Frustration Rules 2020 Season For Addazio, Team

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Nobody put the numbers at 100 percent, but to the consternation of Colorado State athletic director Joe Parker and football coach Steve Addazio, the Rams' season has come to a close.

Earlier than they expected. And with far fewer games than they'd hoped to play. Just four. And the reasons it was just four are just as frustrating as the number itself.

Addazio made it clear he understands all the moving parts. The safety concerns for not just the players, but everybody associated with making a college football game possible. That because of the pandemic, the winds can change direction fast. There are budgets to consider, he knows.

But to lose one game due to a governor's decision, another because numbers couldn't get verified quick enough and the last one because a team opted out, well, it makes him mad.

With good reason. He looks around and sees teams playing this week. Why, he asks, aren't the Rams?

"I'm frustrated by our last game. That's inexcusable, what happened," Addazio said. "It really aggravates me we should pay the price; to me, that was selfish. There's some things that bother me, but we'll march forward. I can only control what I can control here, and I love the attitude of our players right now."

Another frustration: Not playing Colorado. The pandemic wiped out the scheduled game at Canvas Stadium. But twice this year – including this week – both teams are open.

To him, it makes too much sense, especially with the teams a short bus ride away.

"That's very frustrating to me. I feel like we had two matched up opportunities, but I don't walk in anybody's shoes," he said. "I think I know what goes into some of these decisions, but I'm not going to suggest I have the answers. Everybody has their own deal they've got to deal with. This is awfully unique times, but I would have loved to seen that kind of game."

Parker tried to find a game this week, but while other conferences put in contingency plans to get teams an extra game at the end of the schedule, the Mountain West did not.

He searched nationally, and while there were some promising leads, all fell through for one reason or another. He had extensive talks with his Colorado counterpart, Rick George. Colorado State was even willing to travel, despite having lost three home games. But being willing to play doesn't guarantee it will happen. One has to find a dance partner.

Leaving Parker frustrated, too.

"We got really active over the weekend, really up until this morning, to try and find another opportunity for our students to play a football game," Parker said. "Coach did a really good job in qualifying the team's interest in that. I felt as the athletics directors and we as an administrative team, a strong obligation to try and manufacture a game, to make that possible. We looked coast to coast, we talked to Autonomous Five schools, we talked to Group of Five schools, we talked to partners in the bowl space, the conference office and ran down every lead we possible could, to come up with really no opportunities, no options, for our team to continue it's season."

Addazio said he was waiting until Tuesday to give it a chance, but right after meeting with the media on Tuesday at 2 p.m., he was set to meet with the team to tell them it wasn't likely. And they have no plans to practice any more this week.

Looking back, not all was lost. Some gains were made for the first-year staff, and some areas need to be address. Pandemic or not, that part is pretty normal.

"I'm happy with the fact that we got to play. Happy with the fact we got to have a preseason, got to prepare our team, learn about our team," Addazio said. "I thought we accomplished a lot of things we wanted to get accomplished. From the standpoint as I said before, I really felt we needed to develop a run defense, I think we need to develop a run offense. Those are hard things to do, so I'm excited about that. We started to come together as a team. Those are some things that happened.

"It's upsetting we played four games when we were supposed to play eight, and I think that's inexcusable. That's very frustrating to me. I certainly understand the larger problem here, and I know all the challenges. Probably our last game was most frustrating to me of all of them. Big picture, we're fortunate that we got in what we got in. A lot of people put in a lot of work to make this happen."

Beating Wyoming – Colorado State's one home game – was the main highlight.

What seemed to hurt him most of all was all the work done for a season that was a fraction of not just a normal year, but from optimistic hopes.

A year of prep, four weekends of play. The math was way, way off for him.

"Ultimately, you work 365 days a year as a player, for what, 12 shots guaranteed – that's it – on a given good year, on a real year? That's all you get," he said. "You play this sport to play the game, not push sleds in the weight room. I just … you know … that's just me. I'm always going to be wired that way."

Unfortunately, the calendar was not.

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