Monday Presser: Addazio Ready For CSU Debut

Steve Addazio just wants to coach.

That's why he was hired in December of 2019, to lead Colorado State's football program into a new era. Now, 10 months after his arrival, he can see a game on the schedule.

What it will look like, he's not sure. It is still five days away, and he's learned through fall camp things can change quickly. He's coached football for years, but not like this.

But at least, finally, there is a game to be played. Bring on New Mexico, but at this point, it could have been anybody coming to Canvas Stadium this weekend.

"I'm very excited, no doubt," Addazio told the media during his Monday press conference, being conducted virtually this season. "This has been a different year for everybody in a lot of fronts. I think with the great collaboration from the Mountain West Conference, all the presidents, all the ADs and all the coaches and all the players, here we go. We've got a chance to do what we love, and that's be part of the game of football.

"It's very, very exciting. I think when you lose something and you're away from it, and on top of that you're watching it each week, it really makes you realize how much you miss it."

Every new coach has a plan. First, you get thrust into recruiting. Check. Then it's get to meet and know the players you inherit. Introduce new schemes in all three phases of the game during spring camp. Outside of the rush of recruiting, none of those other aspects fell into a comfortable place.

Spring camp started, and just before the halfway point, it was stopped. The summer months were used to play a catch-up, but even then there was no fluidity with the pandemic. He wouldn't have completely been able to put his stamp on the program, but he would be much further along.

"Let's be real. I got here, got on the road, got recruiting, had the winter program, went into spring ball, felt like, here we go. This is great," Addazio said. "Then seven practices in, it's over and you're separated from the team for months. For everybody, not just us. For any new program, this has been unchartered waters.

"With the fairly limited amount of time we've been able to be together and develop all that chemistry and all those fundamentals and all those philosophical, schematic packages, you're stressed even more. It gives you some anxiety, right, because you're used to what a certain standard should be."

He's a coach who believes in changing things up at practice, just to keep everybody on their toes. Call it sudden change. It's what he dreads every morning when he wakes up, seeing a text certain players are not available today. Maybe for a couple of days.

It's not all about players contracting COVID-19. It includes the normal set of injuries a football team will face and contact tracing. A player doesn't have to be sick to be out, just maybe at the wrong place at the wrong time.

But after so many years of coaching football, now just feels right for Addazio.

"When you stop to think about it, it's bizarre," he said. "But yet, I'd say I speak for all the coaches, and I think the players, in saying man, we're just grateful to be able to be in this position where we actually are playing."

Saturday will feel normal in some ways. Much different than others. The wait itself is primary. He said he was talking to his wife, Kathleen on Sunday night, mentioning the fact they've been her 10 months already and he hasn't coached a game. They haven't even had a real chance to explore all that Northern Colorado has to offer. They love Fort Collins. They know they'll love it even more.

Eventually.

For a spell, he was wondering if his first season at CSU was going to be delayed by more than a full turn of the calendar. For a while, he wondered along with everybody else if there would be a college football season at all.

But now, on Saturday, the plan is to guide his team out of the tunnel to face New Mexico, a team also coached by a first-year mentor in Danny Gonzales. That trip to the field will feel natural, but the reaction won't be the same – there will be no fans in Canvas Stadium.

In 2020, you take what you can get, and right now, a football game is good enough. It's the first time for Addazio to guide the Rams, which is special for him. The veteran coach knows what to expect in that regard, and he can't wait to feel them all again.

"I don't care how veteran you are, how many games you've coached in, if you're nerves arent up, if you don't have that rush of adrenaline and that energy, excitement that goes a long with opening day, you probably shouldn't be coaching anymore," Addazio said. Whether this was my first game here as a head coach, I can only tell you, you get in that tunnel, you get ready to come out, part of that energy and excitement is how are we going to perform under the bright lights, are we going to get exactly what we tried to get and all those questions that go along with it. It's that anticipation and anxiety about it. It's all part of it."

More Adjustments

Playing the numbers game has become a daily occurrence for the Rams. Addazio said the team has been without "15 to 20" players daily, all for various reasons. It has led to a variance of responses from the coaching staff, with players being asked to be versatile, not just within their position group, but sometimes cross the dividing line between offense and defense.

The main concern was a long stretch of camp with limited numbers on the offensive line.

"You have to try to contingency plans," he said. "We're trying to cross-train as many players as we can. It's like in the old days – when I say old days, I mean last fall. You kinda had a starting center and you had a backup center. Well, now you better have four of them because you could lose two of them in a blink. It's a different deal."

He lauded the unselfish approach of the players to pitch in where needed, even if it is something complete new. The silver lining, in being forced to do so, they have found a few "cool" things they probably never would have seen if not for the circumstances.

He'd love to name a starting lineup, but camp has told him whatever decisions have been made on Monday may be altered on Tuesday. He said he's not only used to it, he's come to anticipate sudden change.

The plans even have to extend to the coaches, because they have to be prepared should Addazio or either of his coordinators not be available on a game day. They actually have plans for that, but plans can only go so far.

"Now, I'd be lying to you if I said I said I had a plan for if the whole offensive staff went down," he said with a laugh. "I haven't seen that happen yet. I'm hoping the procedures and protocols we have in place, were doing the best we can so that we don't put ourselves in that situation.

"We're looking at everything and anything and any possible combination. I would say to you along the way in this short camp we've had, not all of them, but a lot of them have already had to be addressed and done because of situations that occurred."

Even more Adjustments

Addazio and his staff already planned on not having Warren Jackson, the Mountain West Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, available. The sting went to another level when tight end Cameron Butler was lost for the season with an undisclosed non-contact injury.

Butler is a big loss for the team and it's explosive ability, but it's a crushing turn of events for the senior from Columbia, S.C., who missed the final five games of 2019 due to injury. He played all 13 games as a true freshman, and has amassed 49 receptions for 555 yards and four touchdowns in his career.

It will put more pressure on the wide receivers in camp, as well as returning all-conference tight end Trey McBride, to keep the passing game productive.

"These other guys have done phenomenal. And they have ability," Addazio said. "The thing that's been a little bit hard, and the challenge is just the consistency of who has been at practice every day and who will be there come Saturday. Certainly the guys we have, if they're all there and they're all healthy, I think we have a high talent level."

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