• Final Score: Colorado State 27, New Mexico 24
• Line: Colorado State -10
• Venue: Dreamstyle Stadium

Knowing what we know now, this game should have served as a “canary in a coal mine”. (I think I’m using that term right.) The Rams were 6-2, 4-0 in the Mountain West, but only beat this putrid Lobo team by a field goal. (They also struggled with a crap Nevada team the week before.)

It should have served as a signal that the worst three-game stretch of the Mike Bobo era were right around the bend. The Air Force/Wyoming/Boise losses were brutal and we should have seen it coming!

This Lobo team, like most Lobo teams, was crap. They were 3-9 with wins coming against Abilene Christian, a 2-10 Tulsa team, and Air Force somehow.

Game starts with the Lobos driving down the field and getting stopped on a 4th down. They ran an option play on 4th and short and Shun Johnson was able to knock the runner out of bounds right at the sticks. Big play by Johnson, basically forcing a turnover. This will not be the last time we hear from him.

Rams offense takes over and their first play of the game:

Nick Stevens misses a wide open Michael Gallup on a deep ball, foreshadowing the New Mexico Bowl later that year.

If you read this blog you know I love nothing more than boners in the kicking game. I especially love the subtle ones, like not fielding a punt:

Lost about 15 yards worth of field position by not catching what would turn out to be a 78 yard punt.

Luckily, the Rams offense was humming at this point and they’d go into halftime up 21-10.

Fast forward to the 4th quarter, Rams up 24-17 and things are a little dicey. New Mexico’s apparently super human punter pinned the Rams to the 1-yard line. Rams go 3-and-out and New Mexico takes over in Ram territory. Lobos first play:

Shun Johnson again!

I loved Shun Johnson, as I love all Colorado Recruits^TM, but the way he’d tackle with his head down always scared the shit out of me. It worked out well for him here, but I was always afraid he was going to hurt himself.

Rams drive the ball a little bit, then Wyatt Bryan nailed a 52(!) yard field goal to go up 10, 27-17.

Next drive, New Mexico coach Bob Davie completely butchers the clock. Honestly, one of the worst coaching performances I’ve ever seen. Hey Davie, you’re down 10, you need a touchdown and field goal. The order in which you get those two scores is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the clock, you dipshit.

Lobos start the drive with nearly five minutes left in the game. It takes them three minutes to drive to the CSU 28. Kick a field goal you morons! Instead, they manage to run ten more plays (TEN PLAYS!) and burn almost all the time off the clock before they score a touchdown on 4th and goal. Thanks, you fuckin idiots.

Just look at this drive chart:

The Lobos would recover the onside kick, but were left with little chance to win because there were only 20 seconds left in the game. Legendary stuff from Bob Davie.

The game was over when… four seconds left in the game, Evan Colorito with the monster bull rush and walk off sack:

Good god, Colorito was a beast his senior year.

Behind Enemy Lines:

These Lobo fans are lame. If Coach Bobo managed to butcher the clock like Coach Davie did, there would be a 40-page thread about it on Ramnation.com. But this is all we get from Lobo fan:

Where’s the passion? The name calling? The cheap shots about the coach’s salary, ill-fitting pants, and seasonal allergies? Grow up Lobo fans.

A replay of the game is here:

• Final Score: Colorado State 49, UNLV 35
• Line: Colorado State -7.5
• Venue: Hughes Stadium

No offense to our Runnin’ Rebel friends, but wins against their crap football teams don’t really move the needle. Rams are 17-6-1 all time against UNLV and the only real stand out game in the series that I can think of is the 2002 game where the Rams were 16th in the country and lost their season finale to a mediocre UNLV squad. Some point to that game as the moment Coach Sonny Lubick lost his mojo.

The 2015 version of Runnin’ Rebel football was 3-9 with wins over Hawaii, Nevada, and Idaho State- the pride of Pocatello. Their coach only had high school experience and outside of running back Lexington Thomas and receiver Devonte Boyd, they didn’t have much going for them.

