SONNY OUTLOOK CSU COACH LUBICK HAS BUILT TEAM.

Byline: Jill Painter Staff Writer

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - A local bank came up with a bobblehead giveaway for Colorado State football last year.

They produced 5,000 Sonny Lubick bobbleheads to be given away with a credit-card application. The promotion was scheduled to last three weeks. Before one game was over, the bobbleheads were gone.

If there's anything in American culture that signifies celebrity these days, it's the bobblehead. And there's no better way to explain Lubick's place in the Colorado community.

Before Lubick, Colorado State football was a joke. The previous seven coaches were fired. Facilities were awful. Morale was even worse.

Lubick, a former defensive coordinator at Miami, was hired in 1993 and, in the 10 seasons since, has molded the Rams into a consistent bowl contender and Mountain West power. He never promised anything when he started. Yet he's given Colorado State everything.

``I think one has to realize who you are,'' Lubick said. ``My dad once told me, 'Don't ever forget who you are. Try not to be something you're not.' For us, to win our conference and win a couple of big games. The goal for us is to have a winning season, maybe have a chance to win our conference and go to a bowl game. It doesn't get any better than that for me.''

What about a win over UCLA?

The Bruins open their season with the Rams on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. Colorado State (2-0) already has two impressive wins, beating Virginia in its opener and upsetting previously sixth-ranked Colorado 19-14 on Saturday, and is ranked 19th in the AP poll.

The Rams easily could have started the season 0-3. And they easily could be living in futility if not for Lubick. He has engineered perhaps the biggest turnaround in college football, save for maybe Bill Snyder at Kansas State.

In nine years, Lubick, 65, has guided the Rams to six bowl appearances. CSU played in two bowl games before his arrival. Lubick has had just one losing season. The Rams will play in six national television games this year and are 12-12 against ranked opponents under Lubick. He's had two 10-win seasons.

``I was probably naive when I came here,'' Lubick said. ``I was here before and I liked the community. I really didn't have any thoughts of grandeur. My main objective going after this job was that I was an assistant and I wanted to be a head coach.

``I didn't have any ideas of winning as much as we did. But the question was, 'How long can you keep it going?' We've made great strides. We've made a lot of strides here. People on a national basis know about Colorado State.''

No more has Lubick's success been felt than by his intrastate rival.

The Rams have won three of the last four games against Colorado, which nearly played for the national title last year. Perhaps the state's power is shifting north. It used to be that Colorado got all the big-name in-state recruits. That's not the case anymore.

``Three years ago, Colorado State still wasn't getting that respect,'' said quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt, a San Marcos High of Santa Barbara product. ``Even (the state of) Colorado itself is just realizing we have great athletes.

``This started with one guy. A lot of the alumni thought we were (terrible). No one wanted to watch games. I look back and think, 'Wow.' It's amazing that a coach came here and got football started and people to come to this school that had no history.''

And people to come to games. At times, Colorado State drew as low as 5,000. For big conference games, the school has to bring in temporary bleachers to reach a capacity of 30,000. Soon, Hughes Stadium will require a major renovation.

Mick Delaney, Colorado State's running-backs coach, grew up with Lubick in Montana. He went with Lubick to Colorado State when the program was essentially dead. It was in constant turmoil. And many members of the community shunned the new staff. But Lubick won them over.

``He was just Sonny,'' Delaney said. ``He's honest and down to earth. When we had our very first coaches meeting, he told us that we needed to help the players start believing. He didn't promise them anything.

``He worked really hard for this program. He wasn't a big rah-rah guy. That's his formula and I've found it to be successful.''

Now wherever Lubick goes, people know him. He has that unmistakable breathy voice. A weekly television show in Denver to dissect Saturday's game. His own booth in a Subway across the street from campus, where he makes a daily walk for a turkey sandwich.

And, of course, the bobblehead.

``That was the last thing he wanted to have happen,'' said Matt Lubick, Sonny's son and Colorado State's receivers coach. ``He has no ego. He treats the janitor like he does the president of the university.''

Lubick seems settled at Colorado State, where he sits in his corner office with his feet on his desk.

``(I'll coach) as long as I continue to feel good,'' Lubick said. ``I'm enjoying it. Like Tommy Lasorda, he seemed like he enjoyed it all the way. He could probably go back and coach right now and I imagine he'd still be real effective. He seemed like he was happy and enjoying it and that's the way I want to be.''

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(color) Colorado State head football coach Sonny Lubick has turned the school's program completely around, transforming the Rams into a perennially solid team.

Associated Press