FORT COLLINS — Aside from not having the whiteboard in his hands, everything felt normal for Ali Farokhmanesh once the ball was tipped in the air.

But the 2 hours before his first exhibition game as the Colorado State head coach? 

“Everything leading up to it felt abnormal, though,” Farokhmanesh said this week. “I couldn’t take a nap. I always take a nap for like 30 or 40 minutes, but I was so sweaty I didn’t even nap.

“Sitting in the locker room by myself felt really weird. I’m like, ‘Man, someone come talk to me.’”

No one did. Instead, ahead of the Rams’ exhibition Saturday in Omaha at No. 23 Creighton, a competitive 76-64 loss, everyone in the locker room was waiting for Farokhmanesh to talk to them. Even that came naturally, though. 

Farokhmanesh is a son of college volleyball coaches. He also learned a lot from his coach, Ben Jacobson, at Northern Iowa. He also had seven years as Niko Medved’s top assistant in Fort Collins to prepare as the guy running the show on the road against a ranked opponent in an intense preseason matchup.

“It wasn’t a lot of difference from what Niko made me do when I was an assistant, so it’s a huge credit to him that I felt that prepared me in that moment,” Farokhmanesh said.

It starts for real Monday at Moby Arena against Incarnate Word.

Spoiler alert: there is no Nique Clifford on this year’s Rams squad. But what they lack in star power, they feel like they make up for in depth.

Only three players who got regular minutes at the end of last season are back: big men Rashaan Mbemba, Kyle Jorgensen and Nikola Djapa. Freshmen Darnez Slater and Jon Mekkonen should see increased roles after redshirting last year. 

There is a handful of newcomers, including six transfers and a promising freshman in Jojo McIver. CSU feels like it has 12 guys that could be a part of the rotation, but Farokhmanesh knows that’s not mathematically possible.

“We talked about it, we said there’s 12 guys in there (and) there’s 200 minutes, (so) is everyone just playing 14 minutes? That’s not realistic,” Farokhmanesh said. “We just talk about it openly and it’s really gonna come down to them. I gotta push ‘em towards it, but are we really gonna be truly willing to pay the cost of winning and sacrifice?”

On the way to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, there wasn’t a lot of sacrifice that needed to be made on the Rams. With a future first-round NBA draft pick in Clifford, everyone else fell into a role that made sense.

This season is different. It feels like 10 guys could be the team’s leading scorer on any given night. That includes Englewood’s Carey Booth and Brandon Rechsteiner, who arrived at CSU from high majors in Illinois and Virginia Tech, respectively.

Then there are Josh Pascarelli, Jevin Muniz and Augustinas Kiudulas, who were all key players at previous stops at lower levels and are hoping their production can translate to the Mountain West. 

They’ve spent the past four months trying to make the pieces fit.

“We can just keep getting better every day,” Muniz said. “We’re so deep. We’ve got 12 dudes that can play. I think, on a team like that, you’ve always got fresh legs.

“Everyone can pass, rebound and shoot on this team. It’s gonna be harder for teams to guard when you’ve got five guys out there that can do everything.”

King’s CSU Rams team predictions

Finish: 4th place in Mountain West, NIT bid

Team MVP: Rashaan Mbemba

Top defender: Carey Booth

Impact newcomer: Josh Pascarelli

2025-26 Colorado State schedule

Monday: vs. Incarnate Word (7 p.m.)

Nov. 9: vs. Omaha (4 p.m.)

Nov. 12: vs. Cal Poly (7 p.m.)

Nov. 16: at Loyola Chicago (3 p.m.)

Nov. 21: vs. Denver (7 p.m.)

Nov. 26: vs. Virginia Tech (3 p.m., ESPNU at Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas)

Nov. 27: vs. Wichita State or Saint Mary’s at Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas

Nov. 28: vs. TBD at Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas

Dec. 6: vs. Colorado (3 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Dec. 9: vs. Dartmouth (7 p.m.)

Dec. 14: vs. Northern New Mexico (1 p.m.)

Dec. 20: at Utah State (12 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Dec. 30: vs. Nevada

Jan. 3: at Grand Canyon (6 p.m.)

Jan. 6: vs. New Mexico

Jan. 9: vs. UNLV (8 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Jan. 13: at Fresno State

Jan. 16: at Boise State (8:30 p.m., FS1)

Jan. 20: vs. Air Force

Jan. 23: vs. Utah State (8 p.m., FS1)

Jan. 28: at San Diego State (8:30 p.m. FS1)

Jan. 31: at Wyoming (7:30 p.m., FS1)

Feb. 7: vs. San Jose State

Feb. 10: at Air Force

Feb. 14: vs. Wyoming

Feb. 18: at UNLV (9 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Feb. 21: vs. San Diego State (4 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Feb. 24: vs. Fresno State

Feb. 28: at San Jose State

March 4: at New Mexico (8 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

March 7: vs. Boise State

March 11-14: Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas