Colorado St Rams 2026 College Football Preview
Posted June 24, 2026
2025 Recap
Record – 2-10
ATS – 4-8
“Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want to.”
<Red> played by Morgan Freeman
<Shawshank Redemption, 1994>
The Rams had been trending upward since the 2020 PLANDEMIC season, improving from 1 win to 3, then 3, 5, and finally 8. Then the roof caved in. Colorado St managed just two wins all year — one of which came against something referred to as Northern Colorado.
The good news? Jay Norvell is long gone. New head coach Jim Mora, a longtime MEGALOCKS favorite, takes over in Fort Collins and is tasked with righting the ship.
Colorado St Rams 2026 Outlook
OFFENSE
2025 By The Numbers (Mountain West):
- Scoring: 18.5 PPG (#10 Mountain West)
- Total Offense: 324.2 YPG (#10 Mountain West)
- Rushing: 108.3 YPG (#11 Mountain West)
- Passing: 215.9 YPG (#6 Mountain West)
- Sacks Allowed: 32 (#10 Mountain West)
It was bad last year. Really bad. They were near the bottom of the Mountain West in several key offensive categories, and now they’ve gotta move to the refurbished Pac-12.
The Rams are going in a new direction at QB, and frankly, we’re very intrigued to see how highly recruited former Power 4 specimen Hauss Hejny (Oklahoma State/TCU) works out as the starting quarterback. Hejny is a dual-threat QB who showed some promise before getting injured early in the 2025 campaign. K’Saan Farrar (UConn) is the likely backup, and he’s a bigger dood, but someone who almost certainly needs more development.
The THROW GAME weaponry didn’t produce last year — nobody on the team exceeded 400 receiving yards — but then again, the QB play was embarrassing at times. There are a few holdovers at WR/TE, but the Rams have brought a ton of transfer portal bodies to address the situation, including some TEs who should play a prominent role in this offense under new OC Pryce Tracy, who was the passing game coordinator at UConn. Some guys to keep an eye on include TE Pearce Spurlin, who has great pedigree (Georgia) and impossible dimensions (6-7, 230), along with WR RJ Vick (Wake Forest) and WR Jordan Mosley (Miss St).
The offense won’t work without some potent RBs, and wait — what do we have here? Well, it appears to be a transplant of the talented UConn Huskies running back room. Our personal favorite is Durrell Robinson (Auburn last year), who did some damage with UConn back in 2024 (731 yards, 6.8 avg, 8 TD). And of course, Mel Brown is a welcome addition, as he has — wait for it — over 2,000 career rushing yards at 6.0 yards per carry.
The offensive line is undergoing a complete rebuild, and that’s a bit worrisome. Mora will get it figured out, and the group has decent size, but there are fewer than 10 career starts among them.
DEFENSE
2025 By The Numbers (Mountain West):
- Scoring: 30.8 PPG (#11 Mountain West)
- Total Defense: 426.0 YPG (#11 Mountain West)
- Rushing Defense: 204.9 YPG (#12 Mountain West)
- Passing Defense: 221.1 YPG (#6 Mountain West)
- Sacks: 16 (#11 Mountain West)
The defense was just as putrid as the offense, and that’s how you finish 2-10. As you can imagine, there are a lot of new faces this year as only two of the top ten tacklers remain, and they’ll be without tackling LEGEND Owen Long, who booked over 150 (!) tackles last year at linebacker.
The DL looks pretty good as they’ve got plenty of size and depth, and the projected starting wall comes in at an average of 298 pounds. However, we’re not sure if they have a legit PENETRATOR, and the Rams were one of the worst teams in the entire country last year when it came to sack production (16, #120). The LB unit should also hold up well vs the run as they landed a pair of legit producers through the portal in Oumar Diomande (UConn, #1 tackler) and Caleb Otlewski (Montana).
The back end of the stop unit is a mixed bag. We don’t love the situation at CB, but the Rams are deep at safety with the return of Jace Bellah (4 INT), sophomore D’Angelo Hagens, and the addition of Elijah Mc-Cantos, who has lots of snaps under his belt (App State, Illinois).
SPECIAL TEAMS
There’s a complete reload on special teams, and it’s hard to envision how things will play out. The good news is they added a legit PK in Kali Nguma, who did a great job at North Texas in 2025 (12/13 FG, 70/70 XP!).
Schedule Analysis
Overall – We rate it on the more difficult side. There are no unwinnable games in non-conference play, but four of the five are gonna be tough sledding, including a home date with BYU and a road trip to UTSA. In Pac-12 action, they get Boise St at home but have to travel to face Washington St and Fresno St in back-to-back weeks.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – at Fresno St (Nov 21)
This game comes after facing a grueling duo of Boise St (H) and Washington St (A), and Fresno St is a really tough animal at home. This is an extra-scary scheduling spot if the Rams’ season is already down the tubes at that point.
Season Win Total
Market consensus – June 24
Over 3.5 -130
Under 3.5 +100
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Over
There’s a lot of work to be done, and whilst the schedule isn’t a cakewalk, only a few games can be classified as unwinnable.
Note – Our official list of season win total investments will be posted in the blog section of the website.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Colorado St used to play at Hughes Stadium, which sat at roughly 5,200 feet. They moved to Canvas Stadium in 2017, which sits at 5,003 feet — slightly lower, but still one of the higher elevations in college football. Opponents were already gasping for air at the old place. Now they just have nicer seats while they do it.
Walt Disney’s Imagineers modeled parts of Main Street, U.S.A. after downtown Fort Collins, thanks to Harper Goff — a Fort Collins native who played a major role in designing Disneyland. We’re not sure what’s more CREEPY: the role of “Imagineer,” or the way Disney destroys legendary movie franchises with 140 genders. You decide. We’ll hang up and listen.
MEGALOCKS Forecast:
Colorado St is ready to move on from the carnage of 2025, and what better way to do it than by upgrading at head coach, restocking the cupboard with talent, and stepping into a new conference with a fresh identity.
We still don’t know how the QB situation will shake out or whether the offensive line can hold up, but the Rams will do whatever it takes to get the ground game rolling, and we expect a noticeable bump from the defense. The schedule will be a grind, yet they should be competitive in the majority of their games as they try to rebuild the brand.
They’re a longshot to make a bowl game, but we definitely expect a better brand of football and a team that refuses to roll over like last year’s edition.
Fight on, you stalwart RAM team!