Football Blog

Nov. 19, 2009
Legacy is important
Coach Steve Fairchild

I believe in being honest with our team.

It wasn’t just the loss that bothered me at UNLV, it was the way we played, with a lack of heart and soul, the penalties we committed, the third-and-longs we allowed them to convert. I was embarrassed by the decisions that were made, including those by the head coach. That’s not an indictment of an individual, it’s really an indictment of the entire team. And as head coach, that really stops on my desk. I’m not proud that my name is on that game tape.

Well, we have to nuke that loss and put it behind us. We have to fix this and fixing anything in life shouldn’t be difficult if you can identify the problem, realize what we did wrong, and how we need to go about fixing it.

It would be great to win these last two games, but what’s more important is getting back to doing things the right way.

The legacy of last year’s team is huge. That team went out with a winning record and won a bowl game and those associated with that team should be extremely proud. Now, we don’t want to slide. We don’t want next year’s team to have to deal with a losing streak. I don’t want this to be, ‘Well, we’ll just solve that next year.’ I want to fix this and stop the bleeding right now. The way we do that is to continue to use hard work and accountability. No one here wants to pass on this streak to someone else, next year.

These past two weeks, we did a lot of live stuff, involving our offense and defense against each other in a lot of competitive periods. We also gave our younger guys, players who’ve been on look teams all year, a chance to show us what they could do. It was fun to see. Knowing we weren’t going to have the benefit of bowl practices, it was good to see those redshirt guys full-go. It really broke up the routine and helped.

Saturday is a chance to get this bad taste out of our mouths. New Mexico is going to give us everything they have. I flipped on the TV Saturday and watched them play BYU and they should’ve won that game. I think we’re both a lot better than our records would indicate. We fully expect them to play their best game of the year.

We will get this thing turned around.

Nov. 3, 2009
Right frame of mind
Coach Steve Fairchild

I was pleased to learn this week that we’re progressing academically better than we were at this time last year. I don’t want to jinx it, because we still have a few weeks left in this semester, but obviously the fall term is hardest on a football player. It’s a good sign that our academic progress is moving in the right direction. If a guy stays here and goes through our program, he’s going to graduate. I’m confident of that. Our coaches and academic staff care too much to not see him graduate.

I want us at this time of year to be in the right frame of mind. We need to get on the field, starting today, get our work done, and get off the field. We’re still going to do every rep I have on my script, but our focus should be keen with about a month left in the year. We’re not going to sacrifice any preparation for our opponent, but at the same time, we should know what we’re doing out there, and get on and off the field with more precision, and less time.

I know I sound like a broken record, but there’s still a lot of good stuff out there for us this season. UNLV’s not going to gift wrap anything for us. If we’re able to win this game, we’ll do it with our preparation in the next 72 hours.

This trip’s a little like Idaho. It’s a challenge because it’s on the road and it’s a night game, meaning there’ll be a lot of down time at the hotel. We get back late, on Sunday morning. We need to be in the right frame of mind as we travel, and make this a business trip. A win on this trip could open a big door for us, putting a positive taste in our mouth. And I’m starving for a win to be honest with you.

Oct. 27, 2009
Believe
Coach Steve Fairchild

“Success depends mainly upon what you think of yourself and whether you believe in yourself.” That’s a quote I shared with our team earlier today.

Momentum, confidence, whatever you want to call it, it slipped out of our hands last Saturday. I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t just our players’ playing. It was our coaches’ coaching, too.

As I thought about that game, that situation there in the second half was exactly like our win over CU earlier this year. We played a great first half, had a big lead at halftime, then CU came out and started moving the ball, and shutting us down on offense for a couple series. That game was slipping away from us at that point in the third quarter, but then we got a turnover, busted a big run and chucked the ball down the sidelines, and all of the sudden we were back in control.

We have to get back to that, believing in ourselves, trusting in the guy next to you, because if belief leaves you, you’re never going to make a play. That’s the difference, belief.

No question, there’s enough talent on this team. This year’s team would beat last year’s team, but it’s not just about talent. Last year when we were on our run, we had that belief, and that’s how we were able to not only get to a bowl game, but to win it.

I like what Mike Tomlin from the Pittsburgh Steelers said after they beat the Vikings. The media was stirring up some stuff with his team after they blew some second-half leads entering that Minnesota game. In comparing that win with the previous losses, he said it was a black and white issue, that you either make the plays or you don’t. And if you don’t, you lose.

We need to get back to believing that we can make those plays, because Saturday against Air Force, there’s going to come a time in the game where the ball’s on the ground and we have to get it, or the ball’s in the air and we have to go after it, or the receiver’s open for a split second or the hole’s there for our back and we have to hit it. We have to get back to believing.

Oct. 23, 2009
On the right course
Coach Steve Fairchild

Just wrapping up another solid week of preparation before we do our walk-through, then head over to our hotel. Earlier today, we had production meetings with the announcers for the telecast on The Mtn. If you’re not in town, be sure to catch us on TV. It’s available all over the country on DirecTV, Channel 616.

I think this is a pivotal game tomorrow. We need to put together a game like we’re capable of playing. San Diego State isn’t going to give us anything. We’ve got to go take it. You can tell they’re buying into that system. They remind me a lot of us a year ago. They’re getting better every week. They have a wide receiver who’s something else. They always gang up on defense; they’re certain to have a lot of guys around the ball. That’s just the nature of their scheme under Rocky Long.

But we’re getting better, too. Someone told me we played the toughest schedule in the country the last month with three ranked teams and another club that’s 6-1, but that’s no consolation. I put more stock into answering the question, ‘Are we getting better?,’ and we are. We’re a little bit better of a football team than we were at this point last year. And we’re a little better now than we were earlier in the year, when we beat CU in Boulder. That’s progress in my eyes. Yeah, I wish it wasn’t 3-4, and I wish there was something more tangible for people to see, but I’m in this for the long haul. This isn’t a this year/last year thing for me. I know we’ve got this thing moving on the right course. We just have to be tough enough to withstand this challenge, fight through it, because there are a lot of teams bunched up out there like us, and we need to emerge. We can take a big step tomorrow.

Oct. 20, 2009
What’s done is done
Coach Steve Fairchild

I think there are two things we have to do this week.

One, we have to put that TCU game behind us. That’s something we need to do with every loss, whether it’s on the road to the No. 8 team in the country, or a game we should’ve won. We also should do that with a win, put it behind us. What’s done is done. There’s no use in dwelling on the past. That just defeats our cause.

Secondly, everyone on our team should realize that we have an opportunity this season to still go down in history as one heck of a football team. There’s still a lot of football left. If we can regroup, get back on track and go to a bowl game, that would be a huge accomplishment for this season.

To do that, we have to get back to doing what we do, focus on what we can control, putting in an honest work week, and realize that what we do in practice starting today translates to what we do in the game on Saturday. There has to be an accountability there.

San Diego State is a good football team. They remind me a lot of where we were at this point in the year last year, and they could rally in their season just as we did last year. They never fail to attract a tremendous group of athletes there, and now they have the New Mexico-style defense with Rocky Long. We’ll have to be extremely sharp offensively.

Oct. 14, 2009
Halfway point
Coach Steve Fairchild

It was obviously a tough loss Saturday. The reason it stung so much is that we played so well against one of the top teams in the country. We were in control at the end of the game, but didn’t make enough plays down the stretch to close it out.

Eventually here at Colorado State, we’re going to close one of those out. Then, we’ll start to close a couple of those out, and then we’ll just expect to close them out. That’s the mentality we had when I was here before, and that’s the direction we’re headed, no question.

Our message this week is that we’ve reached the halfway point and there’s still a ton of football left. This is the time in a season where some teams become injured and start to lose their mental edge. Other teams, though, fight through those midseason challenges. We were able to do that last year and rise to win a bowl game.

Some teams excel at this point, and some teams fade. In the NFL, our goal was always to get to the halfway point knowing that if we could get there in good shape, we could still do great things, even win the Super Bowl. I think we’re in good shape.

The other thing that should be very apparent to our team is that we could easily be 5-1, or maybe even 6-0 if the ball bounced our way a few times. We could be the team everyone is talking about around the country. But we could also easily be 2-4. The point is that there’s very little difference between a win and a loss; football games hinge on a series of a few plays. So we should keep our heads up, keep our attitudes and minds right, and we’ll get to where we want to be this season. I know we can. For three quarters last Saturday, we had our way against a program that dominated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. We just need to keep fighting, keep working, and we’ll close those games out soon enough.

The road never gets easier in our conference, whether we’re playing the No. 8 team in the country like we are this week at TCU, or whether we’re playing a team with nothing on the line except extreme pride. These games are a battle in the Mountain West, week-in, week-out. This week will be another opportunity for us to measure our program against an elite team in our conference.

So, as we enter into the last six weeks of our season, I don’t want us to plateau; then we’d be just another team. I don’t want us to be just another team.

Oct. 6, 2009
Every play matters
Coach Steve Fairchild

Looking at the tape from Saturday’s game, something really stood out to me: Every play matters. Obviously, we were all disappointed with the outcome, as we should be. Grant Stucker was our Offensive Player of the Game, and Mychal Sisson was Defensive Player of the Game. Dion Morton had some amazing returns. We played well, but we lost. Give Idaho their due. They are a good team.

What we’ve been trying to preach since the beginning here, something we try to practice every day, is that every play matters. Whether it’s an extra point, an extra point block, a penalty, a catch, block or tackle, football games come down to a handful of plays, and Saturday was no exception.

Plus one thing Larry Kerr and I noticed is that we weren’t doing a good job, especially in that second half, of putting plays behind us. We can’t let the previous play affect us. We want our guys to go absolutely as fanatically hard as they can until the whistle, then come back and do it again, just as hard, no matter what happens on the previous play. We’ve usually been good at that for the most part. I remember Klint Kubiak’s interception last year that beat Houston, a couple plays after he had a flag thrown against him.

There is tremendous talent on our football team, and we just have to put it together. We can’t wait around, we have to do it. It doesn’t get any easier this week. This Utah team was a team that was to many people the true national champion last year, and we’re right on their heels, trying to catch them. We’re not there by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re on the correct path. We can take a big step this week.

I have a lot of respect for Kyle Whittingham and the program he has there. On my media conference call this morning, a reporter reminded me that their two corners from last year are now in the NFL, but I tell you what, there’s no dropoff. Their secondary and their front 7 are just as talented as last year.

Sept. 29, 2009
Road doesn't get any easier this week
Coach Steve Fairchild

One thing you learn after a lifetime in this game is that you can’t change what’s past. There’s nothing we can change about being 3-1. We do have some serious control over our near future, and what we do on Saturday.

Last week, we just couldn’t go into that type of environment, with 64,000 fans, against that type of opponent, and turn the ball over twice and give up a blocked punt in the first quarter. We can’t do that and expect to come out on top.

I told our team that I appreciated their efforts after we made those mistakes in the first quarter. There was a point there where it was 28-17 in the second half and we were moving the ball pretty well, where we could’ve made more of a game out of it.

This week is going to be another huge challenge for us. Idaho really handled San Diego State earlier this year, and they just went on the road to beat Northern Illinois, who the previous week won at Purdue. Idaho’s only loss is to Washington, who beat USC. Idaho is obviously a very, very good football team.

