Previewing the Colorado State quarterbacks: Faton Bauta or Nick Stevens?

Last year Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo decided to switch between Nick Stevens and Coleman Key at quarterback (with some Craig Leonard runs mixed in). About halfway through the season he decided to stick with  Stevens because he had a better understanding of the offense and didn’t commit as many mistakes.

This offseason Key has left (thought to have transferred to Oklahoma State, now transferring to Coffeyville Junior College) and Faton Bauta, a graduate transfer from Georgia, and Collin Hill have come in to push Stevens for the starting position.

Bauta should be familiar to those who have followed Bobo since he recruited him to Georgia. He appeared in one game last year for Georgia, against Florida, and didn’t exactly have a performance that would inspire confidence in Ram fans as he went 15/33 for 154 yards and 4 interceptions in a 27-3 loss.

Hill is a three-star recruit from South Carolina who Bobo has said should be the future QB of this Rams team. He’s a big, athletic, smart (had a 4.8 GPA  in high school) quarterback who Bobo recruited while he was still at Georgia. Stevens is the presumed favorite for the position as he was in Bobo’s system last year and has had an offseason to grow.

The Green and Gold spring game gave Rams fans a chance to see all of the quarterbacks in actions for the first time. All three quarterbacks started slow and got better as the game wore on. Stat line wise Bauta had the better game and Stevens had the worse. Bauta was 16-29 for 203 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Stevens was 8-20 for 90 yards, one touchdown and a pair of interceptions. Collin Hill was 10-18 for 156 yards with one touchdown One could argue that Hill had a better game than Bauta, but Bauta had a better understanding of the offense and he didn’t have as big a swing from the bad to the good as Hill did.

No one knows for sure who that starting quarterback is going to be. One thing that could probably be put down as a sure thing is that Collin Hill won’t see the field this year unless something drastic happens. The QB competition should continue in fall camp between Bauta and Stevens with the winner being the one who has the best grasp of the offense and commits the least mistakes.