Steve Fairchild
 Steve Fairchild
Position:
Head Coach

Steve Fairchild at a glance...

  • Hired by Paul Kowalczyk as the 19th head football coach in Colorado State history on Dec. 12, 2007.
  • Is in his third stint at Colorado State, after three years as a CSU quarterback (1978-80) and eight seasons as an assistant coach (1993-2000). Enters his 12th year at the university.
  • The school was a combined 37-12 with him on its coaching staff last decade. During that eight-year stretch, CSU won five conference championships, went to five bowl games and ended three seasons ranked among the nation's top 16 teams.
  • Spent seven years in the NFL, five of which were as an offensive coordinator. Helped the St. Louis Rams to consecutive playoff appearances, as well as the 2003 NFC West championship.
  • A CSU team captain and second-team all-conference choice behind Jim McMahon in 1980, earned Sports Illustrated Player of the Week honors after throwing for 406 yards and three TDs against Wyoming.

Coaching Background

Seasons Team/School Title/Position Coached
1982-83 San Diego Mesa CC Off. Coordinator/QBs/RBs
1984-85 Ferris State Off. Coordinator/QBs/RBs
1986 San Diego State TEs/Recruiting Coordinator
1987-89 New Mexico Offensive Coordinator/QBs
1990-92 San Diego State Quarterbacks
1993-96 Colorado State Quarterbacks
1997-2000 Colorado State Offensive Coordinator/QBs
2001-02 Buffalo Bills (NFL) Running Backs
2003 St. Louis Rams (NFL) Offensive Coordinator/QBs
2004-05 St. Louis Rams (NFL) Offensive Coordinator
2006-07 Buffalo Bills (NFL) Offensive Coordinator
2008- Colorado State Head Coach

Postseason Experience

Season Appearance Opponent
2008 New Mexico Bowl Fresno State
(head coach at Colorado State)
2004 NFC Wild Card Playoffs Seattle Seahawks
2004 NFC Divisional Playoffs Atlanta Falcons
(offensive coordinator with St. Louis Rams)
2003 NFC Divisional Playoffs Carolina Panthers
(offensive coordinator with St. Louis Rams)
2000 Liberty Bowl Louisville
(offensive coordinator at Colorado State)
1999 Liberty Bowl Southern Mississippi
(offensive coordinator at Colorado State)
1997 Holiday Bowl Missouri
(offensive coordinator at Colorado State)
1995 Holiday Bowl Kansas State
(assistant coach at Colorado State)
1994 Holiday Bowl Michigan
(assistant coach at Colorado State)
1991 Freedom Bowl Tulsa
(assistant coach at San Diego State)
1986 Holiday Bowl Iowa
(assistant coach at San Diego State)

Prominent Players Coached

  • Three conference Offensive Players of the Year: Moses Moreno (1997), Kevin McDougal (1999) and Matt Newton (2000).
  • Both a first-team All-American (Anthony Cesario) and an Academic All-American (Mike Newell) in 1998.
  • Seven NFL draft choices: Calvin Branch (1997), Moreno (1998), Cesario (1999) and Darran Hall (1999) at CSU, and quarterback Dan McGwire (chosen in the first round, 16th overall, in 1991), and tight end Rob Awalt (1987) at SDSU, and wide receiver Terrance Mathis (1990), who became the NCAA's career receiving yardage leader, at New Mexico.
  • Anthoney Hill, who left CSU in 1994 as the school's career total offense leader, and led the Rams to a Holiday Bowl berth.
  • Pro Bowlers Marc Bulger and Travis Henry.
  • J.P. Losman, who turned in a 3,000-yard passing season and the NFL's 11th-best passer rating in 2006.
  • David DenBraber, who became the NCAA's Division II career passing leader, at Ferris State.

On Dec. 12, 2007, the Colorado State Rams brought back one of their own, naming Steve Fairchild the 19th head coach in the university's football program history, which began in 1893.

"Steve Fairchild has a long-standing history of success at Colorado State," said Director of Athletics Paul Kowalczyk, "both as a student-athlete and coach. I know that he has great passion for this university, this program and this community."

That community saw an immediate return on the athletic department's investment in 2008, when Fairchild became the first head coach in program annals to lead his team to a bowl game in his inaugural season. His seven wins also were the most ever by a first-year CSU head coach, the team's first winning season in five years. The Rams also produced the conference's leading rusher in Gartrell Johnson, making good on Fairchild's promise to restore CSU's smash-mouth offensive identity it held during his previous tenure at CSU.

Fairchild, 50, returned to his alma mater from the National Football League, where he had tutored some of the game's most productive young stars since leaving CSU after the 2000 season. Fairchild became the second current Mountain West Conference head coach to leave the NFL for his school, following Air Force's Troy Calhoun.

