Sonny Lubick will likely never be properly honored by the College Football Hall of Fame.
Due to a flawed selection process that lacks nuance, Lubick, head coach of the Rams from 1993-2007, does not meet the current standards to be inducted.
In order to qualify for the CFB Hall of Fame, former head coaches must have coached at least 10 years and have a career winning percentage of .600. Lubick’s is .593. After a decade of competing at an elite level and doing so without scandal, a couple of losing seasons at the end of his phenomenal career dipped Lubick’s win percentage just below .600. And as a result, despite being widely revered as one of the best in the business throughout his CSU tenure, Lubick is left unrepresented in Atlanta, GA.
Using a statistical baseline as a qualifier is not the worst idea in the world. The logic is to separate the individuals that were at the pinnacle of the sport from the rest of the field. And if you won 60% of your games coached in a career, obviously you were pretty dang good.
The flaw with this reasoning is that college football does not operate with an even playing field. Unlike the NFL there is no salary cap, the disparity in resources between schools is gigantic, and that’s why there needs to be more room for discussion when it comes to defining success and determining which individuals deserve to be inducted into the CFB Hall of Fame. Success at CSU and success at USC are two completely different outlooks. Context is everything here.
When Lubick came to Fort Collins in 1993, outside of a couple random seasons here and there, CSU had historically been pretty mediocre at football. Prior to his arrival the Rams had received just two bowl bids all-time, the 1949 Raisin Bowl and the 1990 Freedom Bowl, and had won only 47 total games in the 11 years leading up to his hiring.
After going 5-6 in his first year on the job, Lubick delivered the school its first conference championship in 39 years in his second season with a 10-2 finish in 1994. CSU finished 1994 ranked 15th in the AP Poll, but was at one point ranked 10th in the country. What’s more, the Rams beat both No. 22 BYU and No. 6 Arizona on the road. They were also able to take down Air Force and Wyoming, both of which were .500 or better, to finish the regular season 10-1 before losing a competitive Holiday Bowl to Michigan. Lubick was named the Sports Illustrated Coach of the Year for the dramatic turnaround.
Unlike Sark Arslanian (1977) or Earle Bruce (1990) — both of which guided the Rams to a 9-win season during their respective tenures — CSU wasn’t just a one-hit wonder under Lubick. From 1994-2007 the Rams won outright or split the conference title six different times, they played in nine bowl games, and won eight or more games seven times. The first four 10-win seasons in program history were all under Lubick, too.
From 1994-2003 the Rams went a decade without recording a losing record. During that 10-year stretch CSU never lost more than three league games in a season and received eight bowl bids along the way. However, it should be noted that if there would have been as many bowl games as there are in 2022, CSU would have received a bid in 10 straight seasons.
After not recording a losing season since 1993, when CSU finished 5-6 in Lubick’s first year as head coach, the Rams unfortunately finished below .500 in three of his final four seasons in Fort Collins. Seeing the team struggle under Lubick was an incredibly difficult situation for Ram Nation, as was his firing from athletic director Paul Kowalczyk in 2007. The silver lining of it all was that Lubick at least got to go out with a 36-28 win over Wyoming at Hughes Stadium.
Considering the Rams went 17-30 between 2004-07, in a vacuum it’s tough to argue that CSU made the wrong decision to move on when they did. The whole handling of the process still makes Ram fans feel uneasy all these years later, but nowadays a coach would probably get the boot much sooner if we are all being honest with ourselves. The thing that will always bum me out though, is that the Rams were actually more competitive in 2007 than their final record of 3-9 showed.
CSU started the 2007 season with an overtime loss to Colorado, and in hindsight, it really set the tone for the year that was to come. The Rams were leading by 11 in the second half but squandered the game away late in the fourth quarter. Then, in the following week, CSU hosted a top 10 opponent in California (No. 10) and lost by 6.
