Clay Millen, Jack Howell on CSU's first practice with pads

On a sunny Saturday in Fort Collins, a perfect morning to showcase campus for recruits taking it all in, the Colorado State Rams practiced in pads for the first time of spring. 

With real officials on the field, CSU got in a couple hours of quality work, including  situations where the starters went against each other. 

Jay Norvell said afterwards that when he was playing at Iowa under Hayden Fry, the legendary Hawkeyes coach preferred that his lead dogs feel special, so they didn’t work the starters against each other frequently. And when they did it typically just led to fights.  

While Norvell is not exactly trying to get his players to fight, he is trying to bring out the fight in his team, and because of that the ones will work together every practice over the next month. It makes the guys compete, and ultimately makes them better. 

“We need to push them every day,” Norvell said. 

There were things that needed to be cleaned up on both sides of the ball. False starts, defensive backs being too handsy, etc. As the veteran football coach explained though, while the squad must be more disciplined, the mistakes he saw were typical for the first padded practice. The encouraging thing is that Norvell sees the right mindset out there. 

“The kids that we’ve got in there are really appreciative to be here, super attentive off the field, and they’re starting to get some chemistry together, which is exciting,” Norvell said. “We’ve just got to continue to get better.”

Much like his head coach, quarterback Clay Millen spoke to the benefit of facing the ones in practice. The redshirt sophomore said that it excites him getting to face what could arguably be the best defense in the Mountain West every single day. As far as how the offense performed on Saturday, Millen said that he was happy with the way the group picked up blitzes. 

“The pads were on, the defense is giving us all kinds of looks and blitzes, and I think that we did a really good job picking it up,” Millen said. “The offensive line did a great job, so I was really pleased with that.”

Millen continued, explaining that he took a couple of sacks on Thursday and it was on him to make sure he was getting rid of the ball. 

“I think that today was a lot better. The ball was coming out quicker,” Millen said. “ I was really happy with that considering it’s the first day of pads and they’re blitzing.”

Speaking for the defensive side, junior safety Jack Howell raved about how good it felt to be back out there flying around with his teammates, and that the intensity level was a little bit high with the guys hitting with pads on. 

Howell did say that that there needs to be a higher level of execution and that the defense needs to lock in and play assignment sound football. As they continue to work with the staff though, CSU’s defensive superstar feels that the group has a chance to be special in 2023. 

With eight starters returning and many other players that logged significant snaps last fall, the Rams have a shot to be really stout defensively under Freddie Banks. Howell talked about how big it is for the group to run the same system and that the comfort level is just so much higher than what it’s been the past couple of springs. Instead of simply trying to grasp the basics, they’re working on perfecting looks and really understanding the ins and outs of their schemes. Howell is able to lock in on not only the defensive backs, but the linebackers and defensive line too. They’re miles ahead of where they were at this same time last year. 

“I think everyone just needs to execute at their highest level and that’s very possible with this group,” Howell said. “We’ve got eight returning starters and we’ve added a lot of depth into the room too. There’s a lot of competition going on. And it’s just great to be out here.” 

After an off day on Sunday, the Rams will return to practice on Monday and Tuesday morning. While we still have months until the snaps that actually count, the Rams certainly feel like they have the potential to make a big leap in 2023. 

Millen talked about how they have much more of a core of a team right now than they did in the early stages of the Norvell era. He mentioned that after hitting rock bottom with some teammates that were not quite as committed as one would hope and ultimately starting 0-4, the locker room really came together during conference play despite some of the talent they lost. 

“I think that locker room was so much closer,” Millen said. “And everyone that stayed was bought in, so it made us a much better team because of that.” 

Again, it’s far too early to make any bold predictions. After a miserable half decade though, things feel like they are looking up for the Green & Gold.