Bobby Rome II was hired as Chicago State’s first head football coach in April 2025. He said CSU will reveal its current roster, coaching staff, home field and schedule Feb. 4, along with its high school commitments. (Photo by Chicago State University)
By Dan Verdun
The last 10 months have had the pace of a continual two-minute drive for Bobby Rome II.
That has come as no surprise to the 39-year-old Norfolk, Va., native, who was named the inaugural head football coach at Chicago State University this past April.
There have been media events, fundraising campaigns and speaking engagements.
Yet, at the heart of it all, Rome remains a coach.
“Right now, I’m excited about seeing my student-athletes come to campus,” Rome told Prairie State Pigskin Thursday. “Walking around campus you see all the different athletes that we have from our other 16 Division I sports, but now you’re starting to see football players come on campus.
“They’re built a little different. They walk a little different. It’s exciting to see those guys show up, and the faculty and staff is excited to see those big guys coming to class.”
Chicago State will play an independent schedule this fall before transitioning to the Northeast Conference in 2027. The eight-team NEC gained an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs this past season.
Rome said Chicago State will reveal much more about the Cougar program in the coming weeks, beginning with the release of names on the current roster along with a schedule and uniform reveal.
“Feb. 4 is a big day for this program. We’re going to celebrate these historic moments,” Rome said.
This is an edited transcript of our interview.
How many players do you have on campus right now?
We have approximately 62 on campus, and we’re excited about getting them in here and going into our weight and conditioning program. We’re going in the right direction. Our staff has been working really hard, and it shows with the number of guys we’ve gotten in the doors here.
What is the makeup of those 62 players?
They’re transfer portal guys. We would have liked to have brought in some mid-year high school guys. Unfortunately, there weren’t many available by the time we started our process. We got the green light on December 18 to start going forward with recruiting and hiring. By the time we got our coaches on board, at that point the transfer portal was booming and we had to jump in there and see who was available.
We got pretty lucky. We hired a lot of coaches that come from different places that could bring a lot of talent with them as well.
What levels are these transfers from?
It’s a combination of Division I, FBS and FCS. There’s Division II with a lot of guys who played in some big football games. There are NAIA guys that played in games that we felt could move up the ladder.
We’re looking for talent, not necessarily what division they played in. We’re looking for guys with size and fit for the kind of football we’re looking to play.
How many players have Chicago connections?
The low-hanging fruit is always the guys you want to come back home because quite frankly they never had the opportunity to come back here and play Division I football in the city of Chicago. That was very appealing to many young men out there.
There are also a lot of young men out there in the junior colleges that played at College of DuPage and other spots like that. They were very successful there.
We have a lot of NAIA programs here in Illinois. We’ve got one of the best Division II conferences here in the Midwest. Those programs have gotten a number of guys from Chicago in the past. A number of those guys want to come back home, and we’ve snatched them up.
When do you anticipate a roster being released?
February 4 (which is national signing day) is a date we’ll do that, along with our high school kids as well. We’ll kind of do a mixed release of the guys we have here on campus plus the guys we’re signing as our class.
Have you set spring practice dates yet?
I’ll say this, we’re in the process of doing that. In Chicago, as you know, the weather is a little different. We have a plan, but we have an alternative plan in case we can’t get the (mandated) 15 practices that we need.
Honestly, we probably need more than 15 practices. We’re trying to decide, do we go with pads or without? Going without gets us more days on the field to get our systems installed.
We’re trying to decide what’s best for our institution and what’s best for our football program.
Do you plan on having a spring game to culminate it, or is that something for the future?
That would be something better for the future. Right now, we have so many unknowns. What I mean by that is that this is the first time our university has had to enroll so many guys at one time. This is the first time our housing had to accept so many mid-year students at one time. This is the first time academic schedules had to be blocked off for these student-athletes. We have to see how that works and how it’s going to benefit everyone going forward.
We’ve got our plate full here, but we’re excited.
Some of your coaching staff has been revealed via social media. Is your staff complete?
