3 takeaways: Colorado State kicks off spring ball with a lively open practice

FORT COLLINS — Spring is here and with it comes football. 

Colorado State held its first practice session of the spring period on Tuesday morning and according to first-year Rams coach Jay Norvell, this is the best time of the year for the coaching staff. 

Games are exciting for the fans and the players but March and April are where the coaches get to focus on teaching base fundamentals and how they want to play. In a lot of ways it’s where they have the most control. 

“It’s just really exciting to be in the first real practice where we’ve had them on the field and can start teaching our offense and defense, and really trying to explain our football the way we want it taught,” Norvell said. 

Norvell continued, explaining that the goal is for CSU to build a foundation over the 15 spring practices that will ultimately stick with the team for the rest of the year. The things that they are doing now can then be referred back to in the future as the Rams get more comfortable in a new system. Like a child trying to learn a new instrument, Norvell wants to emphasize how to play each note correctly before they’re concerned with busting out any fancy tunes. 

“I told the players, it’s like, if your parents ever made you play piano, we’re not playing a song. Today, we’re playing chopsticks,” Norvell said. “I mean, we’re just playing the notes. And we’re just trying to play them exactly right.”

For CSU, which uses a unique practice style divided into two sessions, allowing each player to get increased reps and individual attention from the staff, it’s pertinent for everyone to get used to the flow of how things are going to operate. 

“We’re not trying to be out here all day. But the time we’re out here, we want them to do it exactly right,” Norvell said. “You’ve just got to be really focused on what we’re doing. So it’s all about repetition and fundamentals. And, you know, today was a good start.”

While it’s much too early to get carried away with any hot takes or bold opinions on the team — Tuesday was only Day 1 — a couple of things did stand out during CSU’s initial practice of the spring. 

Here are the takeaways from the first official practice of the Norvell era. 

The juice is back 

Pretty much everything about this program feels different right now — and for the better — but it was impossible not to notice how lively the atmosphere was for a 7:00 a.m. practice in the cold Fort Collins wind. 

The music was bumping, the coaching was positive, and you could just feel the excitement in the air with the fans watching their beloved Rams get some work in. 

“I like the music, man,” senior linebacker Dequan Jackson told the media. “You know, you’ve got to bring your own juice but sometimes it’s cold out here and you’ve got a lot going on. 

While most FBS programs across the country have decided to lock their doors and close out the people that love their teams the most, all in a deluded attempt to protect the game-plan/in-house secrets, Norvell and Co. have done the exact opposite. They are welcoming in the media and the die-hards with their arms wide open. And they’re embracing having fun — something that was desperately needed after the previous regime. 

Obviously, as someone that creates content on the team for a living, having an open practice directly benefits me. I’m not trying to be coy about anything here. Opening things up, though, also clearly benefits the fans.

These are the people that spend their hard-earned money to support CSU Football. These are the people that sweat through their shirts in the early-September games and then freeze their asses off in the late-November conference matchups. Why schools would ever do anything other than trying to embrace their supporters is beyond me, I’m just thankful to have a staff that finally seems to get it. 

The Rams have some live arms 

Again, it’s much too early to put a lot of stock into the action taking place on the field. Norvell even emphasized that it’s more about working on the fundamentals than anything else. That said, though, it was tough not to notice all of the big-armed quarterbacks slinging the rock all over the field.

Clay Millen was impressive during his time with the ones, demonstrating his leadership skills at the line of scrimmage, as well as his arm strength and touch on a variety of challenging throws. He certainly looked like a guy that was confident in his role and is comfortable being the leader of an offense. And considering he’s very likely going to be the starter on Day 1, that’s definitely encouraging to see. It’s also encouraging to see a quarterback that is capable of consistently stretching the field after the inconsistent QB play that Ram fans had to suffer through the past two seasons. 

In addition to Millen, the arms of Jackson Stratton, Giles Pooler and Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi were definitely noticeable as well. And while I’m not sure if I see the fit in this system, Evan Olaes displayed some zip at times too.

All and all this is probably the deepest that the quarterback room has been since the 2017 season, which like everything else with the program, is a massive step in the right direction. 

The offense will be ahead of the defense early 

The beauty of the Air Raid offense is the simplicity. It only takes about three days to install the entire scheme, which allows you to then focus on repetition. Freddie Banks’ defense, on the other hand, is going to take a little bit longer to install. 

“They’re not quite on the same schedule as us but the philosophy is the same,” Norvell said. “We’re not trying to be experts on everything.  But we want to be really detailed in the areas that we choose to do. And so our defense is the same way, we’ll have a very narrow focus with our install.”

Norvell said that the defense should be mostly installed after four or five days of practice; they don’t want to rush anything, though. 

“The best teams don’t do a lot. And we don’t do a lot, but we want to be very good at what we do. Because it’s only March.”

Next Up

The Rams will practice again on Thursday and Saturday morning.