It’s Day 2 of Fall Camp for Colorado State but today marks my first day back out on the football field outside of the newly named Canvas Stadium.
Every time I make the drive up from Denver to Fort Collins for camp, I’ll jot down some notes and thoughts from the 30-or-so minutes we in the media are allowed to see and put them here in my Camp Journal.
There’s a lot of changes with the Rams this season, from six new coaches to 27 new players, which also means I have A LOT of work to do when it comes to getting to know these new faces.
When I was making my way north this afternoon, I noticed some dark gray clouds moving in from the west. By the time I reached campus, the Rams were already on a weather delay but once that summer storm passed through, the sun came back out and the guys rushed on to the field to get to work with head coach Mike Bobo limping behind them. I quickly noticed a white sleeve fully engulfing his right leg. Turns out that the former Georgia quarterback had to undergo a knee replacement right after spring practice wrapped up. He was in good spirits though and even got to get out in the Poudre River to fish some this summer.
He’s not the only one recovering from injury. Collin Hill, the Rams quarterback who was the projected starter heading into this season before tearing his ACL for the second time, was back out on the field. If it wasn’t for the large, black brace on his left knee, I wouldn’t have recognized him at all. He’s grown out his hair, all the way down to his shoulders, and is also rocking a mighty fine beard. So props to you, Mr. Hill, even if your mom might not like it so much.
“He’s Sylvester Stallone, he’s Rocky. He said he’s not shaving or cutting his hair until he’s ready to go," Bobo said with a laugh. "He’s in training mode like Rocky was for Drago. That’s what he’s doing right now. He’s in Russia, running through the snow right now, training. And when they clear him, he’s shaving it off.”
So the day he comes to practice fresh-faced and clipped past the ears, we will know that Collin Hill is officially back. Bobo believes he’s around 75-80% back to being healthy so I don’t expect the wait to be very much longer.
While Hill has limited participation in practice, he’s lending a helping hand to graduate transfer K.J. Carta-Samuels. The fate of the season could be resting squarely on the shoulders of Carta-Samuels and whether or not he can make a smooth transition under center. The little bit I saw of him today wasn’t anything earth shattering but still promising. As expected, he was running with the No. 1’s today and on one series, almost got picked off by his roommate and fellow graduate transfer, cornerback V.J. Banks.
“Yeah, I wanted that. I’ve had two days in a row where I should have had that,” Banks said with a smile. “We’ll be going back and forth at night. He’ll hear it at night. I’m sure he’ll be giving me some mess too. It’ll go back and forth.”
Banks spent the last four seasons at Rice before an adductor injury abruptly ended his senior season just two games into the regular season. Unhappy with how things went his final year with the Owls, he found a chance to play one more season here in Fort Collins.
“I feel like I bring in a lot of experience playing four years. I have a voice, I know the game so I feel like I can aid this team,” Banks said. “At the corner position, everybody has to be talented to play that. So I feel like my experience and my technique is going to excel here and with this team.”
I spent a majority of the filming window watching the cornerbacks work with new cornerbacks coach Eric Lewis, who grilled his guys in drills and in jokes. On top of being a female sports broadcaster, anyone with a camera will draw the attention of a college athlete and Lewis was definitely enjoying his time putting them in their place if they started any funny business (I got a kick out of it when he told them that he said they needed to work on their Twitter game).
Outside of the strong diss-game of Lewis, his players say he makes one heckuva coach.
“He brings energy first of all. He builds on a lot when it comes to finishing,” said junior cornerback Anthony Hawkins. “Yeah, he’s still young at heart and he gets out there and moves around with us so that makes it fun also.”
