LAS VEGAS — Behind the Hard Rock Hotel’s registration desk, the huge display screens show highlights from the successful season of the Las Vegas Bowl’s Mountain West representative and proclaim: “Proud Home of the Colorado State Rams.”
Banners throughout the casino and hotel plug sharp-edged comedian Andrew Dice Clay’s “Indestructible” show. At age 57, he still plugs along — often profanely, of course.
The Rams (10-2) are here — and matched up against Utah (8-4) of the Pac-12 — because Mountain West champion Boise State was the highest-ranked league champion from the nonpower conferences in the College Football Playoff rankings and thus earned a Fiesta Bowl berth, sliding everyone else in the Mountain West up a slot.
In many ways, this has been a bizarre situation.
Coach Jim McElwain, who preached all season about “The Climb,” albeit with the goal of a Mountain West championship to go with a bowl berth, stepped away and waved the Rams on — without him.
His coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin, remains, with Baldwin acting as the Rams’ interim head coach and hoping to be named McElwain’s successor in Fort Collins after the search process is completed. McElwain already has named a defensive coordinator at Florida, and it’s doubtful now that he will take a significant number of CSU coaches with him — if any at all.
So a key question is how the Rams will respond amid the strange circumstances.
“This was something none of us can really be prepared for,” said sophomore tight end Nolan Peralta. “We have to say it isn’t going to change who we are as a team. We have to come out and play to the best of our ability, regardless of who’s at the helm. It’s really about us and what we are able to do as a team, so we have to take pride in that and do what we’ve done to get us to this point in the season.”
The Rams haven’t played since losing 27-24 at Air Force on Nov. 28.
They have a shot at matching the school record for most wins in a season, the 11-2 record posted by the 1997 Western Athletic Conference champions.
“We have great coaches on this staff,” Peralta said. “They’re not going to let us slip in any way.”
Other teams are playing in bowl games after coaching transitions — and one of them is Florida.
D.J. Durkin is the Gators’ interim head coach in the Birmingham Bowl against East Carolina, while McElwain awaits a complete takeover from the regime of the fired Will Muschamp.
Wisconsin is playing under interim head coach Barry Alvarez, the Badgers’ athletic director, in the Outback Bowl against Auburn, with Paul Chryst waiting in the wings to succeed Gary Andersen, who moved to Oregon State.
Barney Cotton is Nebraska’s interim head coach against Southern California in the Holiday Bowl, with Mike Riley set to take over the Huskers from the fired Bo Pelini.
So the Rams aren’t alone.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
