Kevin Lytle, of the Coloradoan, speaks on game between Longhorns and Rams | FOX 7 Austin

we should at least give some look at the opponent that we're they're facing literally this week Colorado state had no sleep on J nor let's not sleep almost did last year I remember watching that almost came back to bite him that was a heated game obviously hey it's a bit of a homecoming and homecoming I know he coached here for like a season he did as well so well and that's what we remember uh you know he was an assistant under Charlie Strong and when they hired him you know he comes in hot he brings in some some fire and saw some dark days here at this brought yes he did um but yeah I can remember when Colorado State I mean they should have beat Dion in Colorado U but yeah I think he went to double OT but it was a fun game but norell is pretty Fearless he he gets his guys ready to roll um I know they got a stud receiver I think he had about 20 catches in that game Alone um but um and obviously they got some guys that want to be there right but saying no to 600k of nil um but uh but yeah I Colorado State when you when you get past all that they are I guess top half of their conference they expected to be yeah um I mean they're coming off six straight years of not making a bowl game and I remember I grew up in Mountain West country remember I'm from Al cre New Mexico I used to seeing UNM and Colorado State go toe-to-toe with each other not a lot of exciting football games so say growing up but um they were always kind of like in that middle tier at the top of the M West relatively up until like you know Boise kind of came in and took over the conference um but yeah now they're in the down years right as a program and they're hoping that they can make it this the year to finally get back into that conference as competitive Graces um and hey you this is going to be we talked about what is their Super Bowl right that I mean this is your week one this is where you put all your eggs in the basket again this is all the offseason conversation if you're norval you're putting on all the game T from last season and you're saying this is Texas let's go in there I mean we're 30o dogs we have nothing to lose right um and that worked for Wyoming last year right let's not forget that game was way closer than it needed to be but thankfully we have the HomeField advantage in this case and I think that might be the differentiative factor yeah you know and this is you know m brown used to hate um legit week one opponents because this when you're working at your kings this is one when you're kind of fine-tuning for week 2 three and four you need that preseason game um I'm not saying Colorado State's a preseason game but you would probably wanted to play the blind Sisters of the Poor Etc but I mean yeah this is what Texas fans this is what sarc wants in week one is a team that yeah you line up you should be about 30 points better than so I agree well you know hey we got some great Insight this week I talked to an expert on all things Colorado State Kevin LEL of the Colorado in uh Kevin great voice of Colorado State football here's my conversation with him Longhorns open his 35o favorites Kevin what do you think do you think that's a fair line for this Rams team yeah it's one of those I mean those lines once you get you know into the four plus touchdown range it it gets a little wonky I mean in some ways obviously it does make sense Texas is you know I think a a favorite to be one of the col college football playoff participants obviously it's in Austin I'm going to assume it's going to be blistering hot Quinn ERS is is Quinn newers and colado state is a Mountain West team coming off you know five and seven years so you know in those ways it makes sense on the flip side this is a pretty experienced Colorado State team most of their best players not all but most of their best players from last season are back U most of these guys have played in you know some of these big environments like this you know two years ago Colorado State opened you know at Michigan so a lot of these guys have been in you know kind of the big environment type of games and you know they can score the ball which you know if you have to cover a 35 36 point spread you know you can't give up many points in that way it feels a little high but um certainly under sble with the excitement around Texas that it would be a pretty big line well Kevin you do mention this is an experienced Colorado State team and two of the most experienced guys there are gonna be Bren fer niosi and Tory hordon and they were in the headlines this week uh turned down a substantial amount of money to play elsewhere uh what have you heard about that yeah so Braden fer niosi took over at quarterback uh basically week one last year Kay Millan was the star going into the season it went haywire pretty quickly and um BFN as as fans here call him uh took over and really took the range he's aggressive a guy big arm can make big plays you also had you know a lot of interceptions last year Tory Horton is one of the best receivers I think probably the best in the group of five he could play just about anywhere he's been guy that's had on offers uh you know sort of your your underhanded third party nil offers for a while and keeps sing them down he also could have gone to the NFL after last season and really had a long debate about whether to do that or not ended up sticking with you know Jay norell in this system uh you know to improve his draft stock and yeah likewise with BFN he had offers you know again in this nil world there's a lot of that yeah I broke the story about the bfn's you know alleged big offer is back in December and it kind of just keep surging forward um you know basically they they feel that this is a system where they can showcase their talents to lead to the NFL which is where the you know big long-term riches are and you know it's also fair to say they're not you know playing you know for nothing right now at Colorado State but yeah it's uh at least right now for Colorado State fans it's a a great way to um you know build some loyalty those players you know certainly our fan favorites right now and and that just makes it more so so yeah it's I guess kind of just symptomatic of the modern college football is you know if you're a