The Craig Way Show

Behind Enemy Lines: Colorado State Broadcaster Brian Roth

We go behind enemy lines and visit with Colorado State broadcaster Brian Roth to previews Saturday's game between the Texas Longhorns and the Rams. Craig Way and Roth discuss the off-season for Jay Norvell as he enters his 3rd season as the head coach. They discuss the talent on the roster for the Rams including Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and Tory Horton.

Duration:: 19m
Broadcast on:: 27 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call Runners' warehouse. ♪ It's the Craig Way show with a voice of the Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame broadcaster, Craig Way. ♪ Well, we mentioned that this is a Texas Tuesday. It also means it's a Texan Tuesday because our producer Cameron Parker rolls us back from breaks with some of the Lone Star State's musical icons and legends, starting always with the immortal Stevie Ray Vaughan. Correct. Not yet. We're waiting for Stevie Ray 'cause I knew he was special guests coming up. But we'll get the SRV later in the show. Okay, all right. I just put on the headset there. I thought you had- That's what you had Roland. Very, very similar sound. Oh, okay, all right. But we are gonna have that. Okay, and we do have a special guest. We jump right in on that. And obviously the Longhorns open the season this Saturday as they take on the Colorado State Rams who, by the way, have a Texas high school football product at quarterback. So I can tell you unequivocally that this will not be the first football game that I have ever called where Braden Fowler and Acosi, Nicollosi, was quarterback in the game. I did the 2021 UIL 5A Division One State Championship game where his iconic alma mater, Alito, which is one more state championships than any other program in Texas high school football history, just absolutely just road graded Crosby, a good Crosby team that beat them 56 to 21. And Braden had a big day that day and so did the rest of his Alito Bearcats. And now he's the guy to lead the Colorado State Rams and to visit with us to talk about that as a guy met during the NCAA basketball tournament. Remember when Texas played Colorado State in the first round in Charlotte. Brian Roth joins us now in the hotline. Brian, I appreciate the time. How are you? - Yeah, Craig, doing great. I'll take it back to that first round game in Charlotte. To that game, to that first half. Didn't they have like a 25-3 run for the long course to close up that first half? It was a brutal, profound nation to watch. I'm sure it was very enjoyable for a long ordination to take it. - Well, it worked for that they had their own, the long run fans had their own excruciating experience with a chance coming from behind to try to beat Tennessee. And that didn't happen in the second round. So we know all about that as well. But good to have you with us on the program. Tell us a little bit about what Jay Norville is trying to build now in the third season. Those of us who got a chance to work with him and get to know him really enjoyed our time when he was on the prior coaching staff and enjoyed being around Jay. And now he's really trying to build something there in Fort Collins through the first couple of seasons. How would you describe the steps he's taken and what he's trying to do to get the Rams into contending status in the Mountain West? - Yeah, and even to go a little bit further back than that too before Jay even got here. You know, Colorado State is a big university here in the state of Colorado that really bleeds in sports. And they've put a lot of resources behind their athletic programs, but in particular, their football program. And in 2017, the campus didn't have a football stadium. The Rams played three miles off campus. And to the president of the university thought that it'd be great to move the football campus, or the football stadium to campus. And so they built a brand new football stadium in 2017, Brights Mac dab in the middle of the beautiful Colorado State campus right up against the foothills and into the mountains of Colorado. And it really is a crown jewel. And it houses the entire football programs completely separate from the rest of the athletic teams at Colorado State. And it is hands down the best facility football wise in the Mountain West Conference and probably the group of five. So I just want to give you a baseline on what Colorado State has done to move the program forward. Now, it is not translated into success, which is almost inconceivable because the last winning season Colorado State has had was the year the stadium opened in 2017. And here's this program in one of the best college towns in the nation, beautiful spot of the United States and has the best facilities in the Mountain West Conference and the G5. And yet they can't seem to find a way to win football games and stream together wins and go to bowl games and win bowl games. It's really just been a head scratcher. - Well, Mike Bobo, who used for the Office of Coordinator, Georgia was the head coach here. He got fired into that 19. They brought in Stephen Dazzio from Boston College. That was a disaster in East Coast guy that had no Colorado or West Coast connections. He was fired up to two years. And in comes Jane Orville. And this is your number three for Jay. And the program was a mess when he took over two years ago, went three and eight the first year. Last year had a chance to go to a bowl game in the season finale at Hawaii. They lost, they finished five and seven and they're losing record. But now your number three, Craig, for Jane Orville. And the recruiting has been much better. They've gotten a higher level of athlete into the program. And Jane Orville finally has this