some high-profile transfers at that position as well, led by Caleb Franci from South Dakota State, who made 78 tackles with 11 tackles for loss. Franci is one of several defensive players who came with new defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit from SDSU.
This is the fourth meeting all-time between the Rams and Cougars. CSU is 1-2 in the previous contests between the schools. They last meet in the 2023 season opener, which Washington State won, 50-24, at Canvas Stadium.
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