Mike Bobo talks defensive coordinators: “I hated to lose Tyson Summers”

One year into head coaching and Mike Bobo has lost one coordinator in Tyson Summers to Georgia Southern.

Certainly, for coaches, creating a coaching tree and leaving the game better than when they started is important. Through Bobo and the Colorado State Rams success, Summer was noticed and hired away to be a head coach himself down south.

“I hated to lose Coach Summers,” Bobo said Tuesday morning during his season-ending press conference. “I thought he did a fantastic job for us. We were improved in, really, almost every category defensively from the year before…I thought we were headed in the right direction.”

This tweet from Bobo, which came out only two days before Summers was hired away, illustrates some of those marked improvements:

Proud of the work our boys have put into this season!! #finishstrong #neversatisfied pic.twitter.com/7qKgzQFdwp

— Coach Mike Bobo (@CoachMikeBobo) December 19, 2015

So, who is Bobo looking at to replace Summers on the defensive side of the ball?

One of the men he’s considering is Marty English, who was co-defensive coordinator alongside Al Simmons during Jim McElwain’s regime. English was the Rams linebackers coach in 2015 and is an important part of in-state recruiting for CSU.

“Marty is a guy I’m going to interview this week,” Bobo said.

The head coach wouldn’t go into the other men he’s considering, explaining he has to decide what scheme best fits the future at CSU.

“I’m looking for the best fit for our program,” Bobo told us. “And what we’ve got on this roster so it doesn’t have to be a 4-3 guy. I’m going to go with what I think is best for the future, it could be a 4-3 guy, could be a 3-4 guy. Look for the best possible coach and fit for this staff as a coach and a recruiter and a representative of Colorado State.”

English surely falls within those parameters, and there will be others interviewed as well, likely.

Even with all the improvements in 2015, Bobo knows there some areas of potential growth. Namely, in stopping massive, game-changing runs.

“The No. 1 thing: We had way too many explosive plays defensively,” he said. “And, offenses are a lot better these days that you’re going to give up explosive plays. But we had too many explosive plays for touchdowns. And way too many explosive runs.

“And when I look at this league, it’s not a pass-happy league,” Bobo continued. “It’s more similar to the league I just came from; people are going to try to run the ball and establish the run. And play defense and play with physicality and toughness. We’ve got to match that defensively. The No. 1 thing we’ve got to do as a defense is we’ve got to stop the run. And the second thing is, we’ve got to be able to create more turnovers. We didn’t create enough turnovers defensively. So, those are two of the main things I’ll be looking at.”

Rewind and think about every loss for the Rams in 2015; there was an explosive run for a score or they lost the turnover battle. Minnesota (-2 TO), Colorado (-2 TO), Utah State (Kent Myers 191 rushing yards, 34-yard long), Boise State (Jeremy McNichols 56-yard TD), SDSU (Donnell Pumphrey 64-yard TD run). In the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl, James Butler took a run 77-yards to the house as part of the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 28-23 win.

But, here’s a reason to be optimistic for 2016. CSU will only progress, Bobo said, and he wants Colorado State to be the toughest team in the Mountain West.

“What we did last year is just a small piece of what we’re going to do this year,” explained Bobo. “I want to be the toughest football team in this conference. That’s mentally and physically tough. And the way you develop that is in your offseason.”