Tyson Summers wears his coaching failures — or scars, as he calls them — on his sleeve.

Over the last 23 years, starting at Tift County High School in Georgia all the way to now as the interim Colorado State coach, Summers has coached at 11 different places and hasn’t been in the same place for longer than five years. His family is spread across the country, but most of them will be in town this week for Thanksgiving as his time with the Rams likely comes to an end.

But Summers never got into coaching because of job security and stability.

“When you coach defense in college football, I don’t know that you’re ever gonna be settled,” Summers told The Denver Gazette before the start of the season.

When he arrived back in Fort Collins for his second stint as the Rams’ defensive coordinator, he probably didn’t expect to take over as the program’s interim head coach midway through the season. But here he is, getting set to face Air Force on Friday (1 p.m. FS1) and trying to avoid CSU’s worst full-season record in almost 40 years, grateful for all of it.

“I don’t know if I’ve learned as much, I think more than anything … I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to try to do over the course of the season, but particularly the last four, five or six weeks,” Summers said this week. “I say that to say that I’ve tried to make every decision that I could based on the young men that are in that locker room and the staff that we have. I think having gone through those periods of times has given me the strength and the opportunity to handle this the best way that I could. 

“I’m very appreciative of hard times. I think that’s where you learn, I think that’s where you grow and we’re certainly going through a challenging season right now, but I’ve enjoyed the last month, month and a half more than I’ve enjoyed coaching in a long, long time.”

It’s a season that went off the rails in a hurry.

After an encouraging performance on the road at Washington, CSU needed a miracle to come back and defeat FCS Northern Colorado in Week 2 before dropping back-to-back home games against UTSA and Washington State. After a 1-2 start to Mountain West play, Jay Norvell was fired and Summers, as the only member of the staff with FBS head coaching experience, took over in the interim.

Norvell’s successor has already been hired as the Rams officially announced the hiring of Jim Mora prior to the season finale. 

With the majority of them likely to never play together again, a banged-up CSU team will go to battle for final time against an in-state opponent that the Rams likely won’t see for quite a while. That’s all Summers could ask for.

“I think being a Colorado State Ram matters and I think it matters to them and I think they take a lot of pride in that,” Summers said. “I think trying to play for each other and trying to finish strong and be proud of their process and the progress they’ve made … I think that’s what (being a) team is about. 

“I think that’s why you see as many guys finishing the way that they are. It’s a big game for both schools. I don’t know when the next time we’ll play this team is.”

King’s prediction

Air Force 17, Colorado State 10

A series that has been played for 50 straight years comes to an end this Friday. With both teams in the midst of disappointing seasons, it’s Air Force which will win an ugly, tightly contested affair and take the Ram-Falcon Trophy back to Colorado Springs for the foreseeable future as the next time these two programs meet on the football field is anyone’s guess.