CSU stars absolutely pop off, give CU juicy bulletin board material

It was all rather respectful in the lead up to this year’s Rocky Mountain Showdown until now—all quiet on the Front Range no longer as Colorado State’s two star players Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and Tory Horton took direct shots at Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes through the media on Wednesday.

In a video shared by Romi Bean from Denver’s CBS affiliate KCNC, both the starting quarterback and top wide receiver had some strong thoughts to share about their rivals.

“I don’t feel like we left it on the field, because we should have murdered them guys,” Horton said to Bean. “They came out with that attitude like they were out on top of the world.

“I think it goes to show, the hype, the media train, it only gets so far at the end of the day, you have to line up 11 guys against our 11 guys and we’ll find out who wants it more,” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “We’ll see how far Instagram followers gets them.”

The full video is embedded below:

“We should have murdered them guys …we’re coming for revenge”

“We’ll see how far instagram followers gets them”

Here’s what CSU’s Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and Tory Horton had to say about last year’s Rocky Mountain Showdown and the upcoming game against CU: pic.twitter.com/51ZBPyigpf

— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) September 12, 2024

The lead up to last year’s matchup featured an exchange through the media between Sanders and Jay Norvell and the rest of the Rams making the in-state rivalry game personal—or at least that’s how folks with the Buffaloes saw it. Things got heated between Sanders and Norvell both with pregame words and an animated post-game handshake. There was also a scrap between the two teams even clicked. Much of the on-field pregame scrap centered around Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, who are both still the stars for the Buffaloes. Hunter, playing better than ever now, was lost for multiple games due to a dirty hit in last year’s RMS by Henry Blackburn. The two players mended fences but will square off against one another again. Likewise for CSU, Fowler-Nicolosi and Horton starred for the Rams in last year’s contest. The two have CSU at 1-1 thus far, just like how Sanders and Hunter have CU at 1-1, though the Rams finished last year a bit stronger on the field. Some heat carried through the fall with Norvell’s wife posting some unsavory comments about Sanders on Twitter in the winter.

CU has mostly taken the high road and Norvell has kept pretty tight-lipped so far this week. Of course the new comments now change everything with even more charge to a game that factors to be tight after last year’s edition went to double-overtime as the Buffs defended Folsom Field for a 43-35 win.

That edition of the Rocky Mountain Showdown was one of the most-viewed football games of the 2023 season, with ESPN’s College GameDay. The game last year drew 9.3 million viewers, the 12th-most watched game in college football last fall and the ninth-most watched game in the history of Buffaloes football.

A year later with the rivalry in Fort Collins for the first time in nearly 30 years, CSU will want not only revenge but to hold court since the two teams won’t meet against for several years. The visiting Buffaloes are favorited by seven-and-a-half points by nearly every sportsbook. That line has come down from an opening of nine points by some oddsmakers, which shows how the public expects this year’s game to be tight once again. The over-under on the game is set at around 59 points.

The new comments from CSU’s two stars match a lot of what is being said in the media about the Buffs, who are 2-11 since last year’s game but have still had a massive platform between TV and social media.