Air Raid Still Looking For The Right Timing

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – In this offense, timing is everything. Right now, the Rams just don't have any, at least not consistently.

There's a myriad of reasons why. A constant flux of injuries changing the personnel, a youthful quarterback room, also hit by injuries. A string of different starting wideouts whose precision route running is counted upon.

Take your pick. Not that quarterbacks coach Matt Mumme is all that surprised.

"I think that's it. (What I hope) fans understand is this always looks chaotic in year one," Mumme said. "Mike Leach at Washington State his first year, not very good, very chaotic. Mississippi State, chaotic, not very good. Once you start getting all your pieces into place it's going to start to come together, and as these guys get experience.

"I think there's so many elements to why we have not been successful on offense. We've got to try to find a way to be more consistent, especially this week. We have to be more effective, we've got to be able to efficiently move the ball down the field and we have to be able to score points. At the end of the day, the defense did a tremendous job this past weekend; Coach Freddie Banks and those guys were amazing, and we were able to win a game without scoring a point on offense really. That's not the game we can play moving forward."

This week, more change as a third starting quarterback will line up with Giles Pooler getting the nod, head coach Jay Norvell announced after practice.

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, the true freshman who started last week, took a couple of hits in the game and will still remain the primary backup, and his classmate, Jackson Stratton, is being prepared, as well.

While Mumme likes Pooler's arm, he's particularly impressed with his mind.

"I think with Giles, the thing I love is he's very knowledgeable of the offense. He understands it from sitting in front of him testing him, board-talking him," Mumme said. "I mean, Giles knows our offense, knows our system. He's going to give us a little more of the ability to check some plays too that Brayden it was more, this is it and run it. Giles has a good arm. Now, is Giles mobile? No. We're going to have to sit in the pocket and were going to have to throw strikes and he knows that. He knows who he is. I'm excited for him. He did a nice job in the spring, he did a nice job all camp, so I'm excited to see what he can do."

Offensive lineman Jacob Gardner knows what the offense can do when the timing is there. Right now, it is not. At least not altogether. Or for very long.

There have been spurts, and those are encouraging. But spurts don't win games very often. He sees it a lot in the screen game which has always featured young quarterbacks now throwing to a receiver group which is getting even younger. The combination changes up front have not helped, but Saturday's game is shaping up to be the first where the same starting five plays takes the field two games in a row.

The improvements encourage Gardner, but he wants what everybody else does.

Results.

"We didn't score. It was really aggravating because there was some really good stuff, but at the end of the day it's all about production, and if there's no production, you're not doing something right," he said. "There are little things for us, but we need to get it done. Lose the game or not, you can't go and get nothing from us. It's cliché to say, it's all in the details but it all really is."

On more than one occasion this season, a CSU coach has figured situations have forced them to put players in roles they may not have been fully ready to handle. Mumme said it about Fowler-Nicolosi last week and the feeling extended to a few of the freshmen wideouts.

While the Rams have only allowed three sacks the past two games, there has still been pressure applied and by the end of the game Fowler-Nicolosi was throwing most of his passes drifting back, not driving forward. It was a habit Mumme said the young quarterback had in high school and it came back in the game. There are some things he said they have to deal with initially, such as misrun routes, but he is seeing all of it being cleaned up bit by bit.

"We're executing. Before, we weren't as much, but now we're executing a lot more," freshman wideout Justus Ross-Simmons said. "We have to trust. You can't just rush anything. We're a young team so we have to trust the process. We're going to get better. There's no doubt about that.

"It's getting frustrating sometimes, but it's OK. When we get on the same page, we're going to be a hard offense to stop."

Such as the 2-minute offense the Rams used to set up Michael Boyle's game-winning field goal. Tory Horton was calling for the ball, and Fowler-Nicolosi fed him for two key plays to get into Boyle's range. In Mumme's eyes, the Air Raid is virtually a 2-minute drill every drive, when it is being run with precision.

Right now, that's not the case. The offense is huddling, and the tempo is not where they want it, but it is set where they can handle it best. Norvell, pleased with the advancements of the run game, said the passing simply has to catch up.

Mumme knows it requires timing. Timing requires time and repetition.

"I grew up Air Raid. I know how to run this offense," Mumme said. "I know what it's supposed to look like and we're not there yet. It's a win after the game, and you're excited and hugging and kissing everybody and everybody is having a good time and it's in the back of my mind, we're not there yet and we've got to be better. We can't just rely on special teams and defense to win football games. There's a little bit of that drive, I'm ready to get back to work, how do we fix the issues we have and how do we get better and move forward?"

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