Colorado State's Trey Smith provides first highlight reel catch of the year (Video)

Colorado State wide receiver Trey Smith gave us the first great catch of the 2017 college football season.

With his team looking to take the lead before the end of the first half of the home opener against Oregon State, quarterback Nick Stevens looked Smith’s way on second down. It looked like there was a bit of a miscommunication between the two. Smith ran a slant, while Stevens expected a curl.

The ball was thrown behind Smith, but it didn’t matter. He reached back with one arm and tipped the ball to himself to make an awesome play.

Here’s a better angle of Smith showing fantastic hand-eye coordination for an 11-yard gain and a first down.

A few plays later, the Rams took a 24-17 lead on a Dalyn Dawkins touchdown run before taking a 24-20 lead into halftime. The second half wasn’t as close. The Rams went on to win 58-27 in an inspiring performance in the team’s first game at brand new Colorado State Stadium.

Smith’s catch was just the second of his career. His first came in the first quarter of Saturday’s game. The redshirt junior appeared in a combined 12 games over the past two seasons, but mainly played special teams.

Saturday’s game in Fort Collins also saw the debut of Oregon State quarterback Jake Luton, a junior college transfer who beat out two other QBs with starting experience to earn the No. 1 role. Luton had an up-and-down performance and finished the game 27-of-47 for 304 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. His 39-yard touchdown pass to Timmy Hernandez in the first quarter was the first FBS touchdown of the season.

He was wide open:

Luton was outperformed by Stevens, who finished 26-of-39 for 334 yards and three touchdowns. Stevens was able to bounce back after a first-half interception where he took a huge hit.

Oh, and the buff ref from last year’s College Football Playoff national title game is back.

We missed you, football.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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