Rams eager to overcome frustration of 7-6 seasons

FORT COLLINS» The decade started with a large cloud hanging overhead.

A trio of 3-9 seasons were followed by a 4-8 mark, and the fans were wondering if Colorado State was ever going to be prominent again anytime soon. Then a string of five consecutive winning seasons followed, one being a 10-victory campaign, and things were looking up.

But as the Rams open their 2018 fall camp, the fourth under head coach Mike Bobo, there is a sense of frustration.

The program has winning seasons, but barely — a trio of 7-6 marks in Bobo’s tenure. Each one of them has ended with a bowlgame loss in which the team was favored. Recently, the Rams can’t win the big games, either.

CSU has dropped three straight to Colorado. It has won just one of the past four meetings with Air Force and has watched the Bronze Boot exit for Laramie in each of the past two campaigns.

It’s all irritating, but the final record is what gets to running back Izzy Matthews the most.

“That’s tough. I think where the bowl games come from, and what we’re trying to correct this year, at the beginning of the year we’ve said, ‘Hey, we want to win the Mountain West this year,’ ” he started. “When it comes to the end of the season and we’ve been put out of the race, the team gets discouraged, so we come to these bowl games flat.

“The other two, it’s probably the 7-6. It’s such a daunting number. Three years in a row to be 7-6, you’re really at this point like stagnation. Like you’ve plateaued, you can only go up or down. I swear, if we go 7-6 another year ... that would be incredible. We’re trying to beat that stagnation and do something different to make a different result happen. ... This year, we really do have a different approach to the season.”

That’s a must, because the roster has a much different makeup. No one is considering the Rams to be a title contender, not with the key losses on offense and the complete shake-up on defense. They are limited on returning starters and name players.

Armed with a contract extension that runs through 2022, Bobo said the goal is the same every season. Try to win every game. Beat the rivals. Win the Mountain Division to play for the Mountain West championship, then win that game too. Then go on to win a bowl.

“I mean, you learn a lot when you don’t reach certain goals,” Bobo said. “When you so-tospeak fail. We didn’t finish last year. We have to be able to finish games and finish seasons. Some of that is finishing games where we lost the lead. Finishing the season is winning the last game of the season. How are we going to do that? It’s coach speak, but it’s by handling your business on a daily basis, so that was the message in the spring.

“It’s 2018, it’s a new year, but the most important day is today, and that’s going to be my message again Thursday when I meet with the team: We’ve got to finish. It 2018, it’s a new team, new leadership, so what are we going to do on a daily basis?”