Consistency is key IN year two

Norvel has CSU trending in the right direction

By Justin Michael

Jay Norvell has high hopes for what the Colorado State football program can be.

Coming over from the University of Nevada, where he was quite successful despite not having even close to the level of resources that are available to him in Fort Collins, Norvell felt that CSU was a sleeping giant. And with the proper management, CSU not only could be a winning team, it should be one.

“This place supports football. This place is committed to football. And this place wants to have a winning, championship program,”

Norvell said during his introductory press conference.

“I looked at this place very similar to Cincinnati and the top Group of 5 programs in the country. That’s the type of support we have here, and we have very high goals here. I embrace that.”

In Norvell’s first year on the job, there were quite a few speed bumps, including a mass exodus of veteran players in the month of September. After the new staff invested all of the spring practices and fall camp into these individuals, five starters and a handful of other players elected to quit the team before we even got to the conference portion of the schedule.

Obviously, losing these players greatly impacted the overall depth of the roster. So much so, in fact, that the offensive coaches did not even have enough wide receivers to practice the proper way. Also factoring in the injuries at quarterback, and the brutal state of the offensive line, it’s impressive that the Rams managed to get more competitive as the season went on.

CSU started 0-4 and got out-scored 164-43 in the first month. Then, after losing a bunch of guys to the transfer portal and having to play four different quarterbacks, the Rams found a way to go 3-5 over the final eight weeks. All things considered, it was an encouraging finish given the way things started, especially ending with a 17-0 shutout of New Mexico in the season finale.

Going into year two, the outlook is generally optimistic for the Green & Gold. While the Rams will not be projected to win the Mountain West in the preseason, with the amount of talent that CSU possesses on the defensive side of the ball, if the offense takes a step up the Rams should have a good chance to return to the postseason for the first time since 2017.

The biggest key for offensive improvement will most definitely be improved play in the trenches. CSU allowed 59 sacks in 2022 and had a whole bunch more offensive plays that went for negative yardage. It was the biggest reason why the Rams really struggled to sustain drives. It was also why they never scored more than 19 points in a single game.

Fortunately, after revamping the unit through the transfer portal, the hope is the o-line will be able to hold up much more consistently this time around. And while the results from spring ball usually have to be taken with a grain of salt, the group actually performed well in their first showing in a Rams uniform.

“I’ve just been very pleased all spring with our offensive line,” Norvell said after the Green & Gold Game. “I think we’ve improved there tremendously. We’ve got a core of guys that are really accountable, that work hard every day and that try to do the things we’ve been asking them to do.”

Norvell continued, emphasizing the way the Rams consistently ran the football effectively, even with a depleted backfield. He praised their play in pass protection as well. And as he explained, all of that begins up front.

Assuming what we have seen from the offensive line so far has not been a total fluke, redshirt sophomore quarterback Clay Millen is a year wiser and has a chance to build off of an encouraging freshman year in which he set the school record for season completion percentage (72.2). If he can just get consistent protection, the potential for a breakout season is certainly on the table.

We have already seen that Millen has the arm talent and decision-making skills to be a successful QB. The difference this time is Tory Horton won’t be the only pass catcher on the roster that went into the season listed as a starter.

Instead of true freshmen being thrust into the lineup prematurely, Millen will have the benefit of having developed chemistry with a multitude of wide receivers and tight ends —most of which will have practiced and prepared with the ones throughout the spring, summer and fall camp.

In an interview on National Signing Day, Norvell talked about exactly this. He explained how having a group of skill players that have all been through an offseason in the program will be a significant advantage compared to the situation last fall. “That’s what gives me so much hope about the progress we think we can make this year,” he said to DNVR.

Along with the benefit of roster continuity, another reason why Norvell is optimistic about CSU’s potential in 2023 is that he was able to retain his entire staff. Multiple schools from bigger conferences made attempts to lure away defensive coordinator Freddie Banks and defensive line coach Buddha Williams. But just was able to retain his most productive players from a season ago, Norvell was able to keep these “brilliant up-and-coming defensive coaches” in the building.

“Power five schools from the Pac-12 and the Big Ten went after them, and really offered to double their salaries,” Norvell said. “We were able to get them to stay because they love CSU, because they love our program, and we give them an opportunity to coach the way that they want to coach and continue to grow. I think that we’ve got great people on our staff and in our program. And I’m just so excited to keep us together, because I know if we can keep this staff together, keep these players together, we’re going to get better.”

While it may be too early to project a 12-2 season that ends with New Year’s Six Bowl victory over one of the country’s biggest brands in college football, one of the programs that Norvell feels CSU could replicate is Tulane. Coming off of a 2-10 season in 2021, the Green Wave completely flipped a switch in 2022 and won nine of their final 10 games, including the AAC title game over UCF and the Cotton Bowl over USC.

As Norvell sees things, having beaten Tulane soundly in the 2020 Idaho Potato Bowl, that’s a program that is comparable to one in the Mountain West. In order to drastically improve the way that the

Green Wave did though, the Rams must also be willing to go through the process of becoming a winning team.

That involves dedication and loyalty. That involves adding more talent to the mix. But most importantly, it involves being committed to the process of doing the right things. If they can do that, Norvell believes that just like Tulane this past fall, CSU can make a major leap competitively.

“That’s kind of our expectation for this year,” Norvell said. “We expect to win, we expect to compete against everybody we play against, and we expect to show great improvement.”

It’s still too early to get carried away with bold predictions for the 2023 season. Until we see how the offensive line handles live game reps, projecting this team’s ceiling is going to be a tough call. However, having said that, while we still have much to learn about the Rams in year two of the Norvell era, it is clear that the state of the locker room is much healthier than it was at this time last year.

That’s not to say that the job is done — that will be determined by the results in the win/loss column. But when it comes to that process of becoming a winning team, Norvell can see the buy-in from the guys in the locker room. The players see the vision and they’re doing what they can to make it come to fruition. The next step is turning that buy-in into genuine belief. The belief that on any given Saturday, the Rams are going to come out on top.

“Once you trust one another, you’ve committed to the process, you believe you should win,” Norvell said. “I think we’re in the middle of that right now. We’re getting to that point where guys are starting to trust and believe in each other. The commitment level has risen. And the last part is when you walk into someone’s stadium, you believe you’re supposed to win. And then you start to do that consistently.”

It’s been a long decadeplus for the CSU faithful, but for the first time in years, the program is seemingly trending in the right direction. We’ll see if the Rams can finally break through the glass ceiling that’s seemingly held them back since Jim McElwain left for Florida in 2014.