FORT COLLINS — There are a variety of ways to build a successful program in the ever-changing college football world.
Ed Lamb has chosen the path he believes will help Northern Colorado claw its way toward the top of the Big Sky Conference, and it runs right through the heart of the Centennial State.
“We have decided to take the long-term developmental approach and recruit Colorado high school kids,” Lamb said ahead of his team’s Saturday clash with Colorado State at Canvas Stadium. “We think that the long-term highest aspiration of this program is to build a regional cohesiveness with Colorado kids. And we feel like Colorado’s under-recruited right now.”
Lamb, in his second season as the head coach of the Bears, is well aware of the mountain ahead to climb. Before spending seven seasons as an assistant coach at BYU, he built a Big Sky champion at Southern Utah and helped the Thunderbirds reach the FCS playoffs twice.
His conference title came in 2015. One year later, Northern Colorado went 6-5 for a second straight campaign, and those seasons represent the apex of the Bears’ time in one of the two power conferences at the FCS level.
Northern Colorado has won 13 games in the six years since, and not more than twice in conference play in any season.
“I think it’s been largely similar (to Southern Utah)” Lamb said of his first year-plus in charge. “It’s two programs that aspired to compete at the highest level they can. They’ve stretched and they’ve reached, and it’s something that resonates with me.
“It’s a challenge that excites me. Anybody paying attention can figure it out that UNC is budgetarily challenged. We’ve got to stretch every dollar. We’ve got to grow our university and grow our student population. There are potentially better days ahead on the football field and for the university. It’s the type of environment that I really thrive in, and one where there’s just a lot of upside and potential.”
Lamb’s team came to FoCo without a victory in his first 12 games as coach. UNC went 0-11 in 2023, but it was a season defined by what-ifs and almosts.
The Bears led Weber State 21-7 midway through the fourth quarter before losing by a touchdown. They lost to Sacramento State, Cal Poly and Portland State by one score. UNC had the ball in Idaho territory down a touchdown late in the fourth quarter before a pick-six halted a potential rally.
Idaho was the No. 4 national seed in the FCS playoffs. Weber State was a preseason top-10 team. The Bears were close in nearly half their games, but it wasn’t enough.
Lamb wasn’t kidding about his local-focused strategy. Northern Colorado signed 24 Colorado high school players in the 2024 recruiting class. His predecessor, Ed McCaffrey, went heavy on using the transfer portal. The Bears won six games in two years.
It’s only one data point in 2024, but UNC was considerably more competitive in Week 1 against Incarnate Word than it was in 2023. Two areas where Lamb expects to see improvement — offensive line and secondary — were bright spots.
It’s likely to be a long road for the Bears, but Lamb feels he can orchestrate a similar success story that he crafted in southwest Utah. It’s been nearly a decade since UNC was anything but a bottom-feeder in the Big Sky, but Lamb has higher aspirations despite the challenges in front of him.
The individual challenges won’t get much bigger than the one Saturday in Fort Collins.
“A large portion of our guys that were recruited, at least to some degree, by Colorado State, evaluated and probably didn’t get the answer they were hoping for,” Lamb said. “There’s that opportunity to prove themselves. I think anytime we get a chance to compete against somebody that’s supposed to beat us, that’s what great stories are written about.
“Nobody’s going to make a movie if CSU beats UNC this Saturday. But movies are made when the UNCs of the world beat a team like CSU.”