RamWire: Addazio Thrilled with Opportunity Colorado State Program Provides
Veteran football coach has ambitious schedule set
Mike Brohard
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Both men share the same vision, even if the sightlines afforded them were vastly different.
For Steve Addazio, the opportunity to become Colorado State’s 23rd head football coach was an amazing opportunity. It starts with the setting of the university and extends to the facilities on hand and the promised support from administration.
He’s done this before, leading football programs and Temple and Boston College that have moments of success, just not traditionally extended. His record with the Eagles the past seven seasons was 44-44 in the tough ACC. He holds the Mountain West in high regards, and expects to carry forth the directive of CSU athletic director Joe Parker to have the Rams reach the top.
“I think this is a great conference, and I believe Colorado State is elite within the conference,” said Addazio, who will meet his team and be introduced at a press conference Thursday at 3 p.m. in the Hall of Champions at Canvas Stadium. “I really thought it was a great opportunity to come out, be part of a great culture and continue to build a great culture there. I fell I can help make a difference in helping to grow the program. To me, it was an unbelievable opportunity.”
Parker put a high priority on somebody who had experience guiding a program, and in Addazio, he found someone who has helped a team transition to a bigger field, taking Temple out of the MAC and into the Big East. Wins and losses are important, but they don’t always set the entire scene.
He took particular care in seeing the entire picture, and in Addazio, he is confident the found the right leader to carry the program forward.
“Steve has been the head coach at two different institutions for nine years, and he’s had success with programs that traditionally have not had success,” Parker said. “In my opinion, it says something that he’s taken a team to bowl games in six out of seven years.
“He is known for developing players. He’s put 21 players at his two stops in the NFL, and many of them did not have any other Autonomous 5 offers other than what he offered, and he developed them into NFL-caliber talent.”
Addazio went to Temple, then immediately to Boston College, with the reputation of being a top-notch recruiter. In 2010, ESPN.com named him the best in the nation. Yet while he was with the Eagles, none of his recruiting classes ever sat in the top five of the ACC rankings, more toward the bottom. Still, he was in bowl games while teams who had – on paper – out-recruited him were watching at home, which speaks to his ability in developing talent.
For him, there is a clear path in that direction. In short, being tough, disciplined and passionate about those pursuits.
“I obviously really believe in toughness and passion. I want our teams to have an obvious love for each other, a love for the game of football, play with an unbelievable passion and be a physically and mentally tough team .. Relentless,” he said. “When you play us, you’re going to be in one physical game.
“Having said that, I want to be explosive and create a lot of problems for opposing teams, whether it be with an aggressive-style pressure defense or with an explosive offense.”
Preferably both, he said. He’s had offenses which have averaged better than 30 points per game, defenses which rank in the top five nationally in fewest points allowed. He’s also very proud of the fact his BC team last year was among the nation’s leaders in the fewest penalties, sacks allowed and turnover margin.
He’s set on a strong run game, paired with a strong rush defense, but he’s also acutely aware of the personnel on Colorado State’s current roster. As his resume shows, he’s been rather adaptable with the weapons at his disposal, a philosophy which will never change.
“That’s what it’s all about. People ask all the time, what are we going to do on offense? Well, I want to assess the personnel and do what we do best,” Addazio said. “I’ve done that everywhere I’ve been, and I realize we were able to throw the ball pretty well at Colorado State, and that’s a great thing. We need to accentuate that. We need to run the ball better and we need to stop the run better. Sometimes those things go hand in hand. Sometimes you’re a byproduct of the way you practice.
“I want to go in and evaluate the personnel and the talent, do the things that we can do best, realizing we need to run the football, have balance and on defense, play different coverages and get after the quarterback. You have to disrupt the quarterback.”
“I obviously really believe in toughness and passion. I want our teams to have an obvious love for each other, a love for the game of football, play with an unbelievable passion and be a physically and mentally tough team .. Relentless. When you play us, you’re going to be in one physical game."Steve Addazio, CSU head football coach
Urban Meyer, who was the head coach at Florida when Addazio was a member of his staff, helped consult in the process, Parker said. He wasn’t the only person the CSU athletic director spoke to who had nothing but praise for the way Addazio runs a program and fosters a buy in.
“That is true. With the conversations I had with athletic directors who have worked with Steve, with football coaches who have assessed Steve, I think he creates the highest likelihood of success for CSU football at this point in time, without a doubt,” Parker said.
Addazio has a busy schedule planned out for himself. He wants to meet everybody in athletics, as well as get to know and start to evaluate the staff currently on hand inside the football program.
He’s keenly aware the most important meeting he’ll have this week is with the roster he inherits. Right out of his playbook, it will be straightforward, honest and clear to his intent with what he’ll say.
“That I’m going to love them, coach them hard and love them hard,” he said. “We’re going to do this thing together. I’m grateful to be here. I’m going to earn their respect. Respect is not given, it’s earned.
“I’m going to challenge them from a leadership standpoint, that leaders are about setting a standard and holding everybody accountable to a standard. That starts with me, but it also speaks to the team and the leadership of the team.”
One, which in the next week is expected to grow with National Signing Day starting Dec. 18. He understands the clock is ticking, but he refuses to allow it to dictate his pace.
He has initial ideas for staffing, but he doesn’t feel a rush to judgement is compatible with long-term success. He will meet with recruits this weekend so they can get to know him, then he will evaluate the prospect board currently devised within the program. By the time his schedule is completed Monday, he expects to have met with each Ram player on an individual basis.
Eventually, he will get to the fun stuff. Evaluating and developing talent, establishing a standard for practice and testing the product on the field. He’ll also finally get that showdown with Boise State. His team was up 7-0 in the First Responders Bowl in 2018 in Dallas, a game which eventually cancelled due to extended lightning strikes.
“Yeah, I do. I’m looking forward to it, no doubt,” Addazio said with a laugh. “That was something right there, man. It’s never happened in college football, and we were part of a first.”