Colorado State tabs QB Carta-Samuels as starter

Colorado State quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels is listed as the team's starter on its depth chart. Carta-Samuels, who is nearly five months removed from transferring from Washington, is expected to start in the Rams' season opener against Hawaii on Saturday. Carta-Samuels' backups are listed as redshirt freshman Justice McCoy or sophomore Collin Hill. Hill is working his way back from a torn ACL sustained in a pickup basketball game in mid-March. Carta-Samuels, who served as Jake Browning's backup at Washington the past two seasons, completed 27 of 47 for 310 yards and three touchdowns with the Huskies. He played in 25 games over the past three years with Washington and has taken nearly every snap with Colorado State's first-team offense since fall practices began on July 27. "It feels like it's time," Carta-Samuels said last week, per the Fort Collins Coloradoan. "I'm excited. I'm ready to get out there with this team and just get a win, definitely start out with a win this first game and just do some good things and then feed off of it as we go throughout the season." K.J.'s older brother, Austyn, was the starting quarterback at Vanderbilt in 2013 after transferring from Wyoming prior to the 2012 season. Hill passed for 1,096 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions in 2016 before suffering a torn ACL in the same knee during a game against Utah State. He elected to take a redshirt year in 2017 after he continued his recovery from the initial ACL tear.