Colorado State enters Saturday’s game against Miami of Ohio in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl, presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, with a successful run at Arizona Stadium.
In addition to the Rams advancing to the inaugural Arizona Bowl in 2015 against Nevada, Colorado State has defeated Arizona at the stadium three times since 1977 — the last year the schools were Western Athletic Conference rivals.
The Rams are 3-13-1 in their series with Arizona, and those three wins and the tie were all in Tucson.
The biggest of those three wins was in 1994 when the Rams upset No. 6 Arizona, which was coming off its 10-2 season with a victory over Miami (Fla.) in the Fiesta Bowl the previous season. That was the season in which members of Arizona’s Desert Swarm defense, including Brandon Sanders, Tedy Bruschi and Sean Harris, were on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s preseason edition as the No. 1 team.
The 21-16 victory — considered as Colorado State’s greatest win by many in Fort Collins, Colo. — occurred in front of 56,534 fans at Arizona Stadium. It was Arizona’s first loss that season after a 4-0 start.
In honor of Colorado State playing in the Arizona Bowl, let's remember their 1994 win over #6 Arizona, a historic upset that vaulted them to #13 in the rankings! pic.twitter.com/ss11D8uvVy
— Mile High Minute (@mhmdenver) December 26, 2024
Colorado State is 2-17 against top 10 opponents in program history. Arizona is the highest-ranked team it has beaten. The Rams defeated No. 7 Colorado 19-14 in 2002 in a neutral-site game at Denver.
“I’ve been asked about that game (against Arizona in 1994) a lot over the years,” said former Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick in the school’s Web site. “That game really put us on the map. It was a victory that paid dividends for our program for the next 10 years, at least.”
Colorado State’s win was not a fluke. The Rams were 10-2 overall that season with a WAC championship, finishing 7-1 in conference play.
Six of Arizona’s players on the 1994 team went on to play in the NFL, including future College Football Hall of Fame inductees Rob Waldrop and Bruschi.
“I remember talking to the players on Thursday before the game, telling them that we could hang with (Arizona), but I’m not sure I believed it myself,” Lubick said. “Arizona was a great team, and I had no idea how we were going to get a first down against that defense. But (offensive coordinator) Dave Lay came up with a couple of bootleg pass plays for touchdowns, and (quarterback) Anthoney Hill played a great game.”
Hill threw two touchdown passes to tight end Justin Shull in the game. Hill was Colorado State’s director of player development and community/alumni relations when the Rams played in the 2015 Arizona Bowl.
He said at the time via Colorado State’s web site that he walked to the spots in the end zone where he completed the touchdown passes to Shull. It brought back “a lot of great memories,” said Hill, now the running backs and tight ends coach for Colorado Mesa.
Colorado State also handed Arizona a season-opening 17-15 loss at Arizona Stadium in 1980, Larry Smith’s first game as the Wildcats’ head coach.
In the last WAC matchup between the programs in 1977, Colorado State bid farewell to its conference rival before Arizona headed to the Pac-10 with a dominating 35-14 win at Arizona Stadium.
An exuberant Arizona fan put a sign on McKale Center at the beginning of that season that read “22 games to the Rose Bowl,” after Arizona’s move to the Pac-10 was announced. The Wildcats fell to 2-6 after the loss to Colorado State that year. The program has yet to advance to the Rose Bowl.
HOME-AND-HOME SERIES UPCOMING FOR ARIZONA & COLORADO STATE
In 2017, when Greg Byrne was Arizona’s athletic director, he arranged a home-and-home series between the Wildcats and Colorado State in the 2027 and 2028 seasons.
The series is scheduled to begin Sept. 4, 2027, with the Wildcats traveling to Fort Collins. Arizona will host the Rams the following season on Sept. 2, 2028.
“The two schools have a strong history between one another and renewing this regional matchup will be of great benefit to both programs,” Byrne said at the time. “We think our fans will enjoy games like this.”
Arizona is 3-0 in games at Fort Collins and 10-3-1 against the Rams in Tucson.
The tie occurred in the 1926 season, a 3-3 affair on Thanksgiving Day, a month after star quarterback John “Button” Salmon passed away following an automobile accident and reportedly mentioned to coach J.F. “Pop” McKale on his death bed: “Tell them, tell the team to bear down.”
Colorado State was known as the Colorado Aggies at the time.
McKale’s team finished 5-1-1 that season.
Miami of Ohio has never played Arizona, but as AllSportsTucson.com documented earlier this week, three of the Wildcats’ most successful head coaches — Jim Young, Smith and Dick Tomey — all came from Miami’s Cradle of Coaches.
ARIZONA STADIUM FIELD RE-DESIGNED FOR FIRST TIME FOR SNOOP DOGG’S ARIZONA BOWL
For the first time in the bowl’s 10-year existence the field at Arizona Stadium will totally be designed for the game.
In the past, the Arizona Bowl logo was displayed on the field but not at midfield, where Arizona’s large “A” logo remained. The end zones read “Arizona” and “Wildcats” in previous games, but for Saturday’s game, one end zone will read “Snoop Dogg” and the other will have the Gin & Juice design with an Impala.
Told you it would be worth the wait. The @SnoopDogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by @DreAndSnoop, legendary name and legendary game. pic.twitter.com/2ZMoStrW68
— The Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl By Gin & Juice (@theARIZONABOWL) December 27, 2024
The sponsorship deal between the Arizona Bowl and Snoop Dogg lasts through 2026.
Judging from the excitement over the game — Colorado State has sold more than 4,000 tickets for the game — with Tucsonans warming up to the idea of celebrity leading an event like Dean Martin and Joe Garagiola in past PGA Tour events, the Arizona Bowl should seek to remain with Snoop Dogg as long as possible.
MIAMI QB GABBERT TO END SIX-YEAR COLLEGE CAREER
Miami sixth-year quarterback Brett Gabbert will make his 52nd career start when the RedHawks face Colorado State.
Gabbert, brother of former NFL quarterback Blaine Gabbert, ranks third in program history with 10,630 passing yards, sixth in completion percentage (.590) and second in passing touchdowns (80).
Gabbert, 24, started all 14 games as a true freshman in 2019. The 2020 season was impacted by COVID-19 with Miami playing only two games.
He played only 12 games over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, including only four in 2022 because of a non-throwing shoulder injury. He missed the last six games of last season because of a gruesome leg injury.
Late into the third quarter of a game with Toledo in October 2023, Miami was deep in the Rockets’ territory when Gabbert took the snap for a quarterback sneak. He was stopped a few yards past the line of scrimmage.
As he was tackled, a defensive lineman fell on his right leg. His bone was sticking out of his leg, blood dripping down his sock.
Miami coach Chuck Martin ran to the field and kneeled next to him. Every player was on his knees. Yager Stadium on Miami’s campus became silent.
An ambulance arrived and took Gabbert to the hospital for an emergency surgery to place a metal rod in his leg.
Martin told reporters that he thought that was the end of Gabbert’s career.
“Most people would have hung it up,” Martin said. “I got on the field, his bone is sticking out of his leg, and he’s like, ‘Coach, I’m done, I can’t do this anymore.’ He loves being in the arena, he loves being out there, he loves the pressure. And I think that’s a big reason he keeps coming back, because he lives for these moments.”
Gabbert is in the midst of his best season at Miami, throwing for 2,737 yards while completing 204 of 354 attempts. He has 21 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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