FORT COLLINS — Mike Bobo spoke of volume in Las Vegas.

Meeting with the press at Mountain West media days, he outlined how recruiting has changed for him with a switch of a title, a change of address.

As Georgia’s longtime offensive coordinator, there were key targets, and just a few. He figured the Bulldogs may have made 40 serious offers to athletes a year. Moving west and now in charge of the Colorado State program, it’s almost mass mailings. The Rams have to spread their brand far and wide to more than 100 athletes a year.

To introduce them to Colorado State, you have to speak their language and use their method of communication, and the recruiting staff has been out in front in its use of graphics to catch their attention.

Now, that doesn’t discount the old-school way of closing the sale, but it’s much easier if you can first get the door to open.

“I actually love my graphics,” said Ryan Glover, who has verbally committed to the program. “I save all of them on my phone, and I post a few. I do really like them, and they’re pretty cool. It helps them stand out.”

Bobo loves the graphics, and he’s amazed how good they are, crediting intern Nick Adkins for the magic he works on his computer, as well as the interns before him.

What he spins out — and the public doesn’t get to see them all, only what recruits will repost on their social media platforms — are in-depth and personal.

“I think the recruiting game has definitely changed since social media has become so popular,” said Leah Knight, the assistant director of football operations. “I think graphics more than anything tell recruits they are priority. We send out generic graphics, but the ones that are customized, those tell recruits they are priority to Colorado State football. We have a student intern who goes to CSU, and he’s in our graphics program and he does an amazing job. We go back and forth all the time on new ideas, and we try to be innovative, try to do things that are popular and recruits can really relate to. He does a great job with that.”

They’ve produced likenesses on football cards and with holiday themes. They created graphics showing official offer letters, and one with a map using the CSU logo to cover a state any commit comes from.

With the NCAA changing the rules of social media — coaches can now like and retweet, but not comment — it adds a little more attention. Knight said her group already follows the prospective student-athletes they have on their radar, and they will use the new rules to their advantage. Knight, Geoff Martzen (director of player personnel) and the coaching staff will retweet more than will Bobo, who has said his focus will lean more toward the verbal commitments.

Knight said NCAA rules prohibit the staff from making the graphics public themselves, so with some they really like, they’re left holding their breath for the chance to click.

“There are recruits who tell us all the time that we have the best graphics out there,” Knight said. “With the new social media rules, our fans are able to see a lot more of it, but only when kids post it. We’re still not allowed to post customized prospect graphics. Sometimes we’re like, ‘I really like this one, I hope they post it.’ They don’t post every single graphic they get.”

They helped get Glover’s attention. Not surprisingly, the three-star dual-threat quarterback out of College Park, Ga., wasn’t exactly familiar with Colorado State. The graphics, however, piqued his curiosity. Still, he admitted he had to be convinced if he was going to move that far away from home to play football.

“I wasn’t really sure if I could go all the way out to Colorado. I wasn’t sure if I’d really like it,” Glover said. “I knew Mike Bobo had a history of coaching at Georgia and coaching great quarterbacks, but the visit really just sold me. As soon as I landed, I instantly noticed the scenery. It was one of the nicest places I’ve been. Colorado is an awesome place. I really loved the campus. I met a lot of the academic people, and I really liked the town itself, the people in town.”

When it came down to it, Glover said, the graphics were cool and drew him in, but what was real important were the relationships he started to build with coaches Joe Cox, Ronnie Letson and Bobo himself.

He felt they were genuine folks, trustworthy. And with all the other schools talking to him, they seemed more keenly interested in him as a person and a player, paying him the most attention.

A final, personal touch made the biggest difference, which is where the old-school way of wooing a recruit still proves to make the biggest impact.

In a day and age where instant communication is available via email or text, what made the biggest impression for Glover are the 10-15 hand-written notes and letters he’s received from Bobo and his staff.

As impressed as Bobo is by the work his graphics team does, he understands the finish is more important than the start. You can grab attention, but can you gain trust? Can you convey an importance to a prospective student-athlete?

One of his earliest teachings is what he leans on the most.

“There’s nothing like sitting down and putting your thoughts on paper to a young man and express to him maybe what we’re doing here, wishing him good luck there, or asking him about his family or writing his mother or his father,” Bobo said. “It takes time. Still to this day, if I get a hand-written letter from anybody, I’m going to open it up and thoroughly read it.

“I write back. I don’t just write back recruits. I try to write a letter to anybody I meet in a school, or somebody who did something nice. That’s how I was raised. I really believe we’re going to recruit well here because we show who we are, and I think you can do that through a hand-written letter.”

Yes, mom and dad took note, too.

It was how Glover convinced his parents an unofficial visit across the country to a school they didn’t know much about would be worth their time.

“I do get quite a bunch of hand-written mail from them. They do mean more,” Glover said. “When the head coach actually takes the time to write … you know the head coach isn’t making graphics; he’s not a graphic designer. But if he actually sits down and writes you a letter, I say that is more sentimental and means more.”

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