Colorado State Football

Colorado State announced head football coach Mike Bobo is being evaluated after he felt numbness in his feet and went to the hospital. 

Bobo released a statement included in the announcement addressing the issue:

"I recently began to experience numbness in my feet. After our second scrimmage on Saturday night it was determined by doctors that I should be admitted to the hospital to undergo further testing. I feel very encouraged by the test results to this point and hope to have some answers soon. I also feel very encouraged about our 2018 CSU Football team. We have excellent coaches and excellent leadership in this program, and I have full confidence that they will continue to have tremendous preparation on and off the practice field for as long as I must be away. My family and I appreciate all of the great care and support we are receiving."

Colorado State hired Bobo, 44, in December 2014 after Jim McElwain left for the University of Florida. Bobo was previously the offensive coordinator with the Georgia Bulldogs, where he also played quarterback during his collegiate career.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com noted Bobo is the offensive play-caller and only Colorado State coach to lead the team to a bowl game in each of his first three seasons at the helm.

The Rams went 7-6 in each of Bobo's first three years but are yet to win a bowl game under his direction.

Colorado State Rams safety Braylin Scott was reportedly arrested Wednesday on felony burglary and theft charges. 

Kelly Lyell of the Coloradoan reported the news and cited court records showing the charges come from an April 11 incident. Scott's arrest warrant was issued on May 2.

"Scott, 19, was booked into the Larimer County Jail, records show, on three counts—burglary of a dwelling, a Class 3 felony; theft of property valued at $5,000 to $20,000, a Class 5 felony; and Class 5 felony burglary," Lyell wrote.

Sam Lounsberry of the Reporter-Herald provided additional details on Friday:

"CSU safety Braylin Scott was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing Rolex watches and diamond bracelets from a teammate's dorm room, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant filed to district court May 2.

The teammate Scott reportedly stole from also recently appeared on the police blotter: linebacker Hunter Donnelly, a redshirt freshman last season, who was arrested April 19 on allegations of violating a protection order for contacting a former girlfriend."

Colorado State head football coach Mike Bobo said Thursday Scott was suspended from the team, per Lyell.

According to Lyell, Scott's arrest is the third in four months for the Rams football program. Linebacker Hunter Donnelly (violating a protection order) and offensive lineman Nicho Garcia (misdemeanor charges of assault, criminal mischief and harassment) were also arrested this offseason.

Scott was a sophomore in 2016 and tallied 39 total tackles and three interceptions in 10 games.

Colorado State offensive lineman Nicho Garcia was arrested this week for an alleged assault that took place in October. 

Per Kelly Lyell of the Coloradoan, Garcia has been charged with misdemeanor harassment and assault stemming from an altercation with a neighbor. 

Garcia turned himself in to authorities on January 24 after an arrest warrant was issued for him last week, and he was released after posting bond.

Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo issued a statement through a university spokesman about Garcia's arrest, which is included in Lyell's report. 

"We have been aware of the legal matter involving Nicho Garcia and have been in communication with the university and local authorities throughout the process," Bobo said. "As with all pending legal matters, we do not have further comment at this time."

The alleged victim in the case said Garcia showed up outside of their apartment complex last October and was punched repeatedly "just west of campus by a man he asked to stop urinating next to him."

Garcia was later interviewed by police in December at Colorado State. He's due to appear in court on February 8. 

After playing two years at Highland Community College, Garcia committed to play football at Colorado State prior to the 2016 season. He did not play in a game with the Rams last season. 

The intersections of fate and chance are full of mystery. Even the most rational and least superstitious person will, after a brush with death, come out the other side with a new perspective on life and its purpose.

Was it fate that brought Zack Golditch to Aurora, Colorado, where he grew up? Was it fate that synchronized the mental descent of James Holmes with the production and theatrical release of The Dark Knight Rises? Was it all part of the plan, or was it a coin flip that put Golditch, a star high school football player at Gateway High, in Theater 8 instead of Theater 9 on an infamous night at the Century Aurora 16 Multiplex Theater at the Town Center at Aurora mall? And what about the path of the bullet that shot out of Holmes' gun, ripped through a wall and tore through Golditch's neck, just to this side of his jugular, just to that side of his spinal cord?

