Colorado State football: Who are likely candidates to be the next Rams head coach?

Where will Colorado State’s football program turn to find its next head coach after the departure of Mike Bobo?

If history is any indication, expect the position to be filled by a highly respected offensive or defensive coordinator in a Power 5 conference program. That’s where the Rams found legendary coach Sonny Lubick, who guided CSU to six conference championships and nine bowl games in 15 seasons, as well as the three coaches who have followed him: Steve Fairchild, Jim McElwain and Bobo.

There are several strong candidates for the CSU job who are now serving as coordinators at high-level programs.

Athletic director Joe Parker has yet to make a hire as a football coach at CSU. Bobo was hired by Chancellor Tony Frank, who was CSU’s president at the time, four months before Parker came to Fort Collins.

Parker did hire a men’s basketball coach, though, and went with former CSU assistant Niko Medved, who had experience as a head coach.

None of the following potential candidates are necessarily being courted in CSU’s search for a coach to replace Bobo, who was recently ousted after five seasons. But all six possess many of the qualifications the Rams are likely looking for and could be strong candidates if they are interested in the job.

►More: Timeline of Mike Bobo’s tenure as Colorado State football coach

Here’s a closer look:

Potential candidates

Tony Alford — Alford, an All-Western Athletic Conference running back and 1,000-yard rusher at CSU as a junior in 1989, is in his fifth season as the assistant head coach and running backs coach at Ohio State after spending the previous six seasons (2009-14) as an assistant at Notre Dame, coaching running backs for four years and receivers for two. He was the Fighting Irish’s recruiting coordinator in his final three seasons there.

An Ohio native who graduated from Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Alford got his start in coaching as an assistant at Fort Collins High School in 1993 and also spent a year as a high school assistant in Florida before moving up to the college ranks.

Billy Napier — Napier, 40, has guided Louisiana-Lafayette to a 9-2 record this season, his second at the school. The Rajun’ Cajuns were 7-7 and played in the Cure Bowl in 2018. The Georgia native, who played quarterback at Furman, was CSU’s assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach in Jim McElwain’s first season with the Rams.

He left the following year to join Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama as the wide receivers coach, a position he held for four seasons, including a national championship run in 2015. Napier served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Arizona State in 2017, leaving when Todd Graham was fired as the Sun Devils’ coach despite a reported offer to remain there on Herm Edwards’ staff.

Billy Gonzales — Gonzales, 48, a Thornton native who was a CSU receiver from 1989 to 1993, has been an assistant at several high-profile programs and coached in three national championship games.

He is the co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach at Florida under Dan Mullen after serving in that same role on Mullen’s staff at Mississippi State from 2013 to 2017.

Gonzales coached receivers under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green (2001-02), Utah (2003-04) and Florida (2005-09) — and fun fact: Meyer was Gonzales' receivers coach at CSU when Earle Bruce was head coach. He also spent two seasons as co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach at LSU (2010-11) and one at Illinois (2012).

Mark Helfrich — Helfrich, 46, went 37-16 in four seasons as Oregon’s coach from 2013 to 2016, guiding the Ducks to the 2014 national championship game before being fired after going 4-8 two years later. His offensive coordinator at Oregon was Matt Lubick, Sonny Lubick’s oldest son, who now serves as Canvas Credit Union’s director of university relations at CSU.

The Oregon native, now in his second season as the Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator, has spent most of his career at major college football programs in the West, including a three-year stint as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Colorado under Dan Hawkins from 2006 to 2008.

Helfrich also served as quarterbacks coach under Dirk Koetter from 1998 to 2000 at Boise State and from 2001 to 2005 at Arizona State, where he also served as the passing-game coordinator in his final three seasons.

Beau Baldwin — Baldwin, 47, has been a head coach at two Football Championship Subdivision programs and led Eastern Washington to a national championship in 2010.

The California native, who played quarterback at Central Washington, has been the offensive coordinator, assistant head coach and running backs coach at California for the past three seasons under Justin Wilcox.

