BOBO DEALS WITH QB COMPETITION
FORT COLLINS» Colorado State’s Mike Bobo received the phone call that no head football coach wants to hear.
It arrived this month from Tony Hill, CSU football’s head athletic trainer, with the news that expected starting quarterback Collin Hill had retorn an ACL playing basketball and would miss all of spring practice. At a Monday news conference to begin CSU spring football, Bobo told reporters that Collin Hill had successful surgery but that it was unclear if he would play this fall.
“I was just heartbroken for that kid and how hard he’s worked,” Bobo said. “He’s really had a great offseason in our fourth-quarter program. He stepped up as far as being a vocal leader, on and off the field.”
Hill, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound redshirt sophomore from Moore, S.C., completed 58.1 percent of his passes (75-for-129) for 1,096 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions in 2016 before his first tore ACL, against Utah State. He was redshirted last fall. Hill was the clear front-runner as the Rams’ starting quarterback in 2018 after the graduation of Nick Stevens.
Hill’s second ACL tear has opened debate over the role of coaches in preventing off-field injuries. Colorado Buffaloes coach Mike MacIntyre bars his team from playing basketball, for instance.
“It’s just one of those things that happens,” Bobo said. “You could say: ‘Hey, he shouldn’t play basketball. He should live in a bubble.’ But I don’t have that policy. Guys can get hurt walking down the street. It’s unfortunate. He’s got a long rehab ahead of him, but I know if anybody can come back (from a second ACL tear), it’s Collin Hill.”
CSU returns two scholarship players with a viable chance to earn the starting job should Hill be unable to play Week 1 against Hawaii on Aug. 25 in junior J.C. Robles and redshirt freshman Justice McCoy.
“J.C. Robles has got to be a more accurate passer to play in this system; he’s got to be better fundamentally with his feet and he’s got to play confident,” Bobo said. “Part of that comes with getting more opportunities and more reps. He’s got to take it upon himself to be confident, and not necessarily how he plays, but how he projects his voice, how he talks to his teammates and how he leads.
“Justice McCoy has put on about 20 pounds since he got here last fall. I like the way he looks physically right now and is going out and putting it together — processing information for Justice and taking it from the meeting room, to the drills, to the team situation and to scrimmages. How fast can he process it?”
Bobo confirmed that CSU is also actively recruiting a graduate transfer quarterback with immediate eligibility for next season. Those still available include Quinten Dormady (Tennessee), Wilton Speight (Michigan), Evan Shirreffs (Miami), Jeff George Jr. (Illinois) and several more from Power Five conferences.
“I’ll be adaptive,” Bobo said. “If we sign a guy that comes in here and is the best guy, then we’ll put him in position to be successful and do what he can do. There are 10 other (players), but the quarterback in the trigger man.”