"It's in my mind every single day," Golditch said.

There were 82 victims of Holmes' rampage. There were the 70 he injured and the 12 he murdered. He was given 12 life sentences for the counts of first-degree murder plus an additional 3,318 years for the counts of attempted murder. What did it mean that Golditch was one of the 70, and his schoolmate, former Gateway baseball player Alexander Boik, was one of the 12?

What to make of that? How does someone so young make sense of that? How, four years later, has that changed a person like Golditch, now in his junior season as an offensive lineman with Colorado State?

"It was something that was put onto me," Golditch said. "I didn't ask for it. I didn't expect it. It wasn't what I was working to be defined as. ...That's been a struggle."

---

Four years ago, Golditch was working to be defined as a football player, to the exclusion of almost everything else. Since he started playing at age nine, football was his only hobby. When it came time to write a book report, Zack read something about football. Research paper? Football. Make an art project? Zack created a self-sculpture made of wire that read, "I'm wired for football."

It got to the point teachers had a talk with Christine Golditch about her son's singular interest. They said: "He's got to read about something other than football. We want him to have a wider range of knowledge."

Mom wasn't so sure there was a problem.

"I said, 'Knowledge?' Why don't you ask him about football? He'll blow you out of the water,'" Christine said.

But his grades were good enough all the same, and in the Denver area, eighth graders and their parents have choices about which public high schools they want to attend. By then, Golditch was so big and so good that a few of the high school football coaches came whistling by to see if he might want to join the football team at their prestigious schools.

Then the kid chose Gateway, which was anything but a football powerhouse.

Situated in a less affluent neighborhood than its rivals, Gateway was a program that could really use a player like Zack Golditch. Its pockets weren't as deep, its tradition wasn't as rich, and its players weren't as committed as those at some other nearby schools. One of the problems then-Gateway head coach Justin Hoffman was having in the summer of 2012 was attendance at weightlifting sessions. Kids were missing sessions and coming up with creative excuses for doing so. Hoffman was trying to clean it up, but culture changes take time.

The team had a weightlifting session scheduled for 6 a.m., July 21, 2012. Everyone was expected to be there.

Six hours earlier, though, just before midnight, Golditch was at the movies. The new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, had a midnight showing on multiple screens. Golditch had a ticket for Theater 8. In the front row of Theater 9 next door sat a troubled young man named James Holmes, who left his seat 18 minutes into the movie and propped open an emergency exit door with a tablecloth holder.

Holmes changed clothes in his white Hyundai Tiburon and 10 minutes later entered the Century 16 theater through the propped-open exit door. He carried a 12-gauge shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle and a .40-caliber pistol. He was dressed in body armor.

He threw a couple of tear gas canisters into the crowd. Some in the audience later said they thought it was a prank. Then Holmes began firing, first toward the ceiling. In Theater 8 next door, Golditch thought what he heard was fireworks.

He turned his head up and to the right to see what was going on. As he did, one of Holmes' shots went straight through his neck and out the other side. Two others in Theater 8 were also hit.

At 12:35 a.m., Christine's phone rang. It was Zack.

"Mom, I've been shot," he said. "I'm still at the theater. I'm OK."

That was not entirely true. Zack didn't know how much blood he had lost, and paramedics, feeling he was on the verge of passing out anyway, didn't want to tell him. So they lied to him about his condition.

Christine thought it was a lie of a different kind.

"I jumped out of bed saying, 'What? This is not funny. This is not funny. Don't play no dirty joke on me right now,'" she said. "He goes, 'No, mom, this is not a joke.'"

It was hours before Christine and Stewart Golditch could see their youngest son in the emergency room. Meanwhile, Golditch exchanged some messages with Hoffman, who assured him it was OK if he missed weights that morning.

