Ty McCullouch leaves the team — what to make of all these veteran departures for CSU

Ty McCullouch is the latest veteran player to leave the Colorado State football program. The senior wide receiver announced via Twitter that he will sit out the remainder of the 2022 season and use his redshirt year before entering the transfer portal in December. 

McCullouch is the fourth wide receiver to leave the team this month, joining Dante Wright, Melquan Stovall and E.J. Scott. The Rams also recently lost kicker Cayden Camper and offensive tackle Ches Jackson, both of whom quit before the Week 3 trip to Washington State. 

Although we have not yet had an opportunity to get a comment from Jay Norvell on McCullouch’s departure specifically, the first-year Rams coach has been pretty open about wanting the team culture to improve. 

As he’s put bluntly on a couple of occasions, those that are committed to the vision and the advancement of the program will be part of the plan moving forward. Conversely, other individuals will decide that they’d rather look for a different opportunity elsewhere and frankly that’s fine. 

Players only have so many years to compete at the collegiate level, so if they feel that it’s best for them to look for a new situation, then that’s their prerogative.

And from CSU’s perspective — this has been a losing team for far too long — so while nobody is rooting for these guys to leave, it’s essentially a situation where it’s going to be better for everybody involved in the long run.

This staff is trying to establish their own culture and build the program their way. Having discontented veterans in the building doesn’t help with that transition though, especially when the losses start to pile up. It’s why you often see teams in professional sports choose to completely clean house and develop around a new young core, rather than keeping older guys around who feel the pressure of their careers winding down and subsequently are less inclined to be okay with a long-term plan.

It’s an ugly process, but sometimes you just have to burn it all down in order to start anew. We’re in that stage under Norvell right now. 

From here on out, the focus is on the future. We’ll see what is able to grow out of the ashes.