group of five player who's you know really good you know that's going to be part of the conversation yeah I guess that was gonna be my question on it too is like did these guys have NFL prospects were they going to get that money eventually because $600,000 if that's true what was being reported that's that's not a little amount of money by any means right yeah yeah definitely significant Tory Horton a guy and he would have been drafted in April if he had left he's he's definitely that quality was more about where um and the feedback you got from scouts was you know obviously a lot positive but you know some of uh you know things that come with being a tall wiy receiver you know add some weight bulk up uh you know sustainability that type thing so he did that he's um I've seen some places that say he could be a first round pick next year you know so he certainly has early day potential you know BFN it's a little bit more TBD just cuz he you know he has 11 career starts so he's pretty you know young in his career in a way but I think there's no doubt if you watch him play you can see the potential if he you know continues to grow um and you know improve his game and be more consistent he has a lot of the tools so yeah I think no doubt those guys have a chance and Tory Horton I think most specifically and and immediately uh you know he'll be probably high on a depth chart in an NFL roster a year from now and from my understanding you have Heisman credentials Heisman voting credentials is that correct yeah I am a Heisman voter last year is my first year what do you make of Quinn uers because we know he's going to be in that race absolutely he's a guy that has all the tools obviously a good team around him which you know in theory isn't necessarily part of it but I think it's naive to to say that winning doesn't help a candidates case um I think he's one of a variety of guys you know that the coreback group this year I think there's a lot of conversation about you know who's going to emerge as the guy uh you know there's a lot of talk out here in Colorado about you know sh or sand is one of them obviously Georgia is always in that mix but Quin absolutely is is one of those guys right there that could be you know the top quarterback this season and you know personally I'm excited to see him you know live and in person week one and and yeah a guy that certainly from kind of the Heisman side I'll have I imagine I'll be watching all year long to see how he's doing Colorado State they haven't been bowling in a little bit uh sixy year drought norval he's been over there for a couple years going into his third year this season what do you make of the job he's done and do you think he has this team ready to break that drought yeah so it's an interesting one he he was in the Mountain West at Nevada um 20 what would have been 21 the last game of the season ironically norell and Nevada played at Colorado State absolutely wall uped Colorado State Steve adio guy ejected before halftime and that ended up being basically his last sight as a Colorado State coach got fired and norell got hired to to replace him and he was taking over a disaster uh Steve adio he was only here two years but it was an awful two years he he really ran the program into the ground um and so it was a full rebuild year one showed that they had a lot of you know basically a lot of fixing to do the team was better last year but I think it was a let down to not make a bowl and expectations are pretty high this year uh you know the schedule in some ways tough obviously opening at Texas but they actually got some breaks in Mountain West play I think the bare minimum expectation for Colorado State this year is to make the post postseason in some form well that was another interesting thing about um BFN and hordon turning down those offers their goal to win a championship what does that mean for Colorado State because I know it doesn't mean actually holding the college football playoff trophy at the very end I'm from Mountain West country I get it I get the chip on your shoulder from out there um is that just winning the Mountain West would that be the definition of that turnaround yeah I think that you know certainly that's I think probably the goal because you know not just the Mountain West any group of five program if you win your conference Championship you at least have a chance to be in that college football playoff now that's expanded I certainly think Mount West teams feel that they have you know whoever the Mountain West Champion becomes is going to have a good chance to be in the cfp so yeah I think that's a lot of talk of hey if you can go Inn a mount West Title you have a good chance to be in the cfp and um you know certainly for any G5 program that would be a huge success you know Colorado State you know because of the schedule I can say you know they don't have to beat Texas uh you know to make the cfp they can you know lose Texas they have Colorado coming in if you were to say beat Colorado and win the M West you know that's probably a playoff team so yeah I think the championship talk is aiming for a mount West and like say CSU got some favors in the schedule they don't play Boise State um in the mount West who is you know obviously a favorite uh they they avoid San Diego State who's you they're in a coaching change but generally are pretty solid so um they got pretty you know favorable scheduling from that standpoint and you know some of it is you know the talk of of Camp everyone is every team in in college football is optimistic right now um but but that I think is sort of the the Viewpoint of this team of like hey you know if you go win the mount West you you get to go where you want to go let's talk a little bit of strengths and weaknesses I've heard you in past interview talk about a big weakness for the Rams being their secondary have they addressed that because the talk around town here in Texas is that we have the deepest wide receiving room since s has taken over yeah well I mean that talk about a nice challenge off the bat you know Heisman Trophy cand quarterback like you say a bunch of good receivers that secondary will be tested now obviously that's not going to be the be all IND all analysis of that group you know if you give up points to Texas you know that's still got doesn't