Free Dupree!
The old Dean Smith-Michael Jordan joke lives in FoCo now, shaking its head as it quaffs a cold IPA.
But it’s true, isn’t it? The only man who could stop CSU running back Jalen Dupree late Saturday night in Seattle was Jay Norvell — Dupree’s coach.
In the Rams’ 38-21 loss to Washington at Husky Stadium, Dupree, a 6-foot, 210-pound hammer from Arkansas, was the best back on the field. A field, by the way, that he shared with the Huskies’ Jonah Coleman.
Dupree looked like the kind of player you can build not just a game plan, but a program around. He didn’t just run past a Big Ten defense (albeit not a great one). He ran over it. He ran around it. He toted the ball 11 times in the first half for 85 yards and a score.
He carried it just four times in the second half, for seven yards.
Unlike a year ago, CSU (0-1) walked away from a road opener at a Power 4 school with heads held reasonably high, having scared a rabid Huskies crowd half to death for three quarters.
“We had our work cut out for us,” Washington coach Jedd Fisch told reporters after the game. “We knew that.”
Yet it’s hard to see Norvell getting the kind of upsets he wants to push CSU to the next level — a College Football Playoff level, a Pac-12 level — unless he recognizes the best offensive players he’s got to work with while he’s working with them. In the heat of battle.
On Saturday, that was Dupree. It wasn’t quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi.
Sure, watching BFN fire lasers at a wide-open Jaxxon Warren was all kinds of fun, until Washington sniffed it out. But a taste of Air Raid was enough to revive some old, curious play-calling habits on the part of Norvell and pass-game coordinator Matt Mumme. Only not for the better.
It also meant the return of the BFN Backfoot Special. You know — those one or two chuck-and-ducks in a game that usually either end up killing a drive, the Rams’ hopes, or both.
Fower-Nicolosi is reliably maddening, at least. Before you get too sleepless about Seattle, keep the macro, mile-high view in mind. The good for CSU going forward — the Rams were a 21.5-point underdog, lest we forget — did outweigh the bad.
But man, did that bad stuff sting. BFN finding wideout Petey Tucker for a leaping fourth-down catch early in the fourth quarter was a worthy roll of the dice. Sending backup QB/utility weapon Tajh Bullock out as a “surprise” holder on a fourth-and-7 field-goal attempt at the Huskies’ 34? While the Rams were down 10? A tad too cute.
Washington recognized a fake from the jump. Bullock, who had a fine game otherwise, dropped back, didn’t see an open man and took a sack for a 15-yard loss rather than throw the ball away. The Huskies were able to basically bleed out the clock after that.
Money talks loudest in college football’s new Hellscape, but CSU needs to stop signing up for openers in which they’re given a nice check to be a Big Ten or SEC punching bag. At least this time, the bag punched back.
Unlike Michigan three years ago or Texas last fall, the Rams didn’t look outclassed after the first two drives. Outmanned, sure. But not outclassed.
CSU walked into the Husky Stadium din as a three-TD dog, a mug from the mountains. Midway through the third quarter, it was a 21-21 game.
Again, there were moments. Keepers, too. The final defensive numbers looked unsightly, but that was more or less expected. Linebacker Owen Long managed to be everywhere at once. Defensive back Lamondre Joe was a revelation.
Much as we cringe at BFN’s mechanics, the 2-minute drill brought out his best. Fowler-Nicolosi works better at a faster tempo, on 3-step and 5-step drops. More time to think gives him more time to overthink.
Washington was always going to lean hard on the legs of Coleman and quarterback Demond Williams Jr., so losing defensive tackle Gabe Jones for the second half left a mark. UW opened the third quarter with a seven-play scoring drive, six of those plays accounting for 45 yards on the ground and a 1-yard fullback TD plunge.
Still, just like the drive that capped the first half, CSU responded. Working without a huddle, BFN completed 3 of 4. The Rams marched 65 yards on seven plays, hitting Warren twice. CSU pulled to within the extra point on a seam route to a wide-open Warren, who the Huskies kept losing over the middle of the field despite his 6-foot-8 frame.
“That’s a very good (CSU) team,” Fisch told reporters. “I would bet that team wins a lot of games this year.”
Nobody’s going to confuse the Huskies with the 2024 Longhorns, either. Moral victories are faint praise in August, but CSU went down swinging. And once Norvell starts trusting Dupree to carry the Rams home, those punches are going to draw blood.
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