In the end, Steve Fairchild’s methodical approach to building a football program ran out of time. Only time will tell if he’s right, and the fruits of his labor will prove to be valuable in a season or two – for whomever becomes the new coach at Colorado State.
Fairchild, a former Rams quarterback and assistant coach, was let go after four seasons as the head coach at CSU. The Rams won the New Mexico Bowl after his first year, and then went 3-9 each of the next three seasons. Brand new Athletic Director Jack Graham – a former CSU quarterback himself – elected not to bring Fairchild back for the final year of his contract.
What went wrong? On paper, Fairchild appeared to be a perfect fit for the job. He was a successful assistant coach under Sonny Lubick before moving to the NFL as an assistant. When Lubick was let go after several sluggish seasons, it seemed like Paul Kowalczyk had found the best man available by naming Fairchild the new coach.
Off the field, he never created the “warm and fuzzy” family feeling among his players that Lubick was famous for. Sonny’s guys would run through a wall for him. Steve’s players never seemed to “buy in” in the same fashion.
Recruiting seemed to get a boost from Fairchild and his new staff, made up of some familiar names who had worked for Lubick in the past. But graduation hit hard after that first year, and the new recruits, while showing spurts, never got enough traction to put together a strong full season. Late season swoons became almost expected.
On the field, Fairchild tied his success – up until the last three games of this season – to the maturation and talents of heralded quarterback recruit Pete Thomas. Thrown into the heat of the action as a true freshman, Thomas never got it going, and after starting every game his freshman season, suffered a knee injury and ended up on the bench for the final three of his sophomore campaign. Thomas never displayed the arm strength necessary to make the throws required in Fairchild’s offense. That he never became the player Fairchild had envisioned is a big part of why the coach was fired.
But Thomas was not the only problem. The Rams were ravaged by injuries, yes, but even before they lost players like Mychal Sisson the CSU defense was never scary. They got shredded more often than not, including an embarrassing 31-point third quarter collapse against Air Force.
While the defense was undermanned, the offense was too basic and predictable. For the pro-style offense that Fairchild installed at CSU to work, the Rams would have needed to be pretty much better at almost every position than the guys across the line of scrimmage. The offense didn’t have a lot of deception in it, and it was not that hard to prepare for. It was “here we come try to stop us.” In short, it wasn’t the type of offense that was ever going to work at Colorado State.
The analysis of Fairchild is unanimous: Steve is a very VERY smart football man, and wherever he returns to the game, that team will be getting an excellent offensive mind. It would probably be the best fit for Steve if he were to return to the professional ranks. We’ll see.
There are a glut of head coach openings around college football right now, including some very high profile openings at places like Texas A&M, Penn State, UCLA, Kansas and others. Mountain West newcomer Fresno State just dumped long time coach Pat Hill. There are talented coaches out there looking for head coaching gigs, and they have a lot of jobs to choose from. Graham will have to move swiftly and work hard to sell high level candidates on the opportunities that exist at CSU.
One man he should call ASAP is former CU Buffs coach Gary Barnett, who IS interested in the CSU job, among other openings. That hire would make an immediate splash around here, and bring to Ft.Collins a guy who has won both the Big Ten AND the Big 12 in his coaching career. It would inject life into not only the program, but imagine the fervor surrounding next fall’s Rocky Mountain Showdown with the Buffs?
Here’s hoping that the future is bright for Steve Fairchild. He’s a good man and deserves good things to happen for him.
Comments