A deep dive into Steve Addazio's expected new coordinators

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The staff seems to be coming together for Steve Addazio. After a quiet week, multiple reports came out over the weekend about potential hirings for both the offensive and defensive coordinator roles.

While neither hiring has been confirmed by Colorado State football, it would make sense for Addazio to target his coordinators before filling out the rest of his staff.

With that in mind, here is a breakdown of the two coordinators that are reportedly joining CSU this season.

Chuck Heater | Defensive Coordinator

According to Football Scoop and ESPN, Addazio has hired Chuck Heater to serve as his defensive coordinator.

At 67 years old, Heater’s age brings up a few concerns — such as how long he will be interested in coaching for and whether or not he’ll be able to connect with recruits that are half a century younger than him.

That said, Heater has worked all over the country and has been a part of a couple of really stout defenses over the years. Assuming that he is in fact the guy, his experience, as well as his relationship with Addazio, should make for a smooth transition.

Most recently, Heater coached safeties at the University of Maryland in 2019. Prior to that, he was a defensive coordinator at Marshall for five seasons. Heater has also already coached at both CSU and the University of Colorado.

After working as a secondary coach for Earle Bruce at Ohio State in the 80’s, Heater eventually followed the legendary head coach to CSU in 1991, where he briefly served as Bruce’s defensive coordinator (1991-92). Although his first stint with the Rams only ended up being a brief two years because Bruce was let go after the 1992 season, one of the positives is the defense did show some improvement from year one to year two with Heater leading the unit.

After going 3-8 and allowing 34.1 points per game in 1991, the Rams went 5-7 in Bruce’s final campaign (1992). Along with winning two more games than they did in the previous year, Heater’s defense also allowed fewer points per game (27.8).

While it didn’t end up being enough to save their jobs, CSU did manage to go on the road and beat an Air Force squad that finished 7-5 in 1992. The Rams also went into Death Valley and took down a poor LSU team (17-14).

From 1993-98, Heater held various titles on CU’s coaching staff but he started as a recruiting coordinator — a role he also held at Washington from 1999-2003 and again under Urban Meyer at both Utah (2004) and Florida (2005-07).

In 2005, his first season as recruiting coordinator for the Gators, Heater was able to help Florida sign the 12th best class in the country according to 247Sports. Once he was established in the swamp, he proceeded to land the No. 2 class in 2006 and No. 1 class in 2007 (247Sports).

Going into his fourth season on Meyer’s staff, Heater was promoted to assistant defensive coordinator in 2008 and promoted again to co-defensive coordinator in 2010. Over those final three seasons in Gainesville, Fla., the Gators had a top-5 scoring defense twice, won the BCS National Championship in 2008 and went 34-7 overall.

While much of Florida’s success can be attributed to Meyer, there’s no doubt that Heater’s first three recruiting classes were instrumental to the rise of the Gators. During that time, the Gators signed Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes, Joe Haden and the Pouncey brothers, just to name a few.

In 2011, Heater followed Addazio to Temple and immediately replicated the success he had in the SEC. The Owls went 9-4 in 2011 and finished the year with the third-best scoring defense in the country at 13.9 points per game. Not only were the Owls stout, they were also aggressive and timely. In 13 games, Temple recorded 15 interceptions and forced 11 fumbles, six of which they were able to recover.

For comparison, the Rams finished the 2019 season with six interceptions and seven fumble recoveries. But to find a season where CSU totaled more than 15 interceptions, you would have to go all the way back to 2001 when the Rams finished with 16.

Temple took a step back on both sides of the football in 2012 but Addazio was able to land the Boston College job nonetheless. And as a result, Heater moved on to Marshall, where he served as a safeties coach and defensive coordinator from 2013-17.

With Heater leading Marshall’s defense, the Thundering Herd went 44-22 and reached the postseason in four of five seasons. What’s more, from a defensive perspective, Marshall twice finished in the top 20 for scoring and only allowed an average of 22.9 points with Heater running the unit.

Obviously, Heater would be an old school hire — which is a move that tends to be less popular with the general public. But considering the last time that a CSU defense averaged less than 23 points per game for a whole season was all the way back in 2006, if Heater can bring that same kind of consistency to Fort Collins, the Ram faithful will immediately embrace him.

At the end of the day, all the fans really care about is winning. Even in an offense-heavy league like the Mountain West, if the Rams want to win consistently, being able to stop their opponents from scoring will be paramount. Over the last five years, the team that has finished No. 1 in scoring defense has won the MW Championship three times — and they at least reached the title game in every season except 2019.

As fun as it’s been to be known for flashy offensive football in recent years, maybe Heater is the type of mind that the program has been missing.

Joey Lynch | Offensive Coordinator

Football Scoop is reporting that Ball State offensive coordinator Joey Lynch has accepted the same role with the Rams. According to Zach Barnett, Lynch will serve as the quarterback’s coach for Addazio as well.

This past season, Lynch held the titles of assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for his alma mater, where he has worked since 2009. Since taking over as OC in 2014, Lynch’s offenses have averaged 25.7 points per game and roughly 400 yards.

In 2019, Ball State was extremely explosive, averaging 34.8 points per game and 464.8 yards of total offense. What really stood out about the Cardinals in 2019 was how balanced the offense was — Ball State averaged 243.6 yards per game through the air and another 221.3 on the ground.

If fans were concerned that Addazio would bring an outdated approach on offense, Lynch’s arrival should calm their nerves.  The Cardinals frequently operated out of the 11 personnel, which features the quarterback operating out of the shotgun with one running back standing next to him. On the outside, there are three wide receivers as well as one tight end, which gives the offense a variety of ways to attack the defense.

Although I did not watch a ton of Ball State last season, looking back at some of their games, Lynch gave opponents a healthy dose of multiple tight ends and did a good job of using play-action to create big plays downfield.

With a talented group of wide receivers, tight ends and running backs already in place at CSU, Lynch seems like a strong hire to come in and help reinvent the Rams’ offensive identity — especially with Addazio’s experience in developing excellent offensive lineman. In 2019, Boston College only allowed 13 sacks on offense, which was good for No. 4 in the country, just behind Air Force, Alabama and Buffalo.

Lynch’s decision to leave the program where he played quarterback and has coached for a decade is somewhat interesting — although it could be just as simple as a nice pay raise and a massive upgrade in facilities. It could also be that Lynch is trying to work his way up the latter and improve his resume for future head coaching positions.

Regardless of what his reasoning was, if Lynch can help the Rams take better advantage of red zone opportunities and establish consistent balance on offense, CSU should still be able to score some points in 2020. It’s certainly way too early to make any accurate predictions but with a favorable schedule, a veteran QB and solid group of skill guys, Lynch will definitely have the right tools to work with.