The next two weeks will teach us more about Mike Bobo as a football coach than anything in the past two-and-a-half years.

The Rams are staring at a fork in the road after they got their “a-- kicked” in a 45-28 loss to Air Force on Saturday.

One fork leads the CSU football team to the special season it has often spoken about.

The other leads to another ho-hum, forgettable year.

The pressure is on Bobo and this team, and after the game the third-year coach wasn’t hiding from it.

“We got our a-- kicked. If we’re who we say we are, coaches and players, we respond,” Bobo said. “You don’t react. Outside that locker room will be reaction. There will be reaction about ‘coaches are terrible, players are terrible, defense, offense terrible.’ We control what we can control in that locker room and we respond.”

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Colorado State University is now 2-6 under Bobo in trophy games against its three Front Range rivals —Air Force, Wyoming and the University of Colorado.

They’ve lost five of those rivalry games in a row.

Bobo, who is 0-2 in bowl games at CSU, still doesn’t have a marquee win as a head coach. The closest was a 63-31 whipping of nine-win San Diego State at the end of last season. But that win comes with an asterisk because the Aztecs already knew they would play for the Mountain West title and had nothing to play for.

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The coach is correct that there will be plenty of reaction outside the locker room, and it’s warranted. He’s talked frequently about the responsibility this team has, especially this season with a talented, veteran roster and a shiny new stadium.

Expectations have been raised.

It’s time to meet them.

In two weeks, we’ll know much more about which team it will turn out to be.

Live Recap:CSU football trounced in 2nd half by Air Force

CSU still controls its own destiny. If the Rams win at Wyoming next week and take down Boise State at home on Nov. 11, the loss Bobo called “embarrassing” against Air Force will be a distant memory.

Those two wins would put CSU in line to play for the MW title. The Rams would just need to beat a poor San Jose State team at home Nov. 18 to seal a trip to the championship game.

Beat Wyoming and Boise State and Bobo and the Rams have their marquee wins and are two wins closer to that special season.

Lose one or both and 2017 will be just another season with an appearance in a forgettable bowl at the end of it.

It’s gut-check time for Bobo and the boys.

It's time for Bobo and the Rams to go and do some a-- kicking of their own.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and facebook.com/KevinSLytle.