Posted by ESPN.com’s Graham Watson

Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild hasn’t held anything back when it’s come to his quarterbacks. He’s called everything from awful to embarrassing and each day they’ve fought through the criticism and stuck with the team.

The ultimate example of that fight is fifth-year senior Grant Stucker, who made his first start against Colorado in Boulder, Colo., on Sunday and came away with an improbable 23-17 victory, the Rams' first victory at Folsom Field in 23 years.

	Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
	Grant Stucker threw for 208 yards and a touchdown Sunday against Colorado.

“We’ve been hard on Grant and I’ll say this in Grant’s defense: Every time I’ve jumped down his throat the guy’s responded,” Fairchild said. “Like anything in life, if you just keep working, then you’ve got a chance. And he’s going to get better as the year goes on. I’m proud of him.”

Stucker completed 10 of 17 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown. He led the Rams to scores on three of their first four drives and for the most part he managed Fairchild’s game plan excellently.

It was a moment Stucker had been dreaming about since he last visited Folsom Field during his freshman season. That year, the Rams gave up a 21-10 fourth-quarter lead and lost 31-28 on a last-second field goal.

“That’s stuck with me for 4 1/2 years and I wanted to be able to come back here and get that one back,” Stucker said. “Obviously, you want to be more experienced. You want to have a lot more starts, a lot more collegiate snaps. But one thing that has really taught me has been just being patient. It humbled me to be able to come out here, wait 4 1/2 years to make this first start and I couldn’t be happier. I know this is exactly where I need to be.”

Stucker said he had many opportunities to walk away from Colorado State. Last year, he was in a tight preseason battle for the starting spot with Billy Farris and lost. His play regressed and he fell behind freshman Klay Kubiak.

This season, the Rams brought in a junior college quarterback and a freshman to challenge for the starting role that many thought would belong to Kubiak. But offseason shoulder surgery hampered Kubiak's fall camp and Stucker and junior college transfer Jon Eastman duked it out. Prior to the final week of camp, Eastman suffered a broken finger on his nonthrowing hand that required surgery. That’s when Stucker took over the starting role.

“You got to look at it and say 50 years down the road, ‘Do you think you could have stuck it out?’ Regardless if you get the start or not,” Stucker said. “It’s something that I didn’t want to have regret. To be able to wait this long. I’m very happy that I was able to have the patience. I’ve had unbelievable support from my family and I just have to thank God to have that ability to have that patience.”

Fairchild loosened up on his criticisms of his quarterback as the season opener crept closer. He even said he was pleased with Stucker’s progress. But he never could have imagined that Stucker would lead the Rams to just their second win over the Buffaloes in the past seven tries.

“Expectations are hard to say in football,” Stucker said. “[Beating Colorado] is definitely something that I dreamed it could be. It’s something that this whole team has been working for since last January. It’s something that we committed to in the summer with 100 guys in voluntary workouts. When you’ve got all those guys with that same vision we can only go up.”