Thursday night, CSU football finally returns

What a wild and not so wonderful year it’s been. It looked like college football was off, then it was sort of on, and now it’s back on again. For Colorado, Air Force already got their start last week. For CSU, the time for football is now.

CSU was originally scheduled to begin their season last week against New Mexico. Due to surging COVID-19 cases in Albuquerque, that contest was canceled early last week.

Now, though, the Rams are finally getting started.

CSU’s football team will make their return to the gridiron on Thursday night as they open things up at Fresno State at 8 pm. The game will air on CBS Sports Network.

It was a wild path to get here for the Rams. There were the challenges that everyone dealt with this year in regards to the novel coronavirus, allegations that the team was falsifying their testing results, additional allegations of verbal abuse and racial insensitivity, an investigation into those accusations, the suspension of play, the resumption of football activities, the cancellation of their first game, and now the start of their season.

All of it has led to Thursday night.

Thursday night will mark the beginning of the Steve Addazio era in Fort Collins. Addazio was previously the head coach at Temple (2011-2012) and Boston College (2013-2019). He compiled a record of 44-44 at Boston College and 13-11 at Temple. He replaces Mike Bobo, who was fired after going 4-8 last year and is now the offensive coordinator at South Carolina.

There are plenty of talented players returning for the Rams this season, including Fort Morgan product and 2019 All-Conference tight end Trey McBride. Defensive lineman Manny Jones, linebacker Dequan Jackson, and punter Ryan Stonehouse are other returning standouts.

Of course, the loss of preseason Mountain West Offensive Player of the year Warren Jackson at receiver will hurt after Jackson opted out of the season. There’s also the matter of who will start at quarterback, 2019 starter Patrick O’Brien or Temple transfer Todd Centeio. Still, there’s reason to be optimistic.

It won’t be easy for the Rams to win this year. The Mountain West is as competitive as ever and adjusting to a new coaching staff in a pandemic shortened offseason will be no easy task. Still, after the year we’ve had, what matters most is that for the first time in what feels like forever, CSU football is back.