There is no number 95 on the roster (Cayden Camper wore 95 but his status may be in doubt after his DUI, he is no longer listed), so we’ll do a position preview instead. Today, the quarterbacks.

Coach: Joey Lynch • Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach

Coach Lynch’s offense had a great 2019 at Ball State, ranking 16^th in the nation in total offense and leading the MAC in scoring. On the surface that’s great, but BSU head coach Mike Neu is an offensive guy and took over play-calling in 2018, so how much can we really glean from those results? To borrow a phrase from former OC Dave Baldwin: Was that a Joey Lynch offense, or a Mike Neu offense? (By the way, Baldwin is the new OC at UNC. Pretty nice hire, but I hope Baldwin and Ed McCaffrey don’t have conflicting opinions on whether players can wear earrings or not.)

One thing that’s for certain when watching Ball State games on YouTube is that Coach Lynch did a great job with his quarterbacks. Former QB Riley Neal came to Ball State with only three reported offers: Ball State, Central Michigan, and the dreaded Illinois State Redbirds. Neal was the starter for four years at BSU, grad transferred to an SEC School^TM _(Vanderbilt), and finished his career with 8978 yards, 55 TD’s, 30 picks, and a 59.6 completion percentage. He signed as a UDFA with your very own Denver Broncos.

Drew Plitt (a 2-star according to the big brains at 247 Sports) took over for Neal and was even better. In 2019 he threw for 2918/24/7/64% and was named the MAC co-offensive player of the year. Pretty good for a back up quarterback!

Long story short: at very least we have an excellent QB coach.

Coming back:

Patrick O’Brien, Redshirt Senior – 2803 yards, 13 TDs, 7 interceptions, 62% completions

One of the most overlooked things about O’Brien is that the guy had next to no experience at the FBS level. He only saw mop up duty in a handful of games for Nebraska and only had one attempt against an FCS team before he was inserted into the Arkansas game. The 405-yard performance in his first start against Toledo was even more impressive considering Barack Obama was president the last time O’Brien was the starting quarterback of a football game at any level.

Justice McCoy, Redshirt Junior –  20 yards, 0 TDs, 2 interceptions, 50% completions

McCoy attempted the first two passes of his college career during the SDSU blow-out and both passes were promptly picked off. Not sure if either were really his fault though.

Outta here:

Collin Hill – Transfer to South Carolina

Jude Erickson – Transfer to TBD

Nothing else to add about Collin Hill, the guy’s career was one of the biggest bummers in CSU history. Hopefully he’s healthy enough to play at an SEC School^TM and get on an NFL roster.

Erickson’s transfer destination is still up in the air. The old coaching staff put together a highlight reel for him and Bobo is still out there on Twitter trying to get him a new home. I don’t care what any of you say, this is and always will be a pro-Mike Bobo space.

(Also, I just watched a fifteen-minute video of practice highlights of a walk-on quarterback who will never play a down for CSU. That’s how you know you’re a Top Booster.)

New to Fort Collins:

Todd Centeio, Redshirt Junior – Transfer from Temple

Centeio recently tweeted that he was accepted into CSU’s grad school, so it looks like he’s good to go. Centeio is the best type of grad transfer, can play right away and has two years of eligibility left. Centeio was never QB1 at Temple, but still saw a decent amount of playing time.

Aaaaaaand…. that’s it. Third year in a row without a high school quarterback coming in!

Who is the Wildcard of the group?

Centeio.

I’m guessing Centeio didn’t come here to ride the bench, but with O’Brien entrenched as the starter what’s the plan? Will Centeio get a couple drives a game? A special RPO package to change things up? Will Centeio push O’Brien for the starting job???

The AlwaysSonny Prediction for the Quaterbacks:

With a year of experience under his belt and QB-guru Joey Lynch in his ear, an All-MWC type season is in the cards for O’Brien in 2020. If you take that statistics from O’Brien’s nine starts in 2019 and flesh them out to a 13 game season, they’re damn close to the stats Nick Stevens put up in All-Mountain West season. We’re bullish on O’Brien in 2020.

Centeio will also see a decent amount of playing time (a couple drives a game and mop-up duty), preparing himself to take over the offense in 2021.

After the season, Gary Kubiak signs O’Brien to the Vikings as an UDFA because of course he does.

Cian Quiroga • Defensive Line • Redshirt Freshman • Denver, CO

So far: Another day, another sweet, sweet Colorado Recruit^TM. The previous regime was able to scoop Quiroga up from Valor Christian High School. He had no other reported offers according 247 Sports, but I’m going to assume we beat Wyoming for him because I hate Wyoming. CSURams.com lists him as a Defensive Lineman and credited him with 1 tackle for the 2019 season.

