Colorado State Football: Rams face total rebuild in 2018

Colorado State football lost a ton of talent on both sides of the ball from a team that finished 7-6 in 2017. Can this year’s roster get the Rams back to a bowl?

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Colorado State entered the 2017 season with high hopes of contending for the Mountain West title. They boasted a veteran offense with a prolific quarterback and running back, skilled receivers, and a sound game plan. The defense failed to live up to its billing, putting up decent enough stats to give the Rams a chance every game but hardly anything transcendent on its own.

Instead of threatening Boise State for the division title, the Rams ended up finishing the regular season 7-5. It was good enough to get to a bowl game, but after going 6-2 through mid-October it was a limp to the finish line. The Rams went on to lose 31-28 to Marshall, their third one-score loss of the year.

Now Colorado State returns just nine starters in 2018. According to Bill Connelly’s returning experience rankings, no team returns less talent in the upcoming season than the Rams. That will put a lot of pressure on incoming freshman and student-athletes coming out of their redshirt seasons. Not only that, the coaching staff is dealing with major attrition on both sides of the ball as well.

Expectations are much lower in Fort Collins this fall. The big question comes down to whether this crop of youngsters can keep Colorado State on path for a sixth consecutive bowl appearance. Let’s look at the new-look offense and defense before diving into the schedule and evaluating the Rams’ chances in 2018.