Chad Savage on Colorado State's recruiting success, what the pitch looks like and building something special in Fort Collins

Colorado State’s 2023 class is publicly up to 20 verbal commitments and currently sits atop the Mountain West rankings according to all of the major recruiting sites. 

Over the last couple of months the Rams have been able to rack up pledges from Hawaii to Virginia and many places in between, including right here in Colorado. Wide receiver Silas Evans, from George Washington High School, even picked the Green & Gold over offers from Colorado and Oregon State.

While CSU has had some local success and dipped into a couple of unique states as well, Illinois and Indiana for example, the vast majority of the prospective Rams are coming from up and down the West Coast. The staff has done a solid job of establishing pipelines in California especially, but also Oregon and Washington. And as a result the Rams have really been successful with their recruiting efforts in the Pacific time zone — an encouraging sign for a program in the Mountain West. 

What’s particularly impressive about CSU’s 2023 class, aside from the high volume of prospects that have chosen the Rams over power five teams, is the fact that the staff has been able to really recruit well at the high school level. 

Over the last half decade or so, CSU has benefitted consistently by adding transfers to the team. Guys like Preston Williams and Scott Patchan were able to star for the Green & Gold after starting their collegiate careers elsewhere. And obviously CSU’s 2022 recruiting class was stacked with FBS transfers, as many former Nevada players followed Jay Norvell over from Nevada.

Now, this is not a problem, particularly in the modern era, where the transfer portal has essentially become free agency. When you use the portal effectively, it can be a great way to bolster depth and potentially even add stars. This past summer CSU was able to bring in former four-star recruit Ayden Hector, a defensive back that started as a true freshman at Washington State.

As useful as the transfer portal can be in 2022, when when it comes to building the foundation of the roster, any coach will tell you that being able to recruit the prep circuit is massively important. For one thing the staff members recruit high school players much longer than they do through the portal, which allows them to get to know the prospects better. Then once they get to campus, the staff has a much bigger window of time to coach them up and work on development, so the rate of success is just typically going to be higher. 

Again, leaning on the portal is not a problem, it’s a big part of the modern game. But not every cycle is going to be like 2022, when the majority of the signees already had FBS experience.

The biggest reason why the coaches used the portal so much in their first cycle, outside of needing to flip the roster, was that Norvell and Co. were hired with just over a week left in the recruiting calendar. In a recent interview with DNVR, wide receiver coach/recruiting coordinator Chad Savage talked about exactly this and the differences with their approach for the 2023 class.

“It’s just the timing of the recruiting calendar. We could do official visits when we first took the job in December, but then the period switched.”

Savage continued, explaining that after they initially got to campus, they hosted a bunch of transfers right off the bat and were very successful in that process. After that initial period though, the coaches did not have another opportunity to host prospects until June. 

In June, with a chance to really pursue a wider range of recruits, the staff made the most of it, particularly with high school prospects. 

“I feel like if we can establish that relationship early on, build that relationship with their families, we’ll have a good chance of getting them before their senior season,” Savage said. 

As far as what the pitch looks like, CSU’s recruiting coordinator emphasized that they really can offer the total package. Fort Collins is consistently ranked one of the top college towns in America, CSU is a great institution to receive an education, the facilities are stellar, and you have a chance to play for Jay Norvell. 

“I mean, it’s A to Z,” Savage said. “Fort Collins has it all… Getting recruits in the facilities that we have here, we’ve got an indoor facility, a great stadium, practice fields, a wonderful locker room, weight room, a nutrition center, it’s awesome. Once we get guys on campus, it’s a huge selling point.” 

There’s still quite a bit of time between now and the early signing period in December, so it will be interesting to see where CSU’s class ends up ranking when it’s all said and done. Odds are a couple of the current commits will end up elsewhere, while a few others we don’t know about yet will join the mix later. But regardless of whether the Rams finish with the No. 1 class in the conference or not, the fact that this staff has been able to make such a splash in recruiting after CSU has recorded four consecutive losing seasons is a welcomed sight for a fanbase desperately hoping to see this team return to glory. 

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any college program. For the first time in quite a while, it feels like Colorado State is an actual threat.