Colorado State Head Football Coach Jim McElwain Signing Day Press Conference Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2012 (Opening comments) I can t tell you how exciting of a day it is and what a great day it is to be a Ram. This is a culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. When I say that, the entire Ram family, it starts obviously with our coaching staff, who did just an outstanding job with what they have done in this yearlong process. As we start even on next year s class, which we already got a start on this morning with some guys that called in, it is a yearlong process. With that process comes a lot of different things and a lot of different people involved. One of the things that I am really appreciative of is this family, this Colorado State University family and what I mean by that is that when these young men come on campus with their families, just the amount of warmth and energy that is generated throughout our campus and our community. That stretches from the President s office, the involvement that a lot a lot of our vice presidents had in our recruiting, our deans and faculty members. I can t tell you the amount of help and it really goes to show you the amount of pride that this University has in what we have to offer. What it really goes back to is to open the windows of everybody about what a great place this is. When you look at this recruiting class, the amount of space that it has been recruited from shows that national visibility that has really come, as well as what we have done knocking down the doors in the most important state, and that is the state of Colorado. I can t tell you how proud I am of those guys for holding to their commitments to this family and holding down the fort as far as making this a wonderful, wonderful day for everyone associated with Colorado State football and this campus. We are really excited about the quality of individuals we have brought in. We have answered some needs. As you guys have probably figured out so far I will not anoint anyone in this class as the next great super star. That is something that they have to come here and prove. Obviously, each and every one of them we expect to come and be impact players at some time in their career. That is something that we anticipate and look at. With this yearlong process now, this particular recruiting class, really getting down and getting to know these guys. The relationships that our coaching staff, the relationships that when they came on campus, that all the people involved in the recruiting arm of what we need to get done. Our wives did an unbelievable job. I would be remised not to say how involved they were in knowing, and when these kids get here, knowing that they have a place to call home. I really can t tell you what a great job they have done. The people over in the cafeteria on campus, when we take them through there. What an outstanding place this is. It just goes on and on and on when you talk about the people involved and what it takes to get someone committed. A lot of these guys had a lot of opportunities at a lot of different universities and chose to join our family. That speaks volumes to who we are and who Colorado State is. That is what is really exciting about it. When you look at some of the statistical breakdowns and the positions in which we needed to answer. I think we have answered in our receiving corps. We obviously lost a lot of good receivers from this last year and I think we need to replenish that. I think you can also see from a size standpoint what we were trying to accomplish at those spots. These are some dynamic playmakers, who have proven it in high school; now we will see how it translates to the college level. I am really excited from a skills standpoint in our quarterback (signee Nick Stevens). I just can t say enough about a guy who was about 27 1 as a starter at a high level of football in California. He is a guy that brings in over a 4.0 GPA. Here is a guy that comes in and is really a true leader. He fended off multiple, multiple offers after he had committed to us and that just tells you the type of character this young man has. I am really excited to get him into our program. We currently have five new signees that are with us, including another one
from last year s class (Brett Jordan), and they are with our team right now and working out. Obviously, some of those being defensive lineman that we felt we needed some instant help at. I think we have answered that bell. We will see how they work out when we get to the Ram U program, which coach (Mike) Kent and our strength staff can t wait to get to. I know our returning players have told our new guys you re in for a ton of fun. We are ready to get that started as we move forward. I just can t say and reiterate enough the amount of support of the people. That is really what it is. It isn t a fancy room (that attracts a recruit), it isn t a fancy locker room, it isn t the fancy meeting rooms. It is about the people. That is what makes a place and that s what makes Colorado State unlike anywhere else in this country; the people around and the people involved in our program is what makes it great. (on Zack Golditch) That was just such a horrific ordeal that Zack went through. The outpouring of support from the CSU community when that went out, I think that speaks volumes. For him as a leader, he s a guy at that school that when you look at his bio and the things that he s done, he s a guy that had opportunities to maybe go to another school as a youngster and wanted to stay and go play with his teammates. What they did and how they elevated that program, Zack was a big part of that. Obviously, we are proud of him to be a Ram. (on the difference between recruiting last year and this year) Establishing the basis of what recruiting is, it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of man hours; it takes a lot of great people to put together a great player personnel department. The actual process of recruiting, the actual understanding what the individual traits at a position, not just is he a good football player, but the intangibles that go into that. It s leadership. You see the amount of team captains that we had this year. What kind of students are they and will they blend to the Colorado State and Fort Collins community. That is something that we were able to this year do a better job because it wasn t so rushed. We are able to start off these guys when they are younger, get them on campus and give us a chance to really get to know them, and really see if they are going to be a fit. That is part of our responsibility to see if they are going to be a fit to what we are doing here. (on how many of the current signees were targeted at this time last year) That is a great question. There are certain guys that call in, juniors and sophomores already, our future recruiting classes that we have already been on the phone with since 7 o clock this morning. This is a never ending process. The one thing you have to do is every single day you have to recruit. If you re not, someone else is. It s one thing I really pride our staff in, and the people involved that understand how important it is. I can t tell you the exact number because I didn t look at the people who called in this time last year, but I would say probably eight of these guys that we actually targeted from the time that we got here a year ago. It s important because you re recruiting this class but you re also recruiting the future. At a place like Colorado State the most important thing you can do is sell the people because that is who we are and who we are all about. Getting in on that early is what we are all about. (on the importance of bringing proven winners into the CSU family) Guys that are used to winning, they find it really hard to throw in the towel because they re used to winning. That is something that s so important because it says a lot about a guy that knows how to win. Winning does not come easy. Winning is part of the preparation put into it, the day to day work ethic on what you have to do every single day to be successful and, in the case of these guys, I think that that s one of those intangibles; that somebody may be used to losing and it may be easy, but those guys are winners. They always have a way to kind of dig down deep and find a way to get it done. So, that s something that we obviously look at.
