Colorado State Football

Colorado State is going way back in time with the newest addition to its uniform set ahead of the 2024 football season.

The Rams unveiled a new orange, white and green look to honor their old Aggies moniker. The team will wear the jersey for its Sept. 7 matchup with Northern Colorado.

A bold new flare to our 𝐀𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬🔸🌾 pic.twitter.com/6y4fjMBqSB

— Colorado State Football (@CSUFootball) August 20, 2024

𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝑨𝒈𝒈𝒊𝒆𝒔 🔶 pic.twitter.com/6uXkwZ0hnB

— Colorado State Football (@CSUFootball) August 20, 2024

Colorado State began wearing orange uniforms in 1940, a departure from the green and gold design that has long been the program's primary color scheme. The orange throwbacks resurfaced as part of the Rams' Ag Day celebrations.

CSU was originally founded in 1870 as Colorado Agricultural College before being renamed the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1935. The school adopted its current moniker in 1957.

While the Rams nickname has endured through the generations, the mascot's name (CAM) is a nod to its past.

On the gridiron, Colorado State has long lived in the shadow of its in-state rival, Colorado. The Buffs have a 68-22-2 record all time over CSU. Their last meeting saw the Rams fall 43-35 in overtime.

Head coach Jay Norvell is looking to end a six-year bowl drought in 2024. Colorado State faces off with Colorado in its third game (Sept. 14), and avenging last year's heartbreaking loss will be a way for Norvell to show the team has made positive strides forward.

HEIGHT: 6'3"

WEIGHT: 241

HAND: 10¼"

ARM: 33⅝"

WINGSPAN: 78⅛"

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40-YARD DASH: 4.78

3-CONE: 6.83

SHUTTLE: 4.21

VERTICAL: 32.5"

BROAD: 10'2"

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POSITIVES

— Smooth, graceful mover overall. Above-average foot quickness and change of direction.

— Good YAC player. Runs with confidence; has the movement skills to weave through the second level.

— Mobility allows him to be an effective blocker. Typically able to hit his landmarks quickly and adjust out in space.

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NEGATIVES

— Not a particularly explosive mover. Lacks instant burst when he needs it.

— Poor catch radius. Struggles to adjust to throws outside his frame or go to the ground for the ball.

— Rarely used on timing routes or as a security blanket over the middle. Needs to be on the move.

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2023 STATISTICS

— 12 G, 64 REC, 767 YDS (12.0 AVG), 6 TD

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NOTES

— Born April 7, 2000

— 3-star recruit in BYU's 2018 class, per 247Sports

— Transferred from BYU to Colorado State in 2023

— 16 career starts

— Spent 2019 and 2020 on mission in Vina del Mar, Chile

— Missed a majority of the 2022 season with an ankle injury

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OVERALL

Dallin Holker checks a lot of the boxes to be a useful TE2 with blocking skills and yards-after-the-catch ability.

Holker's selling point is his ease of movement. He is a smooth, controlled athlete who has zero issues navigating through the second and third levels. He has enough speed to run away from linebackers and the agility to beat safeties on deeper routes such as seam benders and sail routes.

Those same movement skills show up when Holker has the ball. He is a graceful and confident runner. Holker rarely hesitates to plunge up the field when he sees green grass, but he has the vision to know when and how to make a move to make someone miss. Holker does needs a bit of a runway to get started, though, which is why flat routes and shallow crossers are his trademark.

Holker is largely limited to that style of play. He does not have an impressive catch radius or reliable hands. Holker too often fights the ball even in routine instances, and he doesn't have the concentration or quick hands to reliably snap to throws outside his frame.

As a blocker, Holker is more than good enough. He is not a bully, but his movement skills allow him always to get to the spot first. Holker also plays with good intensity and sticks on blocks.

Holker is likely close to his ceiling given his age and experience. His limited catch radius may also hurt his chances to emerge as a bonafide NFL starter. With that said, Holker's blocking utility and movement skills make him a solid off-ball TE and H-back candidate as a backup.

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GRADE: 5.9 (Backup/Draftable — 6th/7th Round)

OVERALL RANK: 191

POSITION RANK: TE10

PRO COMPARISON: Jake Ferguson

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Written by B/R NFL Scout Derrik Klassen

Visit B/R's NFL Scouting Department hub for scouting reports on all of the top prospects.

