VOTE ON THE TAGLINE

I guess "Let's Ram It" didn't make the top 8 choices. If you didn't get a chance to watch the video, go back a couple of posts and get caught up. I'm really not to sure what to make of these choices. Fight for Dominance? Dominance of what? Oh, I get it... when two rams battle each other one of them is trying to be dominant over the other one. So you want our team to fight each other? huh...

Vote for the tagline you feel best represents CSU Athletics. One lucky voter will be randomly selected to win a pair of season tickets to CSU Football, CSU Volleyball, CSU Men's Basketball and CSU Women's Basketball for the 2011-12 athletic seasons! You must complete all forms to officially submit your vote and enter the drawing (with the exception of comments, comments are optional). Duplicate entries will not be accepted. Contest ends 5pm MT May 27, 2011. Winner will be notified via e-mail and/or phone.  

When you're done voting, this screen in the post will go blank so do be alarmed. You didn't break anything.

I'll say it again. When you're done voting, this screen in the post will go blank so do be alarmed. You didn't break anything.

You can also vote at the official CSU Rams athletic website. CLICK HERE

ZAK ATTACK PART II

We continue with part two of our interview with  Zak Gilbert , Colorado State's Director of Media Relations.

How do you change the view of the football program as far as, potentially making new fans and changing the attitudes of already frustrated fans? Follow up: Does that mean you go as far as changing the entire look of the program (which looks like you are already in the process of doing) to get exposure, or, making sure the program is constantly upgrading facilities and having the latest and greatest, etc.
We win. That’s what we do to change perception. Believe me, we’ve done everything from a marketing perspective. In 17 years in this field, our marketing guy at CSU (Ben Chulick) is the smartest and most innovative I’ve seen. Our Denver Initiative has given us more advertising exposure in the Denver area than any college in the state. Several CSU commercials run during every Rockies radio broadcast, for instance. We get outstanding coverage from our Fort Collins and Northern Colorado media. We struggle to get coverage on par with CU from the Denver Post, but I promise you we’ve given that a very strong effort. The day after the CU spring game, the Post devoted a full page of coverage on the back of its sports section. The day after our spring game, despite our efforts, the Post ran a full page on the back of its sports section – on CU offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

But despite having one representative from the Denver Post at our spring game, every Denver TV station sent a reporter. With several writers, radio reporters and Internet media, we had a ton of media there. And if you figure that one member of the media represents a constituency of on average 5,000 fans, and you consider the amount of media we had at our spring football game, you’d think we would have 30-40,000 season-ticket holders. Not true. Fans aren’t showing up in healthy numbers at CSU events. Our marketing and PR efforts have generated great exposure, but fans still don’t show up.

The only thing we can do to change the perception, and increase those numbers, is to win.

How do you see the academic probation process affecting players after sitting out practices to focus on studies rather than working on skills that would help the team?

We take academics very seriously; that’s why those guys didn’t practice during that week. Hopefully, they didn’t fall far behind with respect to their football preparations. Steve Fairchild told those guys if they didn’t take care of their academics, they wouldn’t practice, and he followed through on that.

During CSU’s heyday in the 90’s and early 2000’s, the Rams were a staple on Thursday night football. Given the success of the program at that time and national media exposure it brought, why are we not doing this anymore?

In the middle of this past decade, the Mountain West launched the first TV network devoted exclusively to a single college conference: The Mtn. At the time, ESPN was asking us to play games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and our athletic directors balked, and opted to start their own network, and partner with other networks, allowing us to continue to play games on Thursday nights and traditional Saturdays.

Now, ESPN airs Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt, WAC and Conference USA games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. We wanted to continue to play on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Every major conference now has its own TV network, a trend we began. Our network is available nationally on DIRECTV.

Who's idea was it to install a countdown clock for the beginning of the season and do you see it affecting the Rams as far as; is it getting them pumped up; are they getting nervous, etc.?

Coach Fairchild made that call after consulting with his 12-member player council. It correlates to our program’s No. 1 goal this season: Beat New Mexico. Every day a guy gets dressed in that locker room, his mind is on our No. 1 goal.

Any plans for a new stadium?

Honestly, I wish as I look out my window here in the McGraw Center I could see a 32,500-seat stadium right in the middle of our intramural fields. I jog around those fields and I know it’s basically a mile around the complex. Our campus certainly is big enough to accommodate a football stadium. In fact, Jim Williams and Fum McGraw had plans to build a stadium there, on campus, but our university president in the middle of the last century didn’t think athletics was a major priority and wouldn’t allow us to do it. Hughes as we speak is undergoing a major landscaping facelift, to beautify the area. You probably know our donors have invested millions of dollars into the facility in the very recent past. We have a new surface. And with the state of our budget and the economy, obviously, we’re not going to tear it down any time soon and build another stadium.

What are the some of the biggest challenges you face on a daily basis?

