Monday Morning Quarterback: UNLV

I’ve never believed in the phrased "over-confident." You can not possibly be too confident in yourself or your abilities. What you can do is be negligent, and forget to give your opponent the proper amount of respect and preparation time.

The CSU Rams were certainly guilty of that Saturday – all last week, it would seem – and it ended up costing them a perfect Mountain West Conference season, a high national ranking, and a chance to go down as the best Rams team ever. The stunning 36-33 loss to UNLV will be remembered forever by the seniors who were forced to accept the MWC Championship trophy with the sting of defeat still fresh.

But as the other two losses did earlier in the season, this loss will help prevent these Rams from becoming complacent – or negligent – as they prepare of a Liberty Bowl date with Texas Christian.

It also sets them up nicely for next year. After all, a perfect MWC season would be a tough act to follow.

Instead, they will have more goals to chase, and a great group with which to do the chasing. Both QB’s – Bradlee Van Pelt and Justin Holland will return, and you can expect both to be even better. Joel Dressen, Mart Bartz, Chris Pittman, and Eric Hill all return to catch passes from both, and Rashaan Sanders returns to take over for the school’s all time rushing leader, Cecil Sapp, who will be lugging the rock on Sundays this time next fall.

On defense, we can expect the Rams to be much deeper and improved, led by returning starters Drew Wood, Eric Pauly, Dexter Wynn, Adam Wade, Andre Sommersell, Patrick Goodpaster, and new faces like DB Ben Stratton appear ready to step up to the level of their offensive counterparts. And Sonny Lubick has raved about the last two recruiting classes…

But this year is far from over. The Liberty Bowl is shaping up as one of the better bowl game match-ups. TCU has had the same kind of season the Rams have had, a couple tough losses, but a lot of solid wins. They’ve been on the fringe of the national rankings all year, and are a program on the upswing. Sound familiar?

You can be sure that Sonny’s team will give TCU the proper amount of respect while they prepare for the Horned Frogs and the chilly greeting that awaits in Memphis three weeks from now. No way the Rams can be over confident.