Setting the Stage: Border War

Colorado State (4-6, 3-3 MW) at Wyoming (6-4, 3-3)
War Memorial Stadium; Laramie, Wyo.
Friday, Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m.

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Rivals clash in 110^th Border War

Keep Building

The process took a lot longer than any of them had wanted, or even anticipated. Now with Colorado State's defense having turned a corner – and a five-game stretch is proof positive – the Rams don't want it to stop.

The unit enters Friday's game with Wyoming on a streak unseen in decades in the program. For the past five weeks, CSU has limited FBS foes to less than 400 yards of total offense, last accomplished back in 2000. For perspective, the only longer in-season streak came back in 1995, an eight-game stretch.

"Obviously the bottom line is to win games as a football team, but you have goals on each side of the ball each week," CSU coach Mike Bobo said. "Obviously the goal was to improve of how we started the year, but we're playing more like some goals we set in the offseason. Anytime you have a chance to do something that hasn't been done, you always talk about those things."

The players do talk about the improvement. They talk about the fact they are playing better. They also talk about not being good enough.

"From my standpoint, I still don't feel like we're there," defensive end Manny Jones said. "I mean, we're good, but we're not where we want to be. I want to be at the top. Everybody wants to be at the top. Not everybody is going to be there, but scratching and crawling to get there, we're trying to one-up ourselves every game. I don't look at stats or anything, but when you hear the accomplishments, it's gratifying you did well, knowing you can do better."

In the first four games against FBS teams this season, the Rams were allowing 496 yards per game; in the past five, just 342 – a drastic change. Instead of 45.5 points per outing allowed, it has been 26.2.

The yardage is nice, the points allowed are still a sticking point for the players, and yielding 28 in the fourth quarter last week was a letdown. Bobo's point was running teams will wear down a defense over the course of a night, and in the final frame, he felt the Rams didn't tackle as crisp or maintain focus.

Wyoming will take a similar path on Friday.

Still, making corrections and adjustments from a feeling of strength is a preferred proposition for the Rams.

"There's still some things we can clean up, get better at. It's just the mentality we've got to have if we want to be a top-notch defense," linebacker Dequan Jackson said. "Everything is not perfect right now, even though we're clicking. That's a good thing, but we want to be great.

"You've got that mentality that you just keep stacking days. We're doing that thing right, so let's hone in on something we're not as good at and make sure we keep it all up to par. It's building and building until it's hard to even do anything against us. That's what I want us to be. I want other teams to look at the film and have to build a game plan based off what we do. I want to put fear in offenses when they look at film and they think about playing CSU's defense."

Unforgettable Feeling

Braxton Davis remembers, and he's the only Ram on roster who has played and won a Border War showdown.

To hold the trophy, well, it's glorious.

"Oh, I miss it quite a bit," he said. "It's one of the best feelings in the world, just that rush, holding it, taking pictures. Everyone wants to get the Boot in the locker room, everyone is holding it, taking turns. No one wants to leave the locker room. Honestly, it's the best win."

What the rest of his teammates have experienced on the field is losses, three in a row. As a reminder, Bobo played a video on repeat Tuesday of Wyoming players chanting "it sucks to be a CSU Ram," on the Canvas Stadium turf a year ago. Wednesday, a constant feed of the Wyoming fight song.

"It does irritate you," safety Jamal Hicks said. "Looking at that video, I can't wait to play these guys."

For the newcomers, it all served as a constant reminder of what the game means now they are part of a rivalry stretching back two turns of the century. Over time, Nate Craig-Myers said the players start to tune it all out and focus on practice, and it just becomes noise, like a crowd on game day.

Bobo told them they'll get yelled at by the Cowboy faithful. Maybe not as much as he gets yelled at while home (he joked), but they will hear things directed at them.

Craig-Myers, who said everybody hated Auburn when they played there, understands the weight of this game now.

"Hearing that, and hearing the guys talk about it shows me there's a lot of intensity to this rivalry," he said. "They hate us, we hate them, but at the end of the day, we've got to go out there and do our job to bring home the Boot."

This is nothing new, of course. CSU has done this before, as have other schools. While at Georgia, Bobo said they played "Rocky Top" on a constant loop.

Rating the songs, Bobo said nothing is as bad as Rocky Top.

Catching Fire

Warren Jackson enters the game with 63 receptions for 940 yards and six touchdowns, putting him in line to crack the top 10 in a single season in each category. His catches rank tied for 12^th, and with 60 yards, he will become the ninth Ram to have a 1,000-yard receiving season -- 14 combined total. His 214 receiving yards against New Mexico is the eighth-best single-game output.

All of this comes with him having missed two games. It felt like a snub when he didn't make the Biletnikoff Award semifinalist list, as he ranks fourth nationally with 117.5 yards and 7.9 catches per game. He leads the Mountain West in both categories.

In his final two games, Jackson needs five catches, 123 yards and three touchdowns to crack the single-season lists.

In comparison to former Ram standouts, Rashard Higgins averaged 145.8 yards per game in 2014, Preston Williams 112.1 in 2018 and Michael Gallup 108.7 in 2017.

True freshman Dante Wright has proved the perfect sidekick, as his 52 catches for 731 yards and four touchdowns trail only Higgins in terms of true-freshman production at the position. Higgins finished his first season with 68 catches, 837 yards and six scores as the Rams' main target.

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