More than a year ago, I saw one of our fans post on RamNation that most CSU alumni and fans don’t show up for games, they don’t donate to the Ram Club so we can pay our athletes’ scholarships, they don’t drive up from Denver to support us and they care only about one football and one basketball game every year – when we play CU.

We have a lot of outstanding and loyal supporters, and we’re extremely grateful for them. But we also have a lot of people out there who could be supporting their school and don’t. The biggest challenges I face on a daily basis are related to the issues that fan posted last year.

What was the reaction or impact to the “Defend the Fort” marketing campaign?

Ben Chulick, as I mentioned, is one of the best marketing strategists in the country. He was like a 5-year-old thrown in a silo of chocolate when we got our new Moby Arena video board in October, because his passion is to get fans excited. He was the brains behind that Defend the Fort campaign. I thought it was extremely well received all over the state. We even heard positive feedback nationally. After two years, though, it’s time to retire that slogan and launch another one, so stay tuned.

It always seems that Denver is a hot bed for CSU alum, yet, it is flooded with CU Buff pride. How do you tap into that market more to have more of presence?

The Denver Initiative has worked very hard to do just that for several years. Here’s a story for reference: Bold Presents In Denver

As a Denver resident, I find it difficult to even watch the games on The Mtn network. Has there been any discussion regarding to creating an official CSU bar/restaurant in the LoDo area? To my knowledge, there is the CB & Potts on Arapahoe Rd (20 miles south of downtown) and the Whiskey Bar, which is hardly a sports bar limited space, and hardly any advertising. What about places like Jackson’s, Sports Column, My Brother’s Bar etc. Surely, this would bring in additional business and help create a more unified CSU/Denver fan base. Thoughts?

In Denver, if you have DirecTV or Comcast, two very prominent providers, you can watch The Mtn. Dish doesn’t carry The Mtn., so as a supporter of CSU, I would not want Dish until it carries our network. I don’t know of any plans for an official CSU restaurant. We would need some obvious guarantees that the revenue would outweigh the cost of such an idea.

Since you are a CU grad, do you receive any criticism or grief because of where you received your diploma? Who do you root for in the Rocky Mtn Showdown?

I root for the school on my paycheck. Fort Collins is my hometown. When I graduated high school, I delivered an FCHS commencement address in Moby Arena. I served as the PR director of the local Men’s Senior Baseball League, and was voted senior league commissioner of Fort Collins Youth Baseball, both when I was in junior high. I didn’t get along with my parents in high school and wanted an affordable, in-state change of scenery, so I went to Boulder. But this is my home. I still have good friends at CU, but I am intensely loyal to Steve Fairchild and the Rams. 

Hopefully this fulfilled some of your questions you had about the program. Thanks Zak for taking some time to answer our questions and good luck on the world tour. Hopefully Zak Attack will come out with a full length album soon and hopefully "Friends Forever" won't be your only single. Tell Slater he needs to brush up on his percussion skills.

CURE BOREDOM: LET'S GO RAM IT!?

Video starts 12 seconds in for some reason.

What would it take for the CSU Ram cheerleaders, Pete, and the rest of the boys to reenact this awful video? This L.A. Rams video was made back in the 1980's where it seemed like every NFL team made a crappy music video to go along with their team "fight song" that sounds like it was written in about 5 minutes by some dude that wanted to exploit rhythm-less athletes. Amazingly the choreography is tip top and these guys know their steps. On the other hand, I don't know why they felt like they had to sing "They can catch a pass", or tackle someone. Terrible. If I remember right, Colorado State tried this campaign in the past. It was called "Let's Go Ram'n!" and I believe that also failed.

Here are some other awful NFL team videos.
L.A. Raiders
Philadelphia Eagles
San Fransisco 49ers
Miami Dolphins   (This one is so stupid)

ZAK ATTACK PART I

Recently we had a chance to ask Zak Gilbert , Colorado State's Director of Media Relations, some questions and we wanted to get his thoughts on where the team and program were headed. We did have quite a few questions and Zak was gracious enough to give us some great answers. Because of the length we had to split it up into two posts, so we give you Zak Attack Part One.

In two short years, many of the football team's leadership will be seniors.

Where do you see the team's progress at that point?

Four years ago when we changed coaching staffs, there was very little in the cupboard. Special teams probably revealed this alarming fact more than any other area. We had no depth. If you look at the number of all-conference selections we had during the first half of last decade, compared to the last half, it was night and day. The overall talent level and depth of the team had decreased dramatically after we played that bowl game in San Francisco.

The talent in our younger classes currently is the product of countless hours and miles of recruiting. Steve Fairchild two years ago literally covered the country from one tip of the continent (Miami, Alex Tucci) to the other (Seattle, John Froland). This staff has put in the work to recruit, and we definitely have the talent.

This morning, I had to run home. On my way to my car, I talked to two players, Pete Thomas and Crockett Gillmore. If we are going to succeed, no question those two guys will have a lot to do with it.

