Colorado State University Athletics
CSU summer football blog: Fairchild says Rams have 4 RBs capable of starting
6/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
June 29, 2010
By Zak Gilbert
Athletic Media Relations
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Steve Fairchild and the Rams were receiving votes in the polls when they got off to a 3-0 start last season.
Then, the season ended in a manner no one expected. The Colorado State head coach, in Colorado Springs for the annual Sports Corporation Football Coaches Kickoff Luncheon Tuesday, said that despite the disappointing finish, the Rams continued to work as hard as they ever have this offseason.
"The interesting part about a college job is that you jump right into recruiting (after the season), so you don't do much football once it's over," he said Tuesday. "You have a buffer of about 6-8 weeks of recruiting before you come up for air. But we look back. There's always a process of self-analysis, quality-control type of things that you do whether you have a successful year or not. So, we took a hard look at some things we did last year. We tried to do some professional development, hitting some areas we felt we needed to improve in going into spring football."
In an effort to improve, Fairchild and his staff this offseason brought several coaches to town to share ideas, including UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow. After several weeks of looking in the mirror, the staff has targeted a few key areas.
"Defensively," he said, "we've got to put more pressure on the quarterback. We were awful on third down. Offensively, we lacked the explosive plays we had the year before. We were very inconsistent on offense. We're going to be young in the offensive line and young at quarterback, so a lot of our success on offense is going to depend on how quickly we mature in those areas."
Fairchild, whose Rams will open fall practice Aug. 5, also shared several thoughts on other topics, including the addition of Boise State to the Mountain West. The Rams should host the Broncos in 2011, Boise State's first season in the MWC.
On conference expansion: "Adding Boise is good for our conference. You're talking about a top-10 type of football program, so that strengthens us. Obviously, losing Utah hurts a little bit. It looked like it was going to get crazy for a while with those conference realignments. What I think is sad about that is people were disguising it a lot of different ways but ultimately it was chasing television football contract money. When you do that, and I get that finances are part of college athletics, but when you do that at the expense of fans, heritage or rivalries, geographic ties, I'm not sure it's good for the school, but we'll see.
"Head football coaches or athletic directors were not the primary players in all this. This was at the president level. In some ways, I felt like I was a fan, just watching to see what happened.
"The first thing that surprised me was, if you'd had said last December that this summer that Texas would've considered going into the Pac-10, that to me was the surprising thing, how quickly it gained momentum. Yeah, that surprised me.
"I'm not sure all of this was occurring for the right reasons. I see both sides. There are financial elements and you have to pay attention to that part, but for CU not to play Oklahoma, maybe it's not a good thing. I would've liked to have taken into account what the fans wanted to see. I hate to think of a day when Colorado State and Wyoming don't play."
On the Rams' offseason and outlook: "I think we're anxious to get started. Right after recruiting, we took a long look at how we performed in certain areas, then started our offseason conditioning. I know the kids have had a great offseason, and I know as a coaching staff we've been very excited to get back involved with them, and get the season started.
"We've got to get better everywhere. We were inconsistent just about in every area last year. We're going to be young again in some areas this year, but I like our talent level, I like our work ethic, and I do believe we're headed in the right direction.
"I like what's going on at Colorado State. There's a nice feel here. Our administration is committed to funding our program, helping us facility-wise. I just feel like we're headed down the right path. We've put two recruiting classes together back-to-back. We just need to be relentless and continue to work until we put Colorado State on the upper end of the Mountain West."
On the starting quarterback: "We're always going to play the guy that gives us our best chance to win. The last couple years it's been a fifth-year senior. This year, it's going to be a freshman. We're either going to start a true freshman in Pete Thomas or a redshirt freshman in Nico Ranieri.
"I'd like to think they're going to play well, but any first-year starter at the quarterback spot, whether he's a freshman or a senior, is going to have some growing pains. Hopefully we can surround him with guys playing well, and not put the entire burden on the quarterback."
On the running back depth: "I think we're deep there. We're talented there. I mean, there are 4-5 guys we can line up and play well with at running back. So, our challenge is to figure out the rotation, figure out who does what and how we're going to use all these guys."
