FORT COLLINS — Was new CSU Rams football coach Steve Addazio Urban Meyer’s idea, Joe Parker? Or yours?
“(Meyer), he was advising; there was no way where he was trying to shape the decision for us,” Parker, the CSU athletic director, told The Denver Post late Thursday afternoon after Addazio was introduced at Canvas Stadium as Mike Bobo’s replacement.
“We talked a lot about a lot of different people. Like I said, we had a wide funnel at the start and began to narrow it down. I’ve got relationships across college athletics with athletic directors and coaches, so I was triangulating information from my other sources, and felt like we had a very complimentary process that got us to the right point in time.”
For a consultant who had designs of remaining in the shadows, Meyer’s presence in the Addazio hire at CSU loomed large — especially on social media, where photos of the former Rams assistant and national championship coach emerged of him walking around Fort Collins and, later, dining out with Parker and university president Joyce McConnell during the search process.
Those connections — and the inferences of a strong Meyer influence on the hire — only strengthened when SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey posted a list of five Rams finalists, three of whom were former Meyer assistants: Addazio, who was fired as the coach at Boston College on Dec. 1; Kevin Wilson, the former Indiana coach and current Ohio State offensive coordinator; and Tony Alford, the Buckeyes’ assistant head coach/running backs coach and a CSU Rams alum.
“It was a lot of fun to work with him,” Parker said of Meyer, “and I think there’s a chance we might see more of him around Fort Collins.”
A pretty darn good chance, actually: FootballScoop.com reported and sources confirmed that Meyer’s son-in-law, current Ohio State quality control coach Corey Dennis, is expected to join Addazio’s inaugural Rams staff. Dennis is married to Meyer’s daughter Nicki and the couple have two children.
It’s the circle of coaching life, as Urban was once a young assistant here under former Rams coaches Earle Bruce and Sonny Lubick from 1990-95.
Parker also denied any interest in the vacant athletic director’s position at the University of Cincinnati, noting that he wasn’t “a candidate … I’ve not been approached. I love the work that I do here at CSU. I’m sure they’ve got a great opportunity there. I would view that as, at best, a lateral move. And Fort Collins is the perfect place.
“I’ve got a great boss. I’ve got a great university. And I’ve got a great core of coaches here.”
