Mike Bobo won’t return for sixth season as CSU football coach

Head Coach Mike Bobo of the Colorado State Rams watches a replay of a Arkansas touchdown during a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Razorback Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Rams 55-34. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

by: Chuck Hickey

Posted: Dec 4, 2019 / 02:22 PM MST

Updated: Dec 4, 2019 / 02:22 PM MST

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State University football coach Mike Bobo will not return after a second consecutive losing season, the school announced Wednesday.

The school and Bobo have “mutually agreed to a separation arrangement,” athletic director Joe Parker said in a statement.

Bobo was 28-35 in five seasons, going 7-6 in each of his first three seasons that ended with a loss in a bowl game. But the Rams tumbled to 3-9 in 2018 and 4-8 this season.

In his five seasons, he was 0-5 against Colorado and Boise State, and lost the last four meetings against rivals Wyoming and Air Force.

Bobo, who came to CSU in December 2014 after being the offensive coordinator at Georgia to replace Jim McElwain, is owed $5.5 million under terms of the buyout in the five-year, $10 million contract extension that he agreed to before the 2017 New Mexico Bowl.

Bobo helped the Rams transition from Hughes Stadium to the on-campus Canvas Stadium in 2017.

But only 12,324 fans attended the home finale against Boise State on Friday. Home attendance slipped from an average of 32,062 in 2017 to 23,338 this year.

In August 2018, Bobo was hospitalized for peripheral neuropathy, a numbness in feet and hands that led to him missing more than a week of preseason camp.