The Rams got a stellar game from Dalyn Dawkins, who was finally cementing himself as the RB1 at this point and setting himself up for big junior and senior seasons. Rashard Higgins had 3 TD’s and not much else going on for the Rams.

They blocked a kick, which was cool:

Honestly, I have nothing interesting to say about this game.

The Rebs kept this one close going into the 4th quarter, only down 35-28 to the favored Rams. CSU went up 14 after scoring on their first drive of the 4th quarter.

The game was over when… after a Dalyn Dawkins fumble, the Rebels had the ball on the Ram 30 yard line, down two touchdowns. Only 6:32 left in the game, so they needed a score here. Instead, they gave up a sack, two incomplete passes, and then came up short on 4th down. Game over!

Behind Enemy Lines:

The Rebels were still in the honeymoon phase with their new high school coach, so there was zero salt from their fans online.

Damn it, that’s no fun! We have two more wins against UNLV coming up soon, so it will be fun to see the fan’s attitude toward the coach deteriorate.

Hardly any video evidence of this game still exists online, hence the lack of GIFs, here’s some highlights:

• Final Score: Colorado State 42, San Jose State 14
• Line: Colorado State -32.5
• Venue: Multipurpose Stadium

I wanted to rank this game higher because it contains one of my favorite plays of all time, Dalton Fackrell pretending to shot-gun a beer on the New Belgium Porch:

But at the end of the day this is just another win against a god-awful team. The 2017 Spartans were a 2-11 team with wins over Cal Poly and Wyoming (LMAO). The Rams came into this game on a three game losing steak, the brutal trifecta of losses against Air Force, Wyoming, and Boise State that we went over earlier. So while this was a dominating win, it was difficult to really care that much.

SJSU actually held the lead for a bit, scoring on their first drive. I don’t remember much about this game, but I can only imagine what I was thinking when the Rams went down 7-0 to San Jose State on the heels of that three-game losing streak. I’m sure I wasn’t very happy.

Thankfully, CSU got it in gear and scored 35 straight points and eventually won the game 42-14.

Dalyn Dawkins ran for 138 and Nick Stevens was super efficient throwing for 300 yards. Probably the best play was this jump cut by Bisi Johnson:

The game was over when… the Spartans got the ball first to begin the 2nd half. They were down 28-7 and needed some points on their opening drive. They drove down to the CSU 6-yard line, but on 2nd-and-goal:

Josh Watson with the pick! Game is basically over at this point.

Behind enemy lines:

Nothing interesting on the SJSU message board, just the typical “our coaches and quarterbacks suck” kinda stuff.

The full game doesn’t exist online, here’s some highlights:

• Final Score: Colorado State 35, New Mexico 21
• Line: Colorado State -5
• Venue: Dreamstyle Stadium

Another day, another win against a crap Mountain West team. These Lobos were 2-10 with wins over Sam Houston State and New Mexico State. Rams should have won in a blowout, but the Lobos were able to keep it close throughout.

CSU scored on their opening drive with a big gainer to Toby McBride, then both teams exchanged punts and fumbles for a bit. Then this iconic play happened, symbolizing the entire Mike Bobo era:

New Mexico makes the dumbest play in football, but our beloved Rams somehow one-up them and make an even dumber one. “SOMEONE PICK UP THE BALL!” I screamed from my couch 450 miles away. It didn’t help.

PICK. UP. THE. BALL.

If EA was still making NCAA Football games, I think they’d just give our entire team a “40” in the awareness category.

I was watching the Michael Jordan documentary the other day and BJ Armstrong had this awesome quote: “Michael Jordan didn’t really play basketball anymore. He just figured out how to win the game… He was just playing a different game than the rest of us. He let us play, but he was there to win the game.”

It made me think of the Ram football team and how we were the exact opposite of that. We don’t really play football any more, we just try to find ways to lose the game.

