FORT COLLINS — Mike Bobo isn’t exactly sure what formed the approach to recruiting before he arrived at Colorado State, and he doesn’t really care.

It wasn’t anywhere near in line with his thinking, however.

“When I got here, there was a little bit of the sense, well, we’re non-Power 5. We’re Colorado State, we can’t recruit that kid, or he’s got these offers, we’re wasting our time,” Bobo said. “I don’t agree with that at all. I truly believe this university academically, this university athletically with the commitment they’ve given to football, this area to live is second to none. I have zero trouble selling that to parents and kids, because I believe the ceiling is extremely high.

“You better set your bar higher and go after the elite player, the elite character kids that want to be great at everything he does. That’s where I think we’re headed as a program.”

So far, one would have to say it’s paying off for the Rams. Under Bobo, the Rams have had only had one full recruiting cycle, as the period prior to his hire (2015), Jim McElwain and his staff had landed commitments from 10 of the 13 players signed that February. In short, Bobo has added 28 players to the program (three signees didn’t qualify academically), and 17 of them have already played for CSU, 11 of whom have started.

Nine true freshman played last year, three of them starting in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl; the Rams redshirted eight players, and 16 in last year’s class saw game action.

Recruiting sites will all post rankings for this year’s group by the end of Feb. 1, when all the key paperwork has found its way through fax machines nationwide. CSU director of player personnel Geoff Martzen will delay his opinion. CSU was ranked third in the Mountain West last year; the numbers he cared about were who actually contributed on the field, and from that, he was happy.

“It’s 100 percent that,” he said. “Usually I like to say you can’t look at how good a recruiting class is until two years after it’s done, to see who is making an impact, see who is still on the roster. That is 100 percent what I judge our class off of, and I expect the same thing next year. I expect us out of the 26 or so that we sign, I expect to get to as close as half as possible being contributors.”

Each coach has to put his own stamp on the program he guides. It comes from the culture they try to cultivate, but a major part of it is the type and quality of player they add to the roster.

In 2014, when the Rams won 10 games, the assumption was it was a program on the rise. What may be closer to the truth is it was a team that had hit a peak, loaded with seniors with many key positions in need of replacements that weren’t always ready.

In the two years since, Colorado State has gone 7-6 and done so with a roster still building and definitely in transition with coaching changes. In McElwain’s tenure, he and his staff signed 75 players. It’s a total that includes 16 graduates, Rashard Higgins’ early departure to the NFL Draft after becoming a consensus All-American as a sophomore, but also 21 players who either didn’t qualify academically or have left or been dismissed from the team. And in that total — 54 remain — 24 of them have never started a game at CSU.

Bobo wants nothing to do with the “theirs vs. mine” notion. Those 10 players who had committed to CSU when he was hired, who were already on campus, he will tell you flatly those are his players. He also tells them all the truth.

He expects the players he recruits each year to come in and play. He expects the next class to be better than them. Keep improving or be passed.

Thus, the way Colorado State goes about recruiting is set with a clear goal.

They are not afraid to be told no, won’t get discouraged by rejections and will attempt to outkick their coverage, so to speak.

It’s how a player the caliber of Preston Williams, a four-star transfer from Tennessee signs with the Rams when others figured he was off to USC or UCLA.

“They jumped on me real fast, and I already had a good relationship with Bobo,” Williams said, recalling the days when he was a high school kid talking to Bobo, then the Georgia offensive coordinator. “I just took a visit, and I really liked it. They showed me they were serious. I wanted to go to the West Coast. I knew I was getting out of the South, for sure.”

A school never knows exactly a player’s circumstances if they don’t ask. Williams wanted a place to land now, not later. CSU wanted him now, the Pac-12 schools wanted him to wait. A theater major, the program at CSU allows him to participate in school shows now; at Tennessee, he was going to have to wait until his senior year.

So when Williams announced he was leaving the Vols, he said CSU was one of the first calls he received, and he believes it offers him everything he needs, more important than any label.

“I mean, it doesn’t matter what school you go to. It doesn’t matter the name,” he said. “It’s what type of player you are, who can develop you the best. In the end, NFL teams don’t pick based off the name of the school, it’s what type of player you are. I’m not caught up in names.”

