All season long, the Colorado State football team has searched for some kind of spark to get its running game on track.
Before the start of the season, it didn’t look like that would be a problem with last year’s leading rusher Avery Morrow returning and transfer Kobe Johnson expected to have a significant impact as well.
But along the way, both got injured, Johnson so much that the Rams decided to shut him down and redshirt him this season. Morrow is back but hasn’t been 100%.
In the meantime, CSU turned to redshirt sophomore Vann Schield, who carried the load for a few games. Then last Saturday in the Rams’ 22-19 victory over San Diego State, the Rams got the spark they have been looking for.
In his first college game, true freshman Justin Marshall rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown, making him the first CSU freshman to rush for 100 yards in a game since Ron Harris in 1974.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries,” CSU head coach Jay Norvell said. “We lost Kobe. Avery was hurt for several weeks. He’s still not really back to 100% and Vann had to carry that load. We had a couple of good young freshmen that we have been trying to incorporate in our run game and we just felt like it was time for Justin, and we thought he played really well.”
Marshall’s first collegiate run went for 12 yards, and he didn’t slow down after that. He had another run for 17 and his longest run of the game was for 21, one of the longest carries by a CSU running back this season.
Those long runs were specifically something Norvell was pleased with. The head coach keeps track of explosive plays and Marshall provided them when the team needed them.
“Coach (Jeremy) Moses did a good job preparing him for his game,” Norvell said. “He gave us a shot in the arm, had a couple of explosive runs that we’ve been missing from our offense.”
For the CSU offensive line blocking and opening holes in front of him, a breakout game from a freshman running back was fun to watch and fun to be a part of.
It was the first time this season that CSU had a back run for more than 100 yards. Schield had 90 against UNLV.
“That was awesome watching him,” graduate student offensive lineman Andrew Cannon said. “We got some practice reps with him. We didn’t really get to see what he could do so when he came out on the field and exploded, it was just real cool to see how much of a dawg he is.”
Marshall said after his performance that he couldn’t wait to get the ball and show what he could do. He didn’t even know he was going to see action until his name was called. When it was, he was ready.
Another part of the run game that had failed CSU in previous contests was being able to run the clock at the end of the game.
Against the Aztecs, they were finally able to do that. Morrow ran the ball three times in the final 2:04 and was able to get a first down as San Diego wasted its timeouts. Eventually, the Rams were able to run the clock out on their fourth victory of the season.
“It’s very, very important for us to be able to run the ball well situationally and run the ball when we have to run the ball to win games,” Norvell said.
“That was huge for us,” Cannon added. “We had tried to do that in a few other games and weren’t able to pull it off. So, to finally actually be able to put it on the ground and finish the game, get that last first down was really big for us.”
Norvell said Monday that Marshall will be a big part of the game plan going forward and the Rams will need another strong performance on the ground this week against Nevada.
Kickoff for the Rams’ final home game of the season against the Wolfpack is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Canvas Stadium.
