Monday Presser: Ready to Kick off the Season

First games always carry a level of anticipation. The excitement surrounding the 2026 opener for Colorado State football is an onion, with multiple layers to peel back.

Not just the first game, but the first of the Jim Mora era. And the first one as a member of the Pac-12. And against the rival. A right to keep the most coveted trophy between the two schools.

Mora can appreciate all that and what it means to Ram Country in general. The veteran coach also chooses to remove any personal emotions to serve the greater good.

"I don't think about me. I think about our coaches and particularly our players. That's where my focus is," Mora said Monday at his weekly press conference. "I've been doing this for a long, long time, and I've had many, many first games. And so that experience is real. It's more important to me that our coaches and our players walk onto that field on Saturday with confidence.

"So my job is to put them in the best position to have success on Saturday. So I appreciate the question, but I don't think about me. I think about this team and this staff."

It's all about the game set to be played Saturday at Canvas Stadium. Mora noted the team is healthy, tipping his cap to the training staff. His attention is directed at Wyoming and his respect for that team's style of play. Certain characteristics the Cowboys carry – tough and physical – are traits Mora would like his team to value.

To decipher what the Rams will see, they've taken a look at Wyoming teams of the past, the Buffalo Bills and William and Mary recently, due to Wyoming's offensive coordinator having ties to both.

Mora can recall his rivalry games with Washington State as a player from Washington, memories which are good and bad. Football is an emotional game, played with passion. His take is to keep it all in check, week after week, play by play.

It is real, and he will address it. Then he'll get to work.

"It is my experience, that the best thing you can do with any game, so that you avoid ups and downs during a season that you see with teams, is to keep it about us and not about the things that we can't control, the noise that's outside," Mora said. "I've been involved with some pretty significant rivalries, and I've always felt like the best thing we can do is just be the best that we can be on that day. And in order to be the best we can be on that day, it's about focusing on the process each day leading up to that day, taking care of what we can control, not worrying about the things we can't control, and just going out and playing good, sound, fundamental, disciplined, tough, hard-nosed, smart football."

Get an edge, play with an edge. Football teams value having an upper hand, big or small. As much as his team is trying to gain knowledge, he will value the times when his can shield the outside world from information about his squad.

The prime reason fans will not know who Colorado State's starting quarterback is until Saturday.

"It's not to be coy. It's not to be cute. It's certainly not to mislead the people who support CSU," Mora said with a grin. "It's just I don't understand why you would ever want to give your opponent a competitive advantage.

"That's strictly it. If I could whisper in the ears of every CSU fan who the starting quarterback was going to be and be certain that it wasn't going to get to anywhere in Wyoming, then we'd probably do that. But that's just not reality, so it's not for any other reason than that."

Second Time For the Border War

Mora will join Julius "Hans" Wagner as the only Colorado State coaches to start their tenure with the Border War. Wagner's Rams traveled to Laramie and produced a 10-0 victory back in 1942, then the rivalry took a two-year break during World War II.

Of the program's previous 23 head coaches, 20 have had Wyoming on the schedule their first year, going 9-10-1 in the inaugural year against CSU's longest-standing rival. They are 9-11-3 in home openers and CSU coaches are 7-15-1 in debuts overall.

This will be the 13^th occurrence in the Border War series where the two rivals have opened the season against each other. Colorado State is 9-2-1 in those games, including 3-0-1 in Fort Collins. This year's game will mark the first time in 62 years the rivals square off in the opener, the last time being in 1964 in Laramie, a 31-7 win for the Cowboys. The last time the Rams opened up at home against Wyoming was in 1923, a 33-0 victory.

In a short amount of time in the area, Mora has learned the value of this game to the fans. But what he looks forward to most is what he hopes to see Saturday.

"I think, for me, it's just the excitement of probably the energy of the crowd and the student section and the band and the cheer squad and the dance team and CAM," he said. "CAM, the real CAM and, you know, dressed up CAM."

By the Numbers

Colorado State leads the overall series, 59-52-5 and 33-24-1 in Fort Collins and are 2-2 in Canvas Stadium. … The Bronze Boot trophy was created in 1968, and since then Wyoming leads the series 32-26. … CSU holds the Boot edge in Fort Collins, 15-14. … The highest-scoring game in the rivalry came in 1989 when 91 points were scored in a 56-35 win for Wyoming.

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