College Football: Colorado State's Turnaround in 2008

The Colorado State Rams will kick off the 2008 season under new leadership.  Former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator, Steve Fairchild returns to his alma mater with hopes of coaching the Rams to success. 

Fairchild formerly served as the Rams' QB coach and offensive coordinator from 1993 until he left for the NFL in 2000. During his earlier tenure at CSU, the Rams went to five bowl games in eight years.

The new head coach has cleared the depth chart and every position is up for grabs.

The Rams return 14 starters; eight on offense and six on defense. However, the offensive numbers do not include RB Kyle Bell, G Scott Benedict, and TE Kory Sperry—all had significant playing time and started multiple games as well.  

The main goals for this team are to learn the new coaching scheme and get comfortable with both the new staff and their playbook. 

Also, the team needs to replace former QB Caleb Hanie. The job is wide open and there is a large pool of possible replacements from which to choose, including Senior Billy Farris, Junior Grant Stucker, and Senior Michael Meyers.

Some incoming transfers to watch are: WR Ryan Gardner from Diablo Valley College, OL Connor Smith from Northwestern (Smith all ready sat out 2007), DT Sevaro Johnson from Laney College, and finally DE Sam Stewart who transferred in from Santa Ana College.

The Rams also need to find a way this spring to incorporate RB’s Kyle Bell and Gatrell Johnson III, who are both legit starters. Johnson came on strong when Bell was still recovering from his ACL injury.

The Rams will be working on several things this spring, but look for the CSU to be one of the most improved teams in the conference this year. 

That is just a sneak peak of my 2008 preview for the Rams.

Here are some video links of new Coach Steve Fairchild on spring practice: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

For more Mountain West info click here.

 

2008 CSU FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
DATE	OPPONENT
8-30-08	Colorado @Denver, CO
9-6-08	SACRAMENTO STATE
9-20-08	HOUSTON
9-27-08	at California
TBA	at Wyoming
TBA	at Utah
TBA	UNLV
TBA	TCU
TBA	at San Diego State
TBA	BRIGHAM YOUNG
TBA	at Air Force
TBA	NEW MEXICO