Players and coaches, we all learned from that slow start Saturday at BYU. One of the reasons we start our practices with a no-huddle period is that we want to get off to fast starts in games. We can’t just show up and go through the motions without the kind of tempo we need, whether in practice or in a game. We have to have that edge.

There’s more to this game than just being a good football player. You have to have that edge. It starts with a good week of practice, beginning today.

Sept. 25, 2009
Goal is to play with a purpose
Coach Steve Fairchild

I think we’re fortunate to be where we are. We haven’t blown anyone out, but we’ve played well overall and that’s why we’re 3-0. Good teams find a way to win. Good teams also win games like this on the road, against big-time opponents.

But one game doesn’t define us. This will be a good chance to see what we can do on the road against a good team in a good setting. Our goal, just as it was in Boulder, will be to control the crowd, rather than letting the crowd control us.

I like our work ethic. I think we’ve gotten better as the year’s gone on, and that’s a good thing. If we win this game, in my book, it will have been won in late January when we started our mat drills and we were up at 6 a.m. Mat drills are a boot camp, military-type setting in one of our gyms here at Moby. I think the more our players invest the time and energy into something, the more they’re going to care. Football’s a game of details, and when you’re tired and frustrated late in a game, it’s hard to put your hand behind the line, and give it everything you have. That’s why we do those mat drills.

We also had a great summer. We’re fortunate to offer summer school here to our players, so they can take care of a lot of their classes needed to graduate (we expect all 17 seniors from last year’s team to graduate), so all of our guys were here, policing themselves, coaching themselves during summer conditioning.

We’re going to do a walk-through in our new Indoor Practice Facility this morning, then treat the guys to a nice lunch here at a Fort Collins restaurant before we get on the plane. We want to show up tomorrow and play with a purpose.

Sept. 22, 2009
Script for success
Coach Steve Fairchild

We got a tremendous turnout again from our students last Saturday against Nevada. They were a big part of our victory. We get great support here from our students, 10,000 strong, packed in behind our home bench at our stadium. Please keep it up. We need you every game.

Saw that ESPN has shown some interest in our program. They’re going to have our Idaho game on “ESPNU.” It’ll be available all across the country that night, so that’s a good deal. We’re making CSU visible. Ten of our 12 games are available on national TV this year. All nine remaining games are televised.

I thought we took a step closer last week to where we want to be. We were very, very close to playing a complete game – offense, defense and special teams. If we want to contend for our conference championship, that’s the type of game we need to play. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but that was a good step. That reminded me of how we won games here in the ‘90s, creating turnovers, making big plays and limiting penalties and mental mistakes. That’s how we got to be really good last decade, and that’s where we want to return. That’s been a good formula in the past. It’s a great script – takeaways, big plays and penalties – for how we want to win games here.

Another huge game this week, at BYU. The stakes get bigger and bigger as we keep having success. It’ll be a good challenge, a big test to see where we’re at as a program.

Sept. 18, 2009
New facilities, new challenge this week
Coach Steve Fairchild

Sorry I haven’t had a chance to write. It’s been a hectic week. We’ve had our hands full preparing for what I think is our biggest test so far this season: Nevada.

We took some time out of our schedules today to attend a really special ceremony. It was the dedication program and ribbon cutting for our new $20 million facilities. This university is absolutely serious about competing for BCS bowl games, and these facilities put us right on par with the best facilities anywhere in the country. Aesthetically, there isn’t a better looking indoor practice facility in the country. I don’t care if you’re Ohio State or Michigan, or whoever.

Our new weight room is top-of-the-line phenomenal, and it’s only steps from our new locker room here on campus, renovated just a few years ago by former Ram Joey Porter right before he helped the Steelers win the Super Bowl. We introduced both new buildings today.

Last week wasn’t our best effort by any means, but we’re not going to worry about it. A win is a win and the difference between the country’s ninth-ranked team in Division I-AA and the rest of Division I isn’t as wide of a gap as most people perceive. There are only a handful of truly elite teams out there. That’s why a team like Houston, a team we beat here in Fort Collins last year, can go into Oklahoma State and win last weekend.

And that’s also why we’ve been asking ourselves since we started offseason conditioning last January, why not Colorado State? We’ve still got a long way to go, but with these new facilities we opened today, we’re absolutely on the right track.

I’d like to point out a couple of things from that game last week. First, most games come down to a handful of plays, and last week was no different. Every play is life or death. And if you get knocked down on a play, you better get back up and not mope, shake it off and move on. Every play is precious. Our nose tackle Guy Miller could’ve just given up in those final seconds, thinking the game was over. But he didn’t. He kept knocking the heck out of that center, and eventually the center fumbled and that’s how we won the game.

This Nevada team is going to be a steep challenge for us. We’re going to have to win in every phase tomorrow, including the kicking game. I think the stakes are as high with this game as they’ve ever been. They’re favored, and they’re hungry. We have to take it. No one’s going to give it to us. We have to get our minds right.

Sept. 9, 2009
CSU exposure is world-wide
Coach Steve Fairchild

After our victory, I got a nice e-mail from the head of our ROTC here at CSU. He was the guy who helped arrange my BlackHawk helicopter ride to the Wyoming border last year before we played the Cowboys. Anyway, this guy is now in Saudi Arabia and he was e-mailing me to congratulate us on the win. He was watching on the Armed Forces Television Network.

Just goes to show you how far-reaching our exposure is here at CSU. We played that game as the only game in the country in that time slot Sunday night, and a guy in Saudi Arabia was watching it.

Leonard Mason and Tim Walter were our offensive players of the game, Elijah-Blu Smith and Guy Miller were our defensive players of the game, and Ben DeLine won the award for special teams. I congratulated the team on the win when we met yesterday. It reminded me of the old days here at CSU in the 1990s when we were playing the downhill, smash-mouth type of offense we showed Sunday, and the sure-tackling, hard-hitting defense Larry Kerr has always been known for. We generated pressure from our front four, which was great to see. I still didn’t think we played error-free. We left some points off the board on offense.

For those of you fans who were in the state and were able to make the trip to Boulder, thank you. We fed off the energy you created. You might not have made up a large percentage of the crowd, but we definitely knew you were there, and appreciated your support. I’ll never forget that scene on the field after that game, or the governor presenting us the Centennial Cup trophy and singing our fight song afterward in the locker room. That was truly special.

Please come out and support us this week in our home opener. Student tickets are free and available to be picked up here at our ticket office or in the student center. We need your help, and I hope you’ll agree that we’re playing an exciting brand of football here at CSU.

Aug. 29, 2009
One week to go
Coach Steve Fairchild

I looked at my watch when we finished today and we had practiced for 3 hours and 20 minutes. That’s the longest we’ve gone this year. I think we’re peaking, we’re very close to being game ready. We’ve now practiced every conceivable situation we could face in a game, and gone over them again in the last two days.

We have to tie some things down and clean some stuff up. We’re talented enough, I know we are. We just have to have a great week of practice. We’re close, but not there just yet.

On Monday, we’re going to vote for our team captains. I think that’s a very important part of this program and something I take very seriously. I was a Colorado State captain in 1980.

Nancy and I are headed to Denver tonight for the Green & Gold Gala, then after the Broncos go head to head with former Ram Caleb Hanie on Sunday night we’ll head back to the stadium in Denver Monday for a luncheon with CU.

We need a big week of practice, no question.

Aug. 22, 2009
Second scrimmage
Coach Steve Fairchild

We just finished our second major scrimmage of the fall, and I tell you what, I like this football team. We’re not as consistent as I’d like us to be, but I feel like we have a chance to be on par with last year, maybe a little better. We’ll see.

We went for about 2 hours and 50 minutes, competing in some heat, really for less than the length of the game (about three hours). We haven’t done that so far.

From a conditioning standpoint, it’s evident that we’re right there; we’re ready to compete. I was pleased with our tempo. We were getting after it. But today we had six offensive penalties and six defensive penalties. We have to clean some stuff up on both sides of the ball.

Our students start classes on Monday and I’m giving our players that day off. I don’t even want to see them on Monday. I want every guy to take one day, get to all his classes, and just take a day to get his life in order. I don’t want them to see their coach, either.

When we come back on Tuesday, we’ll get to work on CU.

Aug. 17, 2009
Important week
Coach Steve Fairchild

Just finished our morning practice and I have a few minutes here as our coaches are meeting with their position players to watch film. We like to get our film knocked out, and the entire morning practice put to bed and corrected before we go to lunch during these two-a-days. I like knowing that our guys are off their feet and have a couple hours right after lunch to rest, relax and get their legs back, and get treatment if they need it before we do it all again this afternoon.

Scott Albritton helped the defense win our bowling championship last night. I want to thank Chipper’s Lanes for letting us use their facility. We had a lot of fun. We do a lot of that type of stuff during the camp, to help break things up, and really, just to have fun.

This week I think is critical to finding out who we’re going to be as a team this year. We got off on the right foot this morning. We had a great tempo. The pace was good. We finished 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We didn’t have to repeat a bunch of drills, we were in and out of the huddle quickly. It wasn’t perfect, but I was pleased.

When we practice with the kind of edge we had today -- it’s our job as coaches to make sure we come out with that edge -- and we don’t make mental mistakes, then we have a really good chance to improve.

This week, we decide who we are. We have a lot of decisions to make, what our depth chart’s going to look like, who our playmakers might be, who we can trust in crucial game situations, who we’re going to play as true freshmen and who we’re going to redshirt. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to make all those decisions this week, but this week I know is key.

Aug. 11, 2009
First day in pads
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, we’re headed out this morning for our first day in full pads. I’m putting the players through about 30 live plays. We’ll have two days of full contact, then a day of rest for media day on Thursday before another couple of tough practices. We’ll scrimmage on Saturday, then take some more time off on Sunday. We have to push through this thing. Good teams push through.

Today, with our pads on, we’ll start to find out a little more about our team. I think our running backs will begin to separate themselves because we’ll start to find out who can break tackles.

Yesterday, we got a lot of good work in after we restarted practice. Yesterday was a good day. I’m headed to the field. Another picture-perfect day in Colorado this morning.

Aug. 6, 2009
First 2009 team meeting
Coach Steve Fairchild

The thing about August practice is that there’s plenty of time to meet and talk, so I was brief in our first team meeting this afternoon. It was the first opportunity for us to have all of our players in the same room. Any success we enjoy this year will come from the guys in that room.

We’re very fortunate to have Johnny Square – a former Ram -- part of our program. I had him speak to the team first, about VISION, our theme for the 2009 season. Johnny told the guys a story about three workers. When one worker was asked what he was doing, the he said he was digging a hole. The next guy said he was building a wall. The third guy exclaimed that he was building a cathedral. Well, all three guys were working on the same project. You need to see something before you go attain it. You can’t just work aimlessly, not knowing what you’re trying to accomplish.

I have a vision not just for this season, but for this program. Looking around – we’re opening a new indoor facility, a new academic center and weight room, and a new locker room at the stadium – a lot of people in our community and on our campus are very excited for our future and want us to succeed. And I don’t want to set our goals too low.

So, here we are. We’re only allowed 29 practices by the NCAA before we kick off with CU one month from today. We’ve trained hard since January, when we got up for 6 a.m. conditioning drills, suffered through spring ball and our summer conditioning phase, and now we’re like a sprinter in the finals. We’ve earned one of those nine lanes in the finals. I know there are a handful of teams out there who haven’t prepared like we have, but only a few. We’re sitting on an opportunity to win the race. What will we do with it?

