FORT COLLINS — Tyson Summers remembers one thing above all else from his lone Border War game on the sidelines.

“It was cold,” the Colorado State interim coach said with a laugh this week.

As Summers gets set to lead the Rams onto the field for the first time Saturday (5:30 p.m. CBS Sports Network) against Wyoming, it doesn’t hurt that his only experience in the rivalry was the program’s last win at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie.

“That was a special group of guys, and it was an important day — a big day,” Summers said of CSU’s 26-7 win in November 2015.

The 117th edition of the Border War this Saturday will be a big one, too.

There’s been plenty of change on both sides in the lead-up. 

Head coach Jay Norvell was fired after last week’s home loss to Hawaii that dropped the Rams to 2-5 in a season that began with expectations of winning the Mountain West and Summers has had the task of trying to devise a plan to win the game CSU fans want to win more than any other, while also balancing the emotions of a locker room dealing with the departure of its leader.

“I think they’ve been great,” Summers said. “Now, I’m the most biased person in the building, but they’ve been good. Really, just trying to do the progression correctly with their emotions and their processes was a big part of it. Not that there’s a lot of change, but just some subtle adjustments to some things that can help us.”

In the process, Summers promoted tight ends coach Grant Chestnut, who has plenty of experience as a play caller, to offensive coordinator during the same week that one of his close friends, Jay Johnson, was demoted from the same role at Wyoming in the midst of the Cowboys’ similarly disappointing 3-4 start.

“(Johnson) is one of my best friends in the entire world,” Summers said. “Jay and I worked together at the University of Georgia and at the University of Colorado and shared an office together and were coordinators on the staff together in this state a couple years ago, so my heart’s heavy for him, but that’s unfortunately part of the business we’ve chosen, and we know which way that can go.”

The flip side is what Summers is experiencing. He returned to CSU for a second time (and the state of Colorado for a third time) this offseason for another stint as the defensive coordinator. He probably didn’t expect to be named the interim head coach after seven games, but he’s trying to handle the situation in the best way possible.

“It is a challenge to really make sure that your messaging is correct and the messaging for us over the course of the last (few) days is primarily about us and our opportunities and what we can do and what we need to fix and what we have to focus on,” Summers said.

It helps that there’s a trophy on the line this week. The giant Bronze Boot has been in the middle of the CSU locker room all week after the Rams beat the Cowboys for the first time since 2020 last fall in Fort Collins.

Just like players before them educated them on the rivalry, it’s on new leaders like quarterback Jackson Brousseau to make sure the newcomers understand the importance of this game.

“I learned that from Mo Kamara when I was a younger kid here,” Brousseau said. “I’m from Utah, I don’t know this rivalry, and he kinda explained that when you get here, this is what it is. The Border War is the highlight of the schedule every year. When you get (to this game), everything kinda goes out the door and you just gotta go play.”

If there’s one thing the CSU players want Ram fans to know during a chaotic week in Fort Collins, it’s this:

“I promise you we’ll be ready,” sophomore linebacker Owen Long said.

King’s prediction

Colorado State 20, Wyoming 16

Throw the records out the window this week. Well, both teams would love it if you ignored their combined 5-9 record this season, actually. But with so much change in both Fort Collins and Laramie, no one has a clue what to expect on the field this Saturday night, except for the fact that both teams will be desperate for a rivalry win that will make the start to their respective seasons less relevant. Led by interim coach Tyson Summers, the Rams take an early lead thanks to some creative offensive play calling and get a crucial stop late in the fourth quarter to seal their first win at Wyoming in a decade.

King’s Players to Watch

Colorado State: QB Jackson Brousseau, DL Jack Moran

This is Brousseau’s team now. The redshirt sophomore QB has a few starts under his belt heading into his first Border War action, and with Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi no longer with the team, everyone is going to be looking to him to spark an offensive performance that carries the Rams to a win in a game they’ve had circled on the calendar all year. Defensively, there are few people who understand the importance of this game better than Moran, a legacy CSU player who’s been elevated into a big role on the defensive line this season.

Wyoming: RB Samuel Harris, DE Tyce Westland
If there’s one game-breaker capable of quickly flipping momentum on the Cowboys offense, it’s Harris. The true freshman running back has already shown what he can do in big games with his 126-yard performance at Colorado last month. Harris has also racked up 130 yards on 5 yards per carry over his last two games. On defense, look for a senior like Westland to build off his big performance last week at Air Force (14 tackles) and carry that over into his final Border War game.