GAME: Colorado St. Rams vs. San Jose St. Spartans
WHERE: San Jose, Calif.,: Spartan Stadium
DATE/TIME: Sat., Sept. 15, 2012, 6:00 p.m. MT
TV: TV: ESPN3.com & Radio: CSU Radio Network (AM 560 KLZ in Denver, KCOL 600 AM in Ft. Collins, KSIR 1010 AM in Ft. Morgan and KNZZ 1100 in Grand Junction)
CONFERENCE: Mountain West and WAC
WEB SITE: CSU Rams Football - SJSU Football
2012 SEASON: CSU 1 - 1 vs. SJSU 1 - 1 - Last year SJSU won at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colo., by a score of 38 - 31.
COACH: Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain is in his first season as a head coach after winning 2 national championships with Alabama. Mike MacIntyre has been the head coach in San Jose since 2010 and was previously the defensive coordinator for the Duke Blue Devils.
KEY OFFENSIVE PLAYERS: San Jose State - The Spartans had the best recruiting class in the WAC last year. QB David Fales, RB De'Leon Eskridge (a Minnesota Golden Gopher transfer), RB Tyler Ervin, WR Chandler Jones and WR Noel Grigsby looked impressive last week in the win against UC Davis and in the there-point loss to Stanford.
Colorado State - With injuries to the O-Line, will guards Jordan Gragert and Brandon Haynes, tackles Ty Sambrailo and Joe Caprioglio, and center Weston Richburg be able to protect QB Garrett Grayson, who threw a 69 yard touchdown to Crockett Gillmore on the third play of the game against North Dakota State University, then seemed to stagnate. Chris Nwoke and Donnell Alexander should both be healthy for this week's game. WR Dominique Vinson has been a favored target for Grayson and WR's Lee Clubb, Joe Hansley and Lou Greenwood are also hoping to contribute to an improved offensive effort this weekend.
KEY DEFENSIVE PLAYERS: San Jose State - DE Travis Johnson (six tackles for a loss and 4 sacks against UC Davis) is someone the Rams will have to account for this week. Along with DT David Catalano, the Spartans are hoping to get into the CSU backfield and disrupt plays. LB Keith Smith and Vince Buhagiar are also standouts on defense looking to shut down the Rams somewhat sporadic offense.
Colorado State - The Rams have the nation's 21st ranked defense after the first two games (see bullet 5). LB Shaq Barrett had 15 tackles last weekend and DE Lanston Tanyi had 8, showing a much improved Ram's defense over last year. Cory James, Max Morgan, Momo Thomas and James Skelton are also top performers for the Rams, who said they let their focus get away from them last week against the defending FCS national champion Bison.