Matt L. Stephens

matthewstephens@coloradoan.com

BOISE, Idaho — Bowl failure and CSU go together like Mike Bobo and inflated salaries.

$1.45 million? For what?

Be glad you weren’t one of the 749 Rams who were suckered into buying a ticket to Thursday’s Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Colorado State University deserves to fork over its shortfall in ticket revenue back to the Mountain West office after how it played against Idaho.

Against college football’s 92nd ranked offense the Rams gave up 606 yards of total offense in a 61-50 blowout. (Thirty-six of CSU’s 50 points came in fourth-quarter garbage time.)

Why does CSU accept bowl invitations anymore? They don’t make the school money and as the only college football game of the day Thursday, playing in what amounts to a 3 ½ hour commercial to improve recruiting and out-of-state enrollment numbers, the Rams gave America a blooper reel.

This type of performance — though never before quite so embarrassing — isn’t new for CSU in the postseason.

GAME ANALYSIS: CSU has no excuse for Potato Bowl flop

The Rams have played in 16 postseason games in their 123-year history of football and have now won six of them. Two of those losses? They’ve come against teams that would take “mediocre” as a compliment, both in the past two years.

Last season, it was Nevada. Now it's Idaho, which finished fourth in the Sun Belt and hadn’t beat a team with a winning record until Thursday and will drop to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in 2018. The two poorest quality opponents the Rams have ever gone head-to-head with in bowl games have come on Bobo’s watch and both had the same conclusion.

“Did we make some dumb decisions out there losing our composure? Did I make some dumb calls as a coach? Yeah. I make some every week, even when we score 63 (points),” Bobo said. “But that happens. I have no doubt in what we’re doing and how we’re going to get there.”

On Jan. 1, 2017, Bobo will enter the third year of his five-year contract, increasing his base salary to $1.55 million, making him the highest-paid employee in CSU history.

His starting pay in Fort Collins was $1.35 million, a generous salary built in the vein of Jim McElwain’s contract before it. He was given the keys to a program on the up and coming off a 10-win season. What’s followed is a pair of 7-6 seasons, each ending in unfathomable disappointment. There needs to be some accountability.

From Thursday’s opening kickoff on the glazed blue turf, it was apparent the Rams had no desire to be extending their season in Boise. CSU players, no strangers to playing in sub-freezing temperatures, huddled along the sidelines in overcoats and fought for spots to sit on the bench. The Vandals, who play their home games in a dome, however, thrived in the 20-degree weather.

That’s not a personnel issue. That’s poor coaching.

“Ultimately, you’re right. That onus falls on me. That’s the position I’m in as a head coach,” Bobo said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board, we’ll look at it and figure out how to build a team that can be the team we want to be at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, the end of the year.

“But I don’t doubt my ability as a coach. I don’t doubt our coaches’ ability to coach. And I don’t doubt our players’ commitment to Colorado State. Not one bit.”

GOT IT PAID: Mike Bobo is highest-paid coach in Mountain West

No one is questioning commitment. The problem rests with the product that takes the field in the season’s 13th game. Ten penalties for 92 yards. Fights breaking out on the field. A defense that was nonexistent.

The expectation was never that Bobo was going to have CSU contending for New Years Six bowls in his first two seasons, but when earning as much money that he does, there’s an assumption he’ll do the job at a high level. The coach across the sideline, Idaho's Paul Petrino, did Thursday, and he makes less than a third of Bobo's salary.

The honeymoon period is over. This team had more than enough talent to win nine games this fall, and it finished the schedule with seven victories. Friday will mark two years to the day since Bobo was introduced as the Rams’ coach, and it’s time he starts giving CSU its money’s worth.

For insight and analysis on athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports editor Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.

CSU football notes: Potato Bowl not the coldest bowl