I went on a scavenger hunt for that one tackle and I think I found it:

Looks like Jalen Bates got there first, but it’s the closest thing I could find. Also notable, Quiroga is listed as a DL, but he was playing at linebacker most of the time. Re-watching that New Mexico game is a little wild: the defense was playing all kinds of different formations, Jeff Taylor was lining up in the back field, and the coaches went deeeeeep into the depth chart. It’s nice to know that regardless of how bad we are, we still own New Mexico so thoroughly that the coaches are comfortable messing around a little bit.

Cian’s name reminds of the word cyan, which reminds me of my first job. The office printer was giving an error message to replace the cyan toner cartridge, so I popped out the red cartridge and replaced it with a new one. Still got the error message. Grabbed a different red cartridge and replaced it. Still didn’t work. Finally, I had to summon my boss and tell him the damn printer was on the fritz. And that’s the day I learned that cyan is blue, and I somehow didn’t get fired on the spot. I wouldn’t be this astonished by the name of a color until a couple years later when I learned that chartreuse is green and not pink.

What’s ahead: The official roster says Quiroga went from 215 to 240, so it’s possible that he might be on the defensive line permanently this year. But with the combination of the guys we have returning and Scott Patchan transferring in from Miami, it might be difficult for Quiroga to see the field. Hopefully he at least gets playing time against Northern Colorado, certainly to be a blood feud against his former high school coach.

Brewery nearest Valor Christian High School: Blue Spruce Brewing Company

Blue Spruce is a brewpub with two locations in Centennial and Littleton. Their highest rated beer is their Blue Spruce Imperial IPA. Googling “brewery nearest Valor Christian High School” felt kinda weird, by the way.

Lowest Yelp review for Blue Spruce:

My man Jeff Z rolled into Blue Spruce with his Brett Favre Vikings jersey and a fucking coupon and was like “get me a burger and your finest club soda”. I am shocked- shocked– that he didn’t get the white glove service he so desired.

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Ranking Every Game of the Mike Bobo Era, #61

2017 Colorado, The OPI Game

• Score: Colorado State 3, Chris Coyte 17
• Line: Colorado -3
• Venue: Sports Authority Field at Mile High

Welcome to Sports Authority Field at Mile High, where the only thing more bankrupt than the stadium sponsor is the officiating.

Probably the lamest thing a fan can do after a defeat is blame the refs, but after this debacle, what else is there really to talk about?

The defense played great, only giving up 17 points and pitching a shutout in the 2nd half. That type of performance from your D combined with Mike Bobo and a $500,000 offensive coordinator should be enough… right?

First quarter, CSU is driving and has a 3rd and 4 and then:

Offensive pass interference? They guy got juked and fell down. So instead of 1st-and-Goal from the 9, CSU gets a 3rd-and-19 from the 41. Incomplete pass next and then a punt. (By the way, props to Andy Burnside for uploading these videos to YouTube. They’re the only video evidence left of this travesty, thanks to a cover-up by Larry Scott and George Soros.)

Third quarter, 1st-and-10 from the Colorado 27:

I… I don’t know. The CU DB isn’t held or re-directed. If you sit down and watch a Saturday’s worth of football, you see plays like this a million times. So instead of 17-10, CSU is stuck with a 1st-and-25. Izzy Matthews runs for two yards on the next play and then:

Hands to the friggin face. This one was probably the only defensible call made, but having two touchdowns called back in the span of three plays was a little hard to swallow. CSU went from 1st-and-10 on the CU 27 to 2nd-and-38 from their own 45 with two negated touchdowns in between.

And later in the quarter Nick Stevens completes a pass to Michael Gallup to the 15, but we know the drill by now:

CU out there flopping like Vlade Divac.

After the game, a CU player said, “We’re not going to say the refs helped us, but whatever happened, happened.” You’re not going to say it, but I sure as hell will.

Colorado would go on to have a crap season, only defeating Texas State (2-10), Northern Colorado (3-7), Oregon State (1-11), and Cal (5-7). Just a brutal loss against a shitty team.

Another bad thing about this game, our fans (myself included) NEVER SHUT UP about it. Nothing riles up a fanbase more than getting an unfair whistle, and nothing is more obnoxious than a fanbase who is always complaining about officiating. This game will always be remembered as the night the PAC 12 Officials wanted to show us their yellow and our fans only saw cyan red.

Fun fact: Instead of being banished from officiating forever, head official Chris Coyte got to ref the 2020 National Championship game because life isn’t fair.

The full game is here if you hate yourself and want to watch it:

Toby McBride • Defensive Line • Redshirt Senior • Fort Morgan, CO

So far: Toby McBride came to CSU as the quintessential Colorado Recruit^TM: Overlooked kid from the eastern plains, only offers from State, Wyoming, and Air Force. The type of recruit that a Top Booster like myself never shuts up about. He initially lived up to the hype, playing in all 12 games as a freshman and recording 9 TFLs and 4 sacks.

