INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Ram Tough
Colorado State's gritty fifth-year seniors stopped Michigan State
by Ivan Maisel
Posted: Wed September 2, 1998
If a team has to dig itself out of a 16-0 hole on the road in its
season opener, it best be one with 16 fifth-year seniors. "I know
a lot of coaches would have come in at halftime and yelled,"
Colorado State defensive coordinator Larry Kerr said after the
Rams dominated Michigan State in the second half to win 23-16
last Saturday in the Black Coaches Association Classic. "I just
looked at my guys and said, 'You're good. You're better than
this.'"
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The Rams put the clamps on Irvin in the second half
while surging to a 23-16 win.
(John Biever)
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Yes, they are. Colorado State's roster has the depth of a WB
sitcom and a dearth of NFL prospects—Indianapolis Colts president
Bill Polian was on hand in East Lansing, Mich., on Saturday not
to watch any Rams but to scout Spartans—but it's rich in
experience. With schools limited to 85 scholarships and the top
juniors leaving for the pros, a good number of fifth-year players
"are probably worth two, three games a season," Colorado State
coach Sonny Lubick says. Fifth-year senior linebacker Nate
Kvamme, who showed up in Fort Collins four years ago weighing 185
pounds, is exactly the kind of in-between kid Lubick has
cultivated in developing a team that has won 10 straight games.
"It's not the fastest guys, the strongest guys, that make the
best football team," says the six-foot Kvamme, who's now all of
215 pounds.
In the first half Michigan State junior tailback Sedrick Irvin
rushed for 101 yards on 21 carries. His second-half totals: 19
and 9, respectively. The Spartans' offensive struggles looked
painfully familiar. Last season Michigan State went from 5-0 to
7-5 once defenses put eight men up front to stop Irvin and dared
the Spartans to throw.
The Rams have won three WAC titles in the last four seasons, in
no small part because of Kerr's effective use of a seven-man
front. His reputation has grown so much that last winter Spartans
coach Nick Saban offered him $120,000, almost double his $68,000
salary, to come to Michigan State as defensive coordinator. While
on his interview trip, Kerr happily explained the Colorado State
defense to Saban and his staff.
Kerr turned the job down to remain with Lubick. Imagine his shock
when, two months later, the Rams and the Spartans agreed to play
each other. Kerr figured that Saban would add some wrinkles to
his offense to take advantage of the Rams' seven-man scheme, but
he says that's not why he decided to install an eight-man
alignment against the Spartans. Kerr can watch tape as well as
the next guy. "If they have to pass, we win," he explained after
the game.
Michigan State ultimately did have to pass—but couldn't. Junior
Bill Burke, whose lower back is so tender that the Spartans have
him on a pitch count (from warmup to shower, he isn't allowed to
throw more than 100 passes per day), and freshman Ryan Van Dyke
combined to complete 13 of 25 passes for a scant 97 yards. An
average of 3.9 yards per rush is barely acceptable. Get that per
pass, and you're sunk.
Colorado State had greater success with its rookie quarterback,
fifth-year (of course) senior Ryan Eslinger, who had waited four
years for a chance to play, the last three behind Moses Moreno,
who was All-WAC last season. "I was just fed up," Eslinger says
of the last eight months. "I was so tired of hearing 'Moses this,
Moses that.' Moses is done. He's gone."
Eslinger awoke his slumbering teammates in the second quarter
when he threw a strike on a left-sideline streak to Darran Hall,
who turned it into a 57-yard touchdown. Eslinger finished with
205 yards passing and a very big win. After the game, as Lubick
dressed, he considered whether a team without so many fifth-year
players could have come back the way his did. "I don't think so,"
he said. "It's easy to give up and pretend you're playing." If
the Rams proved anything, it's that they don't pretend.
Issue date: September 7, 1998
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