HEIGHT: 6'1"

WEIGHT: 248

HAND: 8⅝"

ARM: 32⅜"

WINGSPAN: 78½"

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40-YARD DASH: 4.57

3-CONE: N/A

SHUTTLE: N/A

VERTICAL: 34.5"

BROAD: 10'3"

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POSITIVES

— Times up the snap well on passing downs and has a nice initial burst off the line.

— Sets up his pass-rush moves well during the stem phase of the rush by getting to square and/or faking inside.

— Has a good rip move to win around the edge.

— Relentless motor to get coverage sacks.

— Takes on blocks with good leverage at the point of attack as a run defender.

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NEGATIVES

— Short and lacks ideal length for an NFL edge.

— Timing and accuracy with his hands/initial chops to start his pass-rush moves are a little off. Often late and allows offensive linemen to make the first significant contact.

— Hips and ankles are a little stiff, which limits his bend to turn a tight corner at the top of the rush.

— Stops his feet on contact and has a habit of ducking inside when setting the edge as a run defender.

— Gets stuck on blocks and blends in rather than standing out versus run.

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2023 STATISTICS

— 12 G, 56 TOT, 17.0 TFL, 13.0 SK, 1 PD, 1 FR, 1 TD, 2 FF

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NOTES

— Born May 29, 1999

— 3-star recruit in the 2019 class, per 247Sports

— 2023 Mountain West Player of the Year

— 2023 first-team All-Mountain West

— Team captain in 2023

— No major injuries

— Brother, Amara, played at Temple

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OVERALL

Mohamed Kamara could be a solid pass-rusher in the NFL. He was highly productive over the last three seasons at Colorado State with 28 sacks while rushing from several different alignments. He has decent quickness and some nuance as a rusher to go along with a nice rip move and a relentless motor.

Against the run, Kamara has a few strengths that stand out. He takes on blocks with good leverage, gets under pullers as the spill player in run fits and stays close to the heel line when unblocked to help make tackles from the backside versus zone runs. However, he struggles to shed blocks and likely won't be much of a factor on early downs in the NFL.

The Colorado State product also has a lot of other factors that will impact his draft stock and be hard to overcome. He lacks the ideal NFL size/length for the position, is an older draft prospect as a sixth-year senior and played at a lower level of competition.

Overall, he's worthy of a Day 3 selection for any team looking to add a situational pass-rusher in the later rounds.

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GRADE: 6.6 (Potential Role Player/Contributor — 4th Round)

OVERALL RANK: 119

POSITION RANK: EDGE12

PRO COMPARISON: Ogbo Okoronkwo

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Written by B/R NFL Scout Matt Holder

Visit B/R's NFL Scouting Department hub for scouting reports on all of the top prospects.

Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes have quickly become the most popular college football team of the 2023 season.

ESPN announced on Tuesday that Colorado's double-overtime win over Colorado State this past weekend drew 9.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched late-night college football game ever broadcast on the network.

The game between the Buffaloes and the Rams didn't kick off until after 10 p.m. ET, and it ended around 2:30 a.m. with Colorado earning a hard-fought victory. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal pointed out that the game peaked at 11.095 million viewers between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m. and still registered 8.230 million viewers at 2:15 a.m.

The Colorado-CSU game audience peaked at 11-11:15pmET with 11.095 million viewers.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) September 19, 2023

ESPN noted that it was the fifth-most regular-season game ever on the network in any time slot, which is a massive achievement considering that broadcast window averaged 1.7 million viewers last year. It was also the most streamed game of all time for the network.

Colorado has captured the attention of the college football world thanks to their impressive start to the season in their first year under Sanders, which featured an upset win over then-No. 17 TCU and a strong victory against Nebraska. Those two games were broadcast on Fox in the Big Noon slot and averaged about 8 million viewers, per ESPN.

However, the game against Colorado State was preceded by a testy buildup following comments from Rams head coach Jay Norvell that Sanders felt made things "personal."

The game more than delivered, as the Buffaloes had to overcome an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime. Shedeur Sanders, Deion's son, engineered the comeback with a 98-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes of regulation, and then he threw two more scores in the extra periods. Sanders finished with 348 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.