Down 14-7, Patrick O’Brien hits Warren Jackson:

Then before the clock expires on the half, Marvin Kinsey scores on a 4th and 1 to make it 21-14. Rams score on their first drive of the 2nd half to go up 28-14.

Lobos managed to keep it close though with a touchdown of their own combined with a boner in the kicking game from us (missed 46 yard field goal.)

The game was over when… Lobo 1st-and-10 on the CSU 17-yard line with about 5 minutes left in the game. Down 14, the Lobos needed a touchdown to stay in the game. Livingston Paogofie had other ideas:

CSU ball, game over!

Behind enemy lines:

Yep! Suck it, Lobo fans! Somehow through the ups and downs of the Fairchild, McElwain, and Bobo eras we’ve managed to beat them 10 straight.

Replay of the game is here:

• Final Score: Colorado State 42, San Jose State 30
• Line: Colorado State -3
• Venue: CEFCU Stadium (Thank god our stadium name didn’t end up looking like this. Thank you, Canvas!!)

This is probably the least impressive win of the Mike Bobo era. San Jose State was a god-awful 1-11 team and the Rams did everything they could to keep the Spartans in the game.

Things started out great with KJ Carta-Samuels throwing four touchdown passes in the first half; two to Preston Williams and two to Warren Jackson. Three of them were pretty sweet:

The defense was stout, forcing the Spartans to punt on every first half drive except for one turnover on downs.

28-0 at half time lead over some horseshit San Jose team, game over… right?

Wrong! San Jose State’s coach made some all-time great Halftime Adjustments^TM because the Trojans dominated the third quarter.

After cutting the lead down to 28-14, this play happened:

Pretty sure I murdered my remote control on this play.

Full disclosure: I played safety for my co-ed two-hand touch football team, and I played it at an elite level. So I’m a bit on an expert on the safety position. Take a look at our safties on this play: Jordan Fogal shades to the middle of the field pre-snap… then WHERE THE HELL IS HE GOING? Meanwhile, Jamal Hicks bites on a half-assed play-action and the ball is completed right over his head. Well done fellas!

28-21. Next CSU drive:

Trojans score, 28-28. Okay, Rams time to get our shit together!

On the ensuing kickoff, Anthony Hawkins fumbles and the Rams start on the 2 yard line. NOT THE BEST TIME FOR A BONER IN THE KICKING GAME FELLAS! Next play:

I run to the guest room, grab that remote control in there and smash it.

28-0 lead, GONE! In one quarter to some bullshit San Jose State team! 30 points in one quarter! Just look how silly this looks:

4th quarter starts and the Rams snap out of it and remember they’re playing the San Jose State Spartans. They take the lead back with an 8-play, 83-yard drive.

Spartans get the ball back and then:

YOU GOT BOMBEK’D!

Next play:

YOU GOT AJAYI’D!

The game was over when… The Rams offense had a couple chances to extend the lead further but kept going three and out. With 5 minutes left the Spartans needed a score to stay alive, but Ellison Hubbard snuffed that out, literally and figuratively:

The SJSU QB wouldn’t return to the game. YOU GOT HUBBARD’D!

Rams win, Spartans end the season 1-11. That 30 point 3rd quarter will go down as one of the largest head-scratchers in CSU history.

Behind Enemy Lines:

I was combing San Jose State’s 247Sports board looking for some saltiness, but then I stumbled across this message in their CSU postgame thread:

A condensed version of the game is here:

• Final Score: Colorado State 31, Utah State 24
• Line: Colorado State +6
• Venue: Hughes Stadium

We enter a new tier of the countdown: Wins Against Crappy Mountain West Teams. This is the largest tier by far, making up 16 of Coach Bobo’s 28 wins.

First up is the 2016 home victory over a 3-9 Utah State team. To be fair, we beat some Mountain West teams who were way worse than this USU squad, but this win is ranked so low (high?) because it’s the infamous game where Collin Hill blew out his knee.

