Rams rev running game in rout of Abilene Christian

FORT COLLINS» The how wasn’t important. Not to Mike Bobo.

The Colorado State football coach doesn’t care about the number involved in the rushing total, just the total itself, and Saturday’s bottom line was stellar.

The Rams rushed for 268 yards in their 38-10 victory over Abilene Christian, and did it on 38 carries. That was good for a 7.1 yardsper-carry average. So, do the particulars matter?

No single back dominated the day. Izzy Matthews had his best outing of the year, rushing for 89 yards on 12 carries. Dalyn Dawkins had 12 totes too, picking up 73 yards with a touchdown, but he also had a costly fumble in the red zone. Marvin Kinsey Jr., Rashaad Boddie and Marcus McElroy were used, and quarterback Nick Stevens had the big gainer, 41 yards on a 99-yard scoring drive.

The Rams aren’t going to use a workhorse when they feel they have a stable of Clydesdales to pull the sled.

“That’s just how were going to do things. We rushed for 268 yards. I’ll take that every week, and it’s a long season,” Bobo said. “It’s a long season and we’ve got to keep guys healthy. Dawkins is 175 pounds, I don’t know that he can carry it 20 times a game. He might be able to do it one or two games, but for a whole season he can’t.

“We’ve really got two guys right now, Izzy and Dawkins. Boddie is still a work in progress, Marvin is still a little timid. You can see it out there when he was running. It was good to get the freshman (McElroy) out there and give him a carry.”

After facing Pac-12 members Oregon State and Colorado the first two weeks, the Rams were averaging 139.5 yards per game on the ground and just 3.7 yards per carry. They wanted to improve those figures.

Abilene Christian wanted to force CSU to throw the ball, and Stevens had 40 passes Saturday. But with their will to run, the Rams found a way eventually.