Astonishing clock mismanagement costs Colorado State

Colorado State botched clock management to a new level in its loss to Utah State

All Colorado State had to do was spike … the … damn … ball.

The clock stops after first downs in college football in order to move the chains.

Somehow, Colorado State lost track of this and wound up losing to Utah State, 26-24, on a missed field goal Friday after a Keystone Cops scramble to get its special teams on the field.

All the Rams needed was a field goal. They were in a position to kick the game-winner after Tyler Centeio hit Ty McCullough for a 15-yard gain to the Utah State 24 for a first down with 11 seconds left.

The Rams had moved 61 yards in 44 seconds when their “fast-field goal unit” lost its collective mind.

Head coach Steve Addazio said he told the field-goal unit “No” and wanted Centeio to spike the ball.

The Rams would have had time to run another play before trying the possible game-winning kick.

And then this happened:

In the chaos, Colorado State’s Cayden Camper missed the 42-yard attempt as the clock ticked to a final second.

The sounds of the game:

“They weren’t sent, but they went and it created that confusion at the end, which is just a shame,” Addazio said. “We really got set up, it wasn’t like we weren’t set up to kick the field goal. We were set up to kick the field goal, we just didn’t strike it. That’s what happened at the end there. No one sent them in, but they took off on the field.”

Someone in the Twitterverse remembered another Addazio-coached team’s clock mismanagement gaffe.