FORT COLLINS — It’s been about a month since Jay Norvell was named head coach of the Colorado State football team. On Thursday he met with the media to provide an update on the status of the program and officially introduce his coordinators, Matt Mumme (offense) and Freddie Banks (defense).
Prior to the coordinators fielding questions themselves, Norvell spoke with the local press for close to 30 minutes, laying out what he’s been up to recently behind the scenes, including establishing a 12 month plan with Tim Cassidy (senior associate AD/football chief of staff).
“I was taught to start with the end in mind and work backwards. So that’s kind of how we start every year,” Norvell said. We’ve basically gone over the whole year, everything that we want to do this year, from some winter training to spring practice, to spring recruiting, to summer camps, to training camp, and then our season.”
Norvell expressed that he’s excited about getting the players back on campus this week after having many productive conversations with them over the last month. He added that the mid-year players, like the transfers, are able to come to campus 7 days before the beginning of the semester, so some of the new guys are already in town. But the majority of the team will be returning to CSU over the next three days, so Norvell is ready to get to work.
As he pointed out in his initial statement, Norvell gave some insight into what Ram Nation should expect on the recruiting front in the coming weeks. As of right now CSU has about six scholarships open, so with the final contact period beginning, Norvell is really focusing on landing more defensive recruits and filling out the 2022 class. He also intends on meeting with some of the local players that originally committed under Steve Addazio.
“I’ve had some great conversations,” Norvell said. “Colorado State had seven players that were in state (and) that were committed before we even took the job. And when I got hired, we really had to take a hard look at the transition, the things that we needed to do offensively and defensively, to put ourselves on a competitive course to do what we need to do as a program. So I put those on hold.”
The Rams did sign wide receiver Ky Oday Jr. (Cherry Creek High School) during the early period, a guy that Norvell said really fits in well with the future of the program. Most of the other Colorado recruits like Bryce Johnson and Cooper Walton have posted about no longer having scholarship offers, however, Norvell said on Thursday that he has made arrangements to see them next Tuesday.
“I’ve talked to every one of those kids, we want them in our program. And it’s really important to us that we have those in state kids in our program,” Norvell said. “So we have (had) ongoing conversations with all those kids that had been committed. We want to get to know them, I’m going to take our coaches out to see them. And I’ve had really good conversations with all of them.”
Finally, Norvell made it clear that the journey ahead is going to involve a lot of hard work. While there is reason to be excited about some of the returning pieces and transfers, many of the position groups lack experience. Others are going to be asked to serve drastically different roles than they did in the past. Change is coming in all aspects of CSU football.
“We’ve got a lot of challenges in that regard,” Norvell said. To be honest with you, you know, just the way that the practice was run was very different than the way that we will run practice. And we’re going to need far more receivers in our program to be able to function and operate the way that we’re used to. So we’re in the process of rectifying that.”
Here’s what else we learned from Norvell on Thursday.
The focus is on the future but Norvell wants to appreciate the past
Most of the press conference was on the state of the program and the direction that it’s heading under Norvell. That said, he did also talk about spending time with legendary Rams coach Sonny Lubick and how important it is to learn the history of a team.
Norvell explained that he reads up on the history, but what he really loves is hearing stories from the individuals that were actually there. “If we have a conversation, you tell me a story about when you were at CSU and you watched this game, that means more to me than what I read in a history book. And so I’ve been having those conversations over the last month.”
He said that the stories from the coaches and players that were here before him are what really stick with him. “The guys that have played here, the guys that have fought and bled on that field, and sacrificed, those are the stories that are most meaningful to me.”
The Rams are going to hold a meet and greet event with former players, and allow them to get to know the new team and staff, so it’s more than just words from the new Rams coach.
“We want to welcome those guys and have them be active participants and know our players. I really think it’s important for our players to hear those stories. They need to know how much it means to our former players to have played here, and how proud they are of Colorado State, and we take that responsibility very, very seriously,” Norvell said.
“You know, we talk about making the jersey better than when you got it. And so, these current players have to have an appreciation for the players that have played before them, and this is their time to add to the rich tradition in the history of Colorado State.”
In regards to spending time with Lubick, Norvell said that he loved the conversations he had with the man that CSU’s football field is named after. They were able to reminisce over common relationships with common connections from the industry. But more than anything Norvell is simply excited to establish a connection with one of the most important men to ever be associated with the Green & Gold.
When Norvell spent seven years at the University of Oklahoma under Bob Stoops, Barry Switzer lived two blocks away from the football facility and so he regularly spent time around the team. He’d even bring his golden retrievers with him and nobody batted an eye, because that was a program he helped build. Switzer was always welcome in the building and that’s exactly how Norvell wants Sonny Lubick to feel with CSU.
“This is his program. He spent a lot of years here,” Norvell said. “I love getting to know the former coaches and getting to learn from them. I think it’s important to continue those traditions and the legacy that they’ve left. It’s important for us to know it. And so we welcome coach Lubick and all of the former players. We want to have them back.”
Norvell is confident his past experiences will aid him at CSU
This isn’t Norvell’s first rodeo. When he was at the University of Iowa the program was in the process of a transition, the same goes for his time at Wisconsin, and obviously when he took over as the head coach of Nevada as well.
“There’s a lot of experience to lean on,” Norvell said. “There’s going to be some transition there with the kids but that’s part of the excitement as well. We love this offense. We love teaching this offense. There’s a process to learning it, and we get to start teaching it now.”
Norvell believes having players with experience in the system at Nevada will be a benefit for the team, most of the players will be new to it though. The majority of the roster is going to have to learn new techniques. And while it won’t be overnight, the new Rams coach is amped to hit the ground running with that process.
“We’re a very fundamentally based team, everything that we do is about execution and fundamentals… And so we got to start that muscle memory, it’s like swinging a golf club, you have to do it thousands of times before you really get it.”
