With spring football beginning this week, the never-ending circus that is college football is officially back in business. Second-year head coach Mike Bobo, along with his offensive and defensive coordinators Will Friend and Marty English, spoke to members of the media in the first press conference of the 2016 season Tuesday.
“I feel like we’ve got a team that is locked in,” Bobo said. “Now we gotta take it to the next phase, which is spring ball.”
Moving into year two, the expectations for Colorado State Rams football are higher than they have been in over a decade. Coming off three-straight bowl appearances, along with a drastic increase of CSU players making it to the next level in recent years, all eyes are on Bobo and his staff. Can they can keep this train on the right tracks?
Losing superstar wide receiver Rashard Higgins, along with a plethora of talented players including Sam Carlson, Joe Hansley, DeAndre Elliott, Kevin Pierre-Louis, Trent Matthews and Cory James, creates a litany of openings for the Rams moving forward, especially on the defense.
Replacing that many contributing players would be a difficult task for any program, but coach Bobo sees it as an opportunity to create competition and become a stronger football team. With so many positions opening, a lot of different guys will be given opportunities to earn their way onto the field, but he does not want any particular players to become complacent with they are at, especially this spring.
“They’ve got 15 opportunities to prove that they are at the top of the pecking order,” Bobo said, referring to the team’s 15 spring practices.
One major move the Rams have made has been to increase depth in the secondary, both in signing multiple junior college players and moving wide receiver Jordon Vaden from wide receiver to cornerback in early stages of spring ball.
Defensive coordinator Marty English addressed the potential position switch.
“We’re gonna create depth and competition,” English explained. “It was something Jordon had talked about, but it was also something we thought could be good for us to create competition.”
Although the move is not necessarily permanent, it shows that CSU is willing to go the alternate route in order to have success. English is replacing Tyson Summers, who left the program for the Georgia Southern head coaching position, is excited to be back leading the defense.
“I just want to win,” Coach English responded, when asked if he felt animosity about his demotion last season. “I’m just extremely excited to get a chance for us all to interact, the way we are going to interact, with me in this position.”
Under English, the Rams will switch to a 3-4 defense, similarly to when English was the defensive coordinator under Jim McElwain.
“I believe there will be a lot of carryover from guys that were in Coach English’s system.” Bobo said.
The switch to a 3-4 makes sense for a lot of reasons. The Rams are thin at linebacker, and the 3-4 better suits the current personnel. The 3-4 has also become one of the more prominent schemes of the Mountain West, so practicing against it on a daily basis will benefit Colorado State in conference play.
With roughly five months until the Rams open the season against CU, Bobo and his staff are paying attention to the little things. Fundamentals and attention to detail are the basis for any thriving program. In the coming months, CSU has a chance to really improve as a football team.
The Rams lost a lot of close games in 2015, due to unforced errors and breakdowns at key moments. Bobo and his staff are trying to eliminate those errors, and continue to feed off the momentum that was created in the second half of 2015.
The Rams have a favorable non-conference schedule to begin the season and could really start the year with a bang. The work they put in now will help determine the outcomes of those match-ups. There were glimpses of dominance under Bobo last year, especially in the running game. With an experienced offensive line, and a group of talented running backs to give the ball to, this team could really be explosive.
Until then, the Rams are putting in the work necessary, to reach their goals. Football season is back, Ram fans! (Sort of). Soak it in.