program. Seemingly, I'm solid footing. So the expectations are high here in Fort Collins. Fans leave. This could be an eight-win team, a nine-win team. Get back to a bowl game, maybe even challenge for a mouth to mouth conference championship. So that's kind of the snapshot here of Colorado State Rams football. Jane Orville, I don't think there's any questions the right guy for the job. Now your number three, you're going to have to start seeing some tangible results. And that means bowl game and a winning season. Well, let me start with the quarterback. Like I was saying at the start, I'd call a state championship game that Braden Fowler and Niccolo, she played in as well. Richard sophomore as well. How about what he brings to the table player for the Rams? Well, he brings unshakeable confidence and some moxie. This is what he brings. And he brings a big time arm. He has an NFL type of arm. And I think the thing that's most impressive about Braden is the fact that into registered freshman last year, he was not the starter at the beginning of the year. Game number one, the Rams offense didn't play well against Washington State last year. And in the second half, Fowler and Niccolo, he comes in and those are 200 yards and two touchdowns. It ended up being a loss. But then the very next week, they named him the starting quarterback and the Rams went into Boulder to take on an in-state rival in Colorado. And if you remember back to that game, Colorado was 3.0. Or is Dion Sanders first year. Both Fox big noon kick off was in Boulder that weekend and ESPN game day. I mean, it was, I think, it ended up being the fourth most watched college football game. Of the season last year, 9 million people watched it. Least regular season games. And he was basically making his first starts in an environment like that. It was an eight o'clock at night game. And you throw in all the rivalry into it. I mean, it was an intense environment for a kid to go out there and make a start. And he went ahead and threw for 370 yards and three touchdowns. He did have three intersections, but rose to the moment, right? And those were some bright, bright lights. And he did not back down. And actually, he shined in those moments. So anybody that can go into a situation like that, having virtually not played any college football and to form the way he did, it was certainly impressive now. He's a gunslinger through 16 interceptions. That was tied for most in FPS football last year. That has to come down. But he's a kid certainly that has a lot of confidence. Let me ask you about a couple other of the offensive weapons. One is an interesting story in Justin Marshall, the running back who had three great games late in the season. And those were the only games he played in. So he gets to be a freshman again and him in the backfield. And then the other guy I want to ask you about, obviously, folks were in fact, Sark was asked that the news conference yesterday about Tory Horton and how dangerous he can be. And he had over 1,100 receiving yards. He touched down all Mount and West a year ago. How about those two guys? Marshall and the backfield and Horton at Whiteout. Yeah, I mean, Colorado State had really a dearth of scholarship players that were running back last year. They were playing walk-ons and the run game suffered. And they had a couple of two really good freshmen, true freshmen last year that just weren't ready. And Justin Marshall was one of those guys, a kid from just outside of Chicago by Gary, Indiana. And a guy that they really liked, which just was having a hard time adjusting the college football as first during camp. It wasn't picking up the offense. And in the run game was so bad they're playing walk-ons. You get to the third, the last game of the season, they said, look, the coaching staff said that we're going to put this kid in and against San Diego State. I think you ran like 19 times for 125 yards and a couple of touchdowns and just made some incredible runs. I think all of the Rams fans are back, where the heck is this guy? I've been last year. We've been playing walk-on running backs. But ended up averaging 100 in, what, four yards per game in the final three games of the year. Now he comes back a year under his belt. And he's a good little player. He says he's not very big. He goes 5'10" about 185, but really good in tight spaces. And he was last year in the final three games, turning two yard runs into seven and eight yard runs. He was turning runs that were blocked for six yards in the 12, 13, and 14 yard game. So he'll be fasting to watch the Rams fans this year. And then he comes about Tory Horton. You know, he's a kid who has been around for a long time, started screw it in Nevada. And then the last two years here in this era, right off, is for Colorado State has put up back to back 1,000 yard receiving yard seasons at 96 sketches last year. Would have been a draftable guy in April had he decided to go out. Probably would have been a six-round-type pick. But what the scouts were telling them is that he just needed to add a few more pounds to his frame 'cause they didn't think he would be able to withstand an NFL season with a slight body frame. Well, now he's up to 190, 195, and put on 15 pounds. And he's got the skills. There's no question, but he's the best button returned to the Mountain West Conference. And Tory Horton is a botified NFL prospect. And if he turns out another 1,000 yard receiving yard season has 100 catches this year, which is certainly in the realm of possibilities. No, Tory Horton could be a second, third, fourth, round type kid. Colorado State play-by-play voice. Brian Roth with us here on Sports Radio AM 1300, the zone. On the defensive side, everything I've read has said that really, truly Chase