Memorable Moments: Higgins Set Foundation for WRU

For the last couple of years, Nick Stevens has started playing fantasy football.

The truth is, it was Stevens' reality in his tenure at Colorado State. He threw touchdown passes to Rashard Higgins and Michael Gallup. Hooked up with Bisi Johnson and Warren Jackson. He was able to throw to Preston Williams in a spring game as he sat out his one year as a transfer.

His connection with Higgins will always be special, even though Stevens threw more career touchdown passes to Gallup – 17-9. But his first scoring toss went to Higgins on the night the wideout broke the school record for touchdown receptions in a game with four in a 42-17 home win over Tulsa in 2014.

Hollywood already existed, but that was the year he went national as a consensus All-American and a Biletnikoff Award finalist. His personality sold it even more, and in 2015, the athletic department touted the junior-to-be with Hollywood Higgins popcorn packs at Mountain West media days.

He was undeniably the starting point for Wide Receiver U.

"I don't know that we do give him enough credit," Stevens said. "You always see with some schools, the recruits look at who came out of that school. That's' why a lot of really good recruits go to places like Alabama, LSU, Ohio State. You can look at a guy like Derrick Henry, and if I go here, I can be that guy. Wide receiver wise, that's what Rashard was for us. That's a guy who wasn't a four-star, five-star receiver. He came in, put the work in, fit with the offense and ended up getting drafted high. I'm sure there was at least a little bit of that draft, 'oh, there's a guy from Colorado State getting drafted, I like that.'"

Tulsa came to Fort Collins for an Oct. 4 game, and it didn't take long for Higgins to make a difference. Before halftime, Higgins had already hooked up with Garrett Grayson for three touchdowns, each one longer than the last. The finale of that string was a 73-yarder where Higgins did most of the work as the Rams vaulted out to a 28-0 lead.

Higgins had four receptions for 142 yards by halftime, his first three catches all accounting for scores.

For most of the second half, the running game took over. Grayson threw for 236 yards in the game, and Dee Hart and Jasen Oden took turns grinding out the clock, with Hart rushing for 143 yards, Oden another 90.

In the fourth quarter, it was time to get some backups some in-game reps.

"I remember being nervous out there. It was more, we're going to throw the ball a couple of times, late-game scenario. It was one of those," Stevens said. "It was a screen to Rashard, and I remember thinking, 'that was a good play.' Then he started breaking it, and it was like, 'Oh God, I just threw my first touchdown.'

"It was pretty sweet. Basically all I had to do was underhand it to Rashard and he took care of the rest."

Officially a 36-yarder, making Higgins the only CSU receiver to catch four touchdown passes in a game.

That was Stevens' introduction into the damage Higgins could inflict. You didn't have to throw a deep ball for Higgins to be explosive, he was simply that by stepping on the field. But yes, he could stretch a secondary vertically, too. When Stevens became the starter the following year, he and Higgins connected for eight more scores. While Higgins left early for the draft, Stevens was never without a playmaker.

He was the quarterback when Johnson set the school record with 265 receiving yards in 2016, and the quarterback a year later when Gallup fell two yards shy of the mark against Nevada. And he was the quarterback when Gallup set the mark with 100 receptions in 2017.

"It was awesome. Every year I was there you had one, and obviously beyond those guys, you had dudes like Joe Hansley, great tight ends as well," Stevens said. "We always had those possession receivers. But those guys specifically, I had a huge playmaker out there that I knew, if I'm in a pinch, this is a guy I can get the ball to and know they're going to do something special with it. Those are guys that come along every few years for a lot of programs, but I had one every year. That was pretty sweet."

The guys he plays fantasy football with all ask Stevens about his receivers. Then they try to draft them knowing he wants them all. In a snake draft this year, he said his own father-in-law took Gallup and Williams with back-to-back picks right in front of him.

It stung. But he has Johnson, and they share a record, too.

"I always try to get those guys, but I have guys that will take them and look at me and say, 'I got your boy Higgins,'" Stevens said. "I'm like, 'why do you keep drafting the CSU guys?' It's cool to see them have an impact at the next level as well."

Besides, his real-life experience with all of them was so much better.

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