FORT COLLINS, Colo. — “It’s bullcrap.”

Mike Bobo is the first Colorado State coach in modern history to begin his career with five consecutive losses to the University of Colorado. Despite calling a brilliant game on offense, the 45-year-old had to watch the Buffs and first-year head coach Mel Tucker raise the Centennial Cup — something Bobo has never gotten to do.

Following Friday night’s loss, a frustrated Bobo admitted that his team “got their ass beat” and explained that it’s nearly impossible to win when you lose the turnover margin, 4-0.

But Bobo also did something that I didn’t expect — he unpromptedly criticized the referees and questioned why in a game of this magnitude do they not have a neutral officiating crew.

“I don’t understand it — it’s too big of a game to not have neutral refs. That’s all I’m gonna say about that,” Bobo said at the end of his opening statement.

After a brief silence, Bobo doubled down and brought up Marvin Kinsey’s fumble at the beginning of the second half. On the play, the senior running back was held up and it allowed the CU defender to strip him.

“The dang umpire is saying ‘ease up, ease up, ease up’ to everybody and then they allow it to be a fumble. It’s not right, but we got our ass beat,” Bobo said. 

When asked if his mind went back to the 2017 game when the Rams had multiple scores taken off the board due to incredibly questionable offensive pass interference calls, a candid Bobo emphatically said yes.

“I think it’s bullcrap,” Bobo said. “The game is too big, it’s too big. You tell the team to ease up and the running back to stop when the play is going — then they reward him with a fumble — it’s bullcrap.”

Honestly, Bobo will face criticism for railing on the officials after losing by multiple scores, even though he qualified that turnovers and missed tackles plagued the Rams in the game. But what did he have to lose at that point? After losing to CU yet again, the folks that want him gone are still going to feel that way. By bringing up the refs, he connects with the frustrated fans and potentially gains their support — it’s a smart political move by a man on the hot seat.

The truth is that the officials were not the reason that CSU lost on Friday. There may be a fairly strong argument that the Buffs benefitted from the zebras more than the Rams did, but as Bobo explained, CSU just did not protect the football enough. And that’s why despite controlling the time of possession (32:55 vs. 27:05), recording more first downs (27 vs. 23), amassing more total yards (505 vs. 475) and being more efficient on third down than CU (5-of-12 vs. 3-of-9) — the Rams solemnly returned to Fort Collins for a fifth straight year.

Although the discrepancy in officiating may not have been as egregious as 2017, it’s easy to understand why Bobo is distrusting of Pac-12 crews. For one thing, the league’s inconsistent refereeing is widely recognized. Not to mention that in 2018, the Pac-12 had a national scandal concerning the integrity of its officials.

So while it would be sensationalist to say that the Rams fell victim to some overarching conspiracy, Bobo wanting an unbiased third party to officiate the game seems like a reasonable request. By bringing in an impartial crew, you automatically remove these chances for controversy. The problem is that because CSU hasn’t won this rivalry game since 2014, his statement came off like a sore loser, even though everything he said was fair.

Had CSU won the game and Bobo still came out hot about the officials, most people wouldn’t have had an issue with it. Winning makes just about everything okay. That obviously wasn’t the case, and as a result Bobo will likely face some heat for the next week or so.

Moving forward, if the Rams can find a way to build off the positives from Friday night’s game, CSU has the potential to make a run at the postseason. If that happens, last night’s press conference will be quickly forgotten, especially if the Rams can win a couple of high profile games in the process. But for now, the sting of a fifth consecutive loss to CU will linger — questionable officiating or not.