Fairchild's second class at CSU a breeze

New to the Rams last season, coach builds momentum

By Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 4, 2009 at 10:38 a.m.

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Joe Mahoney © The Rocky

ThunderRidge running back Chris Nwoke is the only Colorado high school player signed by Colorado State.

What a difference a year makes for Steve Fairchild and the Colorado State football program.

"A year ago, we were trying to hire a staff and we had four weeks to recruit," Fairchild said. "This year, we had a full-year run at it. We were able to evaluate guys throughout the whole year and get on guys early and be able to go after the top-notch guys."

Fairchild, who was hired to replace Sonny Lubick after the 2007 season, announced his second recruiting class Wednesday that features 20 freshmen and two junior-college players.

How does Fairchild evaluate this class?

"Best in the country," he said, jokingly. "I really have no idea. We feel we've got a great group of guys. It's now our obligation to develop these kids."

CSU went 7-6 in Fairchild's first season and beat Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl to build recruiting momentum.

"The success we had late in the year, the bowl game and the Mountain West season certainly helped us," Fairchild said. "I think that opened guys' eyes."

CSU signed only one player from Colorado, running back Chris Nwoke of ThunderRidge, though two 2008 grayshirts - Justin Becker of ThunderRidge and Matt Weems of Arapahoe - are included in this year's class.

"We recruit the state of Colorado first," Fairchild said. "If we could sign our entire class from the state of Colorado, we would do that. But we do like other universities in similar population- type areas, and we have to be prepared to go far and wide to fill out our class.

"I was impressed with our staff's ability to get into the state of Texas. We signed six kids from the state of Texas and five from the state of Florida."

Immediate impact

Pete Kontodiakos, the best high school punter in the country according to Ray Guy's Prokicker.com, probably will start as a freshman. Anthony Hartz, the punter last season, has left the team.

Kontodiakos, of Countryside High School in Tarpon Springs, Fla, was the first-team punter on USA Today's All-America team. He was recruited by Georgia, Tennessee, Purdue and Florida and was offered a scholarship by New Mexico.

"We anticipate him being our regular punter for four years," Fairchild said.

Sleeper

Defensive end C.J. James graduated early from Colonial High School in Orlando, Fla., and is enrolled at CSU. He'll participate in spring drills and could compete for playing time as a true freshman.

"He has a real shot at it," Fairchild said of the 6-foot-3, 238-pound James, who made a school-record 110 tackles last season. "He's already big enough to play."

The Rams lost both starting defensive ends from last season.

Ones who got away

The Rams lost three players who committed early in the recruiting process. Safety Donavan Bonner signed with Missouri, safety Jansen Watson signed with Iowa State and linebacker Jared Koster signed with UCLA.

"That's part of the game," Fairchild said. "You're going to lose a couple guys."

Did you know?

* Cameron Moss is the son of former UCLA defensive end Martin Moss, who played for the Detroit Lions. Martin Moss played high school football against Fairchild. Moss' mother, Lianne, was a cheerleader at Fairview High School, and his uncle, Mike Williams, played at Northern Colorado.

Etc.

* Junior-college quarterback Jon Eastman, a native of Fort Morgan, is one of 11 children. All his brothers played quarterback in college. His brother Eric was a junior-college quarterback, Caleb played at Idaho State, Seth at Air Force and Adam is currently at Utah State.

* Travis Ford, a defensive back from Laney College in Oakland, Calif., signed with CSU after the 2008 season but got sick, affecting his academics, and was not able to enroll this semester. CSU is continuing to recruit him and hopes to add him before preseason camp.

* Safety Ezra Thompson is noted for highlight-reel hits and honed his physical prowess by playing hockey as a youngster.

* Linebacker Mike Orakpo's older brother, Brian, was a first-team All-American last season at Texas, where he won the Lombardi and Hendricks awards as well as the Nagurski Trophy.

* Six players from this class are enrolled for the spring semester: Eastman; junior-college running back Leonard Mason; 2008 grayshirt signees Becker, Weems and Jordan Gragert; and James.

How did you do?

"We're not going to get everyone we want, and we don't expect to get everyone, but we're surely going to be a competitor (for) the top talent in the nation."

Fairchild

* Grayshirts who signed in 2008.

• February 4, 2009

  5:02 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  ifyem writes:

  Wow! Impressive class! Excuse the sarcasm...

• February 4, 2009

  9:13 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Cutler6 writes:

  Go post on your CU board ifyem

• February 5, 2009

  9:04 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ramAZ writes:

  Hey Ifyem... did you make the trip out to see CU in their bowl game? Oh yeah, they weren't in one. Excuse the sarcasm.

  ***

  Something encouraging about Fairchild and the CSU program is the number of kids out of Texas and Florida. The hot beds for high school football are TX, Fla, and California. Lubick made his living getting kids out of California. It's interesting to see the Texas and Florida kids going to Ft Collins. Going toe to toe with TCU probably didn't hurt.

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