(on the importance of getting in state recruits, especially after a coaching change at Colorado) I don t really worry about those guys. I know that the guys that are with us are going to be great Rams and they re going to help us in the future recruit a lot of future Rams in this area as we move forward. I would say this; a couple coaches that I ve talked to as we all just sit and chew our fingernails well, I chew my fingernails going into signing day you know what I think was really kind of satisfying a little bit from a coach is that we make our own evaluations. We re not one of those, well, they offered him, so we have to offer him, that s not our gig. They fit the criteria that we deem a successful football player is going to be, in each position. But with that, basically all of these guys had other opportunities at some major Division I universities. For them to stay with us, for them to hold off when maybe some other guys tried to come in and fish in your pond after you ve done all the work, we throw all the chum out and they just try to throw a quick fly in the middle and try to reel them in. For us to stay on with these guys, for them to be courted by many other schools, says and speaks volumes about what this kind of recruiting class is. It s a recruiting class and I m not big on where it stands from all the outside guys the amount of coaches from other schools that are saying, hey, your guys are doing a great job out there on the road. That s what it s all about. (On evaluation of the talent in Colorado) Well, I think there s great (talent), I would hope (for five or six in state recruits per year). And that s what we re trying to do. Some years, it may be more. Each year, each recruiting class is its own animal. It s always interesting, a long time ago we had a coach who it seemed like every other year he d have about nine recruits in his area one year and the next year he d have none. Well, the way that works is you don t know year to year where the talent is. But I do know this: Colorado football is good and there are a lot of good players here. We re going to continue to evaluate, first come. They are the ones that we ve offered first, they are the ones that we re out trying to recruit, and we ll continue to do that. I think what the state will understand is that we re here to stay. I understand how you build a program. You build it geographically, in state first. (on the change of culture after his hire and how that affected recruits) Even some of the comments that maybe you guys received from these different guys that may be committed to us, they saw how committed our team was when they were here on business. They could feel the family atmosphere, that guys really cared about each other, and knew the direction that we re headed. So with that, I think the kids that we recruited in this class, I think that s a testament for what is happening for the evolution of who we are and what we re all about. (on the signing of Kapri Bibbs) I know how excited I am he s here. Here is the one interesting thing about Kapri obviously (he has) what a running back needs, he s a guy that fits into that. But when you look at the guy s bio, I think he s the only guy that lettered in bowling. Our running backs coach and special teams coordinator who does an outstanding job we had a staff team bowling tournament right before the season, and I ve got to tell you the truth on this, we had 10 man teams and threw out the two low scores and that s what your team score was, and they won some outstanding looking bowling shirts his coach bowled a 216. He s the only guy you ve got to worry about in spring recruiting I know he s not taking his golf clubs the guy takes his bowling ball when he goes and recruits. I was really excited about Kapri and he ll be a great addition. He s going to be a little rusty now, because he sat out last season, but it ll be interesting to see him come spring ball.
