FORT COLLINS — It was obvious again on Friday, Colorado State’s first day of preseason practice, that first-year head coach Mike Bobo isn’t abandoning his long-ingrained habit of being an activist on the field, most noticeably giving his feedback and frequent individual instruction to the Rams quarterbacks.
The former Georgia quarterback, an SEC contemporary of Tennessee’s Peyton Manning, has a quarterbacks coach, Ronnie Letson, and his offensive coordinator, Will Friend, animatedly works with and also coaches the offensive line. But while Bobo is the boss for the first time, and addresses the Rams in that role in the meeting room, on the field and everywhere else, he’s still a quarterback tutor at heart.
“Sometimes I get a little bit into practice and I have to realize that I’m not the main (position) coach and we have other coaches,” Bobo said. “Sometimes when the head coach says something it means a little bit more to a kid … but I have to be myself and I believe that if you’re who you are and if you’re real and genuine, that’s when you can build trust.”
Bobo’s predecessor, Jim McElwain, also had played the position (at Eastern Washington), and had been a quarterbacks coach and an SEC offensive coordinator as well, but he didn’t sit in on quarterbacks meetings nearly as much as Bobo, who’s a regular. With the job of succeeding the record-breaking Garrett Grayson as the CSU starter still up for grabs — at least officially — Bobo is far from a detached observer.
Nick Stevens, a redshirt sophomore from Murietta, Calif., is listed atop the unofficial depth chart, ahead of redshirt freshman Coleman Key and junior Craig Leonard, and his leader-type demeanor also is impressing Bobo — who wants his QB to act like one.
“I thought he did a very nice job of leadership, command of the huddle, calling the plays, knowing where to go with the ball,” Bobo said of Stevens after the no-pads practice. “We weren’t perfect in everything, but we did a nice job. Coleman and Craig did a nice job too, I thought Nick did just a little bit better. … But it was Day One and we were in shorts and when we start playing football in more team situations, I want to see who can move the football with the team.
“It’s still a competition and when I know, I’ll let the team know and then you guys will know. When I’m 100 percent sure, I’ll name one. Right now, it’s still a competition.”
Stevens said of working with a hands-on head coach: “I think it’s great because he knows exactly how to tell you what to do and what he wants from you. There’s no vagueness about what he says at all. He’s been through exactly what we’ve been through, so he knows if you’re having a hard day, you’re going to have hard days. He says you’re going to throw interceptions, just make sure you chase the guy down after.
“He knows a ton about the game and it’s nice to have him in our meetings telling us exactly what he wants, and it there are any little variations he wants, because he knows this offense like the back of his hand.”
Stevens is comfortable with the demanded leadership standard.
“It’s pretty natural for me,” he said. “I always like to talk with people and if somebody does something wrong out there, it makes the whole offense look bad and I don’t have a problem with getting up in their face some and telling them what’s wrong. … I also like that aspect of being the leader by example.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
