Monday Presser: Discipline Has Marked Start of Season

Penalties have not been a red flag to start the Jim Mora era.

Colorado State is one of the least penalized teams in the country the first three games, drawing and average of just three yellow flags per game for an average loss of 27 yards, which ranks third.

The team drew four flags in the opener, just two against Southern Utah, three against BYU. The high in yardage lost is 36, coming the first week. The Rams haven't been assessed more than 25 yards in losses since.

The three last week, however, concerned Mora for good reason.

"I got a little bit nervous the other night because we had three penalties in the first three minutes, and I'm going, wait a minute, we only had six on the year at that point," he said Monday at his weekly press conference. "We got three in the first three minutes, and we mentioned that to each other at that point in time. But to me, it shows that there's good athletes on the team who are focused; they're being taught the right things."

It has been in stark contrast to the past five seasons where the Rams never ranked better than 70^th in penalty yards per game (2024), and from 2021-23, the team was ranked in the 100s.

Penalties are going to happen, and it's rarely good when they occur. The Rams have already had a couple of big plays erased by laundry on the field. Their lack points out a couple of positives to Mora.

"I think it's discipline, but it's also attention to the details of the fundamentals," he said. "Sometimes penalties, it's because you're not moving your feet, so you're having to grab. That's just one example. But a lot of people do label it as discipline, and it is a discipline because moving your feet so you don't grab, that's being disciplined in your technique.

UTSA is on the opposite side of the equation. Also at the bottom of the country. The Roadrunners have drawn 34 penalties for an average of 115 yards per game, more than any other team.

Packing Up

Colorado State will play its first road game of the season, traveling to Texas to face UTSA on Saturday. The game time is set for 10 a.m. local time, 11 a.m. in Texas.

There are adjustments to be made when traveling, and Mora said the team will play whenever it is scheduled, but the kick time is somewhat of a positive, considering the Rams are normally on the practice field at that time of day.
It also gave him a chance to show off his vocabulary.

"We didn't worry about it, but, yeah, our circadian rhythm will be right on track for the physical work that we do," he said. "You probably didn't think I'd knew a word like that."

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, it refers to the body's internal natural cycle for a 24-hour period.

Heading out will be another form of a test for his team. The Rams do so coming off a loss, one where they didn't perform well. He wants his team to move forward but do so properly. He wants his team to remember the difference between what they felt in the locker room as opposed to this past Saturday.

"Going on the road after a tough loss, you find out a lot more about your team," he said. "I think we'll grow from what happened last week going into this week."

Up Next

Like Colorado State, UTSA had a 2-0 start to the season before falling to a ranked team. In the case of the Roadrunners, which was No. 1 Texas on the road, a 30-6 defeat. Quarterback Owen McCown, who has hit on 64-of-92 passes for 559 yards (four touchdowns, one interception) will be familiar to the Rams, as he started for UTSA last year. The Rams did intercept him twice in a 17-16 loss.

Coach Jeff Traylor has built a consistent winning program since being named the head coach in 2019. The Roadrunners are on a run of six consecutive winning seasons. What he's done is impressive, and while Mora gives his counterpart credit, he knows it wasn't a one-man job.

As Mora has stressed, what he's seen at Colorado State is an administration which tries to find ways to say yes.

"Building a program takes a lot of people committing at a lot of different levels, and you've seen that commitment there. And I alluded to this after the game on Saturday night. We have that,' Mora said. "We have that formula here. It just takes time to get it going, and I used a statement last week in here that I thought that BYU is, like, the blueprint for the program. Not necessarily the team, the program. And we have that here. And we'll get there.

"We'll get there. We'll absolutely get there because we have people who are committed to it. You see that at UTSA. Jeff certainly, he's the guy with the name, but it's everybody working together, heading in the same direction."

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