Setting the Stage: Boise State

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Colorado State (3-4, 2-1) vs. Boise State (3-4, 1-2)
Canvas Stadium | Fort Collins, Colo.
Saturday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m.

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Rams Know Talk Won't End Streak
GAME RECOGNITIONS
Cannoneers: Paula Edwards and Kirsten Kirkpatrick, Women and Philanthropy Committee Members	Bell Ringers: Kay Edwards, Cancer Survivor and 2015 Henry Recipient

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – In life, everybody wants something. In competition, athletes know whatever it is has to be earned.

Such as beating Boise State this Saturday. The football team doesn't own a win in 10 tries against the Broncos, and while the Rams would love nothing more than to end the streak, simply wanting it won't make it stop.

They'll have to do that on their own. However it turns out, they believe they've put in the work to put forth their best effort.

"I think guys are taking this week really seriously," center Cam Reddy said. "When you have a big challenge, when you have a team you respect, it goes through preparation. You take your coaching, we have a lot of good schemes, we have a lot of good coaching and this whole locker room has the coach's back, and we're working really hard on our plan."

Colorado State had never faced the Broncos before they joined the Mountain West, and CSU remains the only program in the conference without a gridiron win against the perennial challengers for the Mountain Division and conference titles.

Boise State is in the first year under Andy Avalos, and the transition hasn't been smooth with a 3-4 mark and a 1-2 start to conference play. A win is important for so many reasons for both teams, but Colorado State is remaining focused on Saturday, not what it would mean for the future.

They also can't get caught up in the streak, just winning a game.

"You have CSU pride, so you want to win a game. You take a lot of pride in that," Reddy said. "You don't look at the grand scheme of the year-after-year thing, you just take one game at a time. This is Boise, it's a good opponent and we want to win the game.

"Week to week, year to year, everything is different. We're just taking them as this game."

Walking the Line

Colorado State's defense was flagged nine times in last week's loss, many of them were offside calls, and there were more which were declined because bigger flags were available to accept. The tricks the Aggies used are expected the rest of the way, and the defensive line has spent the week addressing the issue.

"We are expecting Boise to do the same thing, and the work we have put in is we get hard counts every play, different types of movements the offensive line might make that will get us to jump," Devin Phillips said. "Basically, facing that will put us in position to not jump off the ball."

Teams are going to do what they can to try to slow down Colorado State's pass rush, and when it works in one game, the defenders expect others to adopt the policy.

It wasn't simply just a clap or a hard count which Phillips thinks gave the team fits, it was their own aggressive nature. They are wired to be ready to go, and he said the key is for them to walk the tightrope of keeping their aggressiveness without going overboard.

Or, primarily, too soon.

"We can do that. It's just a mindset," he said. "We just have to lock in and do what we have to do and what we come to do every day. We were anxious, we were aggressive, we were ready to get off the ball, ready to play. It kind of got to us, and we're working on getting that fixed."

Here and There

A new twist for this matchup with the Broncos: The Rams rank higher than them in the major defensive categories – scoring, rushing, passing and total yards. That's never been the case in the 10 matchups prior. … Tywan Francis enters the game one tackle shy of 100 for his career. The safety is averaging six tackles per game in his first year as a starter. … Scott Patchan needs six tackles and Toby McBride seven to reach 100 in their careers.

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Tywan Francis

Toby McBride

Scott Patchan

Devin Phillips

Cam Reddy

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