No. 19 Colorado will be in another prime broadcast window this Saturday for its game against No. 10 Oregon, as it will be on ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Colorado State defensive lineman Mohamed Kamara's draft stock is reportedly on the rise following a strong performance in Saturday's double-overtime loss to Colorado.

According to ESPN's Jordan Reid, Kamara is a "borderline draftable prospect" since he lacks ideal size at 6'1" and 250 pounds, but his stock is "trending up" after sacking Colorado superstar quarterback Shedeur Sanders twice.

Kamara showed a high motor and great versatility in the Rams' near-upset of the Buffaloes, lining up at both defensive end and defensive tackle, and generating consistent pressure.

The fifth-year senior's night ended a bit earlier than he would have liked, as he was called for targeting on a hit to Sanders during overtime, resulting in his ejection.

Ouch 😬

Shedeur took a big hit here pic.twitter.com/4OGGFdFAGI

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 17, 2023

In addition to his two sacks, Kamara had five tackles against Colorado, and that was after he recorded three tackles, one sack and a forced fumble in CSU's season-opening game against Washington State.

Kamara is coming off two highly productive seasons, finishing with 7.5 sacks in 2021 and 8.5 in 2022. He is already trending toward another new career high this season.

The Rams were huge underdogs entering Saturday night's Rocky Mountain Showdown, as they were 0-1, whereas the Buffs were 2-0 with victories over TCU and Nebraska.

Colorado won just one game last season, but thanks in large part to the arrival of Deion Sanders as the new head coach, things have turned around quickly in Boulder.

A big reason for that is the amount of talent Coach Prime has infused into the program, spearheaded by his quarterback and son in Shedeur Sanders.

Through three games, Shedeur is arguably among the Heisman front-runners, as he is completing 78.7 percent of his passes for 1,251 yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception, plus one rushing touchdown.

On Saturday, Colorado was down by eight with about two minutes remaining in regulation, but Sanders orchestrated a 98-yard drive that tied the game, and went on to throw two more touchdown passes in overtime.

While Shedeur Sanders, Coach Prime and the Buffs were largely the talk of the game, Kamara flashed remarkable talent and effort, perhaps putting him on NFL radars to a higher degree than he was before.

Colorado State athletic director Joe Parker told ESPN's Pete Thamel that authorities were investigating the online harassment and death threats made against Henry Blackburn and his family after the defensive back knocked Colorado's Travis Hunter out of Saturday's game with a late hit.

"We're very concerned about our player's safety, as Henry and his family have continued to receive these threats," he said. "Henry never intended to put anyone in harm's way on the football field. It's not what we teach or coach. We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately."

Parker said the cellphone numbers of both Blackburn and his mother were published on the internet by the end of Colorado's 43-35 comeback win over Colorado State.

Additionally, his campus address and his family's home address were both released online, and they've received a large number of threatening calls and texts.

"Our university is supporting him, the police department is supporting him, because of the seriousness of the threats that have come out of this," Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell told reporters regarding Blackburn. "It's just sad. It's sad that that's the state of the world we live in. I mean, it's a football game. Let's not make it more than that. We don't want anybody to get hurt. We don't coach that kind of football."

Blackburn's hit on Hunter—which incurred an unnecessary roughness personal foul—led to the Colorado superstar getting hospitalized.

Henry Blackburn was assessed a personal foul after this late hit on Travis Hunter. pic.twitter.com/0avKi1erLU

— ESPN (@espn) September 17, 2023

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders told reporters on Monday that Hunter would be out for three weeks, missing games against Oregon, USC and Arizona State. The former top overall prospect has starred for Colorado as both a wide receiver and cornerback.

"The bad thing about losing Travis, it's like you're losing two players at once," his teammate Shilo Sanders told reporters.

Norvell offered his support for Hunter's recovery.

"I hope everybody's healthy; I hope that Travis gets healthy and gets back out there," he said. "We certainly don't want to see anybody get hurt."

Jay Norvell finally spoke out on his controversial jab at Deion Sanders and Colorado, with the Colorado State coach saying he was speaking largely to his team.

With all the media involved with this game, not one reporter asked me about my comments. One guy got it. I wanted to send a message to our players and how we run our program.#RamGrit🐏 https://t.co/6eVUpnE4tk

— Jay Norvell (@CoachJayNorvell) September 16, 2023

Novell threw a barb Sanders' way Wednesday during his weekly radio show, thumbing his nose at the Colorado coach's habit of wearing hats and sunglasses.