His record as a head coach is 85-32, and his teams advanced to postseason playoffs in seven of his 10 seasons. Central Washington went 10-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II tournament in 2007, his only season as head coach there. Eastern Washington won five Big Sky Conference titles and made the FCS playoffs six times in his nine seasons there (2008-16) and advanced to the semifinals four times.

►Colorado State football coaching job: How attractive is the opening to lead the Rams?

Ricky Rahne — Rahne, 39, is in his third season as the offensive coordinator and sixth season overall at Penn State. The Morrison native played high school football at Bear Creek in Lakewood and has been the Nittany Lions’ quarterbacks coach for four of the past six years, also spending two years there coaching tight ends.

Rahne was a three-year starter at quarterback at Cornell and began his coaching career there in 2005, working with the running backs. He went to Kansas State in 2006 as a graduate assistant and was hired on as an assistant coach the following year. Rahne coached K-State’s running backs (2007-08) and tight ends (2009-10) for two seasons apiece and spent three years (2011-13) as the quarterbacks coach at Vanderbilt under current Penn State coach James Franklin.

Jim Leavitt — Leavitt, 62, was a highly respected defensive coordinator during stints at Kansas State, Oregon and Colorado following a 13-year run as the first head coach at South Florida, where he guided the Bulls to a 95-57 record.

Leavitt, a Texas native, was serving as an analyst at Florida State and was promoted to an on-field defensive assistant when coach Willie Taggert was fired midseason.

The former Texas safety made a name for himself as the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Kansas State for four seasons (1992-95) after spending the previous two years there coaching linebackers. He left South Florida after the 2009 season and spent four years coaching linebackers in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers (2011-14) before returning to the college ranks to serve as defensive coordinator for two seasons apiece at CU (2015-16) and Oregon (2017-18).

Not happening

There are plenty of names that will be suggested online. Here are some sure to pop up that aren't realistic candidates:

Jim McElwain — A portion of the fan base casts longing glances for McElwain because of the special 10-2 regular season in 2014 before he left for Florida. This is a non-starter for several reasons.

First, his buyout at Central Michigan is $1.2 million, according to the Central Michigan student paper. That’s not a number CSU would want to pay after buying out Bobo. There’s also the fact that McElwain burned some bridges at CSU and the job here would be close a lateral move from Central Michigan. No chance of him returning. He's off to a great start at CMU and will remain there to try and boost himself back up to a Power 5 job.

Matt Lubick — The oldest son of CSU legend Sonny Lubick is back in Fort Collins and working for the credit union with its name on CSU’s stadium (Canvas). He left a high-level coaching job as the co-offensive coordinator at Washington to return to Colorado.

A conspiracy theory among fans was that Canvas and CSU had teamed up to hide him for when the Rams moved on from Bobo. It makes for fun Twitter fodder, but he wouldn’t have left Washington if he wanted to continue rising through the coaching ranks.

Urban Meyer — Just, no. The rumors will run rampant after Meyer was in Fort Collins this week, but he won't be the next coach of the Rams.

Yes, Meyer worked at CSU in the 1990s, but no, he is not a candidate. First, he made more than $7 million per year in his last stop at Ohio State. He’s not going to take a $1 million job in the Mountain West. He’s also had baggage follow him everywhere and he doesn’t stick for long. If (read: when) he returns to the sidelines, he'll have plenty of Power 5 teams chasing him.

Dave Logan — Every time a college football job opens up, Logan’s name is mentioned. It’s never had any merit and it doesn’t now. Logan is arguably the best big-school high school coach in Colorado history, but he’s never shown any desire to leave for college coaching.

Why would he? He's rolling at Cherry Creek right now and can pick any high school job he wants while still getting to call Denver Broncos football games for KOA. He could recruit Colorado but would have no cachet outside the state. He’s in a cushy spot and there’s no reason to leave it.

Opinion: Joe Parker under pressure to hire right CSU football coach after his Mike Bobo error