Wilson, the senior linebacker, kind of anchors the core there. How about you thought on the Ram defense? Yeah, you know, they lost their best defensive player a season to go to graduation in the NFL draft, getting Mo Camara, who had, I think, 15 and 1/2 sacks last year. It was a Mountain West Conference defensive player. The year was a fifth round pick of the Miami Dolphins in April. He is gone. And so that's going to be a major problem for the Rams. Who's going to be able to rush the quarterback? And that certainly is one of the question marks. But Chase Wilson is just a football player, right? I mean, a kid that is born and bred to be a linebacker. And it's just what he is. He's a Colorado kid, had over 100 tackles last year. And he anchors the interior of that defense. And on the back end, there are two more Colorado kids that have played a ton of college football. And Henry Blackburn and Jackal, Jack's dad, was an all-American safety for the Rams back in the 1990s. And what a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in 2000, 2002. So good football pedigree. But two safeties that have really played a ton of college football. And two guys that, when their careers are done, are each going to have over 300 career tackles, which, as you know, is a ton. No doubt about that. OK, so in this new world, and it's kind of a-- I know a little bit strange thing for the Mountain West, all of a sudden, have Oregon State and Washington State kind of knocking on your door going, hey, it's OK if we play you guys while we figure out our futures, that kind of thing. But you've got to Oregon State in the non-conference, as well as Texas, Colorado, UTEP, and Northern Colorado, nearby Greeley. Is it your thought, if they can find a way to go three and two, four, and one in that first, in that five-game non-conference stretch, they've got a good chance to get to what you talked about at the top of a conversation about getting into a bowl game, taking that next step forward. Yeah, I mean, there's no question about it. Obviously, the Texas game on Saturday is a long shot, as we all know, to be aware. And I think every national grand fan is putting that as a loss. They certainly hope to compete well against the Longhorns on Saturday, and certainly you want to stay healthy. That's both teams goal. But then after that, they have three straight home games. And Northern Colorado is an FCS team that didn't win a game last year. Rams are going to roll on that one. Then you get Colorado in town, and Deon Sanders is going to be absolutely zoo in Ford Collins. But certainly a winnable game. Rams should have won the game in Boulder last year. And then you tap the team that I think won two games last year and replaced our coach. So you look at September, you get three straight home games after the Texas game. You can go three and one. And if you're sitting at three and one there, and then you go into October, you go to Oregon State, who has been pretty good the last number of years, lost their head coach Jonathan Smith to Michigan State, though, if you're in this past offseason. But you go three and one in September. I think this is going to be a football team that's going to have a lot of confidence. And a football team that the conference schedule sets up well for an early season. You get off to a good starting conference play. And yeah, I mean, I think it's a team that has a chance to win eight games. Maybe it's tough breaks, right? You win nine games. You start getting this thing rolling at the G5 level. And again, going back to the facilities, Craig, there is no reason that Colorado State isn't always in contention about West Conference. And is always right there in the mix, trying to get that G5 spot in the new 12 team play. No doubt about it. He's Brian wrong play by play voice. So the Colorado State Rams says he's going to make his first trip to Austin. So Brian, take it easy down there. If you go down there on the 6th street on Friday night, but we'll look forward to seeing up in the broadcast booth on Saturday. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. I'm getting a little longer in the 2000s, 10 years ago. I probably would have had to take it easy down these days. My old age makes me take it easy. You could settle for some great barbecue, whatever. And then an early evening, right? Absolutely. A couple beers, some barbecue, and an early evening. Get ready for some college football. We're looking forward to it. You can definitely find all of that in this town this weekend. Hey, Brian, I appreciate you taking the time. Look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks, Greg. All right, that's Brian Roth play by play voice of the Colorado State Rams. And yeah, so the Longhorns will host the Rams Saturday afternoon at 2.30. Our coverage, of course, begins here at 11.30 Saturday morning with our Longhorns game day crew. And that would include Cameron Parker as well as my card ball, Harge, and Mark Henry. And they'll be down on Bevo Boulevard and looking forward to bringing you the pregame program from 11.30 to 1.30 network pregame at 1.30 in the kickoff at 2.30. Up next, inconceivable. We get to that next when we continue on Sports Radio AM 1300, the zone. I'm Victoria Cash, and I want to invite you to a place called Lucky Land, where you can play over 100 social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. So what are you waiting for? The best way to discover your luck is to spin. So go to luckylandslots.com. That's luckylandslots.com. And get lucky today at Lucky Land. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, boy, prohibited by law, 18-plus terms and conditions apply. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. 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