FORT COLLINS — CSU ranks 99th nationally in passing (197.3 yards per game) and No. 1 in throwing stuff against the wall.
Are the Rams a power run team? An Air Raid team? Pro style? Spread? Multiple? All of the above? None of the above?
Jay Norvell, the head coach, needs to re-assign Jay Norvell, the offensive coordinator, before it’s too late. Close games are turning chaotic at Canvas Stadium — only not in a good way. The Rams are tied for 127th out of 136 FBS programs in penalties per game (8.7) and 121st in penalty yards (76.3).
You wait too long to yank a cold hand (Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi) at quarterback against UTSA. You put in a hot hand (Jackson Brousseau), who slings you back into a tie game, 17-17, with 29 seconds left … only to take that tying point off the board and take said “hot hand” out of the contest.
Then you ask your third-string QB, a runner by trade (Tahj Bullock) who hasn’t completed a throw all year, to come off the bench cold, sprint right and pass you to a victory?
“That was one where I felt like that was our best chance to win, right there and right now,” Norvell explained Monday after watching film of CSU’s 17-16 home loss to the Roadrunners. “And so, I don’t regret it. I don’t. We needed to execute it better.”
I don’t know, man.
To be clear: CSU football is in a far, far better place than at this time four years ago. Daz Ball was a disaster from the jump.
It was also, in hindsight, a hysterically low bar to clear. And instead of consolidating the fan base in Year 4, Norvell has become Fort Fun’s Rorschach test.
True, his Rams are a two-point conversion away from being 2-1. A Bullock completion from rolling into a winnable home matchup against Washington State (2-2), coming off two Houdini escapes.
They’re also an absolute refereeing gift vs. Northern Colorado away from being 0-3 and forcing athletic director John Weber to pass the hat among donors at warp speed.
Either way, Saturday night against the Cougars has turned into must-see TV locally. Largely because it feels as if Wazzu just became a must-win contest.
It’s a too-darn-early referendum on what Norvell has built. And, more to the point, what he hasn’t.
Norvell’s predecessor, Steve Addazio, routinely embarrassed CSU at a time when the administration didn’t need any more help in that department. As soon as the Daz’s buyout dropped, ex-AD Joe Parker dropped the hammer.
Hires are usually reflections of their predecessors, if not stark contrasts by design. Norvell was poached from Nevada to bring normalcy, decency, an exciting offense and success, not necessarily in that order.
Four years in? That’s a yes, another yes, a not really, and a sort of.
Rams faithful aren’t shy about voting with their wallets. And Weber has to keep Canvas Stadium full — or awfully close. When Norvell boat-raced CSU with his Wolf Pack in late November 2021, Canvas sat half-empty. The Daz’s last three home games averaged 62% of capacity. The writing was on the checkbook.
We’re not there yet. CSU sold out four home games in 2024 and set a single-season home attendance record along the way — buoyed by a slate that featured Deion Sanders’ Fort Fun debut and a visit from rival Wyoming. Two games into 2025, the ledger is OK: Northern Colorado sold out on Sept. 6, while UTSA drew a more-than-respectable 88.8% of capacity (32,061).
Norvell sees this as a lifetime job, not a stepping stone. He wants to build it the right way. He’s committed to FoCo. He’s adjusted to the new normal of NCAA free agency, even hiring staff to handle the stuff he doesn’t particularly like. He’s invested in CSU, and vice versa.
But in a results business, the results on the field have been all over the place. Every silver lining has come with at least a little cloud trailing in its wake.
Last fall, Norvell got CSU to a bowl game for the first time since 2017. Once there, the Rams got obliterated by a MAC team. Clay Millen was the man, until he wasn’t. BFN was the man, until he couldn’t.
Norvell was hired with the idea of becoming another Sonny Lubick — a stable, long-term builder. But the transfer portal opened; House vs. NCAA happened; and Coach Prime turned up in Boulder to suck all the oxygen out of the local news cycle.
None of that is Jay’s fault. Yet with a move to the Pac-12 looming next year, some CSU fans talk about pining for a football version of Niko Medved in their new league. Someone who’ll make a big splash at CSU nationally, even if that means using the Rams as leverage toward a sexier job. And if they’re gone after two seasons for greener, richer Big Ten or SEC pastures, McElwain-style, so be it.
So: Lifetime guy (Norvell) or hot up-and-comer? It’s going to be one archetype or the other.
Norvell’s current contract expires Dec. 31, 2026. Per the term sheet the Rams released during his December 2021 hire, he’s making a base salary of $1.9 million this season and is due to make $2 million in 2026.
CSU can buy that out without cause for $1.5 million from now until New Year’s Eve. It can do so anytime in 2026 for “remaining base pay owed.”
With the remaining undecideds, there’s only one way back. And on this one, Norvell needs to not listen to his inner OC. Or to his gut. He should heed the ghost of one of his mentors, the late Al Davis.
Just win, baby.
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Originally Published:
Sean Keeler
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