But at 6 a.m., the door to the weight room at Gateway High School swung open, and there stood Zack Golditch with two open wounds, his neck wrapped in gauze, ready for his turn on the squat rack.

"There are no more excuses," he said.

His teammates were in shock. Hoffman was in shock.

"It's one of those things I'll never forget," Hoffman said.

---

By the time of the shooting, Golditch, then a senior, had transformed himself and his school. Gateway had reached the state playoffs the previous three years, and Golditch had gone from the big kid who was always afraid of hurting people to a savage competitor.

To hear Hoffman tell it, it all happened in a single moment at a Colorado state track meet where Golditch was throwing discus, just two months before the shooting.

Hoffman had long thought there was something inside Golditch that he himself wasn't aware of and had never previously accessed. Now it was the end of the kid's junior year, and Hoffman was starting to wonder if he was ever going to see it.

"There was a point in his career where we really wondered if he had aspirations," said Hoffman, who now coaches at nearby Rangeview High School. "It was like he was missing something."

Golditch put up a couple of good-not-great throws to start the meet, which prompted Hoffman to pull him aside for a confrontational conversation that boiled down to "If not now, when?"

"You've got to throw your best throw right now," Hoffman said. "And he did."

Golditch's next throw sailed 167'11". It won him the state championship by nearly four feet. And everybody that made fun of him for going to Gateway had to eat it.

"It's like a monster [had] awoken," Hoffman said. "Then the shooting happens."

---

In one-on-one conversation, Golditch has a soft manner that contradicts his massive 6'5", 295-pound body and competitive intensity. Between being the victim of a notorious crime and being a Division I athlete, he has a lot of experience being interviewed and written about.

Publicly, he has spoken a lot about the shooting. Privately, he'll sometimes avoid it if he can.

"People will be like, 'Hey, I heard this from so-and-so; is that true?" he said. "Sometimes I'll deny it. I'll be like, 'No, that was somebody else from my school.' It kinda depends on who they are and how interested they are about me."

This is a common sentiment among those who have been victims of tragedies or have survived potentially fatal illnesses. They often express a renewed appreciation for life and for everyone's concern, and a renewed desire to help others, but also often a desire not to be defined by a single event they never would have chosen.

"It sticks in people's minds," Golditch said. "To a lot of people who don't know me, that's all they know of me."

That was the case when Golditch arrived at Colorado State in the summer of 2013. The coaching staff had informed some of the other players that a survivor of the Aurora massacre would be joining the program in the fall, so by the time he arrived, he was already that guy.

Golditch didn't mind talking about it, but only if it was going to be a real conversation.

"It's hard for other people to move past it," he said.

Some of his Gateway teammates and classmates had a harder time with the shooting than Golditch did. Gateway brought in counselors to help students process their emotions, and it had to change the way it handled things like fire drills and alarms.

"We were pretty fragile," Hoffman said. "We had a couple players in practice who, as soon as sirens would go off or an ambulance, fire truck, everything else like that, all of a sudden they'd go into their own PTSD-type of thing."

Golditch's biggest wounds were of the flesh. Psychologically, his biggest challenges were on the practice fields and classrooms at Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was the first person in his family to go to college and soon found that if he was going to make it through, he was going to have to work harder than he ever had before. First semester, his grades weren't great, and he began having doubts about whether he was good enough to play football at that level.

He was no longer the biggest or the strongest, and his athletic career was no longer about awakening some internal beast; it was about finding a way to outperform more gifted competitors.

"It was rough," he said. "The very first day of workouts, I was so sore, I was beat. I was so tired. I had never gone through anything like that in my entire life. I called my high school coach and was like, 'Hey, I don't know if this is for me.'"

---

Golditch now is a redshirt junior at CSU, where he has started 24 of the last 25 games on the Rams offensive line. Colorado State has won at least seven games every year Golditch has been there, and it will play Idaho in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 22. Turns out he can play at that level.

