Super Bowl spotlight for CSM football

I’m sure you’re familiar with the programming. Feature stories on players in the Super Bowl, players who may be from the Bay Area, light-hearted pieces on fans both local and those coming in for game.

And around 11:30 a.m., Sunday, Feb. 8, NBC will run a roughly five-minute piece on the CSM football program.

“We do it different here,” said CSM head coach Tim Tulloch, who was on his way to a ribbon-cutting ceremony and to run a kids’ camp at a newly-installed artificial turf field in East Palo Alto Wednesday afternoon.

With an assist from the Madden Foundation, “NBC found out about program and the program not really being just a football program, but one that builds championship young men,” Tulloch continued.

“As Division I football becomes more transactional, we are rooted in transformational.”

The Bulldogs success certainly helps. But when you really dig into the program, you will find that it is much more than just X’s and O’s.

Yes, the Bulldogs have won three state and national championships in the last four years, including back-to-back titles following a 28-27 win over Golden West Dec. 13.

And yes, CSM has a long list of former players and coaches — from Bill Walsh and John Madden, to Julian Edelman — who have gone on to have great success in the NFL.

But Tulloch and his staff are committed to making their players as good off the field as they are on the field, in the classroom and the real world. Their goal is for these student-athletes to have their degrees not only from CSM but from four-year universities and colleges, and over the last 20 years, CSM has transferred hundreds of players to four-year schools. A majority finish their degrees.

That starts with support from the school and district administration, identifying the need for support.

“We can’t do this without the administration,” Tulloch said. “We have to teach these young men to be great students. How to be great men. When you take a holistic approach (to development), it helps in all phases of their lives.”

And they’ve been doing it for a long time. Former head coach Bret Pollack, who is currently the team’s offensive line coach, told the Daily Journal in 20210:

We pay attention to transferability. … We’re not a football program that transfers players. We’re not a football factory. We’re a transfer program that plays football. And it’s a minority transfer program. Eighty percent of guys moving on are minority.”

That mentality continues to this day. CSM sports information director Fred Baer said NBC producers and camera crews followed Bulldogs players and coaches around campus the week leading up their game against City College of San Francisco — which handed CSM its only loss of the season, 7-6 Oct. 25.

NBC checked back in with the Bulldogs during the state championship game.

“[The producer who was working with the team] said, ‘Coach, I’ve done a lot of (TV) pieces.’ He said, ‘Your program? We could do multiple hours,’” Tulloch said. “They had so much footage.”

While Tulloch and the Bulldogs community are proud of what they’ve accomplished and happy to let the world in on what is happening at College of San Mateo, the job isn’t done. In fact, despite having won a state title less than two months ago, Tulloch, his staff and players are already gearing up for next season.

And regardless of what happens on the field next fall, the Bulldogs are already winners, by Tulloch’s way of thinking.

“You can define winning in a lot of different ways,” Tulloch said. “Winning for us is seeing these young men earn degrees. Winning for us is 10, 20, 30 years down the road.

“But you have to have a foundation. It has to start somewhere.”

And for hundreds of student-athletes who started at a community college in San Mateo. Now the rest of the world will get a chance to see the winners the Bulldogs have become.

“We’re the last stop where it’s pure. It’s what we got into coaching for — to build championship young men. We’ve had a lot of coaches get opportunities to go to DI football and they say they’re staying (at CSM) because this is where they really get to connect with young men who really need it,” Tulloch said. “[The NBC piece] is neat for our whole village of coaches, players and administrators here on campus. [Success] is a lot of hard work. Early mornings and late nights. We ask a lot of these kids, which is why I’m so proud of them.”

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.