Colorado State Rams 2026 Season Preview

A Clean Slate for Mora

Jim Mora takes over a program that finished 2-10 and 1-7 in league play, with a power rating (No. 118) that puts a floor under expectations rather than a ceiling. None of that 2025 ledger belongs to him. What matters for 2026 is that he inherits a full offseason to install his own approach without last year's results attached to his name, and Colorado State's story now starts with whatever he builds rather than what came before him.

Building From the Ground Up

Jim Mora inherits an offense that stalled on third down (32.9%, 122nd) and a defense that couldn't get off the field, ranking 127th in rushing yards allowed and 130th in tackles for loss. The fix at quarterback is Oklahoma State transfer Hauss Hejny, whose 96 yards and lone touchdown last season are less relevant than the fact he's the settled answer under center for a program that finished 2-10. Real progress in Fort Collins starts with Hejny cutting down the negative plays that buried a unit averaging just 18.5 points per game, not with any single skill-position name.

Jackson Brousseau's 1,354 yards walk out the door with him, and Colorado State hands the job to Hauss Hejny, in from Oklahoma State, rather than sort through Darius Curry's 5-touchdown, 7-interception ledger from a year ago. Hejny arrives with just 96 career passing yards himself, but new coach Jim Mora is betting his transfer upside beats what's left in the room, including Tyler Lewis and Tommy Poholsky, neither of whom has thrown a pass on record. The bar is low: this offense scored 18.5 points a game and converted third downs at a 32.9% clip, so even modest efficiency from Hejny changes the ceiling here.

Colorado State is replacing its entire backfield production, with Justin Marshall, Jalen Dupree and Lloyd Avant all gone from a rushing attack that managed just 108 yards per game a year ago. Jim Mora's staff answered by importing five backs rather than trusting the incumbents, and Auburn transfer Durell Robinson, with his 57 yards and a score already on tape, is the closest thing to a proven option in the room. Cedric Ross, Damian Moore Jr., Mel Brown and Oliver Lundberg Coleman arrive with zero college stat lines between them, so this is a first-year staff building a run game almost entirely from scratch.

No Colorado State receiver topped 358 yards last season, and the group's leading producer, Armani Winfield, is gone, leaving Tommy Maher (32 catches, 358 yards) and Lavon Brown (22 catches, 244 yards) as the only holdovers with any real volume. Jim Mora's staff went to the portal for juice, landing Jordan Mosley from Mississippi State, whose 8 catches for 168 yards and a touchdown at his last stop came on far fewer targets than what Maher and Brown combined for. With a passing attack that ranked 86th in yards per game but an offense that finished 122nd on third down, Mosley projects as the field-stretcher this group has lacked, but Colorado State is still rebuilding a receiving corps around unproven pieces like Stephon Daily and Antoine Martin Jr. rather than a proven go-to option.

Rocky Beers took his 31 catches and 7 touchdowns out the door, and Jim Mora answered by rebuilding the room almost entirely through the portal. Nader Chirchi arrives from UConn with 3 catches and 45 yards already on his resume, joined by fellow UConn transfer Juice Vereen and Georgia's Pearce Spurlin III, while returning target Ryan McConnell managed just 2 catches for 22 yards last season. With that little proven production back and an offense that ranked 122nd in third down rate, Chirchi looks like the most likely name to inherit real snaps in this new-look group.

Colorado State allowed 32 sacks and managed just 5.14 yards per play last season, numbers that helped bury a 2-10 team, and the fix Jim Mora is banking on arrived almost entirely through recruiting and the portal. Ten linemen are out the door against seven returning, so names like Quinton Harris, a tackle in from TCU, and four incoming three-star tackles including Payton Stewart from Michigan State are being asked to start from scratch rather than plug gaps. With no reliable returning starters to lean on up front, this is a first-year rebuild in the truest sense, and how fast that new tackle group jells will decide whether Colorado State's rushing attack can climb out of the bottom tier it occupied in 2025.