After back-to-back gut punches against power five opponents, the Rams lost a tough game to a Case Keenum-led Houston squad on the road, before falling to an Andy Dalton-led TCU team in Dallas. They did not finish ranked but the Horned Frogs were 19th in the AP Poll when the Rams came to town. So if you don’t get it by now, the Rams played a really intense opening month.
In Week 5 the Rams blew a lead in the fourth quarter once again and lost 24-20 to San Diego State at Hughes Stadium. Having talked to multiple players from the 2007 team, it was at this point where the team really came close to breaking, and that showed when CSU suffered one its worst defeats of the year to Air Force in Week 6 (45-21). But to the Rams’ credit, those players never quit on Lubick and after finally getting in the win column against UNLV right before Halloween, CSU was able to finish the second half of the year 3-3, including a Border War victory in the season finale.
When it was all said and done, four of CSU’s nine losses were by 6 or fewer points, and eight of them were to teams that finished the regular season above .500. As crazy as it sounds to say for a team that won just three games and started 0-6, they truly were not that bad. And honestly, considering the circumstances, the fact that Lubick was able to prevent the group from throwing in the towel and even got them to close out the year with back-to-back wins is a testament to his coaching abilities. Alas, the AD elected to make the move and so Lubick finished his CSU tenure with a final record of 108-74 (.593).
Due to CSU’s shortcomings in the final couple of years of Lubick’s career, the legendary head coach is tragically ineligible to be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame, which again, requires a career winning percentage of .600 or more. That’s tough to stomach considering he would have still qualified if the Rams could have won just two more games at any point in those final four years. And it’s even tougher knowing that in 2008, with many of the same players, the Rams finished above .500 and won the New Mexico Bowl under Steve Fairchild. Again, that 2007 team could have and should have won more games.
In a different universe CSU finds a way to win a couple of more tight ones in 2007 and maybe the Fairchild era never even happens. Or maybe it still does happen, but at least it allows Lubick to keep his winning percentage above .600 and get the rightful recognition he deserves amongst the other historical figures in the history of the sport.
Although debatably arbitrary, the guidelines for induction into the CFB HOF are clear, so it’s not as if Lubick is getting individually screwed over by a committee that refuses to acknowledge his greatness. It seems to me though, that if you are factoring in the spirit of what a Hall of Fame is supposed to represent, nobody that watched CSU during the Lubick era would argue against his deservingness.
What Lubick was able to accomplish with CSU was unprecedented and will probably never be replicated. He is one of a kind. Coaches like him, guys that are capable of winning at a higher level, don’t stay in town long enough to leave the type of lasting legacy that Lubick did.
Without Sonny, there would be no Canvas Stadium, no desire to contend in athletics at the highest level. He proved that it was possible at CSU. That impact on the program and really the entire athletic department as a whole is immeasurable.
In my humble opinion, it’s absolutely insane that a couple of losses at the end of his tenure are preventing Lubick from being inducted into the CFB Hall of Fame, as his impressive career speaks for itself. But if a couple of losses are able to negate a decade-plus of unprecedented success, Lubick’s character and conduct should make him eligible to be honored by the Football Bowl Subdivision and Divisional Honors Review Committee.
Think about this way, if players that meet the statistical criteria can be kept out of the CFB Hall of Fame for failing to be an upstanding citizen and represent the “ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and fellow man”, why can’t one of the classiest men to ever stand on a sideline be elevated for representing those exact values?
Subjective standards of morality can be used to punish players that were accomplished enough to be honored, like CSU’s legendary Mike Bell, yet can’t be used to help the cause for someone else that did everything the right way. How does that make sense?
Quite simply, Sonny Lubick is CSU Football, even 15 years after his retirement. Anybody that respects the history of college football knows Lubick was one of the best to ever do it. And they also know that beyond the Xs and Os, Lubick has always been and will always be the epitome of what a university representative should be.
If you are trying to honor the most important figures in the history of the sport, how can anyone feel good about the validity of the group if Lubick isn’t included?
It’s time to reevaluate the selection process. It’s time to honor Sonny Lubick.
