Steve Addazio is proving that he's still got it on the recruiting trail

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A new era of Colorado State football is here.

Led by head coach Steve Addazio, the Rams’ first-year staff has impressed on the recruiting trail this spring, racking up 14 verbal commits from 10 different states — all before June — and with no signs of slowing down.

According to 247Sports, CSU currently ranks No. 53 in the country and No. 1 in the Mountain West for the 2021 cycle. What’s more, aside from New Mexico, which has 11 verbals and ranks second in the MW, CSU is the only other program in the league with more than five verbal commits.

Now, obviously, there is still quite a bit of time until these recruits will be able to sign a National Letter of Intent. The early signing period doesn’t even begin until December 16. So, really, until these guys put the pen to paper, everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. As the Ram faithful bitterly know all too well, Power-5 programs can quickly kill the excitement of a promising class by coming in and poaching the talent.

“I’ve been in this business a long time. It happens everywhere,” Addazio recently said of poaching. “What’s the alternative? Don’t recruit them hard? Don’t commit them?”

But even if it is all just hype at this point, and there is the possibility of players deciding to sign elsewhere, the fact that CSU has been able to catapult itself into the top 60 is an encouraging sign — particularly after the Rams were able to salvage a top 4 recruiting class in the league for the 2020 cycle, despite replacing almost the entire staff.

Between the athletic facilities, everything CSU has to offer from an educational perspective and the selling point of getting to live in a tremendous college town, Ram fans have desperately been waiting for someone to use all of that and take CSU football to the next level.

As Addazio knows from his multiple decades of experience, though, if that’s going to happen, recruiting has to be the lifeblood.

Development, preparation and execution will determine whether a team actually ends up winning games on the field. But at the end of the day, for CSU to consistently be successful and reach the high points that the school envisioned when they approved the on-campus stadium, the Rams need to be near the top of the G5 in recruiting rankings on a yearly basis.

Luckily for Ram fans, Addazio consistently has been revered for his recruiting prowess over the years. While coaching at the University of Florida, he was named National Recruiter of the Year by ESPN.com after helping lead the Gators to back-to-back top 5 classes nationally, including the No. 1 class in the country for the 2010 cycle.

“Steve Addazio is certainly one of the very best recruiters I’ve ever been around,” Urban Meyer said in 2010.  “He brings the same passion and excellence to the recruiting trail that he does to coaching on the field. Our guys love him because he connects with them and cares about them, and that’s very evident to anyone who spends time around our program.”

Based on recent conversations with CSU’s 2021 commits, Addazio has not skipped a beat when it comes to the recruiting game. In 10+ interviews that I have already had with the Rams’ 2021 verbal commits, every single one of them has emphasized two things.

Whether it was a three-star player with double-digit offers or an unranked prospect only receiving attention from smaller programs, CSU’s 2021 commits expressed that:

1. Addazio and his staff created the most genuine connection

2. CSU recruited them the most relentlessly.

While speaking with the media last week, Addazio gave some insight into his philosophy as a recruiter. Although NCAA rules prohibit coaches from commenting on specific players before they have signed their National Letter of Intent, Addazio was able to speak generally about how the Rams approach things on a daily basis.

“No matter what you do, connectivity is important,” Addazio said. “I think when you’re recruiting, you’re utilizing all of your connections that you have — really to give credibility to a relationship that you’re just formulating. The key to building relationships is finding those common touchpoints.”

According to Addazio, travel restrictions have slightly impacted that process. For instance, the veteran coach likes to be able to host on-campus camps and get to know the individuals by working with them on the field as well as having face-to-face conversations by going out on the road.

As Addazio explained, though, this business is not slowing for anyone — which is why even with an ongoing global health crisis and the country more or less shut down for two whole months, the staff has continued to be extremely aggressive on the recruiting trail. And it’s been that aggressiveness, according to Addazio, that’s allowed them to be successful.

“It’s been a process for us,” Addazio said. “Some guys we had a chance to see in the winter. Some guys we actually had a chance to get on our campus before it shut down.”

Addazio continued that film evaluation and recommendations from the staff have each played a big part in his recruiting strategy. Addazio said that he has personally watched every single one of the Rams’ 2021 commits so far, but also emphasized how it’s been a team effort in landing the commits.

“Some programs are meeting once or twice a week. We meet every morning at 7:00 a.m.,” Addazio said.

Finally, along with laying out what the general process has been like for the Rams, Addazio talked about how having an extremely targeted recruiting focus has paid off for the green and gold.

CSU’s primary recruiting regions are Colorado, California and Texas — all three of which were heavily featured in the 2020 recruiting cycle, and are all presently represented in the 2021 class as well.

Beyond the local talent and logical targets of California and Texas, though, Addazio pointed out how some of the ties that he and his staff possess in Florida, and throughout the northeast, gives CSU a recruiting advantage in those parts of the country to boot.

Most recently, Addazio and Co. put those northeast ties to use by going into Pennsylvania and landing three-star defensive back Andrew Garwo over 24 other Division 1 offers.

It will be interesting to see how the Rams decide to approach the rest of the summer on the recruiting scene. Going out and adding a second quarterback commit definitely turned some heads in Ag Land. But as Addazio said, the Rams just want to bring in the best football players that they can.

We have a long road until the Rams (hopefully) open the season at Canvas Stadium on September 5. The two things that are clear right now are that the recruiting trail never sleeps, and Addazio has still got it.