I want us to establish a practice tempo over these first couple days. How hard, how fast and how smart can we practice? That’s what I want to find out. The next 7-10 days will determine who we are. We want to settle some rotations and our depth chart, and find out who our starters are.

And, every day’s a job interview. You earn reps and you keep reps. When I was an assistant coach at San Diego State, we had what I thought was the best running back in Southern California, a guy named Wayne Pittman. All of the sudden, a guy named Marshall Faulk kept turning our heads with the 3-5 reps he’d get early in practice, and the rest was history. I’m looking for someone that grasps their opportunity with the few repetitions they have.

Here we go!

July 21, 2009
Best evidence supporting the MWC as a top conference
Coach Steve Fairchild

Greetings from Las Vegas and the 2009 Mountain West Conference Football Media Days. I really enjoy coming out here every year. Our conference people do a great job and we get solid publicity all over the country.

Shelley Smith and Klint Kubiak are here with me representing Colorado State.

Congratulations to Shelley and Rashaun Greer, who were named preseason all-conference earlier today. Good to see us getting respect in such a tough conference.

Why does the Mountain West deserve an automatic bid to the BCS every year? Well, check out the Mountain West's combined non-conference record over the past two years against teams from conferences that automatically qualify for the BCS. It's the best in the nation:

MWC -- 16-13 (.552)

ACC -- 22-18 (.550)

Big Ten -- 10-9 (.526)

Pac-10 -- 10-9 (.526)

Big East -- 14-15 (.483)

Big 12 -- 12-14 (.462)

SEC -- 13-16 (.448)

WAC -- 6-28 (.176)

MAC -- 11-57 (.162)

Sun Belt -- 5-43 (.104)

C-USA -- 4-44 (.083)

I think that's the best evidence, out of all kinds of reasons, supporting the fact that we need to be more than an at-large conference when it comes to the BCS. No question, the Mountain West needs to be in the BCS and it's a travesty that we're not. Plus, out of all the conferences that don't automatically qualify, we're the only one still doing a big "media day" event. And we decided at our coaches meeting the other day that we're going to continue to do this next year.

We wrap up tomorrow here in Vegas. I'm going to take my wife, Nancy, out to a nice dinner tonight. In the morning, I have an interview with Jim Armstrong and Les Shapiro at 9 Denver time, on Mile High Sports Radio 1510, so listen if you can.

Go Rams!

June 1, 2009
Phase III is underway
Coach Steve Fairchild

We just announced that our first game this year, at CU, is moving to Sunday night (Sept. 6), just like last year. It'll be the only game in the country going on at that time, on national TV. The NFL preseason will be over by then. I love it. I think we should do that every year.

Well, this morning marked the start of our summer conditioning. It’s the final phase of the offseason program we have here at Colorado State, with Phase I being winter lifting, running and mat drills, and Phase II being spring ball. Just like last year when we won the New Mexico Bowl, any success we enjoy this year will be traced back to how hard we worked during these three phases of the offseason, especially Phase 1 and this final summer phase.

Summer conditioning has become extremely important in Division I football, because the NCAA restricts the number of practices you can conduct in August. Players need to report in peak shape that first week of August, because there just aren’t a lot of reps in those four weeks before we line up at CU in our first game.

I’ve got a lot of confidence in the leadership we have on both sides of the ball, especially our offensive line and, on defense, seniors like Klint Kubiak. We’re counting on that leadership to give us some good work during the summer.

Our strength and conditioning coach Greg Scanlan and his staff also do a great job for us all year round. Their help is critical this summer, too.

May 29, 2009
In the community
Coach Steve Fairchild

Last month, a bunch of our players donned their game jerseys and went over to read to some kids at Bauder Elementary here in Fort Collins. I wish I could show you all the pictures, but we can't show shots of the kids on the Internet due to privacy laws. Trust me, it was really neat to see big, 250- and 300-pound guys in their jerseys, sitting on those little chairs and reading to these little fans. The kids' eyes were as big as saucers. Our guys had a chance to not only read to the kids, but also interact with them.

Things like this reinforce our true mission here at Colorado State. Win games, yes, obviously that's a primary goal. But whatever we can do to affect the lives of youngsters like this also fulfills our purpose for being here. We want to give kids like these good role models, and also help our players realize the power they hold to make a positive impact on our community.

May 13, 2009
Graduation time
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, it's the time of the year when most of us know of someone who is graduating from college or high school. For Nancy and me, it was our daughter Lindsey, who got her degree last week. I'm also extremely proud of our 2008 senior class here at Colorado State.

Not only did a great number of our 17 seniors land in the NFL (five, after Tommie Hill signed with the New York Giants last weekend), but all 17 of them are expected to graduate. In fact, 15 of the 17 will have graduated by the end of this week. Nine already graduated at the end of the fall semester, on the same day we beat Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl. The remaining two will complete their final coursework and graduate soon.

If a guy stays here and goes through the program, he’s graduating. I’m confident of that. We have too much academic help and our coaches care too much. If a player comes to school here and stays all four or five years, he's going to get a degree. I like what Pat Summitt, the coach of Tennessee's women's basketball team, said. She said they have a 99-percent graduation rate, asterisk, with those who stay. If someone chooses to go through this program at CSU, he's going to get a degree.

So congratulations to all of our seniors. Not only did they go out with that bowl win, which gave them their first winning record here at CSU, hopefully helping us to turn the corner, they're also going to earn a 100-percent graduation rate.

Speaking of congratulations, I also want to congratulate Sonny Lubick on his very-deserving induction into the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame. We made some great memories as a program when we were playing in all those Holiday Bowls during the 1990s. I'll never forget that period in our team's history.

May 12, 2009
Back to work this week
Coach Steve Fairchild

I'm back in the office this week, and it's amazing how much work piles up when you're gone for only four days.

After Rich Bircumshaw's memorial service Monday, a really neat celebration of his life after we were all just shocked by his passing the previous week, I flew to the Mountain West Conference's annual meetings in Phoenix. We were given a recap of the past year, went over a bunch of pertinent issues, the schedule, officiating, trends in Division I college football, changes in recruiting, and a bunch of other stuff. Commissioner Thompson also gave us an update on the conference's efforts in working with the U.S. Congress to give legitimate conferences like ours, which produced the only undefeated team in the nation last year (Utah, ranked No. 2 in the country), a fair shot at the national championship.

Because the conference schedules the annual meetings the same week as the Fiesta Bowl meetings, I got a chance to see a lot of friends in coaching and meet some new people as well. Most Division I head coaches and athletic directors were there.

Then, Nancy and I flew to Fayetteville, Ark., where my oldest daughter, Lindsey, graduated from the University of Arkansas. We could not be more proud of her. She got her undergraduate degree in kinesiology, and she'll start physical therapy school this summer.

April 27, 2009
Johnson, Sperry headed to Chargers
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, it looks like coach Anthoney Hill and I can expect some good Chargers gear here in the near future, after Gartrell Johnson and Kory Sperry both went to San Diego yesterday. If you haven't heard, Gartrell got drafted in the fourth round and Kory signed with the Chargers as a free agent last night.

I'm just kidding about the gear, but we could not be more proud of those guys, as well as Kyle Bell who signed with Jacksonville, and Billy Farris, who's headed to Cincinnati. We're hopeful of some of our other guys signing, too.

I had a chance to reach out to all of those guys yesterday and congratulate them, all except Kory. I didn't hear about Kory joining the Chargers until later last night. I'll call him today.

Gartrell and Kory are headed to a great place, not just because it's Anthoney's hometown and where I grew up (both of us were Chargers fans as kids), but also because of those players' situation there.

I spent seven years in the NFL, and during the months of evaluation before each draft, I watched a lot of film on prospects coming out of college. I met a lot of players at the combines, all-star games and just there at the practice facility, and I always have felt that Gartrell Johnson was the type of player who could succeed at the next level. I'd imagine that he'll probably get an opportunity to prove his worth on special teams to start out, but his future is definitely bright. LaDainian Tomlinson, another Mountain West product, and Darren Sproles are outstanding mentors for Gartrell as a rookie.

I don't think the Chargers drafted a tight end, and Kory gets to work with one of the NFL's premier tight ends in Antonio Gates. I've always thought Kory had similarities to Gates in their athleticism, size and ability. Both are playmakers and both were recruited as Division I basketball players out of high school.

Certainly they have to earn it, obviously, but who knows, maybe Gartrell and Kory will have an opportunity to replace an LT or an Antonio Gates down the road. I'm sure they're not putting the cart before the horse. The speed of the pro game alone will be enough to keep their eyes wide open over their first year in the league.

The other advantage Kory and Gartrell have in going to San Diego is that the Chargers' system is similar to what we run here at Colorado State, so I don't anticipate a long learning curve. I have a few friends on the Chargers coaching staff, and have worked with them on some of our professional development, so I know that's a great place for two CSU Rams.

It was a great weekend for Colorado State. We might be one of the only programs in the country that has had its starting quarterback in the NFL each of the past two seasons, after Caleb Hanie, our starter in 2007, signed with the Bears a year ago, and Billy Farris, our starter in 2008, signed with the Bengals last night. We're also one of few schools in the country who had two running backs go to the NFL over the weekend, Gartrell to the Chargers and Kyle Bell to Jacksonville.

April 23, 2009
Twitter
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, I just dove head-first into the world of Twitter. I know our men's basketball coach, Tim Miles, has had his page up and running for a while. I don't know that I'll be able to "tweet" as much as him, but I'll update my page as much as I can.

Before we launched the Twitter page today, the people here who helped me set it up asked me what I was doing, because that's how Twitter works, apparently, and I told them I had just hung up the phone with Moses Moreno, who is in Hawaii on his honeymoon. I called to tell him that our athletic department plans to induct him into the CSU Sports Hall of Fame this fall. It'll mark the second straight year that we've had a very deserving quarterback from our great teams of the 1990s inducted into our Hall of Fame. Anthoney Hill went in last fall. So, that was my first official tweet.

We're having a team meeting tonight. It's a good deal, a nice dinner, for our guys for their hard work this spring. We still have a long way to go to restore our program to where it was when guys like Moses were here, but I can definitely see some great progress.

There's only about 24 hours until our Rams Superstars Competition. I'm going to be a celebrity judge for the slam-dunk competition. I saw some guys in Moby Arena today practicing. I'm going to be a tough judge, so they better be practicing, especially those linemen, who don't have to leap as far because the rims will be lowered to help them defy gravity. We're also going to pull out of the crowd some guest judges tomorrow night. We'll also have a bench press, "king of the ring," jousting and tug of war.

The Moby Arena doors open at 5:30 p.m. Parking and admission are free. Fort Collins Parks & Rec will be there to give away prizes. It should be a good time. I hope you'll come and bring your family. The best part, I think, is that you'll get to meet our coaches and players afterward. Our guys will be signing autographs for everyone. Since we had to cancel our spring game because of weather, and our fans didn't get to come on the field like they normally do after a spring game, this is a great opportunity for our team to interact with the community.

April 21, 2009
Phase II complete, Superstars Friday night
Coach Steve Fairchild

I haven't had a chance to write too much the last few weeks. Things have been hectic.

