Colorado State at Colorado 8/30/19 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The Buffaloes are definitely looking to have a good start to the year again, like last season, but avoid the losing streak after the start. The Buffaloes started off really hot with a 5-0 record and 38 points a game, but quickly fell down again. Steven Montez is back at quarterback again this year and he is going to be happy to see one of his favorite targets Laviska Shenault Jr. is coming back to catch the balls as well.

Mustafa Johnson will be looked to provide the leadership for the Buffaloes defense. Last year he was a machine off the end and very hard to stop as he slammed the quarterback to the ground 8 times last year and did not look block able. This year, he will get chipped and double teamed more, but that allows Jalen Sami, the 320 pound freshman, a chance to cause disruption in the middle of the line. Colorado State is going to have to replace a ton of offensive production this year. The departure of Preston Williams is what is going to hurt the team most as he alone had more yardage than the entire ground game of the Rams. What else does not help is the Rams did not really do much to improve the ground game and with the loss of Williams will leave the offense a little bare.

John Jancek will be looking to see how his system that he started to change to last year is going to work this season. Last year he was a new coordinator to the Rams and was working hard on getting his defense going, but this year he will have a chance to impress defensive recruits, but also gives the team a chance to have a defense that is able to shut down the opponent, but that would require a lot of changes from the 111th ranked defense from last year.