FORT COLLINS – Here’s an idea for Canvas Stadium’s next promotional event: Pitchforks for the first 10,000 fans through the gate.

An angry mob chasing Mike Bobo out of town might be the only way for Colorado State to get rid him, because the Rams aren’t firing their coach. No way, no how. Not even after they lost three straight to their rival from a cow town.

The Bronze Boot sparkled Friday under the stadium lights for a national TV audience, just begging to be hoisted by someone new. Against this Wyoming team, one which had lost four straight games since edging mighty Wofford by 3 and giving a freshman his first start at QB, surely this was the year the Boot returned to its rightful home.

Surely?

Surely we shouldn’t have been so naïve.

Bobo did what he does best Friday night, he lost a rivalry game … for the seventh straight time.

“This is our house!” Chanted the brown-and-gold faithful that overran the Rams’ student section by game’s end. They weren’t wrong.

Colorado State (3-6) has been whipped by Hawaii, CU, Florida, Illinois State, Boise State and Wyoming this year; three of those came at home. After each, Bobo gives us the same lines: His team is no good; we should blame him; he vows to get better.

The same tune he’s been singing for four years.

After Colorado State lost to Nevada in the Arizona Bowl? He said he didn’t have his team prepared. Next year was going to be better.

After losing the Potato Bowl? He didn’t have his team prepared. Next year was going to be better.

After last season’s New Mexico Bowl? You guessed it.

“We ain’t going to quit. You want me to say we can’t improve and the season is over?” Bobo said Friday. “We have three games left. We’re gonna fight. We’re gonna play. We’re gonna get better. We’re gonna find out who wants to play football.”

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Doesn’t matter. He can talk as big a game as he’d like and has zero requirement to back it up. Colorado State can’t do a thing about it. Not after the fat contract extension athletic director Joe Parker gave him last season two days before Bobo’s bowl and career records fell to 0-3 and 21-18: A salary bump to $1.8 million with $100,000 annual raises over five years, plus a buyout of $8 million owed to him should he get canned by Dec. 31.

This school doesn’t have that kind of money. The Rams dug themselves this grave, and Parker? That recklessness made him the undertaker.

After Colorado State lost to FCS opponent Illinois State last month and fans got serious about wanting a new coach, Parker told the Coloradoan, “I don’t think we’re at a moment where we should be questioning the long-term commitment to Coach Bobo and the direction that he’s leading his program,” adding that coaches can’t be judged on a single season.

This is Year 4, and if the toxicity surrounding football in Fort Fun is any indication, the jury has reached a verdict.

But they can’t fire him. No sir, no ma’am. There’s the money, yes, and there’s the issue of his character. Bobo is a genuine Southern gentleman. The kind of man you want your son to play for. Being a good guy in a bottom-line business shouldn’t matter, and it wouldn’t — had Colorado State not botched its release of Larry Eustachy back in February.

Eustachy, the former men’s basketball coach who the school kept around after it determined he abused his players and staff in 2014 — and again fell under investigation this spring for repeating his antics — isn’t the man Bobo is. Despite his abusive behavior, Colorado State decided not to terminate his contract “for cause,” which would have given him none of his $3 million buyout, instead keeping him on salary through July and paying him an extra $750,000 to go away quietly.

If you’re not going to fire the abusive coach who struggles to win games, are you going to oust the nice one performing at a similar level?

Nope. Nuh uh. Colorado State is stuck. Stuck with empty promises, stuck with shallow pockets, and the only way out is Bobo. Either he finally delivers to his word, or he helps Parker dig the Rams’ grave deeper with a $2 million shovel until the calendar reads 2023.

Let’s hope for the former. There’s a mob growing at Canvas Stadium, and they’re itching for a new promotion.