July 13, 2010

Purchase tickets | Ram Club

By Zak Gilbert
Athletic Media Relations

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Colorado State sold more than 1,100 tickets to the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Monday, the first day tickets were available on a single-game basis.

In order to sit on the sidelines in the lower bowl at that Sept. 4 contest at Invesco Field, fans must first join the Ram Club for as little as $100 per year. Lower-bowl sideline tickets in Denver have a $90 face value. But fans can save nearly 40 percent off that CU game sideline ticket by purchasing CSU season tickets. For information on purchasing season tickets, call 1-800/491-RAMS.

Additional Invesco Field options are a $65 lower-bowl seat in the end zone, a $110 club-level seat, or a $55 seat in the upper deck. The face value of all CU game tickets does not include a $5 processing fee.

Single-game tickets to CSU's five other home games, all in Fort Collins, also went on sale Monday. Fans interested in benefits from purchasing season tickets, including free parking and other savings, two attractive mini-plans and Pepsi 4-Packs, can visit the football ticket page at CSURams.com, or call 1-800/491-RAMS, for more information.

Student tickets for the Rocky Mountain Showdown, all priced at $25 (price includes a $5 fee), will go on sale this Monday, and will be available only online at CSURams.com. Students that wish to purchase a guest ticket for a non-CSU student can do so for $60 (price includes a $5 fee). Those guest tickets will be assigned to the purchasing student's zone so the guest can sit next to the student in general-admission seating.

Pants voting to end Wednesday: On Thursday, Head Coach Steve Fairchild asked for fans' advice on the color of pants his team should wear at the Sept. 25 Idaho game, CSU's Ag Day Fort Collins opener, when the Rams will honor their past with orange jerseys.

Since Thursday, fans have cast more than 1,000 votes, overwhelming the media relations office, charged with tabulating the votes. Voting will end at 5 p.m. MDT Wednesday.

Skelton earns scholarship: James Skelton in 2009 played both outside linebacker positions as a redshirt freshman, playing in all 12 games, with three starts and totaling 42 tackles (17 solo), 1½ tackles for loss, ½ sack and an interception. That effort has paid off for him. Fairchild has awarded Skelton, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound sophomore from Chatfield High School in Littleton, Colo., a scholarship.

Summer jobs:  The vast majority of CSU's football players remain on campus throughout the summer. In addition to their participation in the Rams' offseason conditioning program and their summer classes, most of the players have summer jobs. Among them, Raymond Carter is working at the CSU Bookstore, Eugene Daniels is working at NoCo5 and Adam Seymore is working for Hydro Construction. Meanwhile, DeAngelo Wilkinson, a communications studies major, will work in the athletic media relations office.

Uncle Mike: Freshman linebacker Mike Orakpo is an uncle. He spent the Fourth of July with the family of his brother, Brian, and his new baby. After accumulating a treasure of postseason hardware at Texas, the older Orakpo was selected in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins. He'll begin training camp in Ashburn, Va., with former CSU lineman Clint Oldenburg and former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, July 29.

Speaking of the Broncos: The CSU athletic department would like to congratulate Patrick Smythe, the Broncos' executive director of media relations, on his recent wedding. Smythe worked with former CSU assistant Urban Meyer at the University of Florida.

More congratulations: Matt Brewer, CSU's assistant athletic director/compliance, and his wife, Shanna, on Friday night welcomed their first child, Hailey, into the world.

On campus: Tony Drake and most of the 2010 signing class already are on campus, enrolled in a summer session that began Monday. A handful of newcomers, including Bobby Borcky and Crockett Gillmore, began taking classes earlier in the summer.

Facilities still in use: As new players arrive, former players continue to take advantage of the Rams' spectacular new weight room. Among them are Cole Pemberton and Tim Walter, two of the four starting offensive linemen in 2009 now on NFL rosters. Walter begins training camp with the Chicago Bears in Bourbonnais, Ill., July 30. Pemberton will join sixth-round draft choice Shelley Smith and a host of former Rams now with the Texans when they begin camp in Houston on the same day, July 30.

Rams relaunch: The athletic department, in conjunction with host CBS Interactive, has been working for several months on a redesign of CSURams.com. Officials hope to relaunch the site later this summer or early in the fall.

Vacation: Fairchild just returned from a short vacation. The trip began on a rooftop at Wrigley Field with athletic director Paul Kowalczyk and several Ram Club members. He then went to Boston to spend the Fourth of July at one of the nation's most patriotic cities, watching fireworks to the music of the Boston Pops. The trip ended in Canada.