You never know how something as small as a smile can impact someone. Thank you UChealth and Children's! #GoRams pic.twitter.com/L2XiFFenzP

— Goldie (@Zack_Golditch60) May 17, 2016

"My high school coach really instilled something in me," he said. "You can't complain about what you can't control. So when I come across a situation on the field I can't control, I'm not complaining about it, looking for an excuse. It's kind of hard to say, but I feel like I'm willing to do that much more to get the edge. It's like, 'You're good, but I'm going to be that much better.'"

The shooting also instilled something in Golditch: a desire to open himself up to those who need his perspective. Before this season, he was named to the watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy, which recognizes college football players for their off-field service.

People open up to him, he finds, and while at CSU, Golditch has been involved with a number of service events including at the burn unit of a local hospital, the Boys & Girls Club and Respite Care as well as coaching at several youth football camps.

"I just want to help," he said.

Golditch didn't know that about himself before the shooting. He didn't know he liked talking to people, hearing their stories, helping them help themselves.

Though he intends to take his football career as far as he can, when Golditch talks about the future, he doesn't talk about playing in the NFL.

A kid wired for football found some new circuitry. He wants to work with people, maybe as a counselor in his old school district.

"I think I realized that I'm good at talking to other people, especially the ones that want to talk to me," he said. "Just seeing the impact a simple conversation can have on somebody, it feels really, really good."

   

Tully Corcoran has been working in professional journalism since 2003, covering everything from high school soccer to the NFL to the Final Four. He lives in Houston.

In an NFL evaluation setting where recency bias prevails sometimes too often, finding prospect comparisons can be both fruitful and flawed. Looking for an exact replica of breakout players like Odell Beckham, Tyrann Mathieu or, in this case, Tyler Lockett will only lead to a failure in evaluation.

But comparisons are especially useful if used in a skill-based, style and/or schematic context. Rashard Higgins, the quick, isolation-thriving receiver from Colorado State, isn’t the newest edition of Seattle Seahawks 2015 breakout rookie Tyler Lockett, but his refined route IQ, his ability to finish as a receiver despite size deficiencies and his potential early scheme fits all make Lockett a great starting point when projecting Higgins’ NFL potential—especially early on.

 

Refined Route IQ

It’s easily understood that smaller, slighter receivers are far more reliant on quickness and route refinement to get separation as compared to their bigger counterparts. Smaller size means smaller windows for their quarterbacks, and every extra yard makes up for the two- or three-inch length discrepancy.

The first step in receiver development is core route refinement: focusing on the entire route tree, from footwork to upper-half usage and timing. But for a quicker receiver to truly maximize his attributes, he needs to set up head fakes, double moves and combination routes in a fluid, efficient and catching-effective manner. This is something Lockett displayed throughout his college career at Kansas State, and it proved equally effective at the NFL level.

Higgins offers similar instinctive route understanding. His route running is reminiscent of backyard football. He appears to be just trying to get open, using his speed to separate and having the end zone in mind. But his route tree isn’t merely an on-the-fly development.

He possesses a high-level, instinctive nature to know where he can orchestrate double moves, where a defense is vulnerable and how his route can immediately set up his quarterback for a throwing lane and a quick delivery. In the play below, the 6'2" Higgins sets up the interior hitch route, patiently waits for his cover man to overpursue and follows through on the post route, keeping his shoulders square and in position to finish the catch-and-run upfield.

While quicker receivers are generally not perceived as red-zone targets, Lockett and Higgins continue to maximize their quickness in that area as well. A receiver’s quickness can shrink a defensive back. Stutter steps, efficient footwork and well-timed high-pointing of the ball keep a defensive back off balance and grounded, thereby truly neutralizing any size deficiencies.

You can't count on Higgins to win 50-50 balls against 6'0" defensive backs, but with his quickness and route IQ, the odds are consistently stacked in his favor before the ball reaches the highest point.

Winning Like a Bigger Receiver

Barring he lands with one of the handful of truly precise passers in the NFL, Higgins' job will be to either separate himself enough to give easy throws for his quarterback or continue to finish away from his frame. With the speed of pass-rushers and defensive backs pinching closed throwing windows as quickly as they open, Higgins will need to prove he can be effective in more physical catch-points. 

