FORT COLLINS — The carrot for Colorado State: Try to match the 11-2 record of the Rams’ 1997 Western Athletic Conference champions, a Sonny Lubick-coached team that finished with a flourish, beating Missouri in the Holiday Bowl.
And if they do that in the Las Vegas Bowl against former Mountain West rival Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, the accomplishment won’t remain in Vegas.
It will go into the CSU record books and perhaps be cited as affirmation that in the wake of Jim McElwain’s departure to Florida last week, the Rams had the heart to play on … one more time.
Depending on the timing of the search process to select McElwain’s successor, it also could be an , the offensive coordinator serving as interim head coach — and a veteran who hopes to strike the “interim” from that title.
“We’ve been working for this all season, for an opportunity to go to what our players thought was the top bowl that we could go to,” Baldwin said Sunday after the Rams accepted the bowl bid and learned the matchup would be against the Pac-12 Utes, 8-4 and 22nd in the final College Football Playoff rankings.
“This is the one they wanted to go to. … I know it’s a great opportunity for our seniors to finish out the way we want to finish and do something special at the end.”
Baldwin said there would be considerable incentive for the Rams in the bowl.
“There’s been only one other team in the history of Colorado State football that went 11-2, won 11 games,” Baldwin said. “This team can establish that. That’s big for them. We hit on that as a logo the other day, and we talked about the importance of being in history books as the best team in history, along with the 1997 team.”
Mountain West winner Boise State, ranked 20th, received a CFP access bowl bid as the highest-rated champion of a non-power conference and will meet Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.
That allowed CSU (10-2) to move up to the league’s top-slotted bowl.
“The last few days have been hectic, and it’s good to find out that we’re playing Utah and that we get to prepare and focus on that instead of the other things,” senior linebacker Aaron Davis said. “It’s been a special season this year, and with these two guys, we’ve been here for a while. We’ve been here at the down times, and this is definitely a high point of our careers. It’ll be good to get out there and show another Pac-12 team how good the Colorado State Rams are.”
The Rams have won their last three games against teams from power conferences — against Washington State in the New Mexico Bowl last season, then Colorado and Boston College this season.
“We know how good this team is, but a lot of people base it off those types of wins,” senior middle linebacker Max Morgan said. “So we’re happy to have another opportunity at it. … We have lots of motivation to win this game. We have seniors going up, we have guys coming up like Trent and we want to build the brand of Colorado State University and we’re going to have a national stage to do it.”
The Rams will depart for Las Vegas on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
A look at the Utes
• Went 5-4 in the Pac-12 and finished with a 38-34 win over Colorado in Boulder.
• Three of their four losses were to teams ranked in the final CFP top 25— Arizona State (15), Oregon (2) and Arizona (10). The other loss was to Washington State (28-27) on Sept. 27.
• Defeated No. 14 UCLA and No. 24 Southern California.
• Junior QB Travis Wilson threw for 2,012 yards and 17 touchdowns.
• Junior RB Devontae Booker ran for 1,350 yards and nine touchdowns.
• In their most recent meeting with CSU, the Utes prevailed 59-6 in 2010, the Utes’ final season in the Mountain West.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
