Colorado State University Athletics
CSU offense edges defense in final spring scrimmage, 40-38
4/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 18, 2009
By Zak Gilbert
Athletic Media Relations
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Wideout Rashaun Greer turned an end-around run into a 52-yard touchdown and safety Klint Kubiak forced a goal-line turnover to highlight Colorado State’s final spring scrimmage Saturday at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium. The offense edged the defense, 40-38.
Greer, a 6-1, 203-pound senior out of North Las Vegas, Nev., took the ball in the Rams’ backfield, patiently followed his blockers at the point of attack, then flashed his speed in outracing several CSU defenders to the goal line, the longest play from scrimmage on the day.
Earlier in the competition, the all-Mountain West receiver also out leaped his defender and hauled in a 44-yard pass from Grant Stucker, down the left sideline, during a “thud” period.
During the 66 plays of live action, CSU also got big receptions from receivers Ryan Gardner, Tyson Liggett, Dion Morton, Marquise Law and Alex Johnson, whose clutch, 16-yard grab inside the red zone broke a 31-31 tie and gave the offense an important lead late in the scrimmage.
For Head Coach Steve Fairchild, the continued stellar play of his receivers was not a surprise.
“I’ve seen some guys step up,” he said. “Our receiver corps has kind of shown that they’re as deep as we thought.”
Defense not without big plays
Fairchild also saw his defense make several game-turning plays. Kubiak, a senior, set the tone early with the offense driving inside the defense’s 5-yard line. The leader of the CSU defense exploded into the backfield on a blitz to blow up Leonard Mason, forcing a fumble that was recovered by defensive lineman Ty Whittier.
Like the previous scrimmage, the hit of the day came from a defensive back, when cornerback DeAngelo Wilkinson blasted Morton over the middle, separating the receiver from a potential first-down reception. Earlier, fellow corner Marcus Shaw picked off Jon Eastman near the goal line, and linebacker James Skelton broke up a pass. And before the live portion of the scrimmage got underway, freshman linebacker Chris Gipson returned an interception 18 yards for an early touchdown during a thud period.
“We’re probably farther along defensively,” Fairchild said. “I like what we’re doing over there.”
The most animated coach at the end of the scrimmage was assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Larry Kerr, who argued unsuccessfully with a uniformed official for an apparent late interception, waved off as incomplete. That interception would’ve given the defense the points it needed to win the scrimmage. Coaches engineered the Rams’ scoring system to put an emphasis on intra-squad competition.
Quarterback race
For a second straight scrimmage, Stucker saw most of the work. The senior completed 15-of-28 passes for 150 yards, without a touchdown or INT. In addition to that critical pass to Johnson, Stucker also delivered a handful of accurate deep passes, and hit six of his last eight targets on the day.
Eastman struggled in limited work, connecting on just 2-of-7 for 30 yards, and throwing the Shaw interception.
Still, Fairchild said for the second consecutive season he would take the quarterback race into fall camp. Last year, without a solidified starter at the end of spring, Billy Farris wound up winning the job in August and leading the Rams to their first winning season since 2003. Farris, who like Stucker had not started a game prior to his senior year, passed for 2,934 yards, the fourth-most in CSU single season history.
The coach added that he thought Stucker had played better than Eastman during the spring, and that he’ll give Klay Kubiak, who missed the spring recovering from shoulder surgery, and incoming freshman Nico Ranieri, every opportunity to earn the role as the Rams’ regular-season starter.
Biggest surprise
During the first half of the scrimmage, John Mosure broke two tackles at the line of scrimmage, then accelerated through the secondary for a 28-yard run. Mason averaged 10.2 yards on five carries (51 yards), including a 32-yard burst. And freshmen Micheal Connor and Jonathan Gaye also had big runs.
But the running backs weren’t consistent and Fairchild said the area of his team that surprised him the most this spring was the lack of progress at that position.
Where was the storm?
Colorado State’s players and coaches woke up Saturday morning, like everyone else in northern Colorado, and saw that the threatening storm, about which forecasters had been raging the past 48 hours, never materialized.