mean your season is doomed but yeah it is it's interesting because at safety there's a lot of experience Henry Blackburn Jack how they've played a ton of games for CSU uh All Conference type players they should be solid there but at cornerback it is a question mark Dom Jones played decent bit for the Rams last year uh and then after that you know they lost one quarterback in chig andium to the NFL another one a young guy TJ Crandle transferred to to West Virginia so they have uh holes there they got a NADA transfer and Isaiah sisma who they're excited about some other guys you know between youngsters and a couple more transfers um so they've certainly attempted to address it you know there have been some good signs in Camp but I think it's definitely one of those that you're going to need to see you know on the field how it produces because that yeah CSU just gave up too many big plays last year I know a big concern here is we have to replace bber mvy and dandre SWAT along the defensive line uh do the Rams have a running back that could challenge in the interior because I know this has been described as more of an air raid style offense yeah it's the run back room is really fascinating last year due to injuries um basically there the Ryan back room was decim they ended up most of the season starting a walk- on at Ryan back who you know did the best he could but you know was limited in some ways but now they have five to six guys that they really believe in Justin Marshall as a true freshman came in and averaged about 100 yards a game the last three games of the season last year uh he's in the mix I have a guy in Kobe Johnson who ended up having a medical red shirt last year but he had more than 2 200 yards at North Dakota State prior to coming to CSU um they have a few other guys and Norvell has talked about you know more balance in the offense it's still you know like you say it's still technically an Air Raid Offense they're still gonna throw it a lot but they they know they need to control games better at times you know if you have a lead in the fourth quarter you have to find a way to salt that away and they like their run game and they're actually really excited about that group this year it's been quite a change from what they had last year when they were just so limited with injuries let's talk about the Rams pass rush last year they had Mohamed Kamar a guy that had 13 sacks last year he's now in the pros going now against Kelvin banks in this Texas Longhorns offensive line Calvin Banks a preseason all SEC type player how do you think the Rams are going to do game pressure on the quarterback it's still funny hearing all sec in regards to to Texas but uh but yeah that that's a huge question Kamar was awesome 13 13 and a half sacks I think it was last year he's with the dolphins now uh really good player it's it's going to be by committee I don't think there's any expectation that someone's going to come in and have 13 sacks this season for Colorado State um it's going to be a variety of guys newer gatou is probably high on that list he's a youngster played a pretty good amount last year um got some tackles for loss not much in the sack column but he'll now be the guy that you know CSU tries to get on the weakest offensive linemen especially in push situations but they have a lot of youngsters in that area that you know they're going to you know have potential but don't necessarily have the you know college resume to show it so they're going to need some guys to step up that's definitely I think they're deeper on defensive line uh but but maybe a little bit more inexperienced now what are your expectations for this game and how it plays out because I know a lot of Longhorn fans look at this game and think oh this is just some Chum man West team were bringing in to score 50 on again the betting line being 35 however I remember a game against Wyoming last year where the horns only were up a touchdown going into the fourth quarter so I'm just saying surprises happen what do you make of this game and how norval and Company are going to approach it yeah I would imagine uh the Texas staff will probably be pointing that game out to players as well make sure like hey let's not Sleepwalk through this one especially I believe Texas goes to Michigan the next week so you know I don't want to say Trap game that's way overused and it's week one but you know you could see how it wouldn't be you know the highest profile game you on Texas's schedule uh CSU I think you know fans are realistic I think everyone knows this is probably a game CSU loses but I think most realistically that the thing CSU wants to get is have the offense show some stuff you know if you can score some points you know move the ball around on Texas that'll give you confidence you know moving into other games that hey if we go down to Austin can score you know we're going to be all right and defensively yeah it's going to be a huge challenge but again see some positives see some of those young guys you know like I say a newer Gat cth if he can you know create some problems you know get in Quinn 's face as he's you know trying to throw again you're not going to face you know the talent uh you know moving down the road as they will in Texas so I think that's a lot of it and you know as far as the line goes you know I think CSU folks fans would like to see a cover there that's a pretty big line and if you want to be a big-time offense which C you think it can be you should be able to cover that one so yeah I think you know most people are realistic it's probably not an upset watch type of game you never know um but they would like it to be you know semi competitive I tell you if you want to see a bunch of people running around with their head on fire in Austin if that's a two touchdown game that that would be the vibe around town yeah after that uh but anyway uh Kevin Li thank you so much for joining us I appreciate your inside look forward to week one and thank you for being here absolutely thanks for having me looking forward to Austin for the day one the die hards the first timers the oldtimers for all the Rivalry matches buzzer beaters and come from behind Miracles it's not just stats and wins and losses it's the moments the shots you 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