3 takeaways from the 2023 Green & Gold Game

Colorado State wrapped up the spring football period with the annual Green & Gold Game on Saturday. 

On a chilly Fort Collins afternoon, the Rams played in an intrasquad scrimmage, pitting the starters against the twos and threes in a setting that mimics a live game scenario. 

Although not everyone on the roster was active — the starting defense was missing multiple guys that are expected to start and/or contribute, and wide receiver Tory Horton was not on the field either — it was still a great way for the staff to evaluate the state of the roster going into the summer. It was a valuable final opportunity for fringe players to try and make their case for playing time as well. 

With that in mind, here are the offensive takeaways from Saturday afternoon. 

Clay Millen was sharp

Clay Millen was efficient under center, finishing 11-of-16 for 183 yards and a 29-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Louis Brown. In total, the sophomore quarterback mounted four scoring drives in the 30 minutes that he played, including a pair to start the day. 

Millen spoke to this afterwards, telling reporters that he was pleased with the way that offense started out “super hot”. He explained that it wasn’t a perfect day by any means and that there were things that needed to be cleaned up, like pre-snap penalties. Overall, though, despite not scoring on every drive like he intended, Millen said that it was a good day for the group. 

With Horton not participating in the scrimmage — he’s been in a non-contact jersey throughout the spring — Millen had an opportunity to continue to grow his chemistry with the other skill players on the team.  

“Obviously, Tory being out is disappointing. But I think at the end of the day, it’s been kind of good for me to get a chance to go throw to guys like ‘LB’, Justus and Dallin,” Millen said. “And it’s really given me a chance all spring to get really comfortable with them. Because I know as soon as Tory gets back in, you know, we’ll click instantly again.”

Norvell echoed Millen’s sentiments, saying that he thinks it’s great that his young gunslinger is developing a rapport with multiple pass catchers this spring. He explained that they already know what Horton is capable of — and in Norvell’s opinion, that’s to be the best wide receiver in the Mountain West. As we all witnessed last season though, it’s really important to be able to depend on multiple weapons in the arsenal if you want to be a lethal unit. 

While we have yet to see how it will translate in real games, what’s encouraging is that Millen and these up-and-coming players have already shown in multiple scrimmages that there is progress being made. It’s not just an empty statement from a press conference. 

Brown hauled in Millen’s lone touchdown pass on Saturday. And Justus Ross-Simmons had the biggest play of the day in terms of yardage gained. On the first drive of the afternoon, the sophomore wide receiver took a screen pass 64 yards to set up the first offensive TD of the day — a two-yard rush from running back Vann Schield. 

As far as the other offensive standouts go, BYU-transfer Dallin Holker showcased what he brings to the table in the middle of the field. Vincent Brown, a transfer from the College of DuPage, also had a nice grab up the seam for about 27 yards, as well as a one-handed touchdown grab from Jackson Stratton in the final seconds. 

Offensive line holds up 

While we do not want to get too carried away or overreact to spring practices, one of the bright spots for CSU over the last month was definitely the consistency from the starting five. 

On Saturday afternoon, the unit held up once again, as they only allowed one sack with Millen in the game. And despite not having a single active scholarship running back, the ones consistently ran the football well all day, which is a testament to what the big guys in the trenches were doing. 

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

Norvell continued, explaining that they’ve been able to effectively run the ball all spring, and that starts up front. Their pass protection has been consistent as well, according to Norvell. 

“We’re really very specific with what we’re asking them to do. And we want to give them some core things to just continue to repeat and do. We want to run the ball, we want to be physical up front, we’ve really been emphasizing those techniques. And they’ve responded.” 

While the depth behind (LT) Sayevon Henderson, (LG) Oliver Jervis, (OC) Jacob Gardner, (RG) Telvis Tituoti and (RT) Drew Moss is not quite where the staff would like it to be — Norvell will continue to work to improve the two-deep in the trenches — the fact that this starting five has been able to find consistent success against CSU’s deep defensive line is definitely something Ram fans can feel good about going into the summer. 

CSU will have upwards of 50+ new players coming to Fort Collins before camp starts up in August, so the state of the roster is still very much in flux, but after the beating the quarterbacks took in 2022, the offensive line certainly feels much more stable as of now. 

Walk-on running back ends spring on a high note

Finally, making the most of his playing time, Vann Schield scored three times on Saturday and generally created positive yardage when he touched the ball. The walk-on from Rock Canyon High School has been CSU’s lead back over the past couple of weeks due to a knee injury to Keegan Holles and an ongoing legal situation with Avery Morrow, and to Schield’s credit, the converted defensive back has made the most of the situation. 

“God works in mysterious ways,” Schield told DNVR and the Coloradoan afterwards. “Avery had some stuff go down, Keegan got hurt, so I just had to capitalize on my opportunity that I was given.”

Prior to coming to CSU, Schield had always been a running back, so the transition was not much of a challenge for him. In fact, he said that he felt really natural returning to the backfield. He certainly looked comfortable back there as he rushed for more than 100 yards on Saturday. 

With upwards of five new scholarship backs coming to campus this summer, Ram fans shouldn’t expect to see Schield in the backfield with the ones by the time September rolls around. That said, as Norvell said after the second scrimmage, Schield just may have done enough to compete for some type of role come Fall. At the very least though, it was cool to see a hard worker get an opportunity to shine after busting his tail throughout the spring. 

“My goal was just show the coaches what I’m capable of, capitalize on my opportunities that I was given and just show them that I can really play,” Schield said.