Before the Colorado State football team enters a new era with a new head coach in a new conference next fall, the Rams must conclude a few of them.
Friday’s game against Air Force will not only be the Rams’ final game in the Mountain West Conference before they head to the Pac-12, but it will be the last battle for the Ram-Falcon Trophy for the foreseeable future, too.
It will also be the last game with interim head coach Tyson Summers leading the team, as CSU has hired Jim Mora to be the program’s 25th head coach.
Before Summers turns over the team, he hopes the Rams can end a season full of adversity on a positive note in a high-profile rivalry game.
“Obviously it’s a big game with Air Force, a rival, in-state opponent,” Summers said. “It is a big game for both schools. I don’t know the next time we’ll play them is. It’s been a long history there between the two schools.”
The Rams began to face adversity early in the season, when injuries began to mount among players the team expected to be big contributors.
Defensive lineman Mukendi Wa-Kalonji, linebacker JaQues Evans and offensive lineman Tanner Morley were all voted as captains at the beginning of the season, and all had their seasons end due to injury.
Also suffering season-ending injuries were defensive lineman Gabe Jones, tight end Jaxxon Warren and defensive back AJ Noland.
Then there was the quarterback carousel.
Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, with two years of experience as the team’s quarterback was benched and replaced by Jackson Brousseau before the halfway point of the season. Fowler-Nicolosi later left the team completely.
Brousseau was hurt against New Mexico on Nov. 15 and was replaced by Darius Curry. Curry is suspended for the game against the Falcons for spitting on a Boise State player during last week’s game.
Between Fowler-Nicolosi’s benching and Brousseau’s injury, the team fired head coach Jay Norvell and made Summers, the defensive coordinator, the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
The Rams have yet to win a game with Summers leading them.
“I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to try to do over the course of the last season, but particularly the last four or five or six weeks,” he said. “I say that to say that I’ve tried to make every decision that I could based on the young men that are in that locker room and the staff that we have.
“I think having all those situations that are difficult and challenging, where maybe you don’t trust yourself, maybe you don’t trust certain things, I think having gone through those periods of times has given me the strength and the opportunities to handle this the best way that I could.”
Now the Rams will close several chapters while preparing to begin new ones in the coming weeks.
First, however, Summers and his team hope to end the season still in possession of one rivalry trophy.
Scouting the Falcons
Air Force enters Friday’s contest with a 3-8 overall record and a 2-5 mark in the Mountain West. The Falcons have lost their past two games, 26-6 to UConn on Nov. 15 and 20-3 to New Mexico last Saturday.
Offensively, the Falcons are led by quarterback Liam Szarka, who has rushed for 922 yards and 13 touchdowns while passing for 1,294 yards and nine touchdowns. However, he did not play last week against New Mexico. Josh Johnson, Kemper Hodges and Quin Smith all saw time at quarterback against the Lobos. Air Force has three running backs with at least 300 yards, led by Owen Allen, who has rushed for 643 yards and three touchdows.
Blake Fletcher leads the Falcons’ defense with 103 tackles and one tackle for loss. Isaac Hubert has five sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss, while Max Mustell has three interceptions.
Air Force leads the all-time series between the teams 39-22-1. CSU broke a seven-game losing streak to the Falcons with last year’s 21-13 victory at the Academy. The Rams have never defeated Air Force at Canvas Stadium, as the Falcons have won all four games the teams have played at CSU’s current home.
Injury report
CSU has 24 players listed on the first availability report ahead of Friday’s game. Thirteen of those are out for the season, 10 are out for the game, and one is questionable.
The lone questionable player is Brousseau. If the quarterback can play, the Rams won’t have to employ their fourth starting quarterback this season. If he can’t, the most likely candidate to be the teams’ fourth starting QB this season is senior transfer Tahj Bullock.
For comparison of how hard the team has been hit by injuries, Air Force lists 10 players on its availability report with six of them being questionable, two out for the game and two out for the season.