Not at all. We’ve got guys we’re still running through the process. We’ve got a few jobs we’re getting ready to post here soon for the second part of our staff. We’re hiring in phases. A lot of players aren’t going to commit if your coordinators aren’t in place. We made sure we had that done. (Bobby Blizzard is the new CSU offensive coordinator and Le’Marcus Gibson is the defensive coordinator.)
What has the staff you’ve hired brought to the program to move it forward?
First and foremost, I think it’s important to bring in guys that understand what an FCS program is. When we see my staff, you’ll find guys that have been a part of successful FCS programs and ones that have transitioned from one conference to another.
We’re bringing in guys that understand they’re here to pour the concrete. They’re not afraid of that. These are guys with proven track records who are also outstanding recruiters.
They’re anxious to get things started here in Chicago.
The website FBSchedules.com lists that Chicago State has road games at UT Martin and Tarleton State. Is that accurate?
I’m not at liberty to answer that, but we are definitely working on our schedule right now. There are some FCS programs (on that schedule). We definitely want to put ourselves in a position that we can qualify for the playoffs if that happens. We do have a number of Division I games to make that happen. The minimum number is six. We have well over that number.
Has there been any contact with the four other FCS programs in Illinois to schedule future games?
We definitely have spoken with those institutions. A lot of that talk was earlier in the first phase of our fundraising process. As of late, we haven’t heard much from those schools, but I’m sure they’re going to be calling us soon here.
Have you established a home field yet? How about revealing the team uniforms?
I believe that’s going to be announced on Feb. 4 as well. For us, we want to have the best of everything. We’re not just stumbling into FCS Division I football. We want to be a competitor. We’re in one of the biggest cities in America. We’re going to take advantage of that.
We’re not here just to celebrate the fact that we’re kicking off the football. We’re here to win football games. We’re here to set a standard. We’re here to set up something that’s going to last a long time here in the city of Chicago.
As you were helping set up this program, did you reach out to anyone who has started an FCS program in recent years for advice?
Yes, I was blessed enough to be living in Norfolk, Va., when Bobby Wilder (now the coach at FCS Tennessee Tech) built the program at Old Dominion University. We have developed a relationship over the years. My high school football coach was there as his assistant head coach. I was able to call my old coach who was there from the first day that he started. He pretty much ran through everything with me. I was also able to jump on a call with Bobby Wilder as well and talk through things.
I was also blessed to inherit a program at the NAIA level, Florida Memorial. That program was only a year old when I took it over. It was in its infancy, so I understand the expectations of that.
You have to be able to handle those ups and downs and be able to find and manage student-athletes who can handle them as well. This right here is a calling situation. You have to have a calling in your heart to be a part of what we’ve got going on. We only want young men with that unique fit.
We’re excited to show those guys to the world here soon.
Fundraising is obviously a big part of what you’ve had to do. What percentage or what part of your job has been fundraising as opposed to actual coaching?
That was my job all the way up until December 18 when we got the approval to move forward. I’ve been fundraising since April. We were building the infrastructure of this football program. We wanted to make sure that every i was dotted and every t was crossed. We didn’t want to cut any corners.
We worked extremely hard making connections here in the city of Chicago and finding people who wanted to buy into our vision. We found those folks, and it’s worked out beautifully.
Kudos to (CSU athletic director) Dr. (Monique) Carroll and I pat myself on the back as well for staying the course and delivering.
To you, what would be an ideal number of players to have in camp this summer?
I would love to have 90 guys in camp. I told Dr. Carroll when I first got here that I’m a 110-, 115-type of guy for my roster. I have no doubt in my mind that we can make 90 in camp happen. People are beating our doors down. They want to be part of what we’ve got going on. And it’s only going to get better. The more resources we have here, I truly believe that more people are going to want to invest in our student-athletes.
Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about your program?
We’re not just going to be happy kicking the football off. We’re here to build a winning football program. We’re going to take all the steps to do that. We’re not going to cut any corners. We’re not just going to throw a team on the field and say, ‘Hey, we did it!’ We’re looking to establish something that is going to stand for a long time. Something we can put our name on and be proud of.
I’m happy with the progress we’ve made so far. I’m happy with the student-athletes showing up on campus. I’m happy with the overwhelming mood of the community. They’re welcoming our guys in. Those are solid foundations to build a Division I football program on.
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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