Colorado State University Athletics
Rams vote on season captains for 2014
12/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
For the third consecutive year, Colorado State had four game captains that rotated week-to-week. They changed weekly as players established themselves as leaders both on and off the field.
On Friday afternoon, the team and coaching staff recognized five student-athletes as captains for the season, selecting senior LB Aaron Davis, senior QB Garrett Grayson, senior LB Max Morgan, senior OL Ty Sambrailo and junior DB Trent Matthews.
“The team took a vote today and named those five young men as our captains,” interim head football coach Dave Baldwin said. “They’re all quality young men, most of them are seniors and they are what CSU’s been about: A great offensive lineman, a great quarterback, two starting linebackers and a starting safety. Those young men have bled green for us and it’s a special honor to announce them as the captains for the 2014 season and for the bowl game.”
Davis, a native of Los Alamitos, Calif., has a team-leading 110 tackles, including 6.5 tackles for loss, while making 12 starts for the Rams. Davis, who earned second-team All-Mountain West honors, has also recorded five pass breakups and forced one fumble. On the road at San Jose State, he picked off a Joe Gray pass as the Spartans were threatening to tie the game, to secure the victory for CSU.
Grayson, a Heisman Trophy Aspirant, was named Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year earlier this week. He has captured every career record in Colorado State history this season, and has already broken his own single-season records for passing yards (3,779) and passing touchdowns (32) with a bowl game remaining to be played. He ranks in the top seven among all FBS quarterbacks in 2014 in nearly every significant statistical category entering today’s games.
Grayson, who just accepted invitations to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Game, had arguably his best single-game performance against rival Wyoming on Oct. 25. The native of Vancouver, Wash., completed 18-of-21 passes for 390 yards and 5 touchdowns. He finished the game with a passing efficiency rating of 320.3, the highest by an FBS quarterback since 2006.
Morgan has been elected team captain for the second consecutive year. The native of Greeley, Colo., has registered 96 tackles, the second-most among CSU defenders, and has one interception. The Rams coaching staff considers Morgan the quarterback of the defense, calling the alignment and getting teammates in position.
Sambrailo, who will be joining Grayson at the Reese’s Senior Bowl, has played in 10 of 12 games for CSU, grading out above 90-percent in every contest. Sambrailo, one of the top tackles in the country, has well over 50 knockdown blocks on the season. He has helped lead the Rams to 497.8 yards of total offense per game, which is on pace to crush the previous CSU record.
Matthews, who has started all 37 games of his career, has recorded 51 tackles and has a team-high three interceptions. As impressive as Matthews has been on defense, he has blocked two kicks on the year. The two blocked kicks are tied for the seventh-most among FBS players.