And like Calhoun, Fairchild starred as a quarterback at his school. He first came to CSU in 1978 as a junior-college All-American, and in his first CSU season led the Rams in passing while splitting starting duties with Keith Lee. Coaches opted to redshirt him in 1979, then made him the full-time starter in 1980, when he served as a team captain and earned second-team all-conference honors behind Jim McMahon. The Rams that year lost only once over their final six games -- to national powerhouse BYU. Included in that stretch was Fairchild's best game, a 28-25 win vs. Wyoming Nov. 1, when he completed 28 of 35 passes for 406 yards and three TDs to earn Sports Illustrated Player of the Week honors.

Following his playing days, Fairchild launched a coaching career that in 2009 will enter its 28th season, 16 of which have been as a coordinator and 20 of which have been at the college level.

And nine of those years have been at Colorado State, where Sonny Lubick made him a member of his original coaching staff, in 1993. Fairchild coached quarterbacks from 1993-96, then replaced Dave Lay and served as offensive coordinator from 1997-2000.

During Fairchild's first tenure as a CSU coach, the Rams were a combined 37-12 and experienced unprecedented offensive success, including:

  • The school's all-time scoring record (442 points) and touchdowns mark (59) in 1997, Fairchild's first season as coordinator;
  • Five of the six conference championships secured during the Lubick era;
  • Five bowl games in eight years;
  • Three end-of-season Top 25 rankings in national polls: 1994 (15th), 1997 (16th) and 2000 (14th);
  • Three conference Offensive Players of the Year: Moses Moreno (1997), Kevin McDougal (1999) and Matt Newton (2000);
  • A 1998 offensive line that boasted both a first-team All-American (Anthony Cesario) and an Academic All-American (Mike Newell);
  • Four NFL draft choices, Calvin Branch (1997), Moreno (1998), Cesario (1999) and Darran Hall (1999); and
  • Multiple 1,000-yard rushers in consecutive seasons (1996-97), making CSU the first Division I-A school to hold that distinction.

"When you examine history," Kowalczyk said, "when Steve was an assistant at CSU, we typically had the most prolific offense and top performers in the conference."

A man of commitment, at the time of accepting CSU's offer to become head coach in December 2007, Fairchild did not want to leave his NFL team, the Buffalo Bills, until the season ended, refusing to abandon his Buffalo head coach, Dick Jauron, or his players. The Bills were in the thick of the AFC playoff race, with three regular-season games remaining, when Fairchild was hired by the Rams.

"We would never jeopardize his current commitment," Kowalczyk said in announcing the hiring. "We knew from the outset and were comfortable with the dedication he has to his team and his fellow staff members. It is that type of value system -- commitment, integrity, honesty, accountability and responsibility -- that had him at the top of our list since the beginning."

Despite a vow to remain in Buffalo until season's end, Fairchild understood the need to focus on recruiting during a critical time and quickly moved to assemble key members of his first CSU coaching staff, hiring three immediately after the school named him as head coach.

That staff has mirrored one of Fairchild's characteristics, an ability to bring out the best in younger players, especially QBs, a common thread throughout his career since the day he graduated as CSU's field general.

"At both the professional and college levels," Kowalczyk said, "he has had a reputation of developing young players and helping them reach their maximum potential. That is an attractive trait in our program."

At Colorado State, he tutored Anthoney Hill, who led the Rams through a storybook 1994 season that included two TDs in a win at No. 4 Arizona and its Desert Swarm defense, and ended with CSU's first conference title since 1955 and a berth in the Holiday Bowl opposite Michigan. Hill left CSU as the school's career total offense leader.

Fairchild then coached Moreno as the QB guided the Rams to a pair of WAC championships (1995, '97) and two more Holiday Bowl trips.

And before getting an opportunity to coach in the NFL, Fairchild's last CSU pupil was Matt Newton, who helped corral the first two Mountain West Conference titles and consecutive Liberty Bowl appearances.

In the NFL as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach with the St. Louis Rams (2003-05), Fairchild helped QB Marc Bulger become a Pro Bowl MVP in 2003. Fairchild's St. Louis offense achieved three straight Top 10 rankings (2003-05), finished second in scoring (2003), was second in passing efficiency (2005) and contributed to consecutive playoff appearances (2003-04).

In his first year as Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator (2006), he helped J.P. Losman to a 3,000-yard passing season and the NFL's 11th-best passer rating. Earlier, after making a difficult decision to leave CSU, he served as running backs coach for the Bills (2001-02), and oversaw Travis Henry's Pro Bowl season in 2001.

