Colorado State University Athletics
#NextLevelRams: Super Bowl update
1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Former Colorado State linebacker Shaquil Barrett will represent the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7, adding to a long list of #NextLevelRams who have played on professional football’s biggest stage. In addition to Barrett, CSU has several other connections to Super Bowl 50:
Shaquil Barrett – After going undrafted in 2014, Barrett spent last fall on the Broncos practice squad. He earned a roster spot in 2015 after grading higher than all outside linebackers during the preseason, according to Pro Football Focus. He has played in 16 games and earned six starts for Denver in 2015, recording 50 tackles, 5.5 sacks and four forced fumbles. He had nine tackles, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble during his first career start, Oct. 18 at Cleveland. The 2013 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year finished his three-year CSU career ranked seventh in school history with 18.0 career sacks, in addition to 246 tackles, three interceptions, seven forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries. He is best remembered for causing and recovering a Washington State fumble in the final minutes of the 2013 New Mexico Bowl, helping CSU score 18 points in the final 2:52 to win the game. That year he ranked fifth in the NCAA FBS with 12.0 sacks and set a MW record with 20.5 tackles for loss.
Ty Sambrailo – Sambrailo was a second-round pick by the Broncos in the 2015 NFL Draft and started the team’s first three games at left tackle before injuring his shoulder and being placed on injured reserve. The two-time All-Mountain West offensive lineman started 42 career games, helping the Rams to back-to-back bowl appearances. As a season captain in 2014, he blocked for a 4,000-yard passer and 1,200-yard rusher, and CSU set school records for yards-per-game average (480.9), touchdown passes (33) and yards in a single game (698 vs. New Mexico). A year prior, he blocked for an offense that totaled 500 yards eight times and a running back that set school records for single-season touchdowns and rushing yards.
Kapri Bibbs – Bibbs is in his second season on the Broncos practice squad. He spent one week on the active roster in 2015, making his NFL debut Oct. 18, 2015 at Cleveland. In his one season on the field with the Rams, Bibbs rewrote CSU’s record books by rushing for a school-record 1,741 yards in 2013, including two of the top three single-game rushing totals. His 31 rushing touchdowns were not only a school record (surpassing the previous mark by 10) but also made him the third running back in NCAA history – joining Barry Sanders and Montee Ball – to rush for 30 touchdowns in a season.
Rick Dennison – Following a nine-year NFL career that included three Super Bowl appearances with the Broncos, Dennison is now in his first season as Denver’s offensive coordinator. He previously spent 15 seasons as an assistant with the Broncos – including both Super Bowl titles – and four seasons with the Houston Texans and one with the Baltimore Ravens. The Rocky Mountain High School standout was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starting tight end for the Rams (1976-79). In addition to his play on the field, Dennison was an Academic All-American as a senior and later received his master’s degree in engineering. He was inducted into the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996.
Ray Jackson – Today, Jackson is in his first season as the Broncos’ director of player development where he spearheads the club’s off-the-field training and education for players through various club and league-supported initiatives. He previously spent 10 seasons in the same position with the Pittsburgh Steelers following a six-year NFL career with Buffalo and Cleveland. Coming out of CSU, he was a fifth-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 1996 NFL Draft. The CSU Athletics Hall of Famer (Class of 2011) graduated from CSU as the school’s all-time leader in career interceptions (20), and as a senior in 1995 was named first-team All-WAC, in addition to being a member of the prestigious AFCA Good Works Team. The Rams won back-to-back WAC titles in 1994 and 1995.
James Cregg – He is now in his second season as the Broncos’ assistant offensive line coach. Previously, he was the offensive line coach at USC for four seasons and has also spent time at Tennessee and with the Oakland Raiders. An All-WAC offensive lineman in 1995, Cregg followed his four-year playing career (1992-95) with three seasons as a graduate assistant for the Rams (1997-99). Cregg was part of two Holiday Bowls and WAC championships as a player, in addition to two more bowl appearances and a pair of conference titles as a GA. As a junior in 1994, CSU was ranked as high as No. 10 nationally.
Marc Lubick – He is now in his first season as the Broncos’ assistant wide receivers coach after also spending time with Vanderbilt and the Houston Texans. The son of legendary CSU football coach Sonny Lubick, Marc spent seven seasons in Fort Collins. He was a student-assistant from 2000-01 before being promoted to an academic graduate assistant in 2002. After two seasons with the St. Louis Rams, Lubick returned to Fort Collins, serving as the team’s wide receivers coach from 2005-07 and tight ends coach from 2008-09.
Additionally, Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak is the father of two former Rams. Klint Kubiak (2005-09) was a standout safety who recorded 187 career tackles, three interceptions and was part of five fumbles; Klay Kubiak (2007-10) was a backup quarterback who completed 19-of-37 career passes for 252 yards.
By the numbers:
- Prior to this season, 19 former Rams players have made 37 appearances in the Super Bowl or league title game (Super Bowl I was held in 1966; prior to that, several Rams played in the NFL or AFL title games).
- A former Rams player has won a pro football championship 16 times.
- The first title game that a Ram was represented in was 1952 (Jack Christiansen, Jim David and Fum McGraw all played for the champion Detroit Lions). The Lions would play in three consecutive title games – winning in 1952 and 1953 – with Christiansen, David and McGraw playing in all three. Christiansen and David helped the Lions to a third title in 1957.
- In addition to Christiansen and David’s four appearances, several Rams have appeared in three championship games: Rick Dennison, Clark Haggans, Fum McGraw and Oscar Reed.
- Randy Beverly helped the New York Jets to a Super Bowl championship in 1968, during the third-ever Super Bowl.
- The last Ram to play in the Super Bowl was Clark Haggans, in 2012 (San Francisco 49ers). A year later, Joel Dreessen was on the Denver Broncos’ active roster, but did not play in the game.
- The most-recent Rams to win a Super Bowl title were Clark Haggans and Joey Porter in 2005 (Pittsburgh Steelers). That year, the Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks, which had John Howell on the roster. Howell also won a Super Bowl in 2002 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
