The Colorado St. Rams are looking to get to four wins for the first time since the 2008 season, which also was the last time the Rams went to a bowl game. With this early season success, Colorado State is nearing a sell out for this game. The Rams host the San Jose St. Spartans, who are 1-3 on the year. That win was their first against an FBS team since they beat New Mexico State in 2009, who was also the losing team this year.
The Spartans are improved, but it is difficult to tell by how much. They were blown out by Stanford in the first week of the season 57-3, but kept the game close against UCLA and Nevada and lost both games by a combined 13 points. San Jose State is looking for its first non-conference road win since 2002, when they defeated Illinois. They have lost 18 consecutive road non-conference games.
The Spartans are led by quarterback Matt Faulkner who had his best game of the season against New Mexico State, throwing for 236 yards and two touchdowns. They also have a solid running game with Brandon Rutley who exploded last week with 209 yards on the ground and 33 receiving yards to go along with two scores. Those are the two key players to watch for this game on Saturday.
The weakness of this San Jose State squad is their rushing defense, which is 109th in FBS. They are giving up 214 yards per game, so this is an excellent opportunity for the struggling Colorado State rushing attack to have a big game. If Colorado State can get their running game together, they should run away with this game, but if the ground attack struggles then look for this game to be a close matchup.
The game kicks off at 2 p.m. MT on The Mtn.