Colorado State’s nightmare season has erupted into a full-blown sideline embarrassment. With Boise State already humiliating the Rams on November 7, head coach Jim Mora’s first season in the new Pac-12 spirals out of control. But a defense that can’t stop anyone is no longer his only problem. He also has a coaching staff controversy to answer for.

Around halftime, strength and conditioning coach Shelton Bynum grabbed offensive lineman Toriyan Johnson by the jersey and screamed in his face. Johnson doesn’t back down and fires right back.

While the two were at it, staff members pulled them apart. It goes without saying that the media was very interested in this incident and questioned Mora all about it in the post-game conference. Mora, who had not yet watched the video of the scuffle, responded:

“Let me address the video that’s out there. I’ve not seen it, of Toriyan and our strength coach, getting into it. It’s a passionate game played by passionate people that are all alpha dogs, but there’s no place for that. Once I see it, we’ll address it, and we’ll go from there.”

The incident is another setback in what has been a rough first season at Colorado State. Mora arrived with plenty of momentum after leading UConn to back-to-back nine-win seasons, but that success hasn’t carried over. So far, his time in Colorado has been anything but what he had hoped for.

The Rams have had trouble getting past one opponent after another, and the frustration has already spilled over onto the coaching staff. That said, Bynum isn’t the first Colorado State coach to find himself under scrutiny. Defensive coordinator Tyson Summers had already raised questions about his conduct during the Oregon State game, when, according to Mora, he “left the field” in the middle of the game. Summers was later fired.

What triggered Shelton Bynum’s anger?

Nobody has said what set it off, and neither party has spoken publicly. The game was a mess around them, however. Boise State dropped 22 points in the first quarter, backup quarterback Max Cutforth threw four touchdown passes and ran for another, and the Broncos finished with 669 yards.

The blowout wasn’t a surprise. Boise State came in as a 17.5-point favorite and had won seven straight games. Colorado State was 3-5 and had lost five of its last six. One can only speculate that the team’s performance may have ticked the Pac-12 coach’s anger. However, fans have witnessed such issues before.

Coach-player confrontations are not rare

Montana State’s FCS playoff win last year came with an ugly sideshow. Running back Julius Davis stole the spotlight for all the wrong reasons after getting into a heated confrontation with an opposing player. Head coach Brent Vigen and cornerback Takhari Carr stepped in to pull him away, but Davis wasn’t having it. He shoved Carr aside before pushing his own coach.

The incident quickly caught attention, and Davis later turned to social media to apologize, claiming ESPN’s cameras had taken his actions out of context.

Another ugly sideline scene unfolded in 2024. It was Louisiana-Monroe’s offensive line coach, Cameron Blankenship, who was visibly furious, pacing up and down the sideline before charging onto the field. He was jumping around, ripping off his headset, and letting loose on his own offensive lineman, Drew Hutchinson. The confrontation quickly turned physical, with Blankenship shoving Hutchinson as he screamed in his face.

2021 witnessed another incident. Washington’s loss to rival Oregon was bad enough, but what followed next made an already miserable week even worse. The Huskies suspended coach Jimmy Lake for one week after he shoved a player and struck him on the helmet with a play sheet during the game.

So, the Bynum incident, though ugly, is not one of a kind.

What comes next in Fort Collins

Colorado State is 3-6 overall and 1-4 in the Pac-12, and the questions go well beyond one sideline scuffle. Mora gave up a $1.5 million buyout to leave UConn for this job, and Nick Saban mocked the move. But things haven’t gone the way he drew them up.

“Once again, the story of the day for us is our inability to stop people and keep points off the board,” Mora said after the Boise State game. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve never been involved with something like this. So it’s disappointing.”

The Rams travel to Washington State on November 14. Whether Bynum, Johnson, or both face any discipline is still unknown. How Mora handles it, and whether the defense shows up, will say a lot about where this season goes.