Injuries mounting for CSU football team
Caprioglio latest to go down
A defensive end one week. Two fullbacks and a linebacker the next.
Now, the CSU football team has to replace the player responsible for protecting the blind side of sophomore quarterback Pete Thomas after losing junior weak-side tackle Joe Caprioglio to what appears to be a serious knee injury during Saturday's 28-14 loss to the University of Colorado.
"Joe's a lot like Mike Sisson (the star linebacker sidelined by a broken ankle a week earlier)," coach Steve Fairchild said Tuesday. "You don't want to lose him; he's one of your best players on that side of the ball. But having said that, it's part of the game and those other two guys have got to step up and play well like they did the other day."
Those other two guys are redshirt freshmen Ty Sambrailo and Mason Hathaway, who took turns filling in for Caprioglio after the 6-foot-6, 312-pounder was injured trying to protect Thomas as he scrambled to avoid a strong CU pass rush on a third-and-16 play late in the first quarter. Neither of the two replacements made any noticeable mistakes against the Buffs, offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Pat Meyer said.
So, Tuesday, Sambrailo, a 6-5, 299-pounder from Watsonville, Calif., and Hathaway, a 6-5, 282-pounder out of the famed Carroll High School program in Southlake, Texas, began competing for the starting job for this Saturday's game at Utah State. Senior Paul Madsen, last year's starting weak-side tackle, moved back to that spot from the strong side, while Sambrailo and Hathaway alternated series on the strong side during a two-hour practice on the fields south of Moby Arena.
"Mentally, we go over our plays and we watch enough film and we study the other team enough to know what we're doing," Sambrailo said. "I'm confident with my ability, but sometimes it's a little different on the field when you're actually playing. Experience helps, but it's a learning process."
If so, both Sambrailo and Hathaway have a lot to learn. Both played sparingly in the season-opener at New Mexico, with Sambrailo limited to a single play, where he lined up as an extra tight end, and neither played at all the following week in a 33-14 win over Northern Colorado. The two tackles now vying for a starting job were the third-string tackles on the preseason depth chart but moved up when the Rams lost sophomores Justin Becker (academic ineligibility) and Jared Biard (knee injury) in August.
Both, though, are up to the task, Meyer said. Otherwise he wouldn't have played them in the season-opener, and he wouldn't be looking at playing them now. He has other options, just none that make as much sense as letting the guys who've been preparing to step in should one of the starting tackles go down, do just that.
"We all need to start somewhere," Madsen said. "The younger tackles are going to learn, and they're going to grow, and they're going to do it."
Madsen knows what he's talking about. He was forced into action in a similar situation in 2009 because of injuries and wound up starting the final seven games of the season. He's started every game since.
That's how it works on good football teams, Fairchild said. Although there are some areas where the depth is getting thin because of a rash of early season injuries that have claimed six starters, the Rams are better able to overcome those absences this year than they were during his first three seasons as coach.
"Everybody has injuries; you know that coming in," Fairchild said. "You know know the 22 (starters) you have coming into August are not going to go the whole season. It's our job to continue to recruit well and develop well so we can withstand some of these things.
"This is quite a few, I mean I think we're down six or seven starters since the opening game. But again, it opens up an opportunity for someone to step up."