FORT COLLINS — Colorado State coach Mike Bobo is learning.
He’s learning about what it’s like to be a head coach for the first time.
He’s also learning about continuing to call plays amid the relentless responsibilities and decision-making that go with being the boss.
The dual responsibilities require adjustment for a coach who has moved up from being an offensive coordinator, as Bobo did when moving from the Georgia staff to CSU.
In this case, one tweak is that Will Friend, officially the Rams’ offensive coordinator, moved up to the press-box level for the second half of the Rams’ 33-31 win over Texas-San Antonio on Saturday night to be communicating on the headsets with Bobo.
The two men worked together at Georgia, and Bobo made sure he had Friend’s commitment to join him at CSU before he went through the final interviews in Las Vegas last December. Friend coaches the CSU offensive line, so his move upstairs meant he wasn’t on the sideline to communicate with the linemen between series, and graduate assistant Joe Cox, Matthew Stafford’s successor as Georgia’s starting quarterback, jumped into that task with enthusiasm.
Bobo on Monday said Friend probably will remain upstairs moving forward, including in the Rams’ Mountain West opener at Utah State on Saturday. Special-teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Hammerschmidt, one of three holdovers from the Jim McElwain staff, moved downstairs to the sideline.
“We’ve been talking about it since Week 1, and haven’t done it,” Bobo said. “I think Will is very good with his guys on the field, being able to look at them, talk to them and draw some stuff up — because you have to make so many adjustments as a line coach throughout a game. … So that’s the reason we didn’t do it, but at the same time, the eyes in the sky for the run game are very, very important.
“Where we’re at language wise, everybody on the staff is not there yet. You work together for four years and (have) known each other for 15 years and been talking the same terminology and sometimes when we say stuff, it’s not quite communicated exactly, so I think it’s a good thing getting him up there as far as being able to help with the run game.”
CSU is averaging 194.5 yards per game on the ground, despite losing running back Treyous Jarrells, who left the team, and Dalyn Dawkins, out for the UTSA game with an injury. Former defensive back Jasen Oden Jr. filled the void Saturday, rushing for 143 yards on 30 carries, and Dawkins is expected to be available against Utah State.
“I feel real comfortable,” Bobo said of his multiple duties. “There hasn’t been any game where I’ve felt like, ‘Man, I don’t have a grasp with this. I don’t have any understanding.’ I’ve felt more calm than I’ve ever felt, even when I was a position coach.”
After struggling in the Minnesota game, sophomore quarterback Nick Stevens has settled down and has thrown for 219.3 yards per game, with nine touchdown passes. He’s getting used to working with the head coach directly.
“In the film room, when we’re preparing for a team, he has that kind of experience explaining to a quarterback, ‘We’re probably going to get this look, but if we don’t, look at this, this and this, and go here with the ball,’ ” Stevens said. “And then also on the sideline, I can come off the field and he knows everything about defense because he’s been on offense for so long and he’s seen just about everything. He’ll come and tell me, ‘They were in this front and this coverage. You probably should have gone here with the ball.’ Or, ‘You gotta hit the guy.’ “
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
