welcome back to another semester of CTV Sports my name is Zoe Weir and I'm absolutely thrilled to dive in to another year of CSU Athletics as many things as we could talk about right now we have to dive into the crazy matchup this Saturday down in the Lone Star State and what the Rams are bringing with them first things first the CSU Rams have had a busy month preparing for the season with the team making their daily deposits and the new additions to the squad there seems to be a promising future ahead and Coach Nel is definitely on the same page coach speaks on the new ways of fall camp and heading into the season opener like every team in America we're really uh looking forward to starting our season this week uh we've had a good camp um done a lot of things differently than we've done uh in our preparation and I'm really anxious to see how that correlates to our play on the field we've got a a lot of experienced players back um we have a lot of newcomers that we've injected into this roster that we've worked hard with this this last month in training camp and I'm just really pleased with where we're at right now um but I'm anxious to get going and looking forward to this first opportunity now that we know where coach Nel is at as we start the season let's take a look at csu's key players who are expected to make an impact down in cowboy country starting with the Rams starting QB Braden fer Nicolosi fer Nicolosi is heading into his second season being the starter for the green and gold last season he threw for 3,460 yards 22 touchdowns and 16 interceptions now don't let these numbers set the stage after having a year under his belt and going to play his first game of the season in his home state f nikosi is expected to have a great year moving on to his key Targets this year Tory Horton and Dylan goffney seem to be the duo that's going to be celebrating In The End Zone together Horton turns for his final year at CSU and is looking to show up and show out once again last season Horton recorded 96 receptions 1, 136 yards and a whopping eight touchdowns the Rams will be using this Powerhouse all season long a more recent phe to the Rams this season is senior Dylan goffney goffney will also be heading back to his roots down in Texas and although he was only able to record 23 receptions 298 yards and two touchdowns last season it is evident we will start seeing a lot more of number five CSU has many more offensive threats heading down south with them but for now let's move on to defense the dyamic duo is back again senior captains Henry Blackburn and Jack Howell are looking to stop stop the Longhorns and bring the leadership Blackburn recorded 40 solo tackles last season with three interceptions while Howell was able to get an astonishing 50 solo tackles with one interception this duet is setting high expectations this year and it all starts in just two days for these seniors and lastly but certainly not least if we're talking about defense we can't skip out and Chase Wilson and boom jock Wilson joins Blackburn and Howell as a captain this season in fact the Rams have four of the six team captains as defensive players and if that doesn't speak on the leadership and Power on the security of the Rams I don't know what does linebacker Chase Wilson put up 44 solo tackles with four sacks last season and now that the Rams no longer have Mo Kamar to stop the signal caller it looks like Wilson is going to have to fill those shoes Wilson's right-hand man this season is only a true sophomore boom Jack Jack had 14 solo tackles as a freshman and now the green and gold are looking to use this linebacker as a key player this season all right now that we know a little bit of what the Rams will be using against the Longhorns we have to mention CSU definitely has it in for them I mean Texas is coming in as the number four team in the country they were one game short of being in the national championship game just last season and plus everything is bigger in Texas and well that is all I have for you guys tonight have a great rest of of your evening and I will see you guys next Thursday as we dive into csu's first home game against our neighbor Northern Colorado and stick around after the break our investigative reporters will catch us up on all the recent wildfires