He may have been cultivated in the South, but recent changes in his life are not going to alter Mike Bobo.

It’s more than just an address slip turned in a the post office, but a move across the country. While he’s still a football coach and loves his time in the film room, there’s more pressure involved as the head coach than being an offensive coordinator.

The whole show is his at Colorado State, and he’s ready for it.

On his terms.

“To me, obviously I grew up 40 of my 41 years in the South, basically my whole life,” Bobo said at the Mountain West media days in Las Vegas. “I’m coming out West to Colorado, but I still have to be who I am. I still have to be myself. Recruiting, coaching, it’s relationships one at time, and I’ve got to build them that way, and I’ve got to be who I am.”

The ways of the SEC are familiar to Bobo, who grew up and starred as a Georgia prep quarterback, then for the University of Georgia. He coached there, moving steadily up the ladder from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.

Communication with players is the same, no matter the hat a coach wears. To that end, it didn’t take long for him to earn respect from his new team, staying true to his words to them. That’s big, especially with players on the team who have been through two coaching changes prior.

Recently, Bobo surprised the Rams at a player’s only function, driving up in an ice cream truck to hand out treats. It caught them off guard and made them laugh, and to senior safety Trent Matthews, that simple act proved he has his players in mind.

“He’s going to be a good coach,” senior safety Trent Matthews said. “Everything he says he’s doing so far. He’s proving his actions are more than just words.”

Since his hire in December, he’s starting to learn more about the Mountain West. He had coached against Boise State, and lost. He had seen Utah State on tape. His opinions of the conference were there were good coaches and good players, just maybe not the depth of the SEC teams.

It hasn’t changed. Now it’s time for the conference to learn about Bobo, and very few of them had prior contact with the man or the coach.

New Mexico’s Bob Davie had, but as a broadcaster. He remembers working Georgia games, saying Bobo’s wife, Lainie, was his hero at the time, a mother of five children all under the age of 5. He was also impressed with Bobo the coach.

Back then, while working at Louisville, Utah State coach Matt Wells met Bobo on the recruiting trails, getting some directions along the way, a favor Bobo hopes he’ll repay as he learns to recruit western states.

They’ve all watched tape, trying to learn what Bobo the coach will run, as well as what defensive coordinator Tyson Summers will employ. To a man, they think he’s a good addition to the league.

“He’s, first of all, I think he’s a really smart offensive mind,” Wells said. “Some of the things he did at Georgia were very good, unique. I think it’s a long-tenured run of success. It’s hard to do. That’s one of the best conferences in America. Where he’s done it and how he’s done it, there’s a lot of respect from me for what he’s done. He’s got a chance. He’s got a good program, and I’m sure he’ll do a good job.”

For Bobo, being himself includes being the offensive coordinator as well as the head coach. It’s a tough call to make for any coach making the move from coordinator to head coach. Steve Fairchild called plays at Colorado State, Jim McElwain didn’t.

When Terry DeRuyter took over a Fresno State, one of the first decisions he made was not to remain a defensive coordinator, saying it’s tough to wear two hats.

“I think I’ve heard that Coach Bobo is going to call is own plays, and I think that’s tough,” he said. “I talked to Will Muschamp before I took this job, and Will did it, and he talked to me about his schedule. It’s one of those things that, for me, I’ve been around coaches that have done it and coaches that didn’t, and I felt for me anyway, having the trust in my guys to be able to step back works for me. I think you can manage the game better.”

Not Bobo, because it’s what he knows and is comfortable with doing. He watched Mark Richt do it at Georgia until Richt passed off the duties. Bobo understands it requires organization, a skill he is confident he possesses.

Besides, he was given an ultimatum on the subject.

“Will Friend said he wasn’t coming unless I called the plays, so there was no discussing when he said that,” Bobo said of his hire as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. “The big thing I don’t want to do is there are responsibilities I have as a head coach that I’ve got to do, it’s just what it is now days, what everything entails. I have to do a good job of managing my time so I don’t hinder progress for the offense.”

It’s time management and being efficient, he said. It’s also telling Paul Kirk, the director of communications, not to bother him from 7-11 a.m., so he can get that work done.

Most of his job involves football, and that’s an area of comfort. Out in Las Vegas, he shook hands and spoke with people for the first time, which Bobo admitted can feel a bit awkward at times as the learning process takes shape. Then again, he said that’s why he came to Colorado State, to get used to that feeling and go with the flow.

Eventually, new experiences become old hat. It just takes time.

They’re also easier to get through if the one thing he can control remains constant, and that’s being who Mike Bobo is deep down.

“I can’t come out here and try to be someone that I’m not,” Bobo said. “I’m a Southern boy in Fort Collins, and that’s who I’m going to be, and we’re going to play our brand of football. At the end of the day, whether it works — which I believe it’s going to work — or it doesn’t, I can put my head on my pillow at night and have peace.”

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