Other CSU football notes...
ROOFTOPS AT WRIGLEY: Fairchild, Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk and a CSU contingent will join about 80 Rams fans on one of the world-famous Wrigley Field rooftops for Thursday's Chicago Cubs-Cincinnati Reds game. Kowalczyk, the former athletic director at Southern Illinois and associate AD at Northwestern, helped organize the event, which will benefit the Athletic General Scholarship Fund. Illinois provides one of the largest groups of support for the Ram Club outside of Colorado.
SMITH GETS SIXTH YEAR: Four of CSU's starting five offensive linemen in 2009 are now on NFL rosters, so the Rams need all the depth they can get at that position heading into 2010. They got a little help Friday.
The NCAA has granted a sixth year of eligibility to Connor Smith, a 6-foot-4, 287-pound guard from Spring Branch, Texas. Smith, whose shoulder injury last year prevented him from playing, officially was a senior until Friday. He now enters the 2010 season as a junior with two years remaining.
A standout in the San Antonio area, he signed with Northwestern out of high school but couldn't play because of a previous shoulder injury. After transferring to CSU and sitting out the 2007 season, he started three 2008 games in place of an injured Shelley Smith and Adrian Martinez.
Smith, now full-go after practicing all spring with the Rams, appears on the fall camp depth chart as a co-starter at strongside guard, with senior Ryan Griffith.
ENEMY TERRITORY: QB Ben Schumacher, a Denver Post Class 5A honorable-mention all-state selection who led Fairview (12-1) to the state semifinals, will walk on at CSU in the fall. Schumacher, who played for Tom McCartney at Fairview, joins LB Michael Kawulok (Monarch) and CU transfer Beau Brittenham (Longmont) as one of three players from Boulder County on the Rams' roster. And, Class of 2010 signee Ty Sambrailo, an offensive lineman from Watsonville, Calif., has a dad who was a CU pole vaulter, and a brother who was a CU skier.Schumacher's addition also giveS the Rams three former Metro-area quarterbacks, including M.J. McPeek (Rangeview) and Klay Kubiak (Regis).
LUBICK BECOMING MORE INVOLVED: Legendary coach Sonny Lubick, who guided the Rams from 1993-2007, for the second time in as many months Saturday partnered with Fairchild, former players and alumni at an event. Saturday, he joined his son Marc (now an assistant with the Houston Texans) at the Rams' annual football alumni golf tournament. The tournament also drew several prominent alumni, including Calvin Branch, Anthony Cesario, Cole Pemberton and Kevin McDougal. Last month, Lubick met in Denver with Fairchild and several former players.
STUCKER GETS UNIQUE AWARD: Grant Stucker, who became only the second QB in CSU history to win his first three starts when he led the Rams to a 3-0 record last year, received some unique help Tuesday. Stucker will receive a degree-completion financial award for the fall semester. His major, construction management, generally takes longer to complete than most degrees, and the CSU athletic department according to NCAA rules is no longer allowed to fund his education into the fall. However, the NCAA agreed to grant him the financial help needed to graduate.
The Rams have done a remarkable job graduating their football players. Stucker, who expects to graduate in December, is the only senior on the 2009 roster yet to receive his degree.
MORE NFL TIES: The Rams continue to develop connections with the NFL. Equipment assistant Dan Kleinholz, who works tirelessly to ensure CSU's practices move at Fairchild's desired tempo, will work training camp with the Houston Texans next month until CSU kicks off its fall preparations. Former equipment assistant Brian Boselli prior to Kleinholz worked training camp with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Meanwhile, former sports information student-assistant Kristen Deahl just completed her second year as a graduate intern in the public relations department of the Baltimore Ravens, working the Super Bowl for the NFL as part of her internship. After interviewing with Clark Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, she recently began a full-time position as the communications coordinator with Hunt Sports Group in her hometown of Dallas, Texas. Hunt's family moved the Chiefs, originally known as the Dallas Texans, in the 1960s, but maintained a strong presence in the DFW Metroplex.
