When Colorado State center Phillip Ocon was a high school sophomore in California, he got his first college offer from San Jose State, coincidentally where his father played college football.
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He considered going there to follow in his dad’s footsteps. But when an offer came from Colorado State and Ocon walked into Canvas Stadium for the first time, he knew it was where he was supposed to play.
“It was crazy,” Ocon said. “My first offer in high school was during my sophomore year, and it was actually San Jose State. And it was not even a connection, it’s just how it happened to be. I was really thinking about going there. They had a good staff over there. Then I got offered by Colorado State and my dad was really, really good about it. He said it was my decision and to do what’s best for me.
“I walked into Canvas and took a look around the stadium, and I kind of instantly knew I wanted to be playing in Canvas rather than up in San Jose.”
Coming out of high school, Ocon was a three-star recruit by 247Sports. He was a three-sport athlete, having competed in baseball and track along with football.
Football is where he landed, and he’s proving himself sturdy along CSU’s offensive line as the Rams look to improve to 3-1 this season when they face UTSA on Saturday (10 a.m. MT; ESPNU) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
After a redshirt season at CSU in 2024, Ocon played in eight games as a redshirt freshman last season, but the season didn’t get off to a smooth start for him.
“My first rep of fall camp last year, I was going against one of our jacks, Kenyon Agurs,” Ocon said. “He hit me with a real nasty spin, and I got my hand caught in his jersey. I got a real nice dislocation in my right ring finger, which is my snap hand, so it was pretty unfortunate. I had to get surgery and cast it up. I had my first couple of snaps against UTSA last year snapping with my left hand.
“I knew my role last year and I needed to fill my role regardless of if I would snap with my left or my right. My O-line coach last year and the staff last year, they instilled confidence in me, and you have a bunch of brothers around here and you just don’t want to let them down. So, regardless of difficulty I had to get it done.”
Ocon eventually returned to snapping with his right hand.
After the Rams went 2-10 last year and endured a mid-season coach firing when Jay Norvell was let go and Tyson Summers became the interim coach for the remainder of the season, Ocon decided to stay at CSU when many of his teammates opted to transfer.
When Jim Mora was named the head coach, Ocon stuck with his decision, and he is glad he did.
“Obviously coach Mora is a storied guy and there’s a lot of people who have a great history behind them, but coach Mora is a real actions-over-words guy, and that’s kind of our mantra around here, I guess,” Ocon said. “The first thing he told me was we work hard here and that’s what I’m a big believer in.
“Where I come from family-wise, where I come from from high school, the work just comes first. I try to pride myself in having a good work ethic and he mentioned that first rather than and kind of money or new uniforms or how it’s going to look in the future. So, that was the biggest reason I wanted to stay.”
In addition to Mora coming in, a new staff and a large group of new players came with him.
The first step toward a successful 2026 season came with the players who stayed getting acclimated with the new players, whether they be transfers or freshmen.
“There were definitely a lot of new guys, that’s definitely true, but shared suffering brings guys together pretty quick,” Ocon said. “A lot of ups and downs, a lot of hard work together with these guys and seeing these guys, and I think it goes without saying for everybody in the locker room, but you see your brothers work so hard and it builds trust because you’re not out there alone doing 250 up-downs running a bunch of stadiums, whatever it might be.
“The guys acclimated very quickly. Everyone works hard. There’s no outliers in that sense. So, definitely there’s trust everywhere.”
Through three games, Ocon believes the offense line has done a solid job.
The team is averaging 177 yards per game on the ground, and CSU quarterbacks have only been sacked once this season.
Including last season and three games this season, Ocon has snapped to five different quarterbacks, including three last Saturday against BYU.
“I think we have a lot to improve on,” Ocon said. “Obviously we’d like to have a win any time we got on the field. But a lot of learning happened last week and we’ll just take it into the next one. When stuff like that happens, you kind of have to tell your guys, ‘Hey man, whatever’s going on behind us, it doesn’t matter.’ We have to execute and we have to be perfect in what we do.”
That may be the case again Saturday as quarterback Hauss Hejny is doubtful for the Rams’ game against UTSA, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported in a social media post Friday morning.
Hejny injured his hamstring in the first quarter against BYU last Saturday. He re-entered the game for a series, but when the CSU coaching staff noticed he had lost his mobility, they removed him for the remainder of the contest.
Mora on Monday was optimistic Hejny would be able to play, but by Wednesday he called him a game-time decision.
CSU used two backup quarterbacks in Hejny’s absence — K’saan Farrar and Darius Curry. Curry led the Rams to two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including passing for one in CSU’s 41-23 loss.
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