Monday Presser: Rams Ready to Enter Conference Fray

Colorado State (1-3) vs. San Jose State (3-2)
Canvas Stadium | Fort Collins, Colo.
Saturday, Oct. 9, 1:30 p.m.

GAME LINKS
Watch \| Listen \| CSU Stats \| SJSU Stats

Rams One of Three Teams Yet to Play a Mountain West Game
GAME RECOGNITIONS
Cannoneers: Debra Stencel and Patrick Phillips, 2021 DAA Morgan Award Winners	Bell Ringers: Bob and Linda Cates, 2021 DAA Henry Award Winners

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Jump in, the water's fine.

Or is it?

Actually, the Mountain West has been somewhat all over the map this year in football as Colorado State becomes one of the final three teams to enter conference play, Wyoming and San Diego State being the others. In the Mountain Division, nothing is clear cut as three teams already have 1-1 marks as the Rams come off their bye week to host San Jose State – the defending champions – for Homecoming.

"It's all over the place. It's throughout the league," CSU head coach Steve Addazio said Monday at his weekly press conference. "I watched some of the Boise game; I've watched a bunch of everybody. I think there's a lot of parity, there's a lot of returning starters, a lot of good players in the league right now. On the other side, watching San Diego State play, and of course San Jose. Everybody is pretty good. That's my take."

San Diego State is ranked No. 25. Fresno State was ranked, but that was until Hawaii rallied to knock off the Bulldogs this past weekend. Boise State is 2-3 overall and lost twice at home.

Then again, Addazio said that's all of college football this season, and he's not exactly sure why. His mantra is always to take the season in week-by-week increments, to remain focused on the task at hand, and he wonders what is causing the ebbs and flows.

"It's natural to want to look at games and want to compare – I do it too. That's natural. I'll watch Iowa play Maryland, and you're like shaking your head," he said. "It's a dangerous thing to do that. It just seems more now than ever, and I don't have the answer for this, every week is a new week. You just don't know what you're going to get, and you have to be ready every week to bring it. That's what I keep telling the kids on our team. You have to bring it every week. You can't rest on what happened a week ago or what you think. You've got to go to practice, you have to practice right, you have to prepare right, then you've got to bring it in the game. "

One constant he sees when teams head south when you don't expect it is turnovers. Those, he said, change any game, no matter the perception.

Back to Work
The football team worked out Wednesday through Friday of last week, then the players had the weekend off to regroup and recharge. A lot of the work was done by younger players, giving some veterans fewer reps to save wear and tear on their bodied for the final eight-game push. The team also started working on the install of the San Jose State game plan, taking advantage of the extra time.

"I felt good about it after Friday morning. I felt really, really good about it Friday morning. I was quite pleased with that," said Addazio, setting up the qualifier. "But I thought we were sluggish today, which I was not pleased with. They've been off since Friday at 10:30 a.m., and it just goes to show you we're not there yet in terms of learning how to be a big-time football team. You take those days off, and when you come back Monday, you come back ready to go, you don't come back kinda in a fog."

Addazio came back to say by no means was Monday a bad practice, it just wasn't as good as Friday, which he felt was really good. There is the gap he is constantly trying to close, creating a program which is really consistent in the work it gets done, no matter the circumstances.

As happy as he was to get a bye – and he said it was necessary – he was concerned what the break would do to a team he felt was on an upward trajectory. By Saturday evening, he'll have the real answer to why the country is seeing a lot of roller coaster rides.

"We needed to get the bye week, but I'm scared to death of the bye week," he said. "I felt like we were in a groove, we were going."

Here and There

San Jose State is in an interesting part of its schedule. The Spartans, who played zero week, have had one bye and have another coming after a current nine-game stretch they're in right now. Next week, they play at San Diego State on Friday, then play on a Thursday the following week at home against UNLV. … Excluding last year – and wouldn't we all like to – the Rams have won four consecutive games coming off bye weeks.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results