Our second spring as a staff is almost in the books here at Colorado State. The NCAA only allows us 15 practices in the spring (I wish it were 30 or 40, we could use the work), and our 15th practice was last night, the end of Phase II of our offseason. Originally, we'd scheduled the end of spring ball to be our spring game last Saturday, but lightning forced us off the field last Thursday, so I decided to bring us back out again Monday.

At the end of spring, I can honestly say I'm pleased with a lot of areas on our team. I can see that our wide receivers are as deep as we thought they'd be, and they really finished the spring very well. I like where we're at in the defensive secondary. I wish we were farther along at quarterback and running back, but schools across the country are in similar situations. We still have questions to answer and areas of our team we need to develop.

After our players take their finals, we'll begin Phase III of our offseason -- our summer conditioning. That's an important time for a player. I saw a lot of strides made by guys last summer, in the time between the end of spring practice and the beginning of our fall camp, so we'll see who steps up.

Most of our players will be at Ram Jam tonight, with about 1,000 kids on the floor of Moby Arena. It's a great community event we hold every year.

We're also very excited for our second annual Rams Superstars Competition, Friday night, also at Moby. We had to cancel the fan portions of our spring game last Saturday because of weather, unfortunately. But the good news is that everyone who comes out to Rams Superstars Friday night (admission and parking are free) gets to meet our coaches and players, take pictures and get autographs, after the event, just like they would have had we had our spring game last Saturday. It starts at 6 p.m.

Rams Superstars is a real neat deal I brought in last year to continue the offense-vs.-defense competition we established in our offseason conditioning and during spring practice. We had a lot of fun last year. This year, we've added a new event: The Joust. Superstars is just like that old American Gladiators TV show, with a little bit of the NFL combine, the NBA All-Star weekend, and WWE wrestling all thrown into one night. I didn't want it to last too long, so it'll probably only be about an hour. So come out and begin your weekend with us.

I think our guys are really looking forward to it. We'll see if T.J. Borcky can defend his slam dunk title from last year. Hope to see you there.

April 9, 2009
Change of pace
Coach Steve Fairchild

We've tweaked our practice schedule again this week. The weather forecasters said earlier this week it was going to rain this afternoon, but it looks now like a pretty decent day, so we're going to practice today. Tomorrow, we're going to head to the stadium for an early evening practice, and I'd like to see us get in some pretty good live hitting and tackling at that practice. We'll keep score, just like we always do, between offense and defense.

I'd also like to give our kids Easter weekend off, so we'll give them a change of pace and take Saturday and Sunday off, then come back for our last three practices of the spring next week, including our spring game on April 18.

The NCAA gives us a very limited practice schedule, especially in the spring. We only have so many opportunities to improve ourselves; that's why we stress tempo so much at our practices. We need to get more reps than our competitors and all the other teams out there, in the same amount of spring practices.

Also next weekend, we're having our annual coaches clinic. We're grateful this year to have Gary Kubiak, the Houston Texans' head coach, participating. Space is still available. If you're a coach at any level and interested in coming to Fort Collins for the clinic, call our football office at 970/491-6131.

April 7, 2009
Coaches for Charity event May 15
Coach Steve Fairchild

Looking out my office window, today looks like a gorgeous day for football practice. I'm looking forward to seeing how we rebound from a highly competitive practice Saturday, which concluded with an intense period of live, full-contact hitting. Thursday's forecast calls for rain, so we decided to alter our schedule this week. Now, we're going to practice Wednesday and not Thursday. It's hard to believe our April 18 spring game is less than two weeks away. We're going to finish our week again this Saturday morning at the stadium, probably with another live, scored competition between the offense and defense. I want these guys to really feel what it's like with the game on the line, and I want to see who's going to go make a play in that situation, with all of his coaches and teammates depending on him. That's why we keep score during live periods in most of our spring practices.

The Fort Collins community is really important to us here at Colorado State, and I wanted to tell you a little about a very special Colorado Coaches for Charity event that Larry Kerr and I are fortunate to be involved with. It’s sure to be a memorable evening at the perfect football setting, INVESCO Field at Mile High, with our state’s top college football coaches. We’ve recruited FirstBank to be a presenting sponsor, and Larry and I have chosen to help raise money for a local Fort Collins charity, Respite Care, Inc.

Respite Care, Inc., of Fort Collins is a non-profit organization that provides relief care for parents in Larimer County who have a child with developmental disabilities. If you are not familiar with this organization, let me assure you that you will be deeply touched by the amazingly kind and caring work they do. You can learn more about Respite Care on its Web site.

Please consider helping us in this cause, and consider purchasing a table of 10, or individual tickets to the May 15 event in the East Club Room of the Denver Broncos’ home stadium. As the designated charity for the CSU football team, Respite Care, Inc., will receive $2,500 from the Fisher DeBerry Foundation, plus 20 percent of all the tickets we sell.

The event features honorary chairman Ed McCaffrey, who played 13 years in the NFL as a go-to wide receiver, earning three Super Bowl rings, including two with the Denver Broncos. In addition, Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun and Falcons legend Fisher DeBerry will join CU head coach Dan Hawkins, UNC head coach Scott Downing, former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist, Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson and a CSU contingent. It should be a fun and exciting evening.

The Friday night event begins with a 6:30 cocktail party followed by dinner, live auction and the program at 7:30.

If you’re interested in a table, individual tickets or more information, please e-mail Amy Maybon from FirstBank.

For more information, please visit the Colorado Coaches for Charity Web site.

Thank you so much for considering this very worthy cause. We hope to hear from you soon.

April 3, 2009
Aggies to Rams
Coach Steve Fairchild

I was flattered when our school’s football historian, John Hirn, asked me to write a foreword for his book, Aggies to Rams. Colorado State has an outstanding tradition of football excellence, and a rich history that dates back to 1893. John has long had a passion to capture that history, and share it with our fans. He's finally getting that chance this year.

Anyway, I spent my spare time over the last couple weeks writing the foreword, and it really took me on a long stroll down memory road. I wrote about the uniqueness of Fort Collins, my love for this city and this university, the special memories I had as a CSU quarterback from 1978-80 and, of course, the remarkable years we all shared under Coach Lubick during the 1990s, when we won five conference championships over a seven-year span, and finished a couple seasons among the nation’s highest-ranked teams.

John, who was a Silver Spruce yearbook editor when he was a student here, has devoted much of his life to this book over the past two decades, and he’s putting together the final touches on it in the next few months. It’ll hit the presses and be available later this fall.

To his credit, he’s donating 80 percent of any profits back to the CSU General Athletic Scholarship Fund. The only money he’ll keep will go toward covering his printing costs.

Our football program has a tremendous amount of history to be proud of, and now, people will be able to see it and read about it, thanks to John.

If you’d like to pre-order your copy, this Web page will allow you to do so. Your purchase will help fund the scholarship for a deserving CSU athlete, so I hope you’ll buy your copy today.

April 1, 2009
Spring ball continues
Coach Steve Fairchild

Today’s an off day on our spring schedule, so as a staff we’ve had a chance to review some film and formulate a solid plan for what we want to accomplish at practice the rest of this week. We’ve had five practices so far, and by the end of this week, we’ll have already reached the halfway point of spring ball.

I told our players after practice last night that we really have to have a purpose when we come to work each day. There are a lot of good coaches and good football players out there, and we better be working harder than they are.

This team is unique in that everybody has a sense of what’s going on, what’s expected. You could tell in our first spring practice last week, and in our first mat drills back in February, that we’re not learning from the ground up anymore. I like this group because we’ve got some experience in this program. We’re starting to put the pieces together, and I’m really anxious to see what we look like as the rest of the spring unfolds.

We have three more practices the rest of this week, scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

After practice tomorrow night, I’m looking forward to speaking at the National MS Society’s Dinner of Champions, hosted by our friends at the Hilton Fort Collins. I have the honor of presenting an award to Sonny and Carol Jo Lubick. It’s our mission as a program to honor Coach Lubick’s legacy with every step forward that we make.

March 27, 2009
1994 was a tough schedule, too
Coach Steve Fairchild

I’m always excited to see the schedule. Yeah, there are a handful of steep obstacles. But you never know if you’re going to get a good team on an ‘off’ day, or someone that’s perceived as a bad team on its best day, so you never know. There are no easy games in the Mountain West. We saw that last year.

We get those big three teams -- BYU, Utah and TCU -- right out of the gate in conference. All three of those teams were ranked in the top 25 at the end of last year. A lot of people were calling Utah the true national champion. Yeah, it’s tough, but if I remember correctly, in 1994, Sonny Lubick's second year, we also had BYU real early, at their place, and we beat them. I think we had San Diego State the next week, and they were pretty good the previous year, and we found a way to win that game, too.

I’ve always said, even when I was coaching in the NFL, the schedule is like the weather. For the most part, it’s out of your control. You can’t worry about it; you just have to line up each week and play. That's how we'll approach it this season.

I'm also excited to continue our spring practices this afternoon. We're going to start hitting each other a little bit for our third practice today, and we're going to go live tomorrow morning inside our stadium. I can already see good competition at a lot of positions on both sides of the ball.

In football, it's part of your job to spend a lot of your year on the road recruiting, and when you're in town, you spend a lot of time breaking down film, meeting with players and scripting plays. But there is absolutely nothing like devoting an entire afternoon to getting out on that field and just coaching football. That's what it's all about.

March 19, 2009
Quarterback situation similar to last year
Coach Steve Fairchild

Hope you’re all enjoying March Madness. It’s a great time of the year, isn’t it? Nice to see one of my fellow CSU head coaches, Tim Miles, as a guest analyst on CBS College Sports, CBS' cable station.

I know a lot of our fans and national analysts are wondering what we’re going to do at the quarterback position.

We’ll approach it exactly like last year. We have candidates, but we don’t have anybody on our campus that’s played a great deal of college football at this level. So, we’ll open it up. We’ll let everyone compete. And when the time’s right, when I’m comfortable, we’ll name a starter. And that could be the first week or two in spring football. If it takes, like last year, through the summer, into August, then that’s the way we’ll do it.

And nothing’s ever in granite around here. You get an opportunity everyday just to keep your job, and if you don’t keep it, then we’ll move the next guy in.

We’ll have good quarterback play here. I’m confident in our coaching ability, and I know we’ll have outstanding contributions from such an important position. We proved that last year in similar circumstances. Billy Farris had one of the top single seasons by a quarterback in our history.

March 17, 2009
A vision for 2009
Coach Steve Fairchild

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone. Hope you’re all wearing your CSU green today.

I’ve been to a few functions in the last few weeks, and a lot of people have been asking me about the 2009 season.

Last year, we trained hard and made a step in the right direction for the 2009 season. But the first steps are always the easiest. And now, as we try to take it into getting back into the elite-type team that we think we can be, those next few steps are harder. We need to train harder now, and I think our team recognizes that. With these mat drills we’ve been doing, compared to last year, we’ve done more of them, started them a little earlier, and changed some of the things we’re doing to make it even harder. And I like the way our team’s responded, but we’re still a long way off from being a good football team. We just need to keep working.

This year, I want us to really have a vision for where we want to go. In my opinion, the results last year were not the defining aspect of our season. What we needed to define us last year was establishing a toughness, a work ethic, an accountability in the way we operated, and I think we did that. Through it all, we ended up winning seven games. This year, now I think we’re up and running.

