Bobo has history with No. 1 Crimson Tide

FORT COLLINS» There was no overselling, a la Lou Holtz. Then again, it’s hard to oversell a program like Alabama, the No. 1 team in the nation and a program that has won four of the past eight national championships and lost in the most recent title game in January.

For Colorado State coach Mike Bobo, it was just the facts heading into Saturday’s game.

At one stage of Monday’s news conference, he started reading off the heights and weights of the players they will be facing, noting some of them were down the depth chart and comparing the defensive front to an NFL defensive line.

But it’s not like Bobo hasn’t been there before. Oddly enough, through a four-year playing career and 14 seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia, he has been to Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., only three times.

Bobo knows enough that it is a special place and program — and to take a playful jab as his offensive line coach and offensive coordinator.

“The first time I went there, it was 1994, and it was my second year in school and Eric Zeier was the quarterback,” Bobo recalled. “I was a redshirt freshman, and it was at night, and I just remember it was an electric, electric environment. We had a chance to win that game, and we didn’t convert on a third down, and I remember we couldn’t sack (Alabama quarterback) Jay Barker. He must have broken 10 tackles that should have been sacks. I think we were wearing out (current CSU offensive coordinator) Will Friend, who was their guard at the time, but Jay Barker kept avoiding the sacks.

“Just a great environment, a lot of pageantry in a place like Alabama. You’re talking about a team that’s won what, 16 national championships? They’ve been successful for a long time, and the current run they’re on now is really, really impressive.”

Bobo the player watched his Georgia team lose a game it led 21-7 at one point, with the Crimson Tide kicking a field goal in the final 1:30 of the game. As an assistant coach, the offense he was working with was unbeaten, topping ’Bama 27-25 in 2002 and 26-23 in 2007.

That was then, and this is now, and the Tide is still a handful. Bobo didn’t oversell the task in front of his Rams, but then again, the facts are impressive enough.

The top-ranked team in a 101,000-seat stadium with a crowd that will sing “Sweet Home Alabama” during warm-ups and after every score is a lot of hoopla, but CSU will travel with the intent on being successful.

“We’ve got to focus on us,” Bobo said. “We’ve got to make sure we know our assignments, because if you’ve got any hesitation or you don’t know what you’re doing as a football player in any phase of the game, then that’s where they’re really, really going to expose you. We’ve got to concentrate on Colorado State. We’ve got to improve what we’re doing fundamentally and schematically and then go out there and play — just cut it loose.”