Prior to rejoining CSU in 1993, Fairchild served as quarterbacks coach at San Diego State (1990-92), offensive coordinator at New Mexico (1987-89), recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach at San Diego State (1986), offensive coordinator at Ferris State (1984-85) and offensive coordinator at Mesa Community College (1982-83) in San Diego.

At SDSU, he coached a pair of NFL draft choices in quarterback Dan McGwire (chosen in the first round, 16th overall, in 1991), and tight end Rob Awalt (third round, 62nd overall, 1987), and also helped the Aztecs to the 1991 Freedom Bowl.

At New Mexico, he coached Terrance Mathis, who became the NCAA's career receiving yardage leader and was selected in the sixth round (141st overall) of the 1990 NFL Draft.

At Ferris State in Big Rapids, Mich. (hometown of Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle), Fairchild oversaw an offense that produced David DenBraber, then the NCAA's Division II career passing leader. And throughout his college coaching stops, Fairchild sowed the seeds of recruiting relationships from the West Coast to the Great Lakes. He has personally recruited the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Michigan.

Nominated by Lubick for the 1999 Frank Broyles Award, given annually to the nation's outstanding assistant coach, Fairchild during the search for the Rams' next head coach came highly recommended by his predecessor at Colorado State, Lubick.

Among the names Lubick recommended, Fairchild stood out, partly because he called plays his last two NFL seasons under a defensive-minded head coach in Jauron. And before getting his chance to call his own plays, Fairchild in St. Louis worked directly with one of the NFL's most highly regarded play-callers, Mike Martz. Martz was Fairchild's position coach at Mesa Community College from 1976-77.

No stranger to the importance of classroom success, Fairchild as a CSU senior in 1980 earned first-team academic all-conference honors with a 3.05 grade-point average. He also garnered the Merrill-Gheen Award for athletic and academic achievement, as well as the NCAA District Athletic Achievement Award.

Born Stephen Thomas Fairchild as the fourth of five children on June 21, 1958, in Decatur, Ill., he is married to the former Nancy Kolstoe. The couple has two daughters, Lindsey (21) and Jill (18). Lindsey recently graduated from the University of Arkansas, while Jill is a sophomore at Colorado State after graduating from Orchard Park (N.Y.) High School, where she was Athlete of the Year.

Fairchild graduated from Colorado State in May of 1981 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He went on to earn his master's in education from Azusa Pacific in 1983.

A two-year letterman as a quarterback at San Diego's Patrick Henry High School, Fairchild led his team to consecutive league championships in 1974 and '75.

After graduation, he stayed home at Mesa Community College and became the first-ever JC quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards, earning first-team All-America honors and California's Player of the Year award in 1977.

Former colleagues on Coach Fair:

"Coach Fairchild understands the history and the tradition of the Colorado State program and will bring a great deal of passion to the job. He is also a great teacher and communicates well with his players. He is one of the great offensive minds in college football."
--Urban Meyer, Head Coach, national champion Florida Gators; former neighbor and fellow CSU assistant coach

"Steve is a dedicated, hard working, very bright and innovative football coach. He will motivate his team to play disciplined and aggressive football. I look forward to following the Colorado State Rams in the years ahead."
--Bills Head Coach Dick Jauron

"I have been fortunate to have known Steve since he was 17 years old. I coached him as a young man and watched him develop his skills as a coach. He has unusual knowledge and insight into the game of football with great passion. He was and still is a fierce competitor."
--Mike Martz, former Super Bowl Head Coach and NFL offensive coordinator

"Steve Fairchild is as impressive a football coach as there is. His proven ability to conceive and implement effective concepts, at both the college and NFL level, will provide for explosive results. Add to this Steve's character as well as his commitment to Colorado State as an alumnus, and I have no doubt that he will be extremely successful."
--John Benton, Houston Texans offensive line coach

Former pupils on Coach Fair:

"I am grateful he chose to return to CSU. He has what it takes to be successful in today's highly competitive college atmosphere."
--Matt Newton, former CSU quarterback

"He is a quality person with a quality family, and I believe Steve Fairchild, Larry Kerr and their staff are going to be coaches that the community can welcome with open arms. Colorado State has a bright future ahead."
--Kevin McDougal, former CSU running back

"Coach Fairchild played a huge role in my development, not only with my skills as a quarterback, but as a complete football player. I was fortunate enough to learn from him for five years, a big reason why I was able to play at the next level."
--Moses Moreno, former CSU quarterback

"The way he challenged me was different from the more aggressive approach, and I responded."
--E.J. Watson, former CSU running back

"He's a heck of a guy and a great offensive-minded coach. I'm glad that they got him back at CSU. He can do a lot of great things with his experience, and coming from the NFL, I think he'll bring another dimension to CSU."
-- Mike Brisiel, Houston Texans guard

 
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