Colorado at Colorado State

After watching Barrack Obama accept his party's nomination here on Thursday night, Denver's Mile High Stadium gets back to football. The Mile High showdown will have center-stage all to itself tonight in primetime. Colorado State fell off dramatically last year, going 3-9 in Sonny Lubick's final year. Colorado, despite a 6-7 finish, provided hope to their fans as they outperformed expectations last season in Dan Hawkins' second year. The Buffs nearly beat Georgia and did beat Oklahoma, offering lots of hope for 2008. Cody Hawkins returns at QB, one of 14 returning starters. Colorado State returns just five defensive starters and 34 letterman. It's the first game for Steve Fairchild, with a lot of new starters including quarterback and we don't expect them to be clicking out of the gate. Hawkins is 38-21 ATS in his coaching career including a stellar 10-2 ATS mark as a favorite of 10.5 to 21 points. We think it's just too much to ask for the Rams to keep this one close.