It happened on such an innocuous play. No one was open, so Hill took off for a 19-yard gain. He went down and stayed down. You can’t help but play the “what if” game and wonder how the Bobo Era might have been different had the injury never happened, but it’s hard to do because it’s not like Nick Stevens was chopped liver. He gave us an All-Mountain West season, for pete’s sake. Just a total bummer all around.

Anyway, CSU was down 24-10 at halftime, then the Rams defense did one of those Halftime Adjustments^TM that fans are always crying about and shut down the Aggie offense for the remainder of the game.

Utah State’s second half drives were: 4 plays (punt), 1 play (fumble), 7 plays (punt), 3 plays (punt), 6 plays (punt), 5 plays (punt), 8 plays (downs), 5 plays (interception). NOW THAT’S A MARTY ENGLISH DEFENSE!

I’ll never forget the fumble that Tyree Simmons caused. I thought he killed someone:

Along with the stellar performance from the defense, this was the first game where Michael Gallup was MICHAEL GALLUP. He ended up with 140 yards and a TD on 7 catches, including this 60 yarder:

Rams would take a 31-24 lead thanks to a stout defense and big plays on offense. Also, the Rams had no turnovers and zero boners in the kicking game! They even converted a fake punt!

As I noted in yesterday’s UTSA post, I’m tracking how many times the CSU offense was able to run out the clock in the 4th quarter of a one score game. Up 7 points with 3 minutes left, the Rams offense took the field. They ran 45 seconds off the clock and went three and out. So our running tally for clock killing drives in one score games is 1 for 2.

The game was over when… Aggies get the ball back, move it to the 50 yard line, then…

Manny Jones with the pick! Rams win!

Behind Enemy Lines:

Pretty funny going from the UTSA message board where everyone is dropping f-bombs to Utah State’s message board where coaches have “puddin’ fer brains”. God bless Utah.

This game’s replay doesn’t exist online. Here are highlights:

• Final Score: Colorado State 33, UTSA 31
• Line: Colorado State -9.5
• Venue: The Alamodome

This concludes the mini-tier of Wins Against Crappy UTSA Teams. This game featured multiple oddities:

It was played in a dome- To the best of my knowledge, the only other dome games we’ve played were at Idaho in the Kibbie Dome and the New Orleans Bowl in the Superdome.

It was Coach Bobo’s only OOC road win- That seems hard to believe, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. The Rams didn’t go on the road much in non-conference games thanks to an annual neutral site game in Denver. They only had five road games during Bobo’s tenure: UTSA (won), Alabama (certain loss), Minnesota (could have won), Florida (certain loss), Arkansas (should have won).

This 2020 season would have been the first time the Rams had two road games in OOC since 2013. (Rams played 13 games in 2013 and had games at Tulsa and Alabama.)

The defense forced a safety- Hayden Hunt pinned the UTSA offense to the 2 yard line with a nice punt, followed by a UTSA lineman holding in the endzone for a safety. The last time the defense scored a safety was against UTEP in 2013 and it has never happened again.

Jasen Oden had 30 carries- Only one other Ram running back had a 30-carry game in the Bobo era: Dayln Dawkins vs Boise State in 2017.

The Rams offense was able to run out the clock- Okay, this last one is anecdotal, but the Rams got the ball with 5 minutes left, up 2 points and ran the clock out. How many times has a Bobo team done that? It’s something I’ll keep track of as we move forward ranking all the wins.

The game was over when… Nick Stevens ran for a first down on 3rd and 1 with 1:30 left in the game.

The Rams were leading the game for the most part, but the Roadrunners were able to cut the lead to 2 after an 85-yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter:

Thank god for that safety!

Both teams exchanged punts and the Rams got the ball with 5 minutes left on their own 10 yard line. Oden runs for 10, 2, 28, and 6. Stevens picks up a 3rd and 1 and game over!

Behind Enemy Lines:

Not much salt towards CSU, but their fans didn’t seem to take the loss very well:

The full replay doesn’t exist online, here’s some highlights:

• Final Score: Colorado State 23, UTSA 14
• Line: Colorado State -9
• Venue: Hughes Stadium

We’ve completed the Wins Against Crappy FCS Teams tier and moved on to the smallest tier, Wins Against Crappy UTSA Teams.

The Texas San Antonio Roadrunners moved up to FBS and for some reason CSU decided to sign up for a four game series with them. Exposure to east Texas recruits maybe? I dunno. Luckily that deal eventually got cut in half and we only played the Roadrunners twice.

This game in 2016 was one of the most boring wins in CSU history. It was the beginning and the end of the Faton Bauta era with Bauta passing for 82 yards on 6 of 17 attempts.

The highlight for me was the multitude of kicking game boners and not being punished for them. Robert Ruiz fumbled twice on punt returns, but UTSA recovered neither of them. Wyatt Bryan missed a 38 yard field goal, but UTSA was offside. Bryan missed the ensuing 33 yard field goal, but UTSA was offside again! Bryan then drilled a 28 yarder.

The game was over when… Bryan hit a 46 yard field goal to go up 9 with 2 minutes left in the game. The defense was outstanding this game, but the lack of offense allowed UTSA to hang around. After the Rams went up two scores, there was no chance UTSA was coming back.

UTSA came in with a stud quarterback Dalton Sturm who was a good passer and could run a little. He ended up with 170 yards passing and negative 57 yards rushing.(It’s hilarious how college football includes sack yardage in rushing totals. UTSA would end up with -1 rushing yards for the game.)

The Rams defense ended with 6 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and 5 QB hurries.

UTSA would end the season 6-6 and go on to lose to New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl.

Behind Enemy Lines:

Let’s check out the game thread over on rowdytalk.com:

Joe Fucking Montana couldn’t win with that O-line! That cracked me up. I love this guy’s rage and I love that their message board doesn’t censor f-bombs. It’s the fucking internet, let people cuss.

I live for posts like these. This poor fella got his feelings hurt by Colorado State fans after the 2015 game which made the 2016 “heartbreaking”. You love to see it.

This game was streamed online by Campus Insiders or Stadium or whatever the hell it’s called, so it no longer exists online. Here are some highlights:

• Final Score: Colorado State 65, Savannah State 13
• Line: Colorado State -51
• Venue: Hughes Stadium

We’ve reached the end of the Wins Against Crappy FCS Teams tier of victories. I ranked the Savannah State game the highest in the tier because it was Coach Bobo’s first win at CSU and because the Rams scored 65 points (the highest in Bobo’s tenure) and somehow covered a 51-point spread.

Savannah State was probably the worst team we played in the Bobo Era, and they even had to wear those crappy Russell jerseys, except their sleeves weren’t as “pubey”:

Nothing really notable happened in this game, but we did make SportsCenter:

I remember being so excited after this game because we didn’t kneel on the ball and kept trying to score. “We finally have one of those asshole coaches who doesn’t give a damn about being ‘classy’ and wants to put up as many points as possible.” Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth as Coach Bobo’s teams would end up being notorious for taking their foot off the gas in the 2nd half.

The game was over when… the Savannah State center snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head on the first two plays of the game.

First play of the game, Tigers ball on the 20, the center snaps the ball over the QB’s head and he recovers it on the 2. Second play of the game:

7-0 Rams, and that’s your ballgame! Thanks for coming out, I hope you enjoyed your Aggie Day breakfast.

Behind Enemy Lines:

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a Savannah State message board that went back to 2015, but I doubt the comments would have been too salty anyway. Did you know that Savannah State dropped down to Division II in 2019? I had no idea! Probably for the best as they were consistently one of the worst FCS teams.

This game was streamed on CSURams.com, so the game doesn’t really exist on the internet any more. A quick highlight video is here: