Several years before his 11-tackle, one-interception debut for Colorado State in Saturday’s 35-13 Border War victory over Wyoming, linebacker Oumar Diomande was discovered by Jim Mora’s staff on a playground in New York.
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He was eventually recruited to play at UConn where he spent three years, including a 116-tackle, five-sack season in 2025. He then followed the coach who gave him a chance to Fort Collins.
“Oumar is an unbelievable story,” Mora said. “Oumar was running around a playground in The Bronx, New York, and someone sent us a video from an iPhone of this kid playing in the rain and we were like, ‘Who is this kid?’ So, we sent our linebacker coach down there to see him. He came back and said, ‘This is a football player. This is the kind of guy that we need on our team.’
“We brought him in, and he just loves football. He appreciates everything. There’s zero entitlement to this guy. He lives his life, and when you’ve been through things that he’s been through, you appreciate everything. And that rubs off on his teammates, and his teammates love him for that. But more than anything, some guys have just got it. Some guys are just instinctive. They just know where the ball is going.”
At UConn, Diomande redshirted his freshman season in 2023 after appearing in four games. In 2024, he played in eight games for the Huskies, recorded six tackles and blocked a kick.
Then he had a breakout season a year ago. He recorded double-digit tackles in five games and had eight tackles for loss to go along with his five sacks.
And when Mora decided to take the CSU job, there was no hesitation for Diomande. He wanted to follow the coach who discovered him and gave him an opportunity when no other schools recruited him.
“Coach Mora is an amazing guy,” Diomande said. “I decided to follow him from UConn, and I think everything that man has done, he’s the only man that really took a chance on me during high school, so I just appreciate that man a lot.”
His performance Saturday didn’t surprise Mora. He knew what Diomande was capable of after watching him grow and mature in his few years at UConn.
And if Diomande needed any extra motivation for Saturday’s Border War game, it came from something he was told not long after he first arrived in Fort Collins.
“I’m not really used to rivalries, so when I came to Colorado, I heard we hate Wyoming,” he said. “So, I decided to hate Wyoming, too.”
Tuesday, he was named the Pac-12 defensive player of the week for his performance against the Cowboys.
More on Hejny
CSU sophomore quarterback Hauss Hejny had an historic debut for the Rams on Saturday.
Not only was he the first CSU quarterback to throw for five touchdowns in a game since Todd Centeio against Hawaii in 2021, but he was only the second Rams’ QB to throw five touchdowns against Wyoming in the 118-game history of the Border War.
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He completed 22 of 33 passes against the Cowboys, including 10 in a row at one point in the first half. He connected with 10 different receivers in the game.
Postgame, Mora praised Hejny — whose last game before Saturday had been Oklahoma State’s 2025 season opener. He broke a bone in his foot in that game and missed the rest of the season.
The coach’s compliments were almost endless.
“The most impressive thing about Hauss,” Mora said, “was his composure and his poise and his command of the game, his command of the situations in the game in terms of clock management down the stretch, his ball security, the way that his teammates responded to him in the huddle.”
Two days after the game, Mora emphasized just how much Hejny is similar to the type of athlete he wants on his team.
He saw it when he was recruiting him, and he has seen it every day Hejny has been on campus.
“How down to earth he was,” Mora said of what stuck out to him when recruiting Hejny. “And how he let his actions show who he was. He didn’t come in here loud and obnoxious and, I’m this and I’m that and I was at Oklahoma State, and I was at TCU and I won a state championship in Texas. He came in and said, ‘I’m going to let my words prove who I am,’ and that’s what good leaders do. And he’s a good leader. You see that.”
Mora declined to publicly reveal that Hejny would be the starting quarterback until shortly before kickoff Saturday. Hejny and K’saan Farrar were the frontrunners coming out of fall camp.
Given his opportunity, Hejny left little doubt his coach made the right decision.
Tuesday, he was named the Pac-12 offensive player of the week for his performance against Wyoming.
Up next
CSU will look to improve to 2-0 for the first time since 2011 when the Rams host Southern Utah at 5 p.m. Saturday at Canvas Stadium.
The FCS Thunderbirds are coming off a 47-42 victory over Weber State in a game where Southern Utah rushed for 368 yards out of its triple option attack.
It will be a challenge for the CSU defense and Mora knows his team has to be prepared.
“They run a unique triple option scheme,” Mora said. “It’s very hard to prepare for. The quarterback is tough. He makes really good decisions. They’ve got excellent running backs. They’re physical up front. They know what they’re doing. They’re very well-coached. They have a new offensive line coach that is experienced and has had a lot of success. Their receivers get down the field and block.”
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This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
