Rams Close Preseason Camp With Final Scrimmage

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Now the mood changes.

No longer will Colorado State's offense worry about picking up the Rams' stunts. No longer will the defense being reading keys from players they share space with in the same locker room.

Saturday's scrimmage, the second of preseason camp, come on the eve of the end of the grind of August. Sunday will be the final practice of camp, then Monday, school starts. And over those two days, head coach Steve Addazio and is staff will break down the final remnants of camp tape, set a depth chart and start moving forward and thinking about the Sept. 3 opener with South Dakota State.

"For me, that's the best part. I don't know about everybody else, but I'd imagine they're excited as well," defensive end Scott Patchan said. "Once you turn that page and you get to start game planning for them, you get to start picking apart the opposition, for me, it's the fun part, because I get to watch their tape, I get to understand what they doing on third-and-long, first-and-10. I want to know what their stance is, what they're giving away and what I can take from it."

What Addazio took away from Saturday was an inconsistent performance. There was good, and there was bad. Out of the blue, there were quarterback-center exchange problems which had not arisen the two weeks prior.

He went with "herky-jerky" for the second week in a row, and in some regards, for the same reason. The team was missing some prominent players from the scrimmages, which doesn't help with continuity. Addazio noted the loss of Linwood Crump and quarterback Matt Valecce for the season, and the quarterback situation somewhat played a role in his description.

Todd Centeio, the designated starter going into camp, was being pushed by Valecce. Now behind him are three quarterbacks – two of them true freshmen – who have not played in a college game.

"We've got a lot of guys out right now," he said. "I mean, we have a lot of starters who aren't playing right now, but still … and we have to worry about our backup quarterback situation right now.

"We've got to come up with a backup quarterback, and that got a little distractful today."

Running back Marcus McElroy viewed it the same way, feeling some of the team had already started to turn the page on camp before the final paragraph was written. Having spent the first part of the month preparing for each other, some of their minds have started to wander off toward the first game, even though there is still work to be finished up. He noted Addazio always tells them once they are between the white lines they have to be prepared to give it their all, and McElroy said it just wasn't the case across the board.

The tunnel-vision they didn't have Saturday has to be regained.

"Right now the thing is for the team is the mood switching into being more focused," he said. "When it's coming to camp, we have our moments of playing against our teammates and then going into game week and playing for the team. It's now, it's getting serious. We're playing for trying to be 1-0. We're not trying to plan for playing against our defense or playing against our offense, it's now we playing to go get a win. It's not worrying about each other from the standpoint of trying to beat the defense, but it's how we can push each other and put ourselves in the best option to win a game."

To do so, Patchan said the leaders of the team have to stress to younger players the idea they could be one play away from seeing the field. The depth chart will determine who is getting the most work heading into game week, so every rep will have to carry importance. Saturday's scrimmage, with altered personnel groups, should drive the point home.

The team is off Monday, but Addazio said the coaches will build the game plan after he said they do quality control on every snap taken in camp, be it offense, defense and special teams. They will note what they did well, what personnel groups shined and what the team didn't execute at a high level.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be in full pads, and likely next Sunday, but it will not be "bang-a-thons" he said. The week after will take on the feel of a real game week. Pulling back a bit is part of the plan in order to have the team feeling crisper, quicker and add some zip for kickoff.

By that time, Patchan feels he should know everything about the player's he'll be going up against.

And he means everything, enjoying the moment to inject a little hyperbole.

"I want to know all step-sister and sibling names," Patchan said. "Uncles and aunts birthdays. I'm just kidding."

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