ALBUQUERQUE — Mike Bobo made a bold comment Friday.

When addressing the contract extension he signed earlier in the week — a five-year deal worth at least $10 million — he said that before accepting his first head-coaching job at Colorado State in December 2014, he wouldn’t move his family across the country from Georgia unless the position was somewhere he could picture himself spending the rest of his career. He saw that in Fort Collins.

Whether it was a recruiting play five days before the Dec. 20 early-signing period knowing he has to sell the CSU program harder than usual while his staff has vacancies at offensive and defensive coordinator, or a genuine sentiment, his calm tone screamed commitment to a program in need of it. When Bobo was hired, he was only two coaches and seven years removed from the Sonny Lubick era that spanned 15 seasons, nine bowl berths and six conference championships. A coach who doesn’t stick around is still a difficult concept for the Rams to grasp.

But the news of Bobo’s extension brought only tempered excitement from the CSU faithful and valid curiosity from national media personalities. After all, Bobo is 21-18 in three seasons, and he didn’t do anything to improve perception Saturday with a 31-28 loss to Marshall in the New Mexico Bowl.

Make that three straight 7-6 seasons for Bobo and three straight losses in bowls the Rams were favored in.

Bobo’s inability to win rivalry games (2-7) has been well documented, and whether the opponent is Nevada, Idaho or Marshall he also can’t figure out the postseason puzzle. Two Thundering Herd running backs ran for more than 100 yards Saturday; meanwhile, CSU tallied only 390 yards of total offense.

“You are what your record is,” Bobo said after the game. And that’s the problem.

Say what you will about these so-called participation bowls that frequently see potential first-round NFL draft picks sitting out for fear of injury. For a school such as CSU, the New Mexico Bowl is important. The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is important. The Arizona Bowl is important. When you’re at a school that will never have an opportunity to participate for a national championship in the present college football structure, ending the season with a victory and trophy can be the difference in whether the year was viewed as a success.

CSU athletic director Joe Parker said he’s not satisfied with seven-win seasons and added that Bobo isn’t either, despite handing the coach the richest contract in school history that will pay him $1.8 million in 2018 with a buyout structure that indicates the Rams, quite literally, could never afford to fire him.

That structure, which protects Bobo from termination with buyouts of $8 million (2018), $5.5 million (2019), $3 million (2020) and $2 million (2021), was designed by Parker as a vote of confidence in his football coach. He’s watched programs around the country — Mountain West included — flounder in mediocrity with no stability in leadership, cycling through coaches with hopes of a quick fix.

Even if it means the occasional season that falls short of expectations, as CSU’s did this fall with no Mountain West title, Parker is attempting to build the perennial conference championship contender with a steady hand through 2022. Agree or not, that’s what CSU is stuck with.

Maybe it’ll be OK. Maybe “just wait until next year” will eventually pay off and Bobo becomes the coach to lead CSU to its first conference title since 2002 and repeats that process year after year the way Lubick did. But $10 million brings higher expectations than this football program has ever seen, and the coach who says he can picture himself in Fort Collins for the rest of his career might need to start showing why he’d be welcomed.