Rams must consider contingency plan if Bobo can’t coach in opener
FORT COLLINS» Mike Bobo remains hospitalized.
With the season opener against Hawaii awaiting Colorado State at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the question of whether the Rams’ head coach will be in attendance remains unanswered. Athletic director Joe Parker said Monday that Bobo remains in a Denver hospital and that contingency plans are starting to be worked out in case Bobo is unable to coach this week. CSU wasn’t prepared to announce exactly what those contingencies are, remaining optimistic its coach will return in time.
“The doctors are close (to finding a diagnosis),” Parker said. “They’ve run a lot of good diagnostics here, they were settling in on one or two things, and just how things were manifesting, they thought maybe it could be a third, so that was the transition down to Denver, just to put him in front of people who’ve seen these things more often.
“(Doctors) were going to do one thing today, and then I think they’ve probably done every thing they could at the current time in the hospital, and then all the treatment could probably be arranged — whatever that path is — that’s more outpatient. Before the transfer down to Denver (from a northern Colorado hospital), we were expecting he
would be discharged sometime last week, but I know he’s frustrated. He wants to be present.”
Bobo is suffering from numbness in his feet.
Parker said that Bobo has “done a remarkable job” staying in touch with his staff over the past nine days, joking that the coach is probably working too much. Defensive coordinator John Jancek said he and Bobo have spoken fre- quently, with Bobo criticizing practice film where linebackers are out of position.
“It’s hard to keep a man like Mike Bobo down,” Parker said. “We expect, at some point yet to be identified, that he will rejoin this football team.”
Bobo, 44, was hospitalized following CSU’s scrimmage at Canvas Stadium on Aug. 11 when he was feeling numbness in his feet, a sensation he had mentioned throughout camp. He released a statement Wednesday that said he was receiving a multiday treatment for peripheral neuropathy, a broad and common diagnosis of pain and numbness in the hands and feet caused by nerve damage; it’s often linked to diabetes.
Practices have been following the same road map they had been before the coach’s absence and have been led as a joint effort by the staff rather than by one person, though Ronnie Letson is CSU’s assistant head coach.
CSU offensive coordinator Dave Johnson said that it hasn’t been finalized who would call plays should Bobo not be in attendance Saturday.
“The plan is in place with things we’ve been working on all summer for this game. We’ve tweaked a few things in the last week or so, but nothing that is far off from how we were going to attack this game earlier in the summer,” Johnson said. “It’s not really affecting our preparation. It’s just a matter of who’s going to have the call sheet and make that decision.”