Appreciation: The athletic department wishes to thank the many individuals that have already expressed thoughts and support for athletic director Paul Kowalczyk, who is out of the office for several weeks to combat his prostate cancer. Before leaving Friday, Kowalczyk told his coaches and staff that he was not looking forward to the surgery and treatment, but he was looking forward to returning to full health before the volleyball and football seasons get under way. He also strongly encouraged men to get regular physicals, including annual PSA (prostate specific antigen) readings, and women to get mammograms, when at the appropriate age. There are many similarities between prostate and breast cancer and if caught early enough, individuals can be cured with no loss in quality of life.

Kowalczyk, who recently signed a five-year extension, this season will become the first CSU athletic director to complete four full seasons in that role since Oval Jaynes (1986-91). Kowalczyk began his tenure in April 2006.

Reporting dates: CSU freshmen and newcomers are scheduled to report Aug. 3, followed by returning players Aug. 4. The Rams' first fall practice is Aug. 5.

Meet the Rams Day & Ram Club Scrimmage: The athletic department has tentatively scheduled the second annual Meet the Rams Day for Saturday, Aug. 14, at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium. The general public is invited to watch the Rams practice that day (time TBA), then come onto the field to take photos and collect autographs from the CSU players. Several other activities will be planned. The Rams will announce information regarding those activities once plans are finalized. The day should resemble a spring game, with respect to the activities available to fans and their children.

Then, on Saturday, Aug. 21, the Rams will return to the stadium to scrimmage (time TBA). However, only members of the Ram Club will be allowed into the gates. For more information on joining the Ram Club, visit www.csuramclub.com or call 970/491-4666.

CU to CSU: Every year, several new players join the football team. Among the most intriguing in the 2010 group is sophomore defensive back Beau Brittenham. A two-time all-conference football player at Longmont (Colo.) High School, he grew up as a Nebraska fan, despite his dad having competed in track at CU. After helping the Trojans to a state track championship, the decathlete chose to pursue that sport, at CU, and redshirted in 2008. He then shifted gears and took classes as a part-time student in Fort Collins in spring 2009 before enrolling at CSU last fall. Brittenham joined the Rams football program this past spring and enters 2010 eligible to play because he will have completed his NCAA-required one year in residence as a Division I transfer.

Media guide: CSU will be the only Division I football program in Colorado to print a media guide in 2010. The Rams are printing a limited quantity and only providing them to members of the media, as well as to staff and players' families. The NCAA ruled this offseason that schools were no longer able to give printed guides to recruits.

The Rams' 208-page guide is at the printer and expected to be available free of charge in PDF format on CSURams.com in the next week. The cover, designed by assistant media relations director Danny Mattie, features a gorgeous sunset over Hughes Stadium, combining green with the orange of the sunset as a subtle tribute to the orange jerseys the team will don Sept. 25. The inside covers feature Dan Byers photos of the running backs and linebackers, decked out in business suits loaned by Men's Wearhouse of Fort Collins.

The most significant addition to the guide is an expanded two-page team records section. The media relations office invested several weeks into researching the section, preserving history.

The Coryell offense: The recent passing of Don Coryell had a direct connection to the CSU football program, as he is the father of the Rams' current offense. Joe Gibbs took the same offense and won his Super Bowls with the Redskins. Approximately a third of NFL teams, and a handful of college programs, employ the offense today.

Moving up: Former CSU tight end Brandon Alconcel, who spent last season as an academic graduate assistant, has left to become offensive line coach at Adams State College in Alamosa. Current Rams defensive line coach Scott Brown also began his career at Adams State.

Moving around: Speaking of Brown, he has a new office as of last week. New TE/FB coach and recruiting coordinator Todd Stroud also has a new office, next to Brown. Meanwhile, the graduate assistants (Darrell Ballard and Trevor Wikre) moved into Stroud's office. The moves are the last dominoes in a series of events that began with last fall's opening of CSU's new Academic & Training Center, which allowed the academic staff to move into new digs. The men's basketball staff took over the old academics offices, volleyball moved into men's basketball's old area, while softball also moved to fill volleyball's void. Brown and Stroud now are in the old softball offices. Brown's old office, next to director of football operations Tom Ehlers, will become a recruiting room, allowing the Rams to have a permanent home for their national recruiting efforts, and a more efficient storage location for the DVDs from thousands of prospects.