Every returning lineman on this depth chart, from Jack Moran's 25 tackles down to Gabe Jones's 3, has half a sack or less, which explains a 2025 group that managed just 16 sacks and 46 tackles for loss. UConn transfer Stephon Wright, who racked up 2 sacks and 3.5 TFL last season, becomes the closest thing to a proven pass rusher on the roster, alongside Montana edge transfer Caleb Otlewski and his 1.5 TFL. Jim Mora inherits a line that ranked 127th in rushing yards allowed and 121st in run-stuff rate, so those two transfers are being asked to fix a problem the returning group never solved.

Colorado State essentially replaced its entire linebacker room, and the group that finished 130th in tackles for loss needed exactly that kind of overhaul. Oumar Diomande arrives from UConn with 116 tackles, 5 sacks and 8 TFL on his resume, giving Jim Mora's first CSU defense the disruptive presence it lacked, while Marc Pretto (Northern Illinois) adds rotation depth behind him. Jaseim Mitchell and Kenyon Agurs return as the only proven holdovers, but the actual identity of this unit now runs through the transfer haul rather than anyone who played meaningful snaps in 2025.

Jake Jarmolowich's 72 tackles and Jahari Rogers' 3.5 TFL are gone from a group that let opponents run wild for 205 yards a game (127th nationally), and Jim Mora is turning to the portal to fix it rather than lean on returnees alone. Jace Bellah's 58 tackles anchor the back end, but the real bet is on newcomers Elijah Mc-Cantos, who brought 52 tackles from App State, and San José State corner Caleb Presley to speed up a defense that ranked 116th in havoc rate. CJ Blocker and AJ Noland provide some continuity, yet with three unproven high school signees also in the mix, this unit's competence in run support will decide how much better 2026 actually looks.

Colorado State loses its entire specialist unit that mattered, including Bryan Hansen, who averaged 47.9 yards per punt, and Isaiah Hankins, who converted just 5 of 10 field goals in his final season. Wofford transfer Cavan Craig arrives to take over punting duties after averaging 41.9 yards on 45 attempts, an immediate downgrade in average that new coach Jim Mora will have to live with. Casey Carr and Payne Williams III return with no game statistics on record, meaning the placekicking job is essentially unproven heading into year one of the Mora era.

Wholesale Reboot

Jim Mora takes over a roster that lost 38 players to the portal, including its top three backs in Lloyd Avant, Jalen Dupree and Justin Marshall, plus linebacker Owen Long's 148 tackles and quarterback Jackson Brousseau's 1,354 passing yards. The fixes are almost all external: Oumar Diomande arrives from UConn with 116 tackles and 5 sacks to replace Long's production, while Hauss Hejny, who threw for just 96 yards at Oklahoma State, is the settled answer at quarterback. With Jordan Mosley and Stephon Wright joining as four-star pickups, Colorado State is betting that portal talent rebuilds faster than a rank-73 class could on its own.

Hauss Hejny

Colorado State handed the job to Hauss Hejny, the Oklahoma State transfer, over Darius Curry, whose 740 yards came with 7 interceptions against 5 touchdowns last fall. Hejny's own sample is tiny, just 96 yards and a touchdown, but with Jordan Mosley added from Mississippi State and Tommy Maher and Lavon Brown back at receiver, how quickly he builds chemistry with that group under new coach Jim Mora determines whether this offense climbs out of a 2-10 season or repeats it.

Backing the Chalk Cost Bettors

Colorado State did not just lose games in 2025, it lost bettors money doing it, covering just 33% of spreads overall and getting shut out as a home favorite at 0-3. The market kept overrating a team that went 1-7 in conference play, and the number to remember is 22% covers the week after a loss, a sign the book never adjusted downward fast enough. Jim Mora takes over a program the spread still has not figured out how to price, and until he strings together results, betting against Colorado State remains the safer lean.