Winning like a bigger receiver is crucial for an undersized prospect. The team that lands Higgins won't ask him to be a short-area, third-down jump-ball receiver, nor will he be a physical zone-beater in the midfield. However, it’s important for a receiver to at least threaten there.

Higgins has the interior route tree in his bag of potential routes, but it’s more important that he finishes interior catches where he may see a big hit, or underneath hitch routes where he’ll need to pick up four tough yards after the catch. While this isn’t where he’s best, it’s where NFL defensive backs need to know he can beat them if he hopes to be more than a one-dimensional receiver.

As stated earlier, Higgins’ quickness and efficiency as a route-runner can neutralize the size disadvantage he’ll face against many NFL defensive backs. Most of his senior-season touchdowns came in the red zone, not on deep-breaking plays of the Lockett type.

Against UNLV alone, all three touchdown receptions were in the red zone and in one-on-one opportunities. His route separation led to the throwing window, but Higgins' repeated finishing ability coupled with the threat that he could have broken inside toward traffic allowed him to snag three touchdowns.

Conclusion

Higgins isn’t a clone of Lockett. He doesn’t have the same elite vertical speed or high-end return ability Lockett does. And vice versa, Lockett doesn’t have the underneath route polish that Higgins already possesses.

But as NFL teams try to place where Higgins can contribute early in his NFL career, they’ll look to how Lockett was able to make such a smooth transition and how Seattle maximized his skill set.

Smaller receivers who are more than just vertically testing receivers all share a common characteristic: route instinct. It’s not something easily taught or diagrammed on the whiteboard. It’s something that quicker receivers like Higgins have a feel for over years of maximizing their skill sets.

Higgins has concerns in terms of his body type, scheme/role limitations and potentially good-not-great vertical speed, but his maximization of his assets coupled with impact receivers like Lockett pave the way for Higgins' NFL interest and early-on pro success. 

After years of being Mark Richt's right-hand man on his offensive staff, Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is finally getting a program of his own. Bobo and Colorado State came to an agreement on Monday that will make him the 21st head coach in program history.   

Matt L. Stephens of the Coloradoan reported the news:

The deal is done. Colorado State has finalized hiring Georgia OC Mike Bobo as its next football coach. #csurams

— Matt L. Stephens (@MattStephens) December 22, 2014

Colorado State would later confirm the hire:

At 1 p.m. MT today, President @CSUTonyFrank and interim AD John Morris will introduce @CoachBobo_CSU. Stream on http://t.co/uDCNDMWaFk

— Colorado State Football (@CSUFootball) December 23, 2014

Colorado State provided comments from interim AD John Morris and Bobo, who spoke about his new role;

We are incredibly excited to bring Mike Bobo to Colorado State to lead our football program," interim director of athletics John Morris said. "He was extremely impressive throughout the entire interview process, and is one of the leading offensive minds in the country. In Coach Bobo we have found a coach who is committed to academics and the development of young men, and I'm proud to welcome him and his family to the Ram Family."

“I cannot be more excited to have the opportunity to lead the Colorado State football team into the future,” Bobo said. “It’s a special opportunity for my family and me, and we cannot wait to get started.

Terry Frei of The Denver Post originally reported Monday that Bobo and Colorado State were closing in on a contract. The 40-year-old Georgia lifer impressed in final interviews Sunday, and the two sides worked quickly to get a deal done.

Bobo takes over for the departed Jim McElwain, who replaced Will Muschamp at Florida. McElwain, who worked as Nick Saban's offensive coordinator at Alabama before landing at Colorado State, went 22-16 in his three seasons. The Rams were one of the nation's biggest surprises in 2014, going 10-2 during the regular season and spending time inside the Top 25.

McElwain's quick turnaround should be a boost for Bobo, who has yet to be a head coach at any level. His career began under center as a quarterback for Georgia, and he's spent all but one season as a coach in Athens. He worked his way up from a graduate assistant to quarterbacks coach and has been the Bulldogs' offensive coordinator since 2006. The only season he did not spend at Georgia was in 2000, when he was a quarterbacks coach at Jacksonville State.

