FORT COLLINS — Jim Tracey just wants his Rams back.

He wants the old fire. The passion. The grit. The pride. Especially the pride. He longs for the days when the CSU roster had enough chips on enough shoulders to feed a small army. When the Rams built up street cred as the ragamuffins from Fort Collins who never, ever backed down from a fight. The misfit toys who’d take on all comers anytime, anywhere.

The guys who were told by The College Football Haves that they were too slow or too small or too … whatever. The guys who got passed over by Power 5 schools, then made it their collective goal to make sure those Power 5 schools paid for it through the freaking nose.

Tracey loved those Rams because he was one of those ragamuffins, one of those misfit toys, decades ago. These days? These days, the man doesn’t recognize the green and gold anymore, and it breaks his heart.

CSU (2-5, 1-2 Mountain West Conference) heads to Fresno State (2-3, 0-1) next weekend coming off a bye and a 35-21 win at New Mexico on Oct. 11. The victory snapped a 10-game losing streak to FBS opponents. It was CSU’s fifth league win, compared to 11 MWC defeats, over the past 24 months.

“They don’t have, to my mind, an identity,” Tracey, a former CSU center and letterman from 1971-74, said from his home in Illinois. “What are they?

“When Sonny (Lubick) coached them, they were tough SOBs — you’d strap it on and get after it. (But) what they put out there, they are really kind of going backward, and they’re putting a tarnish on the brand.”

Bobo pressure rising

Since Thanksgiving 2017, the brand is 5-15. The temperature of the seat underneath fifth-year coach Mike Bobo — who was given a contract extension in December 2017 that would cost the university $5.5 million to buy out before New Year’s Day, and $3 million on Jan. 1 or later — has been rising, steadily, since a season-opening loss to the CU Buffs in the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

Athletic director Joe Parker, who didn’t hire Bobo but did proffer that extension, has publicly remained in his coach’s corner, insisting that any evaluation of the program’s trajectory will come, at the earliest, after the regular season wraps up with a visit from No. 14 Boise State on Nov. 29.

Despite losing his starting quarterback, Collin Hill, for the season a month ago and a defense that ranks among the nation’s bottom 25 in points allowed (34.3), Bobo was in good spirits as he greeted reporters following last Tuesday’s practice, noting that he’d even dined with CSU boosters the evening prior.

Which, naturally, prompted a reporter to ask: Was it a pleasant dinner?



“It depends on which booster it is,” the coach replied with a grin. “You get it from all sides. You’ve got the ones who’ve got all the answers, and experts about what we should do. But most people, they’re, ‘Hang in there, we’re pulling for you guys.’

“A lot of what has been said to me — it’s always different when people say it to your face, let’s be honest, (compared to) saying it (from) behind a computer screen.

“But they’re supportive, they’re passionate, and it doesn’t bother me … I like passionate fans. You want passionate fans (that) want your team to be one of the top teams in the country every year and in contention for a conference championship. And we’re not right now.”

Which is one reason why Bobo, who sports a 26-32 record with the Rams, heads into the second half of his fifth season with a target on his back. That and a combination of better facilities, stronger university investment, and diminishing returns: Although the Georgia native is the highest-paid coach in the MWC with a $1.8 million annual salary, although he’s got an office at Canvas Stadium, which since its 2017 opening has been widely regarded as one of the top on-campus football buildings in the region, the 44-year-old Bobo has yet to pilot CSU to more than seven wins in a season. The Rams, who snatched three MWC titles under Lubick from 1999-2007, haven’t finished higher than second in the Mountain division since Bobo took the reins in December 2014.

Meanwhile, former players, such as CSU tailback Izzy Matthews, surfaced on Reddit to declare that recent incarnations of the Rams — who limped to a 3-9 record last fall — suffered from lack of unity and accountability in locker room. Bobo made a point to address both issues this past winter and spring, which only made this season’s 2-5 start even more confounding to recent alums.

“I’m not exactly sure why they’re losing the way they are,” said former CSU fullback Nate Ryken, a Berthoud native who played under Bobo and the coach’s predecessor, Jim McElwain, from 2014-18. “Because that was the biggest thing last year, not having that accountability aspect. And that was addressed by Coach Bobo and the staff, I know that. I’m not sure what’s going on.”

Recruits poached?



This much, though, seems clear: new CSU president Joyce McConnell, who succeeded Tony Frank earlier this year, is likely going to have some decisions to make in the coming weeks regarding the future of both Bobo and Parker. The Rams are expected to be favored in only one of the season’s final five matchups — and even that dance partner, UNLV, which visits Canvas on Nov. 2, is coming off a 24-point win at Vanderbilt back on Oct. 12.

The timing of Bobo’s staggered buyouts are further complicated by the new football early signing period, which this year falls on Dec. 18-20, two weeks before the cost of changing coaches would drop precipitously.

In the meantime, the current staff is hitting the recruiting trail as peer schools are hitting back with rumors regarding Bobo’s job security. On Oct. 2, a few days after the Rams slipped to 1-4 with a loss at Utah State, Briceon Hayes, a 3-star defensive end from Huntsville, Texas, and an August CSU commitment, announced that he’d decided to open up his recruiting again.

“I think the Mountain West programs (the Rams) are recruiting against are certainly using that (Bobo speculation) in their favor,” said Brandon Huffman, national recruiting editor at 247Sports.com.

The big schools are, too. One local CSU commitment for 2020, Ralston Valley standout Chase Wilson, told the Denver Post that in the past month, he’s been approached by a handful of programs about flipping his school choice — including a few programs from the Power 5.

“They haven’t really been talking down (CSU) too much,” said Wilson, a two-way star for the Mustangs. “It’s mostly just, ‘Come here, it’s better,’ rather than putting (the Rams) down.”

Wilson, who committed to CSU this past July, said that when he and his family asked Bobo about the rumor mill over the summer, they were assured that “the whole coaching staff will be there next year as well. Even though (what) all of the press and media are saying, that’s what they told us.”

Of course, if the ship isn’t righted in a big way, whether the university can sell current and prospective CSU ticket-buyers on another season of the present regime remains to be seen.

A Rams athletics spokesperson said that the program had more than 12,000 season tickets purchased for 2019, the third-highest total for a single season in CSU history. But that figure is also down 22.5% off the all-time record of 15,477 season tickets the university reported just two years earlier. CSU’s first three games at Canvas this fall have drawn an average reported crowd of 26,228, or roughly 64% of an official capacity of 41,000.

In other words, Tracey isn’t the only one who misses the old Rams. The old brand. The old fire. The old pride.

“(Bobo) has got the best facilities, the best stadium in the Mountain West,” the CSU alum continued. “He’s got the highest paycheck in the (MWC). He should be dominating the MWC, or surely competing for championships every year. It’s a little puzzling for me as to why he can’t get this thing going.

“When you lose a brand, it’s hard to get that brand turned back around and going in the right direction. And when you win two or three games a year, why would other fans get fired up about that? (Bobo) is putting a bad product on the field. Or he’s got the right ingredients, but the wrong recipe.”