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The Colorado State Rams football team may not enjoy a lot of success in the 2012 season -- preseason predictions from media members put them in eighth-place in the Mountain West -- but new head coach Jim McElwain still has high expectations for himself and the team. McElwain enjoyed a high degree of achievement in his previous position as the offensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide, but with the CSU program coming off consecutive 3-9 seasons the task will be much different for him in his first job as a head coach.
With a long-term vision for the program crystallized in his mind, McElwain is talking about "changing a mindset" and "changing a culture of thought" at the outset of the season in 2012, as noted by Rich Kurtzman of The Examiner. If CSU is going to become a special program under McElwain, it will be a long process marked by a consistent approach to developing good habits and even better execution:
"You can take shortcuts, and guys have, and when they take shortcuts all of a sudden a couple years down the road, the building falls over," McElwain said Thursday during a news conference previewing Saturday's start of fall practices. "I'm here for the long haul on this building project."
..."When things change from a coaching staff, sometimes guys come in and say, ‘Well the heck with you guys; we're going to start new.' Well no, they don't deserve that at all. I hope those younger guys, we're able to season them, and that this crew of guys that we have are able to take it and say, ‘This is our team, and we're going to make something special happen,' and I truly believe in that."
quotes via Kelly Lyell of the Colorodoan.
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