FORT COLLINS — Colorado State coach Mike Bobo Monday had mellowed a bit, at least in comparison to his dour mood in the wake of Colorado State’s 41-17 loss to San Diego State.
He also said he would be decisively challenging his team the rest of the week, and asking his players to demonstrate to him who still was all in and wanted to play down the stretch of the season.
After saying Nick Stevens, who threw three inteceptions Saturday, still was the No. 1 quarterback, Bobo declared: “What matters is what you do this week, and it’s the same for the quarterback position, too. I have faith in him and I have faith in the whole team, too. But walking in today, I have faith in him. I have faith in the whole team. That’s what I’m going to tell them. But it’s not going to be blind faith … I have to see it.I have to see it on the field this week.”
At 3-5 with the Border War coming up Saturday at 1-8 Wyoming, the Rams need to win three of their final four to become bowl-eligible. That’s not a longshot, though, given that the Rams’ other three opponents are UNLV (2-6), New Mexico (4-4) and Fresno State (2-6).
“I don’t want to panic and come in and blow everything up,” Bobo said. “I was in a bad place after the game. I was in a bad place Saturday night. But it is year one. There is change. There (are) continuity issues. But at some point, we have to start to make progress and we have to figure out how to do that.”
He added, “I’m not throwing guys away, I’m not saying, ‘Hey, we’re moving on to next year. We’re hitting the reset button. Here we go, it’s Monday, I don’t care where you are, where you sit in this room, whether you sit in the front row as a senior or the last row as a freshman, all right, let’s go out and prove we want to play for Colorado State this week and we’re ready to have a great week of practice.’ “
Bobo continued to lament CSU’s turnover problems, noting that the Rams have 22 turnovers and only eight takeaways.
“We’re making too many mistakes of things that I know are being coached, of things I know are repped,” Bobo said. “That’s not being a smart football player, that’s not being a team football player. It’s one thing to play hard, but playing hard for your teammates and your family is also being accountable in how you play and what you do.
“We have too many instances of not doing the right thing. You try to be patient. But that was week nine, game eight. There’s too many mistakes for me. We’re going to have a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting so, to speak, and figure out who’s ready to play these last four games, especially this one coming up against Wyoming.”
He also took some of the blame for the interceptions, saying he tried to force plays to Rashard Higgins.
“If you want to sit here and talk about coaching, I got out of my game plan of doing what was successful, of running the ball, play-action, keeping it away from them,” Bobo said. “You can’t force things to guys. You can’t. You have to let it happen. We tried to force things. That ain’t on Nick, that’s on me.”
Beyond the interceptions, the other turnover Saturday was Jasen Oden Jr.’s lost fumble on the goal-line in the first quarter. The ruling stood up threw a video review. The major question was when Oden lost control of the ball, whether before or after his elbow hit the ground and before or after it crossed the goal line.
“I’ve exchanged text messages with the (Mountain West) head of officials,” Bobo said. “I’m still waiting for them to review film and then we’ll talk about it.” Bobo said he wouldn’t pass along anything from that, noting it would be a “private conversation” and then adding, “At the end of the day it was ruled a fumble. It was in the first quarter. You have time to overcome it and we did not.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @tfrei
