BOISE, IDAHO — Colorado State is close to getting coach Jim McElwain back to Tuscaloosa, Ala., two years after he left. CSU appears to be working out details of a two-game deal with Alabama, a college football source said late Friday night.
The tentative framework is this: Both games will be played in Tuscaloosa, in 2013 and 2015, and Colorado State stands to get more than $1 million for each game.
CSU athletic director Jack Graham would not comment specifically on any negotiations with Alabama, but did offer this:
"Games like playing Alabama are certainly possibilities that we are considering," he said. "Lots of things have to line up to pull the trigger to making the commitment to playing a football game like that. Unless and until we actually complete that process and fulfill all of the necessary negotiations that are required to make something like that happen, that's not done."
McElwain was the Alabama offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from 2008-11. The Crimson Tide won two national titles while he was there. Colorado State hired him to his first job as head coach after firing Steve Fairchild after the 2011 season.
Graham said he was also near a deal to start a series against BYU, but nixed it on account that he thought playing that team would be too much, too soon for a young Rams football team.
The tentative framework is this: Both games will be played in Tuscaloosa, in 2013 and 2015, and Colorado State stands to get more than $1 million for each game.
CSU athletic director Jack Graham would not comment specifically on any negotiations with Alabama, but did offer this:
"Games like playing Alabama are certainly possibilities that we are considering," he said. "Lots of things have to line up to pull the trigger to making the commitment to playing a football game like that. Unless and until we actually complete that process and fulfill all of the necessary negotiations that are required to make something like that happen, that's not done."
McElwain was the Alabama offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from 2008-11. The Crimson Tide won two national titles while he was there. Colorado State hired him to his first job as head coach after firing Steve Fairchild after the 2011 season.
Graham said he was also near a deal to start a series against BYU, but nixed it on account that he thought playing that team would be too much, too soon for a young Rams football team.