The sky seemed to be the limit, but then the injuries came. McBride didn’t play more than six games in a season for the rest of his career. We all thought his time on the football field had come to an end but then…

What’s ahead: Look who’s back! In a surprise announcement (well, at least for the uninformed such as myself) the school confirmed that McBride will be back for a Redshirt Senior year. I don’t know where to even start when trying to project his 2020 season. Where will he play? Will he be on a pitch count? Is he really up to 280 from 265? I don’t know and I really don’t care, I’m just happy to see him back.

In the meantime, Toby is smoking fools in Call of Duty:

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Brewery nearest to Fort Morgan, Colorado: Crabtree Brewing Company (Over 50 miles away in Greeley!)

Worst Yelp review for Crabtree Brewing Company:

So this fucking guy had to walk ten miles in the snow, uphill both ways, and you couldn’t even give him a beer? That’s a well-deserved one star review!

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Ranking Every Game of the Mike Bobo Era, #62

2016 Idaho, The Ice Bowl

• Score: Colorado State 50, Idaho 61
• Line: Colorado State -16
• Venue: JuCo Activity Field, Boise, Idaho

This game man…. this fucking game.

One of the joys of Mountain West Conference membership is knowing that at some point your team has to bite the bullet and play in the Idaho Potato Bowl. December 22nd, 2016 was Colorado State’s turn.

There are a lot of things not to like about Boise as a bowl destination, but as a Top Booster like myself, the worst part is their crap airport. With limited flights and short notice, tickets out of Denver were $500. And driving during that time of year isn’t an option, you’re just asking to get snowbound in Rawlins, Wyoming watching the game from your room at the Motel 6.

In the run up to the game, Coach Bobo didn’t use all his practices (I’ll never understand that) and only practiced indoors after arriving in Boise (I’ll never understand that). Word also came down that our good friends at Boise State “University” advised the equipment crew on what types of shoes to wear for the icy conditions. They wouldn’t lie to us, right guys?

The game turned out to be a sub-zero, slipping-sliding, shit-show. Idaho raced out to a 41-7 lead (41-7!!!) and never looked back.

To make the loss even more painful, at one point the geniuses at ESPN messed up the scoreboard and put CSU in the lead:

I was three sheets to the wind at that point and actually believed that we had come back to take the lead. I had to experience the loss all over again after the ESPN crew quickly corrected their score widget.

Idaho would end the year at 9-4. They would drop down to FCS after the following season.

Fun fact: Starting in the third quarter, CSU and Idaho combined for eight straight drives ending in touchdowns, a Potato Bowl record.

The full game is here if you hate yourself and want to watch it:

Ellison Hubbard • DL • Senior • Loganville, GA

Brewery nearest Loganville, Georgia: Slow Pour Brewing Company (10 miles away in Lawrenceville)

Worst Yelp Review for Slow Pour Brewing Company:

Braeden B from Vail, checking in! This is definitely the kind of review you’d expect from someone named Braeden from Vail. I hope his fantasy team was shit.

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Ranking Every Game of the Mike Bobo Era, #63:

2017 Boise State, The Ultimate Choke Job

• Score: Colorado State 52, Boise State 59
• Line: Boise -6.5
• Venue: Multipurpose Stadium

Here it is, the worst game of the Mike Bobo era. Using my proprietary game-ranking technology, this game ranks as the worst due to the stakes of the game, the irritating opponent, and the “come-from-ahead” style of defeat.

The Rams came into the game on a two-game losing streak, but remained mathematically alive for the Mountain Division title with a win and some help elsewhere. The Rams also entered the game 0-6 all time against the Broncos, and this represented a glorious chance to get that monkey off their back.

CSU started quickly, getting out to a 28-3 lead and eventually going into the half up 35-17. Boise made their inevitable comeback in the 3rd quarter, but CSU still held a 52-38 lead with three minutes to go in the game. Unfortunately, two major events occurred early in the 4th that would come back to bite them: settling for a field goal from the 1-yard line and Dalyn Dawkins (268 yards from scrimmage, 2 TDs) leaving the game with an injury.

Boise would score on their next drive to make it 52-45, then execute a miracle on-side kick over Michael Gallup’s head, then score again.

In overtime, Boise scored right away and Dawkins’ replacement Rashaad Boddie fumbled, ending the game.

The loss felt even worse when Wyoming and Boise lost in the following weeks, meaning CSU would have clinched a berth to the MW Championship. (And would go into the championship game coming off a Week 13 bye.)

Boise State finished the season 11-3 (22nd), with wins over Fresno in the MW Championship and Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Fun fact: In the three overtime games of the Mike Bobo era, CSU failed to score a point. As my guy Braeden B from Vail would say, unbelievable.

Here’s a video of the game if you hate yourself and want to watch: