Defensive switch leads to Rams' blowout in 1999 Showdown

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This season marks the final time for the Rocky Mountain Showdown in Denver. During the next two weeks, we finish a five-week look back at some of the best Mile High moments for Colorado State in the rivalry.

Over the summer of 1999, Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick set out to change his defensive scheme a bit.

It's never been uncommon for programs to lift what's successful from another coach, even to go spend a week and learn from them. And at that time, one of his assistants, Chris Kiffin, had a father, Monte, who was running a rather interesting scheme in the NFL.

By the end of the first game of the 1999 schedule, the Rams' football program had a new way to attack, even if all reporters wanted to chat about was what happened after the Rams' 41-14 beat-down of Colorado.

Walking off the field, Lubick caught a glimpse of a little smoke, but didn't think much of it because he was riding a cloud of euphoria. See, the year before, he felt he had a pretty good team, and for most of the Rocky Mountain Showdown, the Rams were proving it. Then a flurry of mistakes broke the levy to a lopsided loss.

In the locker room, one stunned player was beside himself and wondered out loud to his coach if the Rams would ever beat the Buffs.

"That kinda stuck with me, and I thought the same thing," Lubick said. "Here we had a pretty good team, and we got beat 42-14."

In 1998, the Rams went 8-4. In the summer to follow, Lubick and his staff headed to Florida to spend some time with Monte Kiffin and learn the ins-and-outs of the Tampa 2 defense. In fall camp, they preached the gospel.

"That Tampa 2 defense was refreshing. Actually, the five years I was there, I feel like I played in three defenses," linebacker Rick Crowell said. "I think that Tampa 2 was a whole new wrinkle, and that's when it was getting popular. Having Chris Kiffin's father being the defensive coordinator at Tampa Bay and him being with us, it was an electrifying type of defense.

"We were definitely confident. That defense, as good as it is scheme wise, it was very simple. It was simple in a lot of ways as far as the base defense, and to add any wrinkle, it wasn't a big deal. It was a one-gap defense, and it opened us up to think less and read more."

In no time at all, Crowell and his defensive mates unleashed a wrath of horrors on Colorado's offense. He opened the scoring with a 54-yard interception return, and while he admits it gassed and hyped him to the point his next two series of college football were among his worst, the rest of the defense was on point.

The Rams intercepted four passes that day and recovered two fumbles. The six-turnover day was outdone only by the nine sacks and holding the Buffs to just 67 yards on the ground.

Colorado State enjoyed a 28-0 lead at halftime, and Lubick walked into the locker room and told his team if he saw as much as a smirk, he'd throw them out. All game, the defense would come and tell him Colorado didn't know what was hitting them, and he didn't want any part of any of feeling accomplished with a half to go.

No worries. His defense was having too much fun.

"Not at all. As fast as we scored 28, they could score 28," Crowell said. "He didn't want us to get complacent and ease up. There was no way anybody was going to ease up, beating CU by that much. All the years I was there, we never got any respect. Even that year, especially against the Buffs, we wanted to pour it on as much as we could."

Kevin McDougal was on a mission himself, piling up 23 carries and churning out 190 yards and two touchdowns, and Matt Newton threw one long touchdown pass and scored on a short run, pushing the lead to 41-0 in the fourth quarter.

That defense opened the door to a heck of a run for the Rams. They won the Mountain West championship that season, and two more times in the next four, two of them 10-win campaigns.

"That scheme lasted us a good few years," Lubick said. "We just kept tweaking it up a little bit. It was fairly new, the zone-blitz package that we had, and we hit them with that early on. I don't know if we were any better of a team, but they didn't know what hit him. And Kevin McDougal, they couldn't stop him."

They most certainly gassed Colorado's offense that night, yet it wasn't the primary topic for postgame.

Tear gas? Really?

"After that, the biggest victory to that point for us … a wonderful feeling, and the police, they mace our poor band, who would never harm a soul," Lubick said. "That's the first question I get -- what did you think about that?

"I was so damn upset that that was the only thing anybody talked about after the game."

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