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Fairchild, CSU take big step forward

By Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 21, 2008 at 10:48 p.m.

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Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild gets drenched by his players as they celebrate their New Mexico Bowl victory Saturday against Fresno State in Albuquerque.

Photo by Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press

Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild gets drenched by his players as they celebrate their New Mexico Bowl victory Saturday against Fresno State in Albuquerque.

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Steve Fairchild has a vision of where he'd like to see the Colorado State football program go but the Rams coach won't put a timetable on his revelation.

CSU capped a 7-6 campaign with a 40-35 victory over Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday and the seven victories matched the combined total of Rams wins over the past two seasons.

Fairchild won the most games ever for a first-year CSU coach and was the only coach to guide his team into a bowl game in his inaugural season.

"We still have a long way to go," Fairchild said. "We're losing some very good players. When our program is up and running the way it should be, you've got three or four recruiting classes and all those spring balls.

"We're making strides, we've got to keep working and there's going to be some bumps in the road but Colorado State is a special place and is very capable of getting back on top of the (Mountain West) conference. I aspire one day we will be back."

Fairchild hopes the Rams will soon re-establish their position as one of the league's best teams.

"At one point in time, Colorado State was the elite team in the Mountain West Conference but for whatever reason it dropped off," Fairchild said. "Now you have Utah, TCU and BYU at the top. It's our job now to go catch them, which we will.

"I'll just stick with what I've been saying, that we kept getting better this year. I know we are going to keep practicing with the type of tempo we want to have from a coaching standpoint and we're going to be better every time we go out there."

CSU will lose eight seniors who were among the 22 players that started in Saturday's New Mexico Bowl. Among the standouts the Rams will have to replace are: running back Gartrell Johnson, who rushed for 285 yards and an Football Bowl Subdivision bowl-

record 375 yards from scrimmage in the win over Fresno State; tight end Kory Sperry; linebacker Jeff Horinek; defensive end Tommie Hill; and safety Mike Pagnotta .

And, for the second consecutive season, Fairchild will have to develop a starting quarterback as Billy Farris will graduate.

However, the Rams had 51 underclassmen on their offensive and defensive depth charts for the New Mexico Bowl and 17 of those players were freshmen.

"Things are looking up," sophomore running back John Mosure said. "Just with . . . the young talent that we have, I know that we are going to be going a long way next year."

Freshman linebacker Mychal Sisson believes the future is bright for the Rams.

"I feel CSU is coming back to the top," he said. "We're going to be one of the top teams in our conference and I think we're going to be playing in more bowl games in the future and big ones."

Comments

  • December 22, 2008

    1:55 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Classof80 writes:

    Here's a little saying for some of you :
    2 tickets to watch CSU in the New Mexico Bowl $60
    2 tailgate passes ........................... $30
    Winning a bowl on on ESPN while CU sits at home and watches:..... PRICELESS

    Congrats CSU

  • December 22, 2008

    4:52 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rammed writes:

    forget about cu.......they have nothing to do with the success of this football season! the Rams take care of business for themselves, not in regards to how the cu faithful is affected.
    congrats to the coaching staff for turning around a bunch of quality athletes.