That forecast led the university on Friday to cancel all festivities planned for CSU’s annual spring football finale, including a free community pancake breakfast and a Football Frenzy event for youth. But because the snow never arrived, the Rams went ahead with their scheduled scrimmage, in a light rain.
Kubiak puts on a clinic
The headline speaker of the two-day CSU coaches clinic, which annually runs in conjunction with the end of spring practice, was Houston Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak.
Kubiak flew in from Houston Friday night to see his sons Klint and Klay, both CSU players, and to speak at the clinic early Saturday morning. The coach said it was a welcome break from long and monotonous NFL Draft meetings, which had occupied his time over the last several months.
Fairchild was very grateful for the time Kubiak donated to CSU.
“He did a great job,” Fairchild said. “I want to publicly thank him. He did as good a job of speaking at a clinic as I’ve ever heard. He also took a few minutes to spend with our offensive coaches. He’s a class act. I can’t thank him enough. He was very gracious.”
One week left
Gartrell Johnson, who established an NCAA bowl record with 375 combined rushing and receiving yards in leading CSU to a New Mexico Bowl victory Dec. 20, was one of several former players on the sideline Saturday. Johnson, projected as a mid-to-late-round selection in next weekend’s NFL Draft, said he plans to spend the weekend with his family and friends in the Miami, Fla., area.
Injuries
Two players departed during the scrimmage with what Fairchild called serious injuries. First, defensive tackle Sevaro Johnson, a senior, sprained a knee. Then, only two plays later, tight end Norman Gee, also a senior, left with an ankle injury. Fairchild said each player would be re-evaluated this week.
Ram Jam, Superstars on docket this week
Despite holding their last major scrimmage of the spring, the Rams still have a busy week.
First, on Monday, the team expects to conduct its final spring practice. Saturday’s scrimmage was to have been the spring finale, but lightning on Thursday afternoon forced the team to reschedule. CSU will return to the Moby practice fields Monday for its 15th and final allowable spring session.
Tuesday, all the players will be on hand at Moby Arena for Ram Jam, the athletic department’s largest annual community outreach event. Doors open at 6 p.m. and admission and parking are free. Younger fans will have the chance to meet and greet with CSU student-athletes, get autographs and get their picture taken with CAM the Ram. The arena will be full of interactive games in an outstanding opportunity to experience Rams athletics up close. The first 850 kids will get a free Ram Jam T-shirt, popcorn, soda and a goodie bag.
Then, on Friday evening, the football team returns to Moby to host its annual Rams Superstars Competition.
Steve Fairchild post-scrimmage transcript
General: “It’s a lot like last Friday night. We come out here and flash signs of being a very good football team, and then there are periods where on both sides of the ball we’re just very inconsistent, making the types of mistakes that we haven’t done around here when we were a good team.
“We’ve got to clean some things up. We have one more practice. We’ll go on Monday, then we’ll get into our summer conditioning. When we come back in August, it’ll be interesting to see what type of step we take in terms of our consistency and doing things right all the time.
“We’ll have a pretty long, physical practice on Monday.”
On his assessment of the team at the conclusion of spring: “I think we’ve done some good things. We’re probably farther along defensively. I like what we’re doing over there. We kind of plateaued a little bit on the offensive line; I thought we’d keep coming there. We’ve got to take a step. That’s got to be a strength for us, just not a ‘good’ area. We started out that way but I thought we plateaued a little bit. We’ve got some concerns at running back. We haven’t had a running back play like he belongs here, so we’ll keep trying to develop that position.”
“The quarterback battle, we’ll take into August, but Grant’s probably played better this spring than Jon Eastman has. Our receiver group I said last Friday night took a step forward and that could be an area of strength for us; I liked what they’ve been doing the last few days. But, a lot like last year. We’ve got some areas we feel good about and areas we’ve got to improve in, and we’ve got to improve in a hurry.”
On injuries to Sevaro Johnson and Norman Gee: “We did a little work there in the goal line and Sev hurt a knee and it appears to be fairly serious, but you never know on those things, so we’ll see what they say about him. Then, Norm Gee with his ankle, he may have fractured it. I don’t think there’s any question he’ll be back in the summer, but both of them appear to be significant injuries.
