Rams End Season with 28-24 Win Over Former Coach Collins and DVC
By Brett Abel
babel2@mail.ccsf.edu
The players knew there would be no postseason for the City College football team to play in its last game of 2024 — just pride, and perhaps payback.
The Rams were looking for the opportunity to finish its season — which opened 0-5 and was on a two-game losing streak — with one last win this year, hosting Diablo Valley College and its coach Jimmy Collins, who’d been the Rams’ coach for the previous nine years and had won two national championships, before leaving with a few players for DVC this summer.
And they did.
The Rams (3-7 overall, 3-2 in Bay 6 Conference) closed their bittersweet, injury-scarred season on Saturday, Nov. 16, with a 28-24 win over their former coach and teammates.
Collins refused before and after the game to comment about his return to City College from DVC (5-5 overall, 2-3 Bay 6).
Rams freshman quarterback Christian Banks said, “It’s sweet to get a win against the former head coach. A lot of players had a close personal relationship (with him).
“The season didn’t go the way we wanted, but we finished strong. It’s all we could’ve asked for,” he said. “It’s a sigh of relief.”
Banks replaced starting quarterback Eric Waugh in the first quarter of the team’s fifth game and started his first game in the conference opener. And he improved each week.
After his best passing performance in the penultimate game of the season, Banks was limited to only eight passing attempts against DVC, but he completed six of them for 122 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown pass down the Viking sideline halfway through the third quarter to freshman wide receiver Bryson Waterman.
The pair connected twice for 91 yards and two touchdowns, including Banks’s only completion in the second half. The two scored five touchdowns on six completions in the last two weeks.
Waterman said it was important to have the passing game match the team’s “prolific” running game.
Interim coach Eduardo Nuño said, “Credit to the offensive line: the heart and soul of the team. They’ve been the most consistent position group all year.
“We put together a complete game,” he said. “It wasn’t perfect, obviously, but we made plays when we had to.”
The imperfect, but ultimately victorious script to the game for the Rams, included a bad punt snap for a fourth-quarter safety and a time-of-possession differential of more than 10 minutes in favor of the Vikings. DVC also out-gained the Rams 404 yards on 67 offensive plays versus 286 yards on 46.
But in the end, it didn’t matter.
“That’s City College football,” Banks said. “We’re tough. We grind you.”
The win also sets up an identity and expectation for the team in the 2025 season.
“It’s a matter of growing, developing and installing a process,” Nuño said. The interim coach, who was a late-summer replacement of Collins, noted more than 20 possible recruits were watching the game and he highlighted the view on the hill at the CCSF Ocean Campus and George M. Rush Stadium, the college’s facilities and overall energy and environment during the game.
“We’re gonna be good next year,” freshman running back Richard “Juice” Washington said. “Next year is the natty (national championship) year.”
The Rams’ offense against DVC was in the hands of its left-handed quarterback Banks to start the game, both passing and rushing, but eventually returned to the season-tested two-pronged rushing attack between Banks and Washington.
The two have had elevated roles in the offense since sophomore running back Daytuawn Pearson broke his clavicle two weeks earlier.
Banks rushed 13 times for 69 yards and a touchdown. Washington had a game-high 98 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.
Usually, a short-yardage runner called for on third downs or near the goal line, Washington had a 15-yard run to essentially ensure the Rams’ victory with 1:11 left in the game.
“We spoke it into existence. We were going to beat them,” Washington said. “Coaches told me at halftime, I’d be the one to ice it — and that’s what I did.”
Washington’s and Banks’s time-eating runs helped shorten the second half for the Rams, but it wasn’t without drama.
CCSF didn’t score in the fourth quarter and DVC relied heavily on its own quarterback-running back duo.
Sophomore quarterback Isaiah Newton was 24-34 for 309 yards. Newton threw touchdown passes to freshman running back Ferrari Miller and sophomore wide receiver David Pierro, who had six catches for 115 yards and seven for 69, respectively. Miller also ran for 92 yards on 21 carries.
But the Rams’ defense did just enough.
CCSF sophomore linebacker Jalen Camp had the only interception of the game early in the second quarter and a 15-yard sack of Newton. Freshman Sonny Vitale also had a sack and a tackle for loss. The Rams’ defense had seven tackles for loss, totaling 39 yards, including three sacks.