We have a returning starter at QB for the first time since 2007, and he’s good. He’s also smart. In two years, with a Pete Thomas as our senior quarterback, I’d be shocked if we’re not among the favorites for the Mountain West championship. But he can’t win by himself. I believe we will have the talent to support him, with guys like Gillmore, and that talent will have the system down very well.

What makes athletes want to attend Colorado State University? What part do you play in that process?

We have the best place to live in the U.S. according to Money Magazine, but I believe they want to come here because of the people, and specifically the coaching staff. Pat Meyer is a really neat personality. He’s real and he’s genuine, but he doesn’t try to be someone he’s not. He also has a great sense of humor. Our other coaches are very similar, real, honest, genuine and personable. A recruit meets several people during a campus visit, including when he’s available President Tony Frank. I’m not in the process until a recruit commits, at which time the NCAA allows me to e-mail him to collect biographical info to prepare for our major signing day announcement. They certainly don’t need me to make their decision, though.

Our coaches have received their share of criticism for the on-field results the past two years, and that criticism is understandable. However, what most people don’t see is the work coaches have done in recruiting and restocking our cupboard with some seriously talented young men. I believe this is the year those efforts will start to show up on the field.

The other major reason a recruit chooses to come here, at least from an offensive standpoint, is our pro-style offense. One third of the NFL teams currently use our offense. Our QB goes under center. We run a version of the old Air Coryell offense, the one used by Dan Fouts in the late 1970s, and by Joe Gibbs when he won those Super Bowls in the early 80s. A decade later, the Cowboys used it to win all those titles. Recruits know that, and they listen to NFL scouts that bash the spread offenses all over college football currently. We’re a minority in the college game, but it’s attractive to recruits.

We also have vowed to play a true freshman if he can help us win, even if he can run down on a kickoff and consistently make tackles to give us an edge in field position. Obviously, the ability to play early is attractive.

What have been some struggles CSU has had to bring top prospects here to Fort Collins? Is it a perception or image problem?

No, it’s not a perception or image problem. Quite simply, if we lose a recruit, it’s probably because we’ve only been to two bowl games since we played BC in San Francisco in 2003. We go toe-to-toe against the big schools on recruits all the time. We win some, like Kapri Bibbs and Weston Richburg (Gary Patterson I believe knows he missed on Richburg), and we lose some, but we never stop fighting.

What do you think the Rams' biggest weakness is as the end of Spring practices come to an end?

We’re very thin at middle linebacker, because Michael Kawulok sustained a season-ending knee injury.

What do you think the Ram's have improved in Spring practices?

The ability to audible and adjust from an offensive standpoint, simply due to more experience in the system. Last year, we were meat and potatoes.

This year, we’re a five-course meal with respect to our offensive approach. Defensively, our new technique on the defensive line and in the secondary should help us slice the number of third-down conversions we allow. We modeled those new techniques after those used by the country’s best defenses.

Part I of this interview was brought to you by:

Pete Thomas' Buddy Bands

To be continued...

CONGRATS TO ERIC PEITZ, AND OTHER VARIOUS TOPICS

Original AP Photo

Always good to hear about a Ram winning an award. We have to recognize tight end Eric Peitz receiving a spot on the 2011 National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society national team. Eric has kept 3.68 GPA and wants to attend medical school. I on the other hand maintained a solid 2.3 GPA and held the prestigious position of meter maid, aka "parking nazi". Or, as I like to call it parking enforcement officer. Relieved to say I will not be attending medical school but hopefully Eric will. He can be my doctor when I get thumped for slapping a third 20 minute parking violation ticket on someone's SUV. Ah, those were the good ole days. Anyway, it's great to see under Steve Fairchild so many of his athletes maintain a remarkable grade point average. It just goes to show we really have a smart group and they actually put academics in front of sports. Now if we can just apply that to the field. Good job Eric, You make our Ram nation proud.

Another point on the BCS and the NCAA

I know we totally drown this topic but it gets on my nerves everytime I read something like this. One of readers, Alex M., sent me a great little article (CLICK HERE TO READ)  about why NCAA D1 football does not have a playoff system. Basically, the NCAA is willing to move to a playoff system but are only willing if the nation's big college football programs are. So school's like Alabama are controlling the whole scene? The NCAA has absolutely no power and the BCS's rein of terror will continue. Those suckers!
By the way. Alex has a great blog called Alex's World. Click here to check it out.

Another award was given out this week

Thanks to the nomination by reader Adam N., Tony Drake won a Gold Helmet Award for being the fastest man on campus with a 4.37 second 40 time. The award was added. Consider this the ceremony/after party/hangover the next day. Also, I'm trying to get the Gold and Pink Helmet Awards page up on Facebook so you can nominate from there but Facebook is a piece of shit and doesn't like me sometimes.  Thanks Adam for the nomination.


Did anyone read about the 12 year 3 billion dollar TV contract the PAC 12 signed? I bet it feels pretty good to be a west coast wanna-be mooch, right Puffs? Am I right, or am I right.