"I don't care if they hear this in Boulder. I told them [ESPN]—I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off. I said, 'When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That's what my mother taught me,'" Norvell said.

Rather than respond negatively, Sanders instead stuck to trolling Norvell over the last three days. Sanders brought sunglasses for the hosts of ESPN's First Take during an appearance Friday and then gifted his players more sunglasses ahead of the matchup.

"When you so right, you have to find something wrong," Sanders said Saturday on College Gameday. "We are so right right now. You got to find something wrong. If you search and go through this, you can't talk about the kids. You can't talk about the coaches. You can't talk about the way we play. You have to come at me personally. You have to find something wrong.

"But guess what? My mama may be a part of the pregame speech today. My mama may be a part of that today. I'm just letting you know."

While it's unclear if Colorado will emerge as national title contenders in the near future, Sanders has his program already in the limelight just two games into his tenure. For a program that has largely been irrelevant since the turn of the century, Sanders' hire already looks like an unmitigated success.

After Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell took a not-so-veiled shot at Deion Sanders on Thursday, the Colorado head coach has found some extra motivation for Saturday's showdown between the two teams.

A video was posted to social media in which Sanders addressed the Buffaloes and made it clear that the comments from Norvell made things "personal."

"Why would you want to talk about us, when we don't talk about nobody? All we do is go out here, work our butts off and do our jobs on Saturday. But when they give us ammunition... they done messed around and made it personal. It was just gonna be a good game... and they done messed around and made it personal. It was gonna be a great test, a battle of Colorado, but they done messed around and made it personal."

"When they give us ammunition...they messed around and made it personal."

Coach Prime responded at practice to criticism from Colorado State's HC 😳

(via @WellOffForever, @DeionSandersJr) pic.twitter.com/kCUaPqJGWa

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 14, 2023

Sanders' comments come after Norvell said during his weekly radio show that he takes his hat and sunglasses off when speaking to adults, which is an obvious reference to Coach Prime.

"I sat down with ESPN today. And I don't care if they hear it in Boulder. I told them, 'I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off.' And I said, 'When I talk to grownups, I take my hat and my glasses off.' That's what my mother taught me. They're not going to like us no matter what we say or do. It doesn't matter. So, let's go up there and play."

Sanders took further umbrage to Norvell's remarks, as The Athletic's David Ubben reported that he said, "I'm a grown man, you telling me what I'm supposed to wear, what I'm not supposed to wear. Please."

Sanders has led Colorado to back-to-back wins and helped the team capture the attention of the football world. The Buffaloes will be seeking their first 3-0 start since 2020 when they face the Rams in what will now be a marquee rivalry game on Saturday.

Champion sumo wrestler Hidetora Hanada announced this week that he is transitioning to football and will play collegiately at Colorado State University this season.

According to Jordan Mendoza of USA Today, Colorado State confirmed the move, noting that Hanada will play defensive line and will join the program as a junior with two years of eligibility remaining.

While the start of the 2023 college football season is just over one month away, Colorado State divulged that Hanada will not arrive in the United States from Japan "for a few more weeks."

Speaking to John Gunning of the Japan Times, Hanada expressed excitement over the challenge of playing FBS college football and attempting to eventually make it to the NFL:

"I'm aware that I'll have to give it my all to succeed. I'm more excited than nervous about the fact that I'll have to learn how to survive and continue to aim for the NFL in a football program where I'll be the only Japanese player, and surrounded by those speaking a different language."

The 21-year-old Hanada was the 2020 all-Japan sumo champion and a gold medalist in the open-weight division at the 2022 World Games. He has also achieved the highest ranking in sumo, which is yokozuna.

Per Gunning, Hanada first got into football in March 2022, trying out for the X-League, which is the top American football league in Japan.

Hanada eventually made Japan's national football team and first garnered interest from major colleges like Ohio State and Texas by impressing in the CFL combine.

It is unclear how much playing time Hanada will receive in 2023 given his inexperience and how late he will be joining the team, but the Rams can use all the help they can get.

Colorado State has finished below .500 in five straight seasons, including going 3-9 in each of the past two campaigns.

Even if the Rams aren't able to turn things around this season, there promises to be plenty of interest in the program in the United States, Japan and across the world as fans track Hanada's progress.