“You take a chance when you live on the goal line, because you’re going to get 22 bodies in a close proximity, and they will fall on people, but again, you have to work. We have to do it at some point. This was the first time we’d gone live goal line.”
On whether there are other candidates for the starting quarterback: “I’m open to both (Nico) Ranieri and (Klay) Kubiak being the starter.”
On converted QB T.J. Borcky returning to quarterback: “Probably not. He’s having a good go of it at receiver; he’ll help us there.”
On the next step: “There’s definitely in college football an emphasis on summer conditioning and I think that’s where Colorado State at the tail end of Sonny’s (Lubick) career didn’t resource the way the other schools are. We’re headed back in that direction. We’ve got a lot more we have to do summer-school wise to get it right, but Paul (Kowalczyk) has helped and we’re headed in that direction. The NCAA limits what you can do in August, so once they did that, it was imperative to get guys in the proper shape. There’s just not enough time in August to get guys in shape. So they do a lot on their own in the summer and it’s very, very important. I don’t think it lessens spring ball at all, though. Spring ball, these 15 practices are precious and we’ve got to get everything we can out of every one of them.”
On players who drew attention this spring: “On the defensive side of the ball, we’ve had some guys step up. We’re still developing. On offense, our offensive line kind of tows us along sometimes, but things develop. As the season goes on, guys start to work into their roles, and every team’s different that way. Eventually, if it’s not a real tight group that trusts its leadership, you’re not going to have a very good football team. It’s developing but we’ve got a ways to go, no question.”
On how much of his lineup is settled heading into the fall: “Two-thirds maybe, but like we’ve always said, we preach to our kids around here that just because you have a starting job, every day’s a job interview. If you don’t come out and practice well, we’ll put somebody else in there.”
On wet conditions Saturday: “I didn’t see a whole lot of slipping out there. The ball was dry most of the time. I thought we got a lot done. We obviously have to improve, but we got some work done.”
On having the use of CSU’s indoor practice facility, opening this fall, on a day like Saturday: “Not so much on a day like today. We probably would’ve come out here anyway, because it wasn’t raining too hard. It’s those days when the lightning, right in the middle of practice, takes you off the field for a half hour. That seems to happen quite a bit in August, and it happened on Thursday. The rain didn’t stop us from practicing on Thursday. The lighting thing goes off and you’re not allowed on the field. So, it’ll help in that regard. And then, obviously, you had that one bowl practice and it was 4 degrees, and they probably would’ve gone inside that day. It’ll be nice to have. It’ll certainly be something we use quite a bit. “
On developing depth with younger players: “I’ve seen some guys step up. Our receiver corps has kind of shown that they’re as deep as we thought. We need to develop some offensive linemen in a hurry. We really do. We need some help there. And obviously, you want to keep developing defensive linemen because you’re always going to have a rotation. I like some of our young guys; we’ve just got a lot of work to do.”
On where CSU ranks entering the summer: “We’re certainly not a top team. That’s for sure. We’ve got some things we’ve got to do to prove we belong up there with the top group. But as long as we keep getting better, we’ll close the gap.”
On the Mountain West race: “I really don’t know who’s got what coming back. We’ll do some summer studies on people. I’m more concerned with our group right now.”
On surprises of the spring: “We’re farther away at running back than I would’ve thought. We’re farther away from being where we need to be, than where I thought we’d be. I’ve got a couple freshmen backs and they might be the front-runners. Somebody’s got to prove they can do it, and I’m waiting to see.
On Monday’s final spring practice: “We’ll get done what we had planned for Thursday.
On the Hughes Stadium atmosphere without the traditional activities and crowd surrounding the spring game: “It would’ve been nice. On a nice day, we would’ve gotten a lot more people out. It’s kind of fun, but I’m more interested in getting the work done that we got done, so it’s good that we were able to get it in.”
On Houston Texans Head Coach Gary Kubiak, who spoke at CSU’s coaches clinic: “He did a great job. I want to publicly thank him. He did as good a job of speaking at a clinic as I’ve ever heard. He also took a few minutes to spend with our offensive coaches. He’s a class act. I can’t thank him enough. He was very gracious.”
