FORT COLLINS — Football coaches can craft long, successful careers if they’re good at making adjustments, and Colorado State’s Mike Bobo has already hit his biggest audible of 2017 before the Rams have suited up.

No bye week?

No problem.

Bobo and members of his staff found a solution, athletic director Joe Parker executed the plan and now the Rams will open the season — and their new on-campus stadium — against Oregon State on Aug. 26. It will be the earliest home opener in program history, the earliest start to the season since CSU played at Virginia on Aug. 22 in 2002.

“It was myself and Coach (Will) Friend and (director of operations Tom) Ehlers and Joe on the schedule when it came out. We were looking at it and comparing everybody’s schedule,” head coach Mike Bobo said. “At first, it was, well, it is what it is and accept the challenge. Then it was, let’s make a call and see if they’re interested.”

Bobo had combed the schedules of the other non-conference opponents and targeted Oregon State, as the Beavers also had a tough stretch it could break up.

Parker said CSU originally saw the schedule three days before the public release, and in that time, they were able to draw up a solution. Parker called his contacts at Oregon State, informed president Tony Frank of the plan and went to work.

Parker said there was some back and forth between the school’s coaching staffs and athletic departments. He said Geoff Martzen, CSU’s director of player personnel, received a text from a friend at Oregon State asking if CSU was looking for a competitive advantage, and when CSU was able to convince them the sole intention was to land a bye, Parker said the process moved smoothly.

“I didn’t know what to expect. You never know what a program is going to say when you ask something like that,” Parker said. “They saw all kinds of great reasons for their program to do it because it gave them a bye at a critical moment of their schedule.”

With the switch, the Rams now have a bye that virtually comes in the middle of their season, taking into account the start of fall practice, and breaks up the season by non-conference and conference play.

It also allows CSU a bye week between its two longest road trips of the season. They travel to Alabama on Sept. 16th, then insert the bye before its longest road trip — to Hawaii to begin Mountain West play.

From Oregon State’s standpoint, the Beavers were facing a run that included a home date with Minnesota, back-to-back trips to Washington State and CSU, followed by a home date with Washington, a road game at USC and back home for Colorado. Now, they add a second bye week to break up the stretch, then get another after facing the Buffs.

“The ultimate goal is you want to win every game you play, but you want to put yourself in position to play for the conference championship and win, and we looked for avenues and got with Joe and were able to move the Oregon State game to Week Zero,” Bobo said. “We thought it made sense for us, and luckily it made sense for them. It’s still going to be challenging, playing two Pac 12 teams back-to-back, but I think the break before we start a challenging conference schedule will be good for our football team.

“We play some physical football teams, and depth is a concern, and you get beat up in those games. You want to play well and you want to win, but at the same time, you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you can’t compete in conference. I believe that gives us the best chance to do that.”

The on-campus stadium — touted as on time and on budget since construction began in the summer of 2015— is to be completed by June 9, with the football staff moving into their offices on the west side around June 19. The academic and alumni personnel on the east side will move in late July and early August.

The first home game was originally set for Sept. 9 against Abilene Christian. This moves the planning for opening the new stadium up by two weeks, which Parker doesn’t feel will cause any additional issues, for the school or its fans.

Single-game tickets are not on sale, so that wasn’t a hurdle, and he said there was no need to alter the timeline for ticket distribution for season-ticket holders, as those will be sent out well in advance of the first game.

“We’re hopeful that we’re six months out, so that will give everyone a chance to adjust their schedules,” he said. “We’ve always got a lot of work to make sure we’re prepared. There’s not too much. Doug (Max, the senior associate athletic director of facilities operations) checked with the city and the city’s law enforcement, everything we need to manage traffic and make sure there is enough security in place, that there wasn’t anything interfering in the community.”

Naturally there was going to be excitement for the first home game with a new stadium, now Bobo feels the atmosphere will be even more electric considering there are not a lot of teams playing that week, as well as the opponent being a bigger school. It also marks the first week of school on campus, so getting students to the game is not an issue.

Even with the creation of the bye, the layout of the season still has its quirks, namely playing the first two conference games on the road (and three of the first four away from Fort Collins). In that stretch, the Rams travel to Hawaii, then to Utah State, which they felt was odd. As it turns out, it is more the norm in the Mountain West.

The 2016 season is the only time since Hawaii joined the conference a team has not had a road game following a trip to the islands. New Mexico did it in 2012, San Jose State in 2013, Utah State in 2014 and San Diego State in 2015. In each case, all of them beat the Warriors, but only the Lobos lost the following road game.

The early start will require some adjustments to the planning of fall camp, and can the team get in the full allotment of 29 practices before facing Oregon State. Given the circumstances, Bobo feels those are issues easier solved than the complications of playing an entire season straight through.

“That will be the challenging part, but I know we’ll be excited about it,” Bobo said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to play them all, but I felt this gave us a chance to be ready and rested going into conference play.”

Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/mbrohard