Mike Bobo out as Colorado State football coach

Show Caption Hide Caption Colorado State AD Joe Parker on why CSU parted ways with Mike Bobo, search process for next coach Joe Parker spoke for about 15 minutes to the media Wednesday night about why CSU parted ways with Mike Bobo and what he wants in the next Rams coach

Update: Former Boston College coach Steve Addazio has been hired to replace Mike Bobo at Colorado State.

Mike Bobo has been removed as coach of the Colorado State University football team following two straight losing seasons.

The university announced the change to the public Wednesday afternoon while Rams players met for a 2 p.m. team meeting to learn of the coaching change.

Bobo's departure from CSU was called a "mutually agreed to separation agreement" in a news release. Athletic director Joe Parker is scheduled to hold a press conference at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Under terms of the separation agreement, Bobo will be paid $1.825 million in three annual installments until 2022. The first payment of $608,334 will be paid June 30, 2020. The second payment of $608,333 will be paid June 30, 2021 and the final one of $608,333 will be paid on June 30, 2022. The payments won't change regardless of future employment for Bobo.

Bobo, 45, was 28-35 in his five seasons with the Rams. CSU went 7-6 in each of his first three seasons, each ending with a loss in a bowl game. The Rams finished 3-9 in 2018 and 4-8 in 2019.

At least as troubling as the overall decline in a program that had won 10 games the year before his arrival was the Rams’ inability to win games that mattered most to CSU’s fan base. Bobo's teams were 0-5 against both Colorado and Boise State, 0-3 in bowl games and had lost four straight games each to rivals Wyoming and Air Force.

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Bobo was earning $1.8 million this year after declining a $100,000 raise he was due under his contract extension in what he said was an effort to demonstrate the kind of accountability he expected of his players following the 2018 season. He would have earned $2 million in 2020, $2.1 million in 2021 and $2.2 million in 2022.

“Unfortunately, the results the last couple of seasons have not been what we wanted. I can assure you this was not a reflection of the commitment and hard work that we all put into the program the last five years," Bobo said in CSU's news release. "Our players and coaches never quit and fought through the final whistle against Boise State. I am so proud of this entire team and staff for their incredible resolve.”

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Bobo, who had spent all but one of his 16 coaching seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia, was hired as the Rams’ 22nd head football coach on Dec. 22, 2014.

He was hired directly by CSU Chancellor Tony Frank, who was president of the university’s Fort Collins campus at the time. Frank had fired athletic director Jack Graham four months earlier and didn’t hire Parker to replace him until the following spring.

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“I am extremely confident that in Mike Bobo, we have found the exact right man to lead CSU’s football program," Frank said at the coach’s introductory news conference. “I know that he understands his X’s and O’s. I know that he shares the same character and values that match and align perfectly with Colorado State University. And, I know that he is an absolutely relentless competitor, who understands the importance of always striving in the pursuit of excellence.”

Bobo replaced Jim McElwain, who left earlier that month to become Florida’s head coach after guiding the Rams to a 10-2 record in his third season. McElwain, who went 22-16 at CSU, and Florida paid a combined $7 million to get McElwain out of his contract with the Rams.

Like Bobo, McElwain had been a highly respected offensive coordinator at a powerhouse program in the Southeastern Conference before coming to CSU. McElwain had spent four years as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, helping the Crimson Tide win back-to-back national championships following the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

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

Legendary coach Sonny Lubick, whose name is on the playing field at CSU’s Canvas Stadium, is the only coach other than Bobo to guide the Rams to bowl games in three consecutive seasons. Bobo was the only coach to do so in his first three seasons at CSU.

CSU went 5-3 in the Mountain West and 7-5 in the regular season in each of Bobo’s first three years. The Rams played in the Arizona Bowl in 2015, losing to Nevada; the Idaho Potato Bowl in 2016, losing to Idaho; and the New Mexico Bowl in 2017, losing to Marshall.

Colorado State did not defeat a FBS team that finished with a winning record in Bobo's final three seasons.

CSU said a national search for the program's next coach is already underway.

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