November 4, 2021 |
It’s getting down to crunch time for the Border War. We’ve had several days of mutual respect, admiration and Kumbayas. We’ve even had some light smack talk. CSU Coach Steve Adazio said he’s never been to Laramie. He made it sound like he’s never even made it as far as Haystack Rock, the big boulder north of Fort Collins that’s always sporting a fresh coat of colorful graffiti.
During his news conference Monday, Adazio made Laramie sounds like some frontier outpost in the Old West. Perhaps for a guy who’s coached at Notre Dame, Syracuse, Indiana, Florida, Temple and Boston College, Laramie is at the end of a dusty trail he’d rather not travel. Saturday will be his first time. One thing Adazio is not happy about is the stream of recruits from Colorado and elsewhere who take that trail. They drive straight up I-25 to play football in Laramie, and Adazio would like to snatch some of them at Exit 269 and turn them into Rams.
The Wyoming Cowboys and their fans are waiting here at the end of the world for Coach Adazio and his Rams. He knows it, too. This will be his first real taste of what the Border War means for the two programs. CSU won last year. But it was COVID lockdown game: No fans in the stadium, no cheering, no home field advantage and no fun. Coach Adazio knows this year is going to be different. It’s what college football is all about, he said. It’s what makes it different than the NFL.
The Cowboys and the Rams are two teams that are a lot alike. Both are big, physical and talented. Both are not happy where their record is at this point in the season. They’ll be out to prove something on Saturday. The Vegas oddsmakers are expecting a slow, grind-it out, run the ball, defensive battle. They set the over/under at 41 and pegged the Rams as a 3.5 favorite. They’ve never been to Laramie, either. And anything can happen at the old outpost on the high plains of Wyoming. The showdown is set for 1:30.
