Colorado State University Athletics
CSU spring football blog: Practice 13
4/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 20, 2010
Check news archives for previous practice blogs
By Andrew Woerpel
Athletic Media Relations
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The Rams practiced with heavy hearts Tuesday, just eight hours after word spread of CSU All-American and Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor’s death.
The offense wasn’t as sharp as it was in Friday’s practice, making what Head Coach Steve Fairchild would call sloppy mistakes.
“We just didn’t have any emotion offensively,” Fairchild said. “We are a little bit young there. We have a young line and a young quarterback; they tried to come out and walk through the practice, so we started it over a bunch. They just have to have that edge and we haven’t learned that quite yet. We aren’t as experienced in the green shirts as we need to be.”
Both freshman quarterbacks, Pete Thomas and Nico Ranieri, made some big plays but also looked like freshmen at times, making some mistakes. Each quarterback showed off his arm strength as both connected on passes of over 50 yards, Ranieri to Byron Steele for a 55-yard TD and Thomas to Tyson Liggett on a 52-yard TD.
Both youngsters took snaps with the first and second teams, but Thomas primarily ran with the ones, and Ranieri with the twos.
Fairchild gave his impressions on the quarterbacks after practice.
“I wish, as always, that we had a guy that was in the program for three years and has been in the same system, like a Moses Moreno or a Matt Newton, that can bide their time and kind of know what we want, but that is not the luxury we have right now. These two guys are the best candidates right now, and just like the rest of our football team, they have to keep getting better. But, we have a long time; we have all summer and all fall camp and they have been working hard so I think we will get them game-ready.”
Steele had a few highlight plays on the day, with the biggest coming during a live hitting period as he made a spectacular one-handed grab on a seam route up the middle with the ball literally sticking to his hand as if he had super glue in his palm.
Defensively, the Rams brought the thunder once again, especially during the live hitting periods. The defense thrives on those periods as it is usually the only time those players get to let the offense know they are there waiting for them. The highlight play of the day on the defensive side came in the first live period as freshman Immanuel Mitchell took running back Chris Nwoke (pronounced WOH-kay) off his feet as he tried to make a crossing-pattern catch. Nwoke was dazed for a few minutes and stayed on the field for a little while, causing the trainers to come out and take a look at him. Nwoke would be fine, however, and left the field on his own without any help, returning to practice.
Live scrimmage highlights: The live scrimmage was broken up into three periods that took place with a combined score. Thomas opened up the first live portion, which was completely dominated by the defense and was highlighted by a James Skelton sack on Ranieri and a group sack lead by Broderick Sargent.
Thomas would get a little revenge during the second portion as he completed three straight passes, to Raymond Carter, Lou Greenwood and Zac Pauga, leading to a first down. Ranieri would relieve Thomas, creating quite the crazy play a few snaps later as he scrambled out of the pocket and completed an 18-yard pass to Cameron Moss, who made a gorgeous one-handed snag on the sideline before being pushed out of bounds. Eugene Daniels, who was back in practice wearing a protective cast over his broken wrist, had a sack on Thomas a few snaps later, giving the defense the advantage on the scoreboard, 12-6.
The final live period would prove to be a dog fight as the offense and defense were neck and neck throughout on the scoreboard. The period began with a 4-yard handoff to Pauga followed by a couple of no-gains by Nwoke and Carter. Thomas would break it open with a 20-yard completion to T.J. Borcky, pulling the offense within four, 14-10. Ranieri would come in once again and complete a 32-yard pass to Steele, followed by a fantastic 50-yard TD pass to Matt Yemm, chipping away at the defense’s lead, pulling the offense within two points at 18-16. Defensive end C.J. James would bring the offense back to reality, however, as he tackled John Mosure for a loss of 3 yards, putting the defense ahead, 20 -17. The offense showed some resiliency, with a Leonard Mason run eventually tying the score at 20-20. Mason then put the dagger in the defense, capping off the live period with an 11-yard gain, giving the offense its first lead and a victory, 22-21.
Other practice notes: The softball team held a moment of silence for McGregor, who passed away Tuesday, as it was hosting Northern Colorado near the football practice fields…CSU’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority held a candlelight vigil on the CSU Oval Tuesday night; McGregor’s daughter, Jordan, is a member of the sorority…Jordan and sophomore defensive lineman Ben Tedford, who was not at practice Tuesday, returned to the Metro Area earlier in the day to be with their families; Tedford is McGregor’s godson…Redshirt freshman safety Ezra Thompson (head) was back in pads wearing a red jersey and not taking any contact, but did participate in seven-on-seven drills…Approximately 1,000 kids from the region were at Moby Arena after practice to greet football players and every other student-athlete at the annual Ram Jam, CSU’s largest community outreach; Ricky Brewer addressed the kids at the beginning of the evening…CSU’s players also took time after practice to meet with about 25 kids and their families from Respite Care...Brandon Owens has been excused from practices this week due to a death in his family.
Fairchild on McGregor: “I was shocked; it’s awful news. Keli is a friend of our program, obviously, and he personally knew some of the guys on our staff. I was just getting to be good friends with Keli and I appreciated the time he had spent with me. It is just a terrible thing and my heart goes out to his wife and kids.
“This is going to touch not only Keli’s family and the Rockies, but this is going to touch a lot of people over a lot of generations here at Colorado State. It is just a very, very sad day.
“Keli was Ben Tedford’s Godfather; Dan Hammershmidt and Tom Ehlers and those guys all played with Keli and I knew Keli. He just transcends a lot of people that have gone through this university, so it is a sad day for a lot of people.”
Fairchild on his former Rams eligible for this week’s NFL Draft: “It interests me for a couple reasons. One, I have been a part of those things and know how they work, so it interests me. Secondly, we have some guys on our team that played for us and you would like to see something good happen to them. I just hope they get an opportunity; we had some guys on our team last year that worked very hard and deserve an opportunity.”
Speaking of drafts: Fairchild confirmed that the Rams will in fact hold a spring game Saturday, and the team will conduct a draft of its own Wednesday afternoon. Designated senior captains will select groups of positions. The Rams will wear their game jerseys for the Green & Gold Game. CSURams.com is expected to have draft results Wednesday. Larry Kerr will head one team while Pat Meyer will take the other. Fairchild will serve as commissioner.