In our program, we know what’s expected of us in terms of a work ethic. And now I’d like to start aiming at something. I’m not sure that we’re going to get there right away, but I want to start eyeing the prize and setting that vision in where we want to go. And the thing I wanted to be very clear about with our coaches and our football team, everybody on campus, and anyone that has anything to do with Colorado State football, is I don’t want to set that sight too low. And that’s our message to our football team, ‘Why not us? Why can’t we do something extra special?’ And if we try and don’t get there this year, so be it. But at least we aimed high. And so we’re spending a lot of time thinking about our vision and where we want this program to eventually end up.

Here’s what I’d like to think: I’d like to think we would, in a series of steps, start to become the team that contends for the Mountain West Conference title, year-in and year-out, and then eventually make a run at a BCS bowl game. But as we eye these targets, again it’s like the definitive number of wins last year, I stayed away from that. But we can contend for this conference title, and why can’t Colorado State be the team that goes to the Sugar Bowl and squares off against an Alabama, or a Georgia, or an Ohio State? Maybe it’s next year, maybe it’s five years down the road. But I still want to set our sights there because I feel like when you have a vision, then you’re not working aimlessly. And I think we have talented football players. I think we’ve got talented coaches. I think, it’s time now to say, ‘Where do we want to go?,’ instead of just, ‘How do we want to work?’

March 16, 2009
All-state LB from Atlanta added
Coach Steve Fairchild

With our players off this week for spring break, I finally have some time to catch up with the blog. A lot has been happening with our team and myself since Signing Day, so I apologize. I’ll try to write most days this week before we get into spring practice next Tuesday.

I mentioned at our Signing Day press conference that we were not done yet, with respect to our linebacker position. Well, only 10 days later on Feb. 14, we signed an all-state linebacker from Georgia named Cameron Loughery. He’s a 6-foot-1, 214-pound kid. Our conference is dominated by spread offenses. In fact, at CSU, we’re in the minority with our NFL-style offense. Well, to defend the spread in today’s game, you really need to have linebackers who are lighter and quicker, like Cameron. Our leading tackler last year was Mychal Sisson, who was a freshman All-American. He has similar size.

You haven’t heard about Cameron too much yet, but I would be surprised if you’re not hearing about him a lot in the next few years. He’s from Atlanta, and he was his region’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. He’s an all-around athlete who also lettered in baseball, basketball and track. He has a highlight reel on YouTube. Check out the safety he scores for his team on the first highlight.

The Ricky Brewer situation was unfortunate. No question, that’s a big loss for us. I’m not able to comment any more than I have because of privacy issues, but like I said, I’m not so much concerned with the past, about why we lost him for games this year, as much as I am with the future, what he does with the situation from this point forward. I’m glad he’ll still be with us on a daily basis this season, and I’m confident that he can keep himself in great shape, and that he can have an outstanding senior year in 2010.

I’m anxious to see who steps up there. Michael Kawulok, who started one game as a true freshman for Ricky last season, should get the first reps at the sam backer when we open practice next Tuesday. Alex Williams will open the spring as our starter at the mike linebacker, and Sisson is our anchor on the weak side. It’ll certainly be an area of wide-open competition this spring, and this fall, when we add Cameron to the mix.

We’re not done recruiting with the 2009 class. We’re always working, always looking to improve our program wherever we can.

Feb. 11, 2009
Funding facilities a top priority
Coach Steve Fairchild

My staff and I were in Denver at the Cherry Hills Country Club last night and we had a great time catching up with a host of lifelong Rams, including a bunch of guys I coached and others who I played with at CSU. There also were a lot of supporters and friends of our program. It was great to see all those people, all showing their support for what we’re trying to do up here in Fort Collins.

After the event last night, Joel Dreessen, one of our former players now with the Houston Texans, sent us this picture taken after Houston played the Chicago Bears this past season. CSU has a lot to be proud of when it comes to representatives at the next level.

I also want to thank all the fans who came out to see us on the night of Signing Day at the Hilton Fort Collins. The turnout at both events was overwhelming. At the Hilton, we used every seat at every table and people were standing in the back. These recruiting receptions we hold each year – in Fort Collins and in Denver – offer us not only the chance to showcase our group of signees, but also allow us an opportunity to say thank you to all the people that give us tremendous support year-round.

At both events, I took time to talk about our new facilities here at CSU, and how funding those facilities is our No. 1 task at hand. Our university knows how important a winning football program is, so it allowed us to build these new buildings on bonds. Now, we have to fund them. While these new facilities are outstanding, they merely catch us up with the rest of the conference. We were the only school in the Mountain West, for instance, without an indoor practice facility. Now that we have one, we have to start thinking about the next step. Other schools are already onto that next step. First, though, we have to get our facilities funded. If you’re interested in helping to fund the new facilities, call our athletic development office at 970-491-4666.

Feb. 6, 2009
CSU met every need in recruiting
Coach Steve Fairchild

We met every need, from a position standpoint, with this year’s class. Everyone asks me which of these guys have the best chance to play. It’s too early to tell right now, but we won’t hesitate to play a true freshman if he can help us win. Last year, we had an idea on some guys, but you never really know until you get them here, get them in our program, and give them an opportunity at practice. That’s how guys like Gerard Thomas separated themselves a year ago.

We also felt like we got much faster as a program, improving our team speed.

Don’t pay any attention to those recruiting rankings. I wouldn’t have taken this job if I wasn’t able to get a first-class coaching staff, and we were able to get that here at CSU. As a result, we have a staff of coaches who’ve proven in the past that they can recruit against the top programs in the country. This year, we went into places like Florida and Texas and went head-to-head with the SEC, the Big East, the ACC and the Big 12. We take a back seat to nobody at Colorado State.

Those recruiting Web sites don’t use the same grading scale we use in determining whether a player can come here and help us win. Plus, now that we’ve been able to sign these guys, it’s now our responsibility as coaches to develop them. A lot of them haven’t stopped growing, physically and mentally. That’s one thing I really enjoy about this profession, and something I know I can do – help a kid fresh out of high school leave a better man five years down the road.

Plus, you simply cannot judge a recruiting class in the hours after we announce their signings. It just doesn’t work that way. Classes should be judged by the program’s win-loss record years down the road. Look at the University of Cincinnati, who won the Big East and went to the BCS in 2008. Their last few classes were ranked by the recruiting Web sites I believe in the 80s-100s. Brian Johnson, who just led Utah to the only undefeated record in the country and a huge win in the Sugar Bowl, was a two-star recruit out of high school. You just can’t grade classes that early. You have to give coaching staffs a chance to develop the talent they recruited.

Feb. 3, 2009
Johnson, Sperry headed to combine
Coach Steve Fairchild

Before their all-star games last month, Kory Sperry and Gartrell Johnson received invitations to the NFL combine, which takes place in a few weeks. From having worked in the NFL from 2001-07, I can tell you that the combine is an intense period when every NFL team’s full coaching staff, scouting and personnel staff, medical and training staff, and contract negotiator congregates in Indianapolis to study every guy there. All the agents are there, too. Everything from interviews, to times in the 40-yard dash are recorded and digested by each team, working around the clock. It’s a pretty amazing sight.

Guys who go to the combine are considered – at the time – the top NFL draft prospects. But by no means will a guy not get drafted just because he doesn’t go to the combine. Usually, each team drafts a couple guys each year who weren’t invited to Indianapolis. Every school usually holds a pro day. We’ll have one later this spring. That’s where every draft-eligible guy has a chance to work out for NFL scouts. There are guys who’ve gone to the Pro Bowl who weren’t invited to the combine coming out of college.

Anyway, I wanted to congratulate Gartrell and Kory for earning their invitations. At the beginning of this past season, neither of them were a lock to go to the combine, but they both worked extremely hard and the scouts took notice. They’re the first CSU players at the combine since Erik Pears, Joel Dreessen and David Anderson four years ago. The Rams also had two representatives at the combine five years ago (Bradlee Van Pelt and Dexter Wynn). I’m sure Kory and Gartrell will be outstanding ambassadors of the Colorado State program at the next level.

I’m excited to see who develops from our current roster into playing on Sundays in the future.

Tomorrow is a huge day for us. A lot of collective travel time, resources, miles and effort have been invested by my staff over the past 13 months in the class we’ll sign tomorrow. We’ve also gotten tremendous help from our campus community. Most of the work is done and our staff, including our administrative assistants Linda Krier and Marcie Johnston, will be in bright and early to get our first National Letters of Intent on the fax machine. Every letter has to be approved by our compliance staff before our sports information department can release the signing to the public. Once the SID staff has that green light, you can read up on all of our signings on our new Web site. You can visit it here. There’s also a Northern Colorado radio station, ESPN 870, that will be broadcasting live from our lobby here in the McGraw Center from 12-3 p.m., so if you’re able to get the AM signal, please tune in.

Jan. 30, 2009
Anywhere, any place
Coach Steve Fairchild

I’m back in the office today, and looking forward to what we hope will be an exciting Wednesday this upcoming week. I’ve got a press conference scheduled for that afternoon here at the McGraw Center, and then an event for fans and supporters of our program that night at the Hilton Fort Collins, where our team stays the night before each home game here in town. People should be really excited about the class we’ve been able to assemble. Jeff Dotson, our video director, is assembling a nice collection of video clips we’ll be able to show at each of those events, on each recruit that signs Wednesday. We’re also planning a similar event in Denver for Feb. 10. If you’d like to attend the Hilton event Wednesday, or the one in Cherry Hills Feb. 10, please call our athletic department at 970/491-4666.

As we near the end of this recruiting period, I feel really good about the work we’ve been able to accomplish as a staff. The process of recruiting this class that will sign Wednesday started a long time ago, and our coaches have been extremely diligent. I’d also like to acknowledge the invaluable help of several people from our campus faculty, and athletic administration. We’ve already started to work on next year’s class.

We won’t rest. We’ve got a plan in place and we’re not going to flinch. We’re going to do everything we can to continue to strive to put Colorado State football back in those national conversations. We’re not there yet, but we’re certainly on the proper path. What we accomplished on the field last season, and what we’ve been able to do with this 2009 recruiting class, are great strides for us.

With our city, our university and the tradition we have here at CSU, we feel like we have a very attractive product. And we’re willing to go anywhere, any place to get a kid we think can help us win; that’s what we did during this recruiting period, and that’s what we’ll continue to do. We take a back seat to nobody at Colorado State.

Jan. 21, 2009
Rams have three Super Bowl ties
Coach Steve Fairchild

I’m writing from the road, where I’m out recruiting again this week. I think this is the third straight week that I will have been in the office for only one day. Next week looks like the same schedule. We’re out trying to make CSU visible, and in order to do that, we have to cover a large area. Signing Day is almost here, only two weeks away.

I had a chance to catch the NFL’s championship games this past weekend, and afterward, Gary Ozzello in our athletic department told me that we had three Super Bowl connections. After he left CSU, Clark Haggans went on to win a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers, alongside Joey Porter, after that 2005 season. Clark signed this past offseason with the Arizona Cardinals as an unrestricted free agent and, before he went on IR, helped them win their division and host a playoff game for the first time since 1947. The Cardinals also have a former CSU video director, Justin Casey, working in their front office. Arizona’s opponent, Pittsburgh, has one of the finest defensive players in CSU history, Ray Jackson, working in their personnel department.

Porter is up for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He had a great year for the Dolphins, finishing second in the entire NFL in sacks. You can go here to vote for him. I have a picture of his chest bump with Gartrell Johnson hanging on my office wall. What an amazing night that was last November against BYU, a convergence of past and present CSU football.