Richt, who hired Bobo when he took the Georgia job in 2001, has largely kept mum on his protege's head coaching desires. He has, however, confirmed to reporters that Georgia has a plan in place for Bobo's departure.

“We’ll have a plan for everything, I can say that,” Richt said, via Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.

Georgia is slated to play Louisville in the Belk Bowl on Dec. 30. 

Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee weighed in on the impact of the news on Georgia:

Huge loss for Georgia to lose OC Mike Bobo. He was very good for the Bulldogs—despite the criticism.

— Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 (@BarrettSallee) December 22, 2014

Bobo's departure marks the end of an era that will undoubtedly cast more speculation on where Georgia's program is headed. Richt made a big splash last offseason by poaching defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt from Florida State and may look for another high-profile hire to replace Bobo. Georgia needs far less tweaking on the offensive side of the ball than it did on defense in 2013, but it'll nonetheless be interesting to see which candidates arise.  

Bobo takes over a program that has historically struggled outside the Sonny Lubick years, though McElwain appears to have laid the groundwork for another continued run of success. We'll have to see whether Bobo can keep it going.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

The comeback story is almost fully complete for either Washington State or Colorado State, the two teams fortunate enough to kick off bowl season in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 21.

The 6-6 Cougars from the Pac-12 went 3-9 in coach Mike Leach's first season a year ago, but now he has the team in its first bowl game since the 2003 Holiday Bowl.

Conversely, coach Jim McElwain led the Rams of the MWC to a 4-8 record a year ago. Now Colorado State is 7-6 and appearing in its first bowl since the 2008 iteration of the New Mexico Bowl.

In the first ever meeting between the two sides, the game will be decided by impact players who have helped to get their team to this point. Both teams have marquee players, but three rise above the rest as the names to focus on to start bowl season.

Garrett Grayson, QB, Colorado State

While not the most prolific quarterback in the contest, Rams junior quarterback Garrett Grayson shattered team records on his way to being a main component of Colorado State's impressive run in 2013. 

The school's athletics Twitter account shared the jarring statistics:

The graphic does not show Grayson's impressive 62.2 completion percentage. Perhaps most impressive of all, Grayson stood tall in mid-September against then-No. 1 Alabama and threw for 228 yards. While a loss, Grayson showed big-game ability against one of the best teams in the nation.

Colorado State will need that smooth ability from Grayson once more to beat the Cougars, a team certainly capable of being exposed as it allows an average of 31.3 points per game.

Connor Halliday, QB, Washington State

Connor Halliday has been the biggest beneficiary of Leach's air-raid attack, which has resulted in some eye-popping numbers for the junior signal-caller. 

Halliday has thrown for 4,187 yards, 28 touchdowns and 21 interceptions while competing 62.8 percent of his passes. As the team's Twitter account points out, Halliday is also in the neighborhood of breaking team records:

The turnovers are certainly a concern as he has thrown two or more interceptions in six games this season—four of which were losses. Halliday will have to avoid the turnover bug against the Rams, as Colorado State surrenders an average of 28.6 points per game.

There can be no wasted possessions for Halliday and the Cougars offense because the Rams are more than capable of keeping him off the field via the next player on this list.

Kapri Bibbs, RB, Colorado State

Kapri Bibbs is the key for the Rams. 

The sophomore back is a national commodity after his breakout season that includes 1,572 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns—earning him a prestigious honor:

As Drew Pappas, the team's recruiting assistant points out, those are the type of awards star players earn for major numbers:

If there is one thing McElwain is aware of, it is that he will have to ride his super sophomore to keep the explosive Washington State offense off the field. McElwain told reporters via the Cougars' official site that he is intricately familiar with Leach's offensive approach:

I know that they throw the heck out of it. I know that he’s not afraid to throw it and he’ll throw it probably coming off the bus. I am familiar kind of with Washington State just from where I grew up and the time I spent down in that area. I know anytime we get an opportunity in the Mountain West Conference to play against a Pac-12 opponent, that is something awful special and we’re not only looking forward to representing Fort Collins and Colorado State but the Mountain West Conference.

