A year ago, when the Colorado football team hosted Colorado State in Boulder, linebacker LaVonta Bentley found himself watching for most of the night.

After winning a starting job out of training camp, Bentley came off the bench for four consecutive games, including the CSU matchup. He played a season-low eight snaps in the Buffs’ 43-35 double-overtime win.

It’s a much different story for Bentley this year as he and the Buffs (1-1) face the Rams (1-1) on Saturday in Fort Collins (5:30 p.m., CBS).

By Week 6 of the 2023 season, Bentley regained his starting spot and hasn’t looked back. Bentley was dominant during the second half of the 2023 season (54 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, five sacks in the last seven games), and he’s carried that over to the start of this year.

“He talks about it a lot in our room, and we’ve kind of adopted it, you know, his TTP — trust the process — and I think he’s really gotten into the process to understand two things,” linebackers coach Andre Hart said. “One, this is your last year. You can’t start slow. It can’t be middle of the season as you come in and play. If you want to play, you got to play now. And the second thing is, be a leader, communicate, make sure everybody understands who you are and they feel you.”

So far, Bentley is doing that. He has 10 tackles and a sack through two games and has been one of CU’s best defenders.

“In defense, effort is the first fundamental … and that’s what you’re seeing out there,” Hart said. “He’s giving great effort, fitting the ball, being physical and running to the ball. So you want to award a guy who’s doing that, but he has to be consistent to keep his spot.”

Bentley suffered a mild foot injury in the Buffs’ 28-10 loss to Nebraska last Saturday, but the Buffs are resting him this week to get him ready for Saturday’s showdown at CSU.

The Buffs have used different linebackers next to Bentley, including Nikhai Hill-Green, who started against Nebraska, but Bentley has been the rock in the middle. He’s played 104 snaps, 45 more than any other linebacker at CU.

“He’s a veteran player, older guy who makes the checks,” Hill-Green said. “He’s a great communicator, and we mesh well together. We just we feed off of each other.”

Stepping up

When safety Shilo Sanders went down with a broken forearm early in Saturday’s defeat at Nebraska, the Buffs lost one of their leaders. Sophomore Carter Stoutmire came in, however, and made sure there wasn’t much of a drop-off.

The son of former NFL veteran Omar Stoutmire — who played with CU head coach Deion Sanders — Carter Stoutmire had five tackles and played solid throughout the night in Shilo’s spot.

“Carter’s big, physical, could play corner, could play safety, could run,” Coach Prime said. “He had a couple phenomenal open-field tackles. He’s the future, a kid that we went and got out of high school, and he’s been doing a wonderful job. Carter brings a lot to the table to complement (fellow safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig), as well.”

Notable

CU and CSU both come into the game unranked, which is common for this rivalry. This is the 17th time in the past 18 meetings that both teams are unranked. The only exception was last year, when CU was No. 18 in the Associated Press poll. … CU has faced CSU 92 times, which makes the Rams the Buffs’ most common opponent. The only team CSU has played more often is Wyoming (113 times).