I know Gartrell’s working really hard to help us add to our rich NFL history here in the coming months. He just had a standout performance at the East-West Shrine Game in Houston last Saturday. He also had a nice interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe on the sidelines. We hope he and Kory Sperry, and maybe some of our other seniors, have a shot to be drafted or signed as free agents in April. Kory’s getting ready for his all-star game, the Texas vs. the Nation Game, which is the day before the Super Bowl. That’s not a well-known game, but I promise you, it’s well-known to NFL scouts. That’s where scouts took notice of CSU’s Caleb Hanie last year, and now he’s got a good shot to be the Chicago Bears starting quarterback here in the future.

Both Kory and Gartrell graduated and got their degrees, as did a lot of our seniors, in December.

Our football team got honored last night at halftime of the CSU-Air Force men’s basketball game at Moby Arena for winning the New Mexico Bowl. That was a nice gesture by our athletic department, and I was sorry I couldn’t see it. Congratulations to Coach Miles and the men’s hoops team on a great victory. Keep it up on Saturday at Wyoming! Go Rams!

Jan. 8, 2009
Facilities reach landmarks
Coach Steve Fairchild

Headed out on the road again this morning, here at Denver International Airport waiting for my plane. Just got back into town last night from another recruiting trip. This is an extremely busy time for a major-college football coaching staff.

When I left Fort Collins this morning, I drove by our new indoor practice facility. I heard construction crews were putting up the skeleton for the roof this week. It looks fantastic. You can view a live construction cam on our facilities Web site, and watch the cranes moving with huge pieces of steel, right here. Outside my office just south of the McGraw Center, crews are laying the foundation this week for our new academic and training center, which includes an 8,500-square-foot weight room. CSU really cares about its future, and the construction of these facilities is testament to that fact.

Looking forward to tonight’s BCS game. My friend and former neighbor, Urban Meyer, can win a second national title in three seasons, an incredible accomplishment. Urban and I were Colorado State assistant coaches in the early 1990s on Sonny Lubick’s staff.

Jan. 6, 2009
3.43 million viewers
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, I’m out on a recruiting trip. Later this week, I’ll head to Nashville for the AFCA coaches convention. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since my first day in the office last January.

One of our goals is to make CSU visible. I was reading an article recently that said our bowl game win on Dec. 20 – televised nationally on the main ESPN network – had 3.43 million viewers. We were the highest-rated bowl game on ESPN that weekend, and one of ESPN’s highest-rated games throughout its bowl coverage.

The Mountain West also is very visible after Utah moved to 13-0 by dominating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama was the No. 1 team in the nation for five consecutive weeks. I’ve been saying it all along, and now a lot of people are finally starting to believe me, that the Mountain West is an outstanding football conference. Utah and TCU, two of our conference members, will finish ranked among the highest teams in the land here when the final polls come out. Utah should be no lower than second, and I’d love to see the Utes pitted against the winner of the Florida-Oklahoma game. Until TCU beat undefeated Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl, 17-16, we were TCU’s narrowest margin of victory this year. We lost by six points to them back in October, and in that game, we dropped two passes that easily could’ve been touchdowns.

Everyone’s starting to agree, the best teams in the Mountain West are some of the best teams in the country. And our goal is to beat the best teams in the Mountain West. We took a solid step in that direction this past year.

Dec. 30, 2008
Calm before the storm
Coach Steve Fairchild

After our bowl-game win last week, my family and I did some last-minute Christmas shopping and we’ve been enjoying some time together during the holidays before recruiting picks up again next week. I coached in the NFL the last seven years, and before that I was here at CSU, and it seemed like every year during that time, whether we were in a bowl game here at CSU or finishing the NFL regular season, our family just didn’t get a ton of time together during the holidays. So, needless to say, this year has been great. The win made it that much sweeter.

Things are quiet now, but beginning next week, they’ll pick up dramatically. We’ll all be out on the recruiting trail. I’ll make another trip, the first of several stops over what is sure to be a busy January for all of us here.

We’ve already got National Letters of Intent from two really solid players, including a guy named Leonard Mason, who was rated I believe the No. 3 JUCO running back in the nation. We also got a quarterback named Jon Eastman, who will be here when we start spring ball in March. Billy Farris didn’t get the job last year until fall camp, and I believe competition made him a better player. Competition brings out the best in football. I really believe that, and every guy will get a chance to compete.

We still have about 4-5 key spots left to be filled before we’re done, and we close out our 2009 recruiting class. The New Mexico Bowl win was a great springboard for us in recruiting, that’s for sure.

I’m really impressed with our coaching staff here at CSU. I didn’t accept this job until the university said it would make resources available to surround me with outstanding coaches, and we’ve been able to do that. We have 76 combined bowl games on our staff. After I’ve had a chance to observe them for more than a full year, I’m even more impressed, especially with their ability to recruit. I have no doubt that we’ll be able to accomplish what we set out to do when this thing started here last December.

The weather has been in the 50s this week, and there’s no snow on the ground. Colorado gets about 300 days of sunshine annually, right up there among the nation’s leaders with California and Florida. It does get cold, but it usually doesn’t last. Before we left for Albuquerque, our team donated a few hundred CSU coats to Homeless Gear (homelessgear.com), a Colorado organization that provides clothing for citizens in unfortunate situations. Our program is a community team. We represent this city and this region, and we need to be conscious of things like this that we can do to give back. Our community supports us, and we need to support our community.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Dec. 17, 2008
On to Albuquerque
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, I don’t have a lot of time because we’re getting ready to get on our plane and head to Albuquerque for our bowl game, but I wanted to update everyone. This is a hectic time for a Division I football coach, but I feel very good about what we’ve accomplished since our last game – our win up at Wyoming on Nov. 22. There have been a lot of plane trips in the last month, that’s for sure.

I’m extremely proud of Mychal Sisson, who was named yesterday a freshman All-American by the Sporting News. I’m sure it’s not the last individual honor you’ll hear him receive before he’s done at Colorado State. Mychal’s the latest in a long line of great defensive players coached by Larry Kerr, our defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Mychal is our first freshman All-American, but I hope we can add to that group plenty here in the next several years. I’ve always said, if a guy can help us, if he’s a playmaker, he’s going to play.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased tickets – either to use yourself or to give to charity. Sounds like we’ll have a lot more fans down there than Fresno State, which is great. Our team will feed off of that. This is a tremendous opportunity for us. If you can’t make it there, you can watch us on ESPN – the big network. We’re the only game in the nation during that timeslot, so it’s solid exposure for our program. Good things are happening here.

We just broke practice this morning and no question, we want to win this game. It’s more than a reward for us, it’s an opportunity to have a winning season, and I promise you we won’t lose sight of that while we’re down there. It’s going to be a steep challenge, though. I’m excited to see what happens.

Dec. 8, 2008
Rams are bowl bound
Coach Steve Fairchild

Last night at our annual senior banquet, we were humbled to receive an official invitation to the New Mexico Bowl. Our football program is very excited about the opportunity to play Fresno State.

It's a nice way to cap off our season. This year, we played well at times, and didn't play well at times, but we improved throughout the year, and in the last month I thought we were playing our best football of the year.

We're excited about what this game means and the momentum it gives us heading into this busy offseason.

Fresno is a well-run program, a team with national recognition. They were ranked for several weeks earlier this year and they have wins over some pretty good teams, like Rutgers.

A lot of our practices we just wrapped up here over the weekend were much like a spring-practice format. We wanted to give our younger guys some quality reps. As we get into this weekend, we'll get a lot more into Fresno State game planning.

I'm headed out on another multi-day trip this afternoon, and then I'll be in Albquerque for a big press conference on Thursday. We'll be back that night, when our team resumes bowl practices. It's a whirlwind, but that's the nature of what we do. That's how we continue to get better.

Nov. 25, 2008
Being bowl eligible means there’s more work to do
Coach Steve Fairchild

I was very proud of our team over the last two weeks. With our backs firmly pressed against the wall, we needed two wins to be bowl eligible, and we did it. Wins don’t come easy in the Mountain West, no matter who you beat. This is a very, very good football conference from top to bottom.

No question, our seniors really stepped forward and took charge in this last month, when many teams plateau – even in the NFL. At the Division I FBS level, they’re one of 18 senior classes with a new coaching staff this season. But only two other groups of seniors – Mississippi and Northern Illinois – have improved more in the win column than our guys. It’s difficult to adjust to a new position coach, a new coordinator and new philosophies. I give them credit, though. Our seniors have led us to the spot we’re in, and now they have a chance to go out with a winning record. We’ll do everything we can to get them there.

I hope one of those seniors playing in our bowl game is Mike Pagnotta. We’ll have to see.

We have momentum now heading into our bowl game. That’s important when you’re preparing for the postseason. You want to be playing your best at this time of the year, and I believe we are.

I want to thank all of our fans, donors, students and alumni who have supported us on the early part of this journey. Please come down to New Mexico, where it appears we’ll be playing on Dec. 20. It sounds like a great deal; it’s a short drive from Denver and our ticket office is expecting to have good seats – kind of like the east-side student section at Hughes Stadium – for only $30. We need your support down there.

This is a very demanding time for college football coaches whose teams are in bowls. We have to wear two hats, recruiting and coaching. We don’t want to lose sight of assembling a top-notch recruiting class, but at the same time, we want to play well in Albuquerque. I’ll be out of the office most of the next two-plus weeks recruiting. Most of my staff has been out this week, recruiting.

Our players are off all this week. The CSU campus doesn’t hold classes the week of Thanksgiving. We’ll begin bowl practice probably on Friday, Dec. 5. This is a huge bonus for us, being able to continue to hold workouts. It’s like having extra spring practices. Good programs get to bowls, then they get better because they have bowl practices. That’s how good programs continue to be good programs, and we expect to get there.

After the bowl game, we won’t get much rest. We’ll go right back at it in January. There’s still a lot of work to be done, in all areas of our program.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.

Nov. 21, 2008
Battle for the Boot
Coach Steve Fairchild

By this time, anyone who was new to our program this year now knows full well how big our rivalry is with Wyoming. For all you fans, alums and former players, I promise you we will do everything in our power to bring that Boot back to Fort Collins Saturday.

The Bronze Boot is an actual combat boot that was worn by a CSU graduate, Dan Romero, in Vietnam. Since 1968, we’ve been clashing with Wyoming over it. And, let me tell you, there have been some barn burners. I played in a couple, and coached in several. Every year, it seems like it’s a close battle. There have been so many amazing finishes, so many stories. I remember I was on a recruiting trip in North San Diego a while back, and the high school AD there told me he remembered the bounce pass.

Last year, when I was still in the NFL, I was watching from afar and I got excited about the game.

We passed the Boot around our meetings this week. Every guy got to touch it and see it up close. We also brought in a few guest speakers. One of those speakers was from our ROTC, talking about the symbolism of the combat boot. There have been some deep messages this week. We put in a lot of time and effort to make sure every guy in our program knows how important this game is.

This is the longest continuous rivalry west of the Mississippi River and tomorrow marks the 100th time we line up for battle against the Cowboys.