McElwain has used Bibbs in a workhorse capacity this year. The sophomore has received 25 or more carries in five games, and had just two games with less than 10 attempts.

Against the Cougars, a team that allows an average of 185.4 rushing yards per game, McElwain will be forced to call on Bibbs once more in order to counteract the opposing offense while controlling the pace of the game.

Jim McElwain didn't have an easy decision to make, but the head football coach at Colorado State knew some form of action had to be taken regarding the recent fight some of his players got into.

According to the Denver Post, McElwain took steep action, indefinitely suspending multiple players after they allegedly assaulted fellow Colorado State students this past weekend:

McElwain suspended Mike Orakpo, Nordly Capi and Colton Paulhus indefinitely for their alleged role in a fight late Friday night that resulted in four other CSU students being sent to Poudre Valley Hospital—two with serious injuries, according to a Fort Collins police news release.

The specifics of the fight aren't known at this time, but McElwain didn't wast any time in making sure his players were punished. 

Update: According to The Rocky Mountain Collegian, there's a petition going around to have these players expelled from school. 

Each player is not allowed to participate in practices or meetings, and when everything is said and done and the investigation is over, some of the players might even be removed from the team. 

All three are junior defenders that the Rams were counting on for 2012, but their future with the program is up in the air. 

This isn't the first incident for Orakpo and Capi, both of whom were involved in an ordeal on St. Patrick's Day. That didn't result in a suspension, but it shows that neither learned his lesson. 

Off-field troubles happen a great deal during the college football offseason, and Colorado State has unfortunately become the latest victim of this trend. 

McElwain told the paper that his strict punishment had to be done:

The severity of this, I will not stand for what is going on. Until the investigation comes out, we don't know exactly all the circumstances, but I feel with the severity of them, I feel the best thing for us to do is to go ahead and indefinitely suspend, which is the strongest thing we can do at this point.

This is a story that will continue to develop, and certainly one that the Rams wish had never happened to them this offseason.

Last year, the Rams went 3-9 overall and 1-6 in the MWC. However, they do return 18 total starters from last year, which gives them hope for a better season in 2012.

Of course, after this incident, Colorado State's defense takes a big hit. Capi and Paulhus both played on the defensive line, and Orakpo played at linebacker.

Stay with Bleacher Report as we continue to update you with the latest news from the Colorado State football program, as well as all the college football news you need to know.

Starting quarterback and former four-star recruit Pete Thomas may be leaving Colorado State after two seasons, and if he does transfer he is likely heading to Vanderbilt, this according to Rich Kurtzman. In 2010, Thomas completed nearly 65 percent of his passes for 2,662 yards as a true freshman. However, after a promising freshman season, Thomas fell to 62 percent, along with throwing for 1,607 yards and seven touchdowns to eight interceptions.

Thomas was replaced by Garrett Grayson due to injury, yet there were talks of Thomas being replaced regardless, after the Rams began the season 3-1 and then failed to win another game under Thomas. Grayson took over for Thomas against San Diego State, and went 6-15 for 26 yards in a losing effort. Grayson also gives the Rams a threat running the ball, rushing 43 times for 193 yards. Thomas finished his Colorado State career with 133 total rush attempts—71 which are sacks—for -292 yards.

Then-head coach Steve Fairchild was criticized for replacing Thomas with Grayson. At the time, Grayson was being redshirted, and the season looked like it wasn't going anywhere. A lot of critics of Fairchild believed that Fairchild was playing Grayson in order to keep his job. Well, that didn't work. Grayson and the Rams failed to win a game the rest of the way. Fairchild was then replaced by former Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain.

After Grayson replaced Thomas, Grayson went 43-77 for 542 yards, with two touchdowns and six interceptions. Those numbers won't blow anyone away, yet watching the young quarterback gives the Rams hope for a positive future.