FORT COLLINS — There are two searches going on at Colorado State — for an athletic director to replace Jack Graham and a football coach to succeed Jim McElwain — and the school is using the same search firm, DHR International, as a consultant for both.
CSU is working with two DHR executive vice presidents: Glenn Sugiyama and Pat Richter.
Richter, based in the firm’s Lansing, Mich., office, was a two-time All-America end at Wisconsin and played nine seasons in the NFL with the Washington Redskins. After his retirement from football, he was an attorney in a Madison law firm and then an executive at Oscar Mayer before serving as Wisconsin’s athletic director from 1989-2004.
Sugiyama works out of DHP’s Chicago office.
CSU’s interim AD, John Morris, said last week after McElwain’s departure to Florida that there would be no search committee to pick McElwain’s successor.
“(CSU president) Tony Frank will be leading the search for our head football coach and I will be intimately involved in that with him,” Morris said.
Frank, who had a whirlwind Friday in securing the approval of the CSU Board of Governors to move forward with the Rams’ on-campus stadium project, confirmed that CSU decided to use DHR in the coach search as well. Frank appointed a 21-member search committee in August for the AD job, but the hiring was put off until a decision was made on whether to proceed with the on-campus stadium project. Presumably, that search now will move forward too.
Sunday, the Rams (10-2) accepted a berth in the Las Vegas Bowl, where they will meet Utah (8-4) on Dec. 20. Dave Baldwin, McElwain’s offensive coordinator, is the Rams’ interim head coach for the bowl and hopes to succeed McElwain.
“My main hat is to protect these kids and win this football game,” Baldwin said Sunday. “The other concerns, number one, there are a lot of coaches on this staff that have to look for jobs — 10-2 and maybe looking for football jobs. And then at the same time, myself doing that and trying to get this job.
“But my main concern and what I’ve really talked about all week long is preparation for our kids and taking care of that, and then I’ll have to take care of the other things quietly, off media, and try to go get it.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