I’m getting ready to drive up to the border for a special ceremony we have each year. Our ROTC people here on campus left with the game ball this morning at 5 a.m., running up Highway 287 to the border, where they’ll hand it off to ROTC runners from Wyoming. When that ceremony is over here in a few hours, I get to hitch a ride back to our football stadium on a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter. I can’t wait!

I’ve really appreciated getting to know our ROTC people here. Earlier this year, they let me watch some of their training. There are a lot of parallels with football. Late in a game, when the score is close and you’re tired and you’re wondering where you’re going to find the strength for the next snap, you still need to be mentally strong. You can’t jump offside in that situation and cost your team.

No question, Wyoming will play their best game of the season tomorrow. That’s what we’re expecting. They want this Boot, too. But the Boot belongs to us, and we know we’re going to have to play our best game to keep it. There’s so much on the line tomorrow. It’s gonna be a battle!!

Nov. 14, 2008
We know what we have to do
Coach Steve Fairchild

I didn’t say much to the team after last night’s practice. There wasn’t anything that needed to be said. Tomorrow is Senior Day, the last home game for 17 of our guys here who have fought and clawed for four-plus years, giving everything they had for Colorado State. Those guys have lost to New Mexico on last-second field goals each of the last two years. Plus, we’re looking at only two more guaranteed games. This team knows what it has to do.

This senior class has been great to my staff and me. Anytime you go through a coaching change right before your final year, it’s not an easy transition, and it wasn’t easy for this group. But from Day 1 back in January, every senior has embraced what we’re trying to do here at Colorado State. From a “want to” or an effort standpoint, this class has been outstanding.

I don’t know if there’s a more admired guy on this team than Gartrell Johnson. Jeff Horinek is very well respected. We’ve coached Billy Farris very hard, and he’s coming on here at the end of the year. I can’t say enough about guys like Jake Galusha, who is literally holding our defensive secondary together. Or, take a guy like Mike Pagnotta, who as soon as he found out his college career was over, the first thing he did was ask Larry Kerr, ‘What can I do to help?’. Pags had a tremendous year, and even though he’s not playing, he’s still mentoring younger players like Elijah-Blu Smith. Kory Sperry is an exceptional athlete. Kyle Bell has had a fine career here. And, if tomorrow’s game is as close as recent encounters with the Lobos, I hope we can put the game into the hands of our senior kicker, Jason Smith.

All our seniors will be sorely missed, but it’s not over yet. There’s still a lot out there for us. As long as we continue to work as hard as we have, and as long as we continue to get better every day, we will be successful.

Nov. 7, 2008
Preparing for Air Force is difficult challenge
Coach Steve Fairchild

How about that game last night in Salt Lake City? What a great college football game. No. 10 against No. 11 in a dogfight right to the finish. Congratulations to both programs, TCU and Utah, on fine seasons so far. They’re both benchmarks for success and national recognition in our league, and we have our sights set on catching them here at Colorado State.

I was so proud of our effort last week against BYU, and I felt equally bad that we could not walk off that field with a victory in what was a winnable game. Against the No. 17 team in the country, we held the lead for nearly 30 minutes. We were either tied or in the lead for nearly 50 minutes. I told the team in the locker room afterward that I knew they put all their heart and soul into that effort. There’s no solace in a loss, in any loss, including that one. But they played like a team, and I thought it was very clear that we still have a lot left in our tank this season. We’re not there yet, but we’re doing what we set out to do when this thing started – get better every day. We’re moving in the right direction and that’s good, because there’s still a lot out there for us.

We’re hitting our stride offensively. We’ve had back-to-back decent games, and I can really see on the field that we’re stepping it up. Our timing is good, because tomorrow’s game at Air Force will be extremely tough. I have to commend Larry Kerr and our defensive coaches for their preparations this week, including Jason Gallimore, who plays an important role in getting our scout-team players to somehow simulate Air Force’s offense.

This is going to be a difficult challenge for us. It’s a neat place to play, a nice venue. They always have good crowds, and it seems like we usually play close, memorable games against them. We have to be prepared for any type of game. When we here at CSU before in the 90s, one year the final score was 8-5, another year it was 42-41.

We’re bringing our players in for meetings here in Fort Collins this afternoon before we do a walk-through. After that, we’ll catch dinner here in town, then leave on about a two-hour bus ride to our Colorado Springs hotel, where our players will have a team meeting, followed by a snack and then, hopefully, a good night’s rest. We’ll meet some more at our hotel tomorrow before heading to the stadium.

Thank you to everyone driving to the game tomorrow. We’ll certainly need your support. If you can’t make it, be sure to tune in to The Mtn., on DirecTV Channel 616 or Comcast Channel 411.

Oct. 31, 2008
Looking back on the season to date
Coach Steve Fairchild

As we enter the final quarter of our regular season, I've taken a few minutes this past week to reflect on how far we've come in such a short time.

Before I took this job, my No. 1 priority was to gain the assurance that I could assemble a solid coaching staff, and we were able to do that, without question.

Once we got our staff in place last January, we really had two primary goals for our players: Establish a solid off-the-field training regimen and an outstanding on-the-field practice tempo. Including my seven years as an NFL coach, my philosophy has always been that the offense (and specifically the offensive line) establishes the tempo of practice. If the offense comes out of the huddle and establishes a solid tempo, the defense has to step up to that level.

I wanted to establish a work ethic and accountability here; every single day, then every single rep, we ask ourselves, 'Are we getting better?'

We've had some bumps in the road this season, and I think we've almost accomplished what we set out to do this year. We've reached that stage now when most teams plateau, in early November; I've seen it in the NFL, too. But we're still alive here.

Looking ahead past this season, I can already tell we're going to be a serious competitor in recruiting. I can already see that in my staff. I like where we're at. Looking back, I really have to say that this is probably my most enjoyable year in coaching. I'm really glad that I took this job. I'm a CSU alum. I played here and coached here during a great, great time in our history. My wife is from this area, and I now have a daughter that goes to school here. I'm having more fun this year than I thought I would.

In the NFL, you almost get tunnel vision. It's all football, all the time. As a college head coach, though, I feel more well-rounded. Our job here really is to mentor kids. I do some speaking engagements, I just had an academics meeting this morning, I do a radio show and a TV show, and I talk to parents all the time. Those are things that I never did in the NFL, and they're really good for me.

I'm excited to see what happens with the rest of our season starting tomorrow. I really like out team. Our quarterback works his tail off. I love the toughness of our backs and offensive line. And you look around the conference, and our defense probably tackles as well as any of our competitors. We lost a solid player in Mike Pagnotta, no doubt one of best players. I feel horrible for him. He will be sorely missed and, without him, we'll be tested for sure tomorrow.

It'll be interesting to see what we can do these last four games. Not a kid on this team has had a winning record at CSU. Our upperclassmen were recruited during the tail end of that great run we had earlier this decade. Their expectations were to come in and win. So our seniors are very hungry. We're going to go out and see if we can make some noise. We're knocking on the door, but no one's going to let us in. We'll have to earn it. We're committed to getting better these last four games.

Oct. 24, 2008
Focus important this week
Coach Steve Fairchild

I've been asked all week how by members of the media how we challenge our team to ignore the tough loss San Diego State had last Saturday. It's hard, because we've all been on both sides of those types of games, and I promise you, if New Mexico and San Diego State lined up and played that game 99 more times, they wouldn't be able to duplicate what happened last week.

This is a tough San Diego State team, and this could be the most important game we play all season. That's been our message to the team all week. We're going to have all we can handle from a team hungrier for success than anyone in our conference. No question, San Diego State will do everything it can to bounce back; they'll have a good game plan for us. We need to show up and play our best game of the year, with focus.

This is a chance for us to get back to .500, to be 4-4 with a month left in the season. It's also our last plane trip, and we have two home games left, and two relatively close road games left. If we want to be able to do anything with what's left in our conference schedule, tomorrow night will be critical.

We haven't proven we can win on the road yet. This will be an important game for us.

Oct. 17, 2008
No. 13 Utes on weekend agenda
Coach Steve Fairchild

Some of you may have missed TCU's big-time win over BYU, the No. 8 team in the country, last night. I think TCU's impressive win, five days after we played them and lost by just one score, tells a lot about our program here.

Now, many people across the nation are looking at our game at Utah Saturday, wondering how the Utes are going to react to last night's TCU-BYU game.

But we'll be asking ourselves how we'll react to last week's loss. Good teams keep going, so we'll be asking ourselves, 'Are we getting better?' There's still a lot out there for us.

Saturday is another great opportunity for us to gain more respect. But, believe me, this will probably be the biggest challenge we've had to date. Utah's defense is every bit as good as TCU's defense. Their offense is as balanced as any team in the country.

All three of our wins have been decided in the final seconds, so if we can hang with Utah into the second half, we've got a shot. Good teams win close games, and while we let one slip away against TCU last week, our team is very confident because they know they can win the close ones. We can't hand the game over to Utah with turnovers and penalties. Our goal going in is to not beat ourselves, not give the game away. If the defense can continue the way they've played this year, not giving up big plays and keeping the ball in front of them – continuing to be a solid tackling team -- and the offense can make big plays when they're there, we'll improve our chances.

So far this year, I really like the physical brand of football we've played with. I like our fundamentals, our team work ethic and accountability. We will not back down from a challenge. We're a long way from where we want to be, where we will be. Our goal this weekend, every day really, is to concern ourselves with, 'Are we getting better?'.

On the way to the airport today, I'm going to stop at Coors Field and meet with some of our supporters from the Denver area. I believe we have more alumni in Denver than any other school in the state, so we like to offer these types of opportunities to greet those members of the Rams family who can't easily make the hour drive up here to Fort Collins.

After that, it's off to Salt Lake. All of our games the rest of the year are on The Mtn. (Channel 616 on DirecTV), so tune in and see what we're able to do against the only remaining undefeated team in our conference.

Oct. 10, 2008
Facilities moving along nicely
Coach Steve Fairchild

Here in my office at the McGraw Athletic Center, I have a pretty good vantage point to see the construction on our new facilities. Right outside my window, construction workers are progressing nicely on our new $7 million Academic and Training Center. They just opened a brand-new road to the public this morning, and now students both on foot and on bike can use that road on their way around campus.

Then, on the other side of Moby Arena, we're working on a $13 million Indoor Practice Facility.

I'm excited to see these projects moving along. They wouldn't be possible without the shared commitment of our President, Board of Governors and Athletic Director, all of whom have very lofty stretch goals for this athletic department. The facilities are expected to be up and running by this time next year. I can't wait to see them completed. That's a big step for our program in the right direction.

Oct. 3, 2008
Production Meetings
Coach Steve Fairchild

It's Friday and I just finished meeting with the television crew that's broadcasting our game tomorrow – play-by-play announcer Bill Doleman, color man Blaine Fowler and sideline reporter Roger Bailey, the former Rockies pitcher.

Every week, we have these meetings with the crew announcing the game. They're called production meetings. No cameras, no tape recorders, just a handful of TV people in a room with one of our coaches. We did these meetings in the NFL, too. They happen before every Rams game you watch on television. The crew is just looking for some insight, information that helps them with their broadcast, since many times they don't live nearby and they're not here every day to cover us.

Today, Larry Kerr and Greg Peterson followed me into the room. It's kind of like a job interview, but a lot less formal. You can tune in to watch the game on The Mtn. to hear what we told them. If you have Comcast, it's on Channel 411. If you have DirecTV, you can watch us anywhere in the country on Channel 616.

