Monday Presser: Rams Remain One Team Committed to Task

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Oct 24

4:30 PM

Football

vs San Diego State

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1:30 PM

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at Utah State

Nov 7

4:00 PM

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8:30 PM

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at Washington State

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5:30 PM

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at Fresno State

A football locker room is the one place athletically where the issue could exist.

There are players who are on offense, a different group on defense. Hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, the two groups are one in the same. Should one part of the game be lacking, the same group is addressed.

In football, there are literally two sides. The possibility exists for finger pointing, but Colorado State football coach hasn't seen it develop.

"Yes, you have to think about it, but I haven't had to address it because there's been no signs that anything like that is happening or would happen," Mora said Monday at his weekly press conference. "And that's because we have the right people in the building to get it fixed, to make it right, to make sure those things don't happen.

"I'm talking about players and coaches and staff members, you know. It is what you said. It is two separate entities, but it's also the ultimate team sport, you know. Although we're not on a field together, we depend on each other, and our players have a clear sense of that."

Colorado State's defense ranks last in the country in yards allowed (530.3) and points surrendered (43.2). The Rams' offense is in the top 30 nationally, averaging 35.7 points per game.

It's a surge in scoring fans of the program haven't seen in a decade. It's a spike in points allowed the program has never seen in program history. For as long as Mora has been coaching, he said he's been fortunate enough to avoid the situation, with the possible exception being very early in his career.

"Maybe when I was in my 20s with the Chargers, we had that for a little bit, but I've really never been on a team that has had that," he said. "I've been really fortunate to not have to get on a team that has done that, except when I was really young and no one was going to listen to me back then. So I was just, you know, drawing cards and keeping my mouth shut."

Fight Like a Ram

When Mora was addressing the team about this week's deeper meaning, he asked for a show of hands on whose lives had been impacted by cancer.

"I would say 95% of the hands were out, which I would say is true of probably all of us in here as well," Mora said. "So it always means a little bit more to us to play this game because you feel like you're playing for someone else and for a bigger purpose."

The game holds meaning to him personally as his mother is a survivor of breast cancer. He spoke of Samantha Sidwell, the wife of Scott Sidwell, CSU's deputy director of athletics and COO.

Mora said 10 years ago, she was undergoing her third chemotherapy treatment. She has been named the team's honorary captain for the game and will be on the field for the coin toss.

"She is now a 10-year breast cancer survivor and living her best life as a wonderful mom and a wonderful wife and a friend of mine for a long time and so she's going to walk out with our captains as a representative of all of the members of our families and our community that have been affected by cancer," he said. "So along with trying to get a win because we want to get a win, there's just a little bit of an extra motivation."

Decision Time

As things stand, Hauss Hejny is not Wally Pipp. It also means K'saan Farrar is not Lou Gehrig, though he's been pretty darn good.

"It's a nice problem to have, you know, but it's a complicated one. You always want the guy that came in and did a really good job, which is K'saan, to be acknowledged for that, for what he did," Mora said. "We're going to go through the week, and they're competing."

After starting the first three games – and exiting the third early with a hamstring injury – Hejny is set to return to the starting lineup this Saturday. Mora said he's long been in the camp a player doesn't lose his job due to injury, then named Hejny the starter against the Aztecs.

Both have started three games. Hejny threw for 931 yards, 10 touchdowns and just one interception, hitting on 64.4 percent of his passes. Farrar, thrown into the fire against BYU, had hit on 61.8 percent of his attempts, throwing for 631 yards, five scores and two interceptions.

"If Haas isn't feeling right physically when we get to the game, we're not going to put him in jeopardy," Mora said. "We're not going to compromise his long-term health knowing we have a guy like K'saan who can go out there and perform at a high level."

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