Bowl win would set Bobo apart at CSU

Earle Bruce and Sonny Lubick each won five games in their first seasons as CSU’s football coach, and Jim McElwain won four.

Steve Fairchild’s first team won six games during the regular season and then a bowl game to get to 7-6.

But no Colorado State University coach has ever won eight games in his first season at the school.

Not yet, anyway.

Mike Bobo will be the first if the Rams (7-5) beat Nevada (6-6) on Tuesday in the Arizona Bowl in Tucson.

CSU has been fielding football teams since 1893, and there have been 21 head coaches.

None have been as successful in their first year as Bobo, the longtime Georgia assistant who took over a year ago when Jim McElwain left for Florida.

The Rams, in McElwain’s third season, won 10 games for just the fifth time in school history. Many of the key pieces, though, were gone by the time Bobo took over.

Quarterback Garrett Grayson, the school’s career passing leader, was headed to the NFL, selected in the third round of the draft by the New Orleans Saints. The leading rusher, Dee Hart, decided to skip his senior season. Three starters on the offensive line, including second-round NFL draft pick Ty Sambrailo, graduated, as did two linebackers, Max Morgan and Aaron Davis, who had been the team’s top two tacklers for three straight seasons.

Replicating McElwain’s success wasn’t going to be easy. Winning football games, Bobo said, never is.

Particularly when you’re installing new offensive and defensive schemes, bringing in new coordinators and breaking in a new quarterback.

The growing pains, Bobo said, were difficult. The Rams lost back-to-back games in overtime to Minnesota and Colorado early in the year and eight games into the season had a 3-5 record.

Four games — all wins — later, they’re headed to a bowl game for the third year in a row. They went 5-3 in the Mountain West to finish in a four-way tie for second in the conference’s Mountain Division. And they beat first-place Air Force, downing the Falcons 38-23 on Oct. 17.

They built critical momentum to carry into the bowl game. Beyond it, even, if they’re able to win.

“This team really has always had confidence, even when we were struggling a little bit,” Bobo said. “They’re a confident group. They want to finish the season strong, and the only way we’re going to do that is work and then believe in what we’re doing and believe in the approach of how we’re doing it and how we’re going to get it done.”

The Rams, Bobo said, are “excited about playing a 13th game, excited about trying to get eight wins, excited about playing together one more time.”

Only 14 CSU teams have played in bowl games, and just 11 have won eight or more games in a season.

So winning one more game would be a pretty big deal.

For the players, and the coach.

“I think it would be great for our program,” junior guard Fred Zerblis said. “… It’s a good opportunity for us and for the coaches, as well, in their first bowl game here.

“I think everybody’s hungry to go win this one.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news

CSU’s winningest first-year coaches

Mike Bobo – 7-5 in 2015

Steve Fairchild – 7-6 in 2008

Matt Rothwell – 5-1 in 1903

Bob Davis – 5-4-1 in 1947

Earle Bruce – 5-5-1 in 1989

Sonny Lubick – 5-6 in 1993

Sark Arslanian – 5-6 in 1973

•Next up: Nevada vs. CSU, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 29, Arizona Stadium, Tucson

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