The Mtn. is great exposure for our conference, and we have an outstanding brand of football in the Mountain West this year. It's a great asset for us, something that allows our kids' families to watch them no matter where they live.

Tomorrow, we embark on our conference schedule. It's a new season for us. The preseason is over, and now the real test begins.

We're back on our home turf, where we're 2-0 this year. Someone told me CSU hasn't lost at home in nearly a full calendar year. Defending our home stadium and playing well in front of our fans is very important to us. I hope we can continue that success Saturday.

Well, time to get ready for our walk-through. Hope to see you at the stadium tomorrow. Go Rams!

Sept. 26
Business trip
Coach Steve Fairchild

We've just completed our walk-through here at our practice facility near Moby Arena, and I feel good about the week of preparation we put in for what will certainly be a tough road trip.

This trip will really test us. Yeah, as Oregon State proved last night, no team is invincible, even the No. 1 USC Trojans. And I know our conference is 5-0 against the Pac-10 this year. The Mountain West has a lot of talent, and I hope we can continue to make believers by playing a great game at Cal.

But I'm not going to lie to you. Cal has had a week off, and it's going to take everything we have, almost flawless execution, to be in this game. Along those lines, I challenged our team yesterday to have a perfect Thursday practice.

All week, I've asked the players to visualize themselves at the stadium, mentally and physically preparing for what it's going to take. Despite a hostile environment with 70,000 people cheering against them, probably the most adverse set of circumstances many of them have faced up to this point in their football lives, they still need to find a way to execute their assignments, make their reads and capitalize on anything Cal gives them.

It's all about having the proper mental attitude. This is a business trip. We need to view it in that light.

We're getting ready to get on our buses. We'll stop off at a local restaurant and feed the guys a nice lunch before we head to the airport. But it's a business lunch. Everything we do from now forward will be geared toward accomplishing our goal. I'm excited to see if we can come home with more respect than we had before we left.

Sept. 23, 2008
Press on
Coach Steve Fairchild

Our 2008 theme here at Colorado State is "Press on!" Regardless of past occurrences, regardless of current situations and regardless of future events, we want to press on.

During my press conference yesterday, a reporter asked me whether going through our week of preparation for Cal is easier because we're 2-1, as opposed to 1-2 or 0-3.

I really hope not. Were we able to celebrate after beating a quality Houston opponent, Saturday? Yeah. I was glad to see our football team play the way they did and get rewarded. But I would hope the level of character we've instilled in our players and coaching staff would prevent us from caving in just because we lost a game or two.

I think that was one reason why Klint Kubiak was in a position to make the game-winning play for us. A few snaps before that, he was in position late in that drive to make another play. He got a good jump on the ball but he ended up with a facemask. Rather than pout or hang his head, he let it go. Next thing you know he's standing in the end zone with his teammates after getting an interception that won the game.

Today, we're getting ready to go out to have our first practice this week. We've thrown on some tape of Cal and realized how good they are. But we also realize that's where we want to be. A team like Cal. You got to keep working to get there, and we're definitely pressing on.

This week, there are three Mountain West teams in the Top 25. When I was here last, we were ranked consistently there in the 1990s and in the year 2000. We can bring that type of nationally recognized success back to Colorado State. But this isn't a one-year process. We've been there before and we want to be there again. We're on the right road. I can see that very clearly.

Sept. 19, 2008
A great opportunity
Coach Steve Fairchild

Well, we just finished our final walk-through before we line up to play Houston tomorrow. Now, we're headed to our hotel for the night.

This will be a great test for our team, coaching staff included. For our defense, we get to face the No. 2 passing offense in the country. There are only a handful of teams all season who get that chance. On the other side, Houston's defensive coordinator is an old roommate of mine, John Skladany. And I promise you, calling plays against him will be a challenge. John's defense and our defense are very similar. Both John and Larry Kerr are great defensive minds from the Sonny Lubick coaching tree.

We also have a chance to go 2-1, to be above .500 for the first time in two years. Plus, we can be 2-0 at home. As I told the team, though, no one's going to hand this to us. They're going to make us take it. We're going to have to claw and scratch and fight, and figure out a way to do whatever it takes to get that edge. Whatever it is, we need to find a way to do it better than them. Mentally, physically, it's going to take every ounce of our strength to come out on top.

Our pregame routine begins tonight with a special teams meeting, followed by offensive and defensive meetings, and a short team meeting, where I'll share my final thoughts with our coaches and players. The players get a “snack” – or a regular meal for normal people – and they're in the rooms for bed check before we hit the lights.

We'll get them up tomorrow in time for a breakfast, some final pregame treatment with our trainers, a chapel session and a few last-minute meetings, just to go over any details and re-emphasize any facets of our game plan that we want to be fresh in their heads.

Once we get to the stadium, we take part in a new tradition here at Colorado State. It's called the Ram Walk. We'll step off our buses right into a tunnel formed by our band and cheerleaders, as the fight song is being played. It really fires up the players. It's one of those things that makes college football so great. If you're in town, come and see us. We should arrive at about 11:25 a.m. in Ram Town, on the southeast side of the stadium. You and your kids should have an opportunity to slap fives with a lot of our players as they head to the locker room.

I'll try to update the blog quickly after Saturday's game.

Go Rams!

Sept. 8, 2008
Close games
Coach Steve Fairchild

The most positive aspect I saw that came out of Saturday's victory was the fact that we found a way to win a close game. Someone told me that before Saturday, CSU hadn't won a game decided by three points or less since the UNLV game in 2003.

The last time I was a CSU coach, when we were on a great run there in the 1990s, we found a way to win close games. From 1994-95, when we went to consecutive Holiday Bowls, we were 8-2 in games decided by eight points or less – in other words, one score. That included the game that put CSU on the map, a 21-16 win at Arizona, at the time the No. 4 team in the country. I was thinking of that game last night when I was watching the Bears and the Colts when Lance Briggs during those talking headshots they do for NBC said his name and “Desert Swarm Arizona.”

In 2000, when we finished ranked 14th in the country, we were 5-2 in close games, including a win over CU and a Liberty Bowl win over Louisville.

Winning close games is important to us, because we have the raw talent right now to compete with the top programs, but we need to find the discipline to win close games like that. Good teams win close games.

With the game on the line Saturday, our defense came up with the play we needed, and our kicker – an 18-year-old true freshman – showed the maturity and poise of an 81-year-old in that fourth quarter.

And a win is a win. I've been around long enough to know that you appreciate every victory. None of our games are easy. I was proud to be our coach on Saturday. We also emerged from the game without any significant injuries, another positive.

We brought our guys in yesterday for our routine day-after-game schedule, which consisted of reviewing the game tape and some conditioning. We had dinner together at C.B & Potts, a local restaurant, before our guys had a structured study session. The players have today off and many coaches are on the road because we don't have a game this weekend.

We'll run tomorrow, then practice Wednesday-Friday before taking the weekend off to rest and catch up on our studies. We start game-week preparations for Houston a week from today. I'll look forward to watching Houston and Air Force battle each other this weekend.

Sept. 5, 2008
"Short week" preparations for Sacramento State
Coach Steve Fairchild

Anyone who's ever played or coached in the NFL will tell you that short weeks, such as Sunday games after a Monday Night Football game, are difficult to prepare for. Well, that's basically the situation we find ourselves in this week at Colorado State.

From a coaching standpoint, we had to compress a process that basically takes two days – watching tape from our previous game and finalizing our game plan for our upcoming game – into one day. From a players' standpoint, our guys were challenged physically because we had to have a full-pads practice Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours after we kicked off Sunday night.

I'm excited to see how we respond. I was pleased with our effort and toughness Sunday. I know we're headed in the right direction here in Fort Collins.

We are in no way taking our opponent lightly. I'm from California, and I know that the state has no shortage of talent. Fans shouldn't be surprised at how much speed and talent Sac State has tomorrow. We've put in our time in game planning for them.

We may not have a pair of our starters tomorrow – Shelley Smith at guard and Mychal Sisson at linebacker; both guys have ankle injuries from Sunday. We'll see. They'll be game-time decisions. If Sisson can't go, we'll probably start a true freshman in his second college game – Michael Kawulok, a kid from Monarch High School in the Boulder area.

At CSU, we want the best guys on the field. If they can help us win, they'll be playing, not redshirting. Michael has proven that he's one of those guys, so if he has the opportunity, we look forward to seeing what he does.

We're headed over to the hotel for our night-before-game meetings. We'll be up early tomorrow, and at the stadium. I know our home field is a great place to play, right next to the foothills. The weather should be good. I'm looking forward to it. Hope to see you there.

Go Rams!

Sept. 1, 2008
Welcome to a new era of CSU football
Coach Steve Fairchild

For several months, now, we've been working diligently, preparing our football team for a new season, installing a brand-new offense, defense and special teams. And, since early spring, we've also been preparing an exciting new Web site, working with our talented university Web developers and creative videographers here at Colorado State.

The genesis of this site began in the minds of very sharp members of my new coaching staff. For years now, several coaches around the country have had similar sites, such as CoachUrbanMeyer.com, created to showcase the Florida football program and named after a former neighbor of mine here in Fort Collins, Urban Meyer. Urban and I coached together on Sonny Lubick's first staff, in 1993.

There's no reason why Colorado State football should not have its own Web site. This is an exciting time here in Fort Collins, and this site is part of that excitement.

Now people who know me, I mean really know me, will tell you that I'm not a guy that seeks the spotlight. My wife, Nancy, is giving me a hard time for having my picture plastered all over the city. That's one of the adjustments I've had to make as a head coach, becoming more of a public figure. But please don't let the site's name fool you. This site isn't really about me – it's about football at Colorado State.

Football at CSU began in 1893. We're one of the only programs in the nation that has had both a No. 1 and No. 2 overall selection in the NFL Draft. We went to five bowl games in seven years not too long ago. And the last time Larry Kerr and I were together in these offices, in 2000, the Rams finished ranked 14th in the final polls. We can make it back to that level of excellence. In fact, our goal actually is to be better at CSU than we've ever been, one step at a time.

This site is a place to preserve our proud history, and present an inside look into our current program, including my staff, and their philosophies, and our players. I hope you'll take a few minutes to check out the high-quality videos we have available.

We could not have launched this site without the efforts of Greg Peterson and Daren Wilkinson from my staff, as well as Leslie Hilbert, Chris Weller, Joe Vasos and Greg O'Malia from the university's public affairs division.
Our goal is to keep it as updated as possible. I hope you enjoy it.

Last night, Invesco Field:
Our first game didn't go the direction we wanted. We had some great opportunities early in the game but couldn't capitalize.

I told the team in the locker room after the game that I felt sick, and they should, too. Anytime you lose a game, and a marquee game like that, to your in-state rival on that stage, you shouldn't feel good about what happened. We will watch the tape today with our players, and get our mistakes corrected.

I also told them last night that I like the physical brand of football they played with; we never backed down, not once. We played our rear ends off. After our first game, it was evident to me that we've got a chance to be a good football team this year.

We played with great effort, and we stayed together, despite the circumstances. Those were two of our goals heading in, so at least we come away with something positive.

We had too many penalties and sacks, we need to be much better on third down, and we had too many special-teams errors. But, we go back to work today, get those mistakes corrected, and install a game plan for Sacramento State, who looked very impressive in their first game Saturday.

We still have a lot we can accomplish this year.