(on the addition of high school wide receivers rather than junior college transfers and whether they ll contribute immediately) Absolutely. We actually take a look in the recruiting process if there is a position that maybe is a little easier to come in and play right away it might be receiver. Now they re going to get bigger and faster as they re here because of what they re doing with Coach (Mike) Kent and Rashad Harris in the strength program. With that, I think they can get on a little faster than some of the other positions. (on whether he was targeting bigger wideouts in this recruiting class) Here s what I was hoping: that just one of the guys was taller than I was (laughs). And I think we got four of them. That was obviously a point of emphasis, sure. Plus, I ve got a bunch of coaches that love high school basketball. Being able to go watch these guys on the basketball court, you re talking about some guys who can really get up in the air and throw it down. And, you know, I don t know if any of them can shoot a free throw or not that s a lost art but at the same time they re awful fun to watch on the court. They re multi sport guys, too, and that really helps because you can kind of see their hand eye coordination and their body movement and that kind of thing. I kind of like those multi sport guys. (on signing some recruits late in the recruiting season, after deals fell through with other schools) Well, that s where the year long relationships are. We actually knew about Sammie (Long) a year ago. It just happens to be his coach is a good friend from clear back when I was at Eastern Washington. Coach (Greg) Lupfer, who recruited him, recruited up and down that I 5 corridor there for the last 20 years or whatever it s been, and there s some built in, instant relationships. It really wasn t like we didn t know about him, he s a guy that we ve been in contact (with) and then were there when things kind of, whatever happened. It really doesn t matter to us, we were recruiting the guy. And as it turned out, it just goes to show the importance of relationships in recruiting and how deep those run. (on the hardships of recruiting someone late in the recruiting season) Absolutely. And, (Elroy Masters) is a guy that to say late, I think we were there before we kind of identified it, I guess by saying late, we weren t there in the spring. We didn t have the spring evaluation on him and yet, when we found out about him, Dave (Baldwin) went in and did an outstanding job of battling from behind. If you haven t built that (relationship) in the previous year, then it s hard sometimes. And yet I was straight up, I apologized that we weren t on this right away, but that doesn t mean we re out of the picture let s go. (on getting 24 recruits instead of 25 and keeping one or two spots open in case other opportunities for recruits arise, like Lanston Tanyi of last year s recruiting class) I m trying to get Lanston (Tanyi) another year (laughs). One to two spots, actually. You always hold a little bit in the bank, just in case. There s going to be some things happening here down the road, so to say that this is a complete recruiting class, it is, because this is the initial signing day. But, as you know, next season, when we get here next season, in August, there could be a couple more guys names on the board. We have one we could count back, so we ve actually got two left. The roster management is something you just roll around all night with, in trying to balance your (recruiting) classes, trying to understand who s going to count here, how many can you count forward, how many we can count back, what can we get for next year s class. Right now, we ve been already working on next year s class, obviously, the last couple weeks. We re looking at probably 16 to 18 next year just based on where we re at. Who has to come in that would count towards that class would count against that. There s a lot of things that go into it. Obviously what we would like to have happen, every year you re between that 16 to 18. That s what you would hope. That becomes consistency in your different classes, it becomes consistency in your program, so you re not in those ups and downs where you re at 25 and now at you re at 14,
that kind of thing. So you re trying to level that out as much as possible. We re still a couple years away from probably getting that perfect storm right there, where every year it s a consistent measure as we go through. But, we will get there and this class was the start of something great. (on LaRyan King) He s a talented guy that obviously was a high school teammate of one of our current players, Johnny Schupp. Went to City College of San Francisco, which is a power year in and year out. The coaches there could not stop talking about this kid. About what kind of player he is and about what kind of kid he is. I ll tell you, the first time I met him, his smile will light up the room. He s a guy that a lot of people obviously came knocking on his door. You know, our guys that recruited out there in the Bay Area, did an outstanding job with him and his grandmother, his father. As you guys get to know this guy, this guy s going to be a great story for you, some of the things that he s battled through to make it to where he s at. I m just really proud of him and what he s going to bring to our program. (on the importance of getting defensive linemen that can go through spring ball) Well go through spring and really go through our Ram U program, our winter conditioning program. Where they start to understand exactly what big time college football is and what it s all about. So they re not coming in oh boy, this is really what it is. And they ve already been in our workouts since they ve been on campus and they re really doing a great job. I m hearing outstanding reports on what they re doing down there for Coach (Mike) Kent right now. (On whether most of the guys will be here for summer) Yeah, we would hope. There are some that you may have to wait on a final transcript here and there. The vast majority will be here on June 17 th, which is the second session of summer school. There may be a guy or two that won t be here until after Fourth of July weekend, whenever that last session is. We expect nearly all of them to be here so we re excited for that and to get our guys to help them at that point and teach them what it is to be a Ram. (Closing Statement) I just can t tell you what a great experience this recruiting season has been because of the support, and because of all the people that have been so involved in what we re doing. From this campus, this university, this community, and the (local) businesses that cleared out a little room so we could have meals here and there. All that type of thing, it just shows what a great place Fort Collins, Colorado is, what a great place to live, and how blessed we are to be here. So with that, guys, thanks and it s a great day to be a Ram.