Colorado State coach Fairchild hopes to stay on

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP)

Embattled Colorado State football coach Steve Fairchild met with his new boss Friday and began making his case to stay on the job beyond Saturday's season finale against Wyoming.

Fairchild drove up to the Wyoming-Colorado border with new athletic director Jack Graham for the annual Bronze Boot run and exchange of the game ball between the ROTC battalions from each school.

They used the time to get to know each other and Fairchild filled in Graham on where the program stood heading into 2012.

Graham said Thursday when he replaced Paul Kowalczyk as the school's AD that the chat could be characterized as a job interview.

In that case, Fairchild said he thought the interview went well.

''Jack and I had a good conversation. We're both former CSU quarterbacks, and we both appreciate the traditions we have related to the Wyoming game, including the running of the game ball from Laramie today,'' Fairchild said.

Although a loss to the Cowboys would result in Fairchild's third straight 3-9 season, his team was beset by injuries the last two years and he has a strong group of underclassmen returning next season for what is the last year on a contract that pays him $750,000 in 2012.

''We've worked hard over the last three classes to recruit the talent we have in the program,'' Fairchild said. ''Most of that talent will be juniors next year, and I'm hopeful that we can coach those players to the heights we believe we can reach as a team.''

Fairchild was Kowalczyk's first hire when he replaced the popular Sonny Lubick in 2008 and went 7-6 his first year but has gone 9-26 since.

That downward spiral is what led university president Tony Frank to fire Kowalczyk with 3 1/2 years and $830,000 left on his contract Thursday and replace him with Graham, a retired businessman who played for CSU in the early 1970s but has never run an athletic administration.

The cornerstone of Graham's vision for CSU's athletic department is a more competitive football program.

''I'm not happy with where the CSU football program is today,'' Graham said Thursday. ''We're 3-8 right now and my hope is that we'll be 4-8 Saturday, but that's not an acceptable result and that's why we need change and need to figure out what we need to do to get us to where I expect our football program to be.''

The Rams were receiving votes in the polls in 2009 before injuries hit them hard and they lost 45 combined starts to injuries.

This year, they've lost 67 man games to injuries and seven starters to season-ending ailments. That doesn't count All-America hopeful Mychal Sisson, a senior linebacker who entered the season leading the country in career tackles for loss but missed seven games with a broken ankle before his return to action Nov. 19.

Still, Colorado State could have as many as seven first-team all-conference players when the teams are announced next week, including running back Chris Nwoke, who had two 200-yard games in November.

The program's 78 percent graduation rate is second in the Mountain West.

Next year, the Rams are expected to return eight offensive starters, nine defensive starters and their star punter - and they have a promising group of freshmen to fill in the gaps.

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Follow AP Sports Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton