Coach Jim McElwain wanted out at Colorado State so badly, he agreed to pay $2 million to leave Fort Collins.
CSU can’t buy that kind of bad publicity.
So maybe the Rams shouldn’t brag too loudly about scoring the most lucrative buyout of a coach in college football history.
But look on the bright side: Throw in that $2 million donation from McElwain, and the new CSU football stadium will be the House that Mac Built … in more ways than one.
After forcing Florida to ante $7 million — including an all- expense-paid trip to lovely Gainesville to provide the Gators with a nonconference victory — in closing costs to hire McElwain, give credit to Colorado State president Tony Frank for being a tough negotiator.
At the same time, in celebration of a 10-win season and football success not enjoyed by the Rams since the turn of the century, Colorado State now has vacancies at athletic director and football coach. Nice work, Dr. Frank.
Colorado State football is at a crossroads.
The Rams must either get to work at making the program a viable candidate for expansion into the Big 12 or another “power five” conference, or drop down a level to the FCS in football only and do battle with traditional powerhouses such as North Dakota State and Montana at that level.
It’s a well-known fact that Frank dreams in Imax large and in 3-D technicolor, so here is a four-point plan for Colorado State to do the impossible and become a big-time football school.
• No. 1: Hire Oregon assistant Scott Frost to replace McElwain.
If the Rams want to be a program on the rise, then hire a coach on the rise. Frost is 39 years old, the offensive coordinator of the most exciting team on the planet and a former Nebraska quarterback who won the 1997 national championship.
With apologies to recently fired Michigan coach Brady Hoke and Bob Stitt of Colorado Mines, it’s not a bold move to hire a retread dismissed by Michigan or an offensive genius from a small college. Want a Colorado State connection? Tell Frost to give a coordinator job on the CSU staff to one of his Oregon colleagues: Matt Lubick, who’s not only the son of the greatest coach in Rams history but also a marvelous recruiter who has signed such prep standouts as Vontaze Burfict and Dexter McCluster.
• No. 2: Tell the Buffaloes to get lost.
While the University of Colorado football program has stunk for a decade, delusional CU players, alums and administrators look down their arrogant noses at CSU. So here’s how the Rams strike back: Cancel the Rocky Mountain Showdown as soon as possible. Colorado State doesn’t need no stinking Buffs.
The new CSU athletic director should declare the Rams will go anywhere, anytime to play Nebraska, Oregon or Wisconsin, provided it’s a home-and-home series with a date included at 75,000-seat Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Replace CU on the schedule with a truly elite football program that can win Colorado State respect in the national polls.
• No. 3: Make Fort Collins a destination for the best and brightest in Colorado.
While CU covets second-tier players and students from California, the Rams should make it very clear that they are the state university for any Colorado teenager who excels at catching touchdown passes or solving algebraic equations.
“There are probably 20 legitimate Division I football prospects per year in the state of Colorado,” Ponderosa High School coach Jared Cohen said. “If your football program is in a state that doesn’t have the prospects that Florida, Texas or California does, it might be hard to keep them at home, but you better get them.”
Colorado State should make the bold commitment to handing out more football and academic scholarships to outstanding local teenagers than any other university in the country. On the field and in the classroom, if CSU is Colorado loud and proud, it will pay dividends.
• No. 4: Stop whining, and reach for the wallet.
Taking a wrecking ball to Hughes Stadium is only the beginning. Spending in excess of $200 million for a new facility on campus will look pretty stupid if it sits half empty on Saturdays in the autumn. Die-hard CSU fans claim to the media the Rams are ignored. They are ignored. By their own alums.
Colorado State will attract the attention from an elite-five conference as an expansion candidate only if the Rams can consistently draw in excess of 40,000 fans for home games and draw reliable television ratings in the Denver market.
The lesson from McElwain was clear: A shot at the big time doesn’t come around often, and when it does, there’s no time to wait.
The time for CSU football is now.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or
