FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Less than three weeks before the season opener, Steve Addazio's main goal was met.
His Colorado State football team came out of Saturday's first scrimmage of preseason camp without a bothersome injury concern. There have already been some bumps and bruises in camp, which limited the amount of hitting the team actually did during a 130-play session on the Sonny Lubick Field turf at Canvas Stadium. Those minor ailments also put some players on the sidelines, opening up holes to be filled in the top two groups.
At times, the play looked a little sloppy, and some areas which have yet to be worked heavily showed some rust, but overall, Addazio walked away feeling pretty good about the proceedings.
"We started out a little herky-jerky in the beginning, but a lot of good things happened both sides of the ball; special teams, we got a lot of work done today," Addazio said. "I always say this, the most important thing I think is we came out relatively healthy. That's what scares the hell out of me. We did a fair amount of tackling. Probably, I would have liked to have done a little bit more, I kind of peeled it back a little bit because we have some bumps and bruises.
"But we did a fair amount of tackling, got a fair amount of situations done. There were some situations which just weren't good enough, which was anticipated, but overall, I felt like there was good things done and it was a good experience for the players to be out here in a little bit more of a game situation."
When the team did work on the running game, it was mainly in thud periods, which don't exactly tell the entire tale. So the Rams continued their camp trend of throwing the ball more than they ran it, which was just fine with starting quarterback Todd Centeio.
And wideout Ty McCullouch. It took absolutely no time at all for Centeio to bring up the young receiver's name as he stepped into a void with Dante Wright not taking part.
"Ty McCullouch had himself a day," Centeio said. "I've told him he has the most potential, and today he came out and showed out. He's dealing with some nicks and pains, but he came out here and was tough and made some real good plays. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of everybody. Everybody came out here and competed, and at the end of the day, you're going to mess up, but if you're out here playing ball so well, I'm happy. You're giving me your all and I'm giving my all to you guys."
The passing game needed some attention, and Addazio has mentioned before new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jon Budmayr had made a huge difference in the progression of the room. Addazio was pleased with the way both Centeio and Matt Valecce looked on Saturday, and he points directly to the work of his new coach.
What Centeio has appreciated most is the manner in which Budmayr is instructing the room.
"He's a great guy. A great person. I love Coach Budmayr," Centeio said. "He's down to earth, calm. You know how you always want a quarterback level headed? That's' what Coach Budmayr is the whole time, he's level headed. He's never flustered, never too high or too low. That's one thing I respect about him, and he's smart.
"His teaching is phenomenal. It's probably the best I've ever had in college. I love Coach Budmayr, he's doing a great job and we're going to continue growing together."
What a first scrimmage of camp should highlight is what is progressing and what needs work, and for Addazio, the latter part leads him directly to the team being able to push through fatigue at the end and still shine. That wasn't always the case, especially at the end in the 2-minute drill.
Regardless, Addazio is always going to expect his team to be better than they are when it comes to the mental strain required, but it's not what he hoped to see on a morning where the temperatures started to rise toward the end.
"We've got a ways to go," he said. "There's improvement there in pieces. There's some consistent guys who struggle with it, and I would say as a whole we're not where we need to be there. We're in the 2-minute drill and it's a great learning experience, but we've got a penalty, we can't get lined up, we take a sack. Those are all little things … We've been in those situations already, but we've got to get more of them. That's what this is now. Coming out, this was the first time we've worked on that; it was awkward."
Dequan Jackson's goal was also met, and his was rather simple. He just wanted to play. He wanted to see effort and people on the move trying to make plays. He saw that, and the scrimmage only has him more fired up about the season ahead and actually starting to play games.
Until then, there's still aspects of the defense which need to be improved. In the heat of battle, he's not tracking third-down percentages, so he'll be focused on those situations when he watches film. Yet, when he was out on the field, his breakdown was things felt better.
"I'm excited. These guys get me excited," he said. "Every day I come out here, they're working on something different to get better, so that's all you can ask for. Especially trying to be a leader, it's exciting when you can see other guys coming along and buying into the system and just flying around. That's what it's about right now. We're preaching effort and pursuit, things that turn a good defense into a great defense."
Addazio did mention walk-on defensive back Robert Floyd has a player who caught his attention, and with a secondary which is a group missing pieces, those chances take on importance. For this day, the head coach wasn't so worried about the newest additions to the roster – though he did say freshman quarterback Evan Olaes brings some electricity to the offense – but rather the top two units and how they are progressing with the opener visible on the horizon.
Again, with some mixing and matching taking place and some third- and even fourth-stringers moving up the depth chart for the day, even that was hard for him to navigate.
The Rams will have one more week of camp, concluding with a second scrimmage on Saturday. Through the week, he said they will stay with the grind and have a steady volume of contact before school begins the following week. At that point, practices won't be as long and the hitting will be lessened with the goal of putting a team with fresh legs and bodies on the field for South Dakota State on Sept. 3.
And until then, the team will put place more reps in areas which haven't been worked as hard thus far in camp, such as coming out, the 4- and 2-minute drills, goal line, red zone and some specific special teams work.
"Overall, I was pretty pleased with what we got done, but highlighted the areas we have to work on this week situationally; that have to be readdressed and reworked on, and that's why you do it."
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