Martzen, who worked as a grad assistant at Alabama with stops at Boise State and BYU before coming to Fort Collins, wouldn’t want to work for a school that accepted limitations.

“I would not be at a place that’s going to settle,” he said. “If we miss on a few of our top-of-the-board guys and they start panicking, I always tell our coaches we don’t need to talk ourselves into taking anybody. If he’s not good enough to play here, we don’t need to take them. The fact they’ve bought into that mindset has made this a good place to be. You get to do more in recruiting the kids you want to recruit and building the class you want to build.”

On Monday, the day of the national championship, with all of the coaches out of the office, Martzen had the place to himself to continue work on the 2018 recruiting class. Before 11 a.m., he had already watched film on more than 50 players, at least 100 more to go — averaging 60-80 a day throughout the year. He figures he can determine within 10 clips whether a player has a chance to land on the big board that will start at around 300 targets or to be cast aside.

Of those 300, there are players Martzen figures will not consider CSU an option, and when they say so early, it’s a gift, and another player moves up the list. But his thought process is the Rams aren’t only competing against schools in the Mountain West and others in the Group of 5, but also the mid-level and lower Power 5 schools.

“When you start the process early, you’ve got these “shooting for stars” kids, swinging for the fences for kids we don’t think we’ll get,” Martzen said. “More of those kids that used to be out of our range we’ve been in on late. Come this year, we had those kids at the beginning, and we’re still in it in January. We’ve developed that attitude we’ll be in on kids we shouldn’t get late, and we’ll get one or two of them. If you take enough chances on those kids, you’ll sign one or two of them, and that will help you out in the long run.”

Eventually, all programs look to reach the point where they can go after a class that is balanced, that hits all areas to keep what Bobo calls roster continuity. In two years under him, the pattern shows they are not at that point.

Last year they hit the junior college ranks for wideouts, a tight end and defensive backs to target immediate needs, and so far this year, went after a high school tight end who signed early (Griffin Hammer) and a pair of offensive linemen. Running backs have been sought; three last year alone.

The junior college ranks are great to fill immediate needs, but they come with the pressure of having to hit. Bobo is not opposed to signing a player from that level if they are a great fit; neither is Martzen.

Talent is the key, and Bobo said it’s not hard to find if you look in the right places. But he also said with the current landscape of recruiting, one has to be careful.

He wants players more interested in the game than the hype around being recruited, and he wants players who want to be in Fort Collins. If it’s not a total fit for them, he would rather they chose their best option.

Martzen says they never look at how many stars are next to a name, as the Rams have their own system. The only time he looks at a recruiting site is to see what other schools are after the players on their board. And when it comes to finding players, they’ll go where the talent is and where contacts are strong.

They have them in Colorado, and Bobo and his staff definitely have them down South. According to Scout.com, Colorado had no five-star players, only three four-stars and six three stars this season. Georgia, in comparison, has 36 four-stars and more than 100 three-stars.

The Rams have verbal commitments from three in-state players, including Mullen three-stars Marcus McElroy and Christian Cumber. They have also hit the South hard — of the 17 current verbals they have, eight are from that region.

Bobo believes he has a good product to sell. Not just his football program, but the university as a whole, the area itself. The key sometimes is just getting them to come.

It worked with Williams, and it has for others. Martzen said Marvin Kinsey Jr., was one, and most of the kids down South came first as a curiosity before seeing it for themselves.

Bobo said more than one parent has sat in his office and admitted they didn’t want their son to travel so far, didn’t want to like Colorado State. But they did. Recruits and parents talk more about the relationships developed with coaches more than the new stadium. And if Bobo gets them to look at the whole package and not a name, there’s a shot.

“If we can get them here, we’ve gotta chance to get them. Because of what we do football-wise,” Bobo said. “Offensively and defensively, I think it’s sound to the guys,” he said. “I sell our staff and who they are, and I see our people. Who do you want your son to be around?

“If a young man will truly look at his opportunity to grow, not just as a football player, but as a person, that it doesn’t have to be X school, X Power 5 school. It can be Colorado State, and that’s our pitch. Why not here?”

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