Colorado State is officially in game mode.
With just under two weeks until the Rams open the 2022 season at the Big House against Michigan, CSU is through with the fall camp portion of the schedule and is now transitioning into the preparation process for the No. 8 Wolverines.
After 15 intense practices, including a couple of scrimmages, Jay Norvell spoke with the media on Monday during his first weekly press conference of the season and according to the first-year Colorado State coach, the staff is pleased with the effort that the players put forth this month.
For a first-year program, the results are never going to be perfect in fall camp. There will always be components that the players and coaches would like to see improvement with. As Norvell explained on Monday, that was definitely the case for CSU.
After being forced into a variety of different scenarios and situations though, the benefit for the players has been that they’ve come out of fall camp even more prepared than some of Norvell’s teams previously have been at this stage.
“At this point they’ve really experienced quite a bit,” Norvell said. “(They’re) much further ahead of other teams that we’ve had. I think that’s a good thing. I think this team is in good shape.”
Norvell continued by explaining that the team has been able to get in a lot of contact over the last month and that fortunately, they’ve been able to remain relatively healthy so far. He added that the players are in good shape and moving well. But really, at this point, Norvell feels his team just needs to be able to start experiencing real games.
While you can test the team repeatedly and try to throw different situations at them in fall camp, ultimately there is no substitute for live game reps. And for a Rams team that has a ton of players with FBS game experience but almost no playing time together, what these guys need the most is to be on a field, learning how to compete together against a squad in different colors. They’ve put in the reps together going back to the spring, they’ve worked on timing and technique, and fully understanding the schemes, but until you get punched in the mouth in front of thousands of screaming fans there’s really no knowing how a group will respond.
Rams focused on themselves
On the subject of screaming fans and dealing with hostile environments, obviously playing at Michigan provides unique challenges. For one thing it will be the largest crowd that CSU has ever played in front of, surpassing the 2017 game at No. 1 Alabama.
According to Norvell, while the Rams will do some things to simulate crowd noise throughout practice in the coming weeks, the focus will remain on themselves.
“To be honest, I’m more concerned about our football team than I am about Michigan, their fans or their stadium,” Norvell said. “We want to put our focus into our kids. We’ve got a bunch of guys that are learning to play together. And that’s what I’m trying to get them to focus on as well — focus on what they can control and what they do.
“We’ll talk about the atmosphere. It’s certainly different,” Norvell continued. “It’s a fun place to play, I’ve played there before. And I think our kids will be really excited about playing in it.”
While I do not want to speak for the veteran football coach or put words into his mouth, it seems that CSU is trying to approach this matchup through the lens that it’s just another football game, and honestly, that’s the right move. The minute you start hyping up the stadium, the crowd, or focusing on what’s different, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. And for the Rams to be competitive in this one, the team needs to be focused on execution, not the aura of the Big House.
A look at the schedule this week
The Rams will keep their typical schedule this week, going full pads on Tuesday and shoulder pads with shorts on Wednesday.
“There will be a lot of thudding and banging going on with that,” Norvell said.
On Thursday and Friday the Rams will do a little less contact as the teams work more on the mental side of things. In example: specific game scenarios.
Then on Saturday, CSU will do a mock game at 10 a.m. MT, to help simulate the routine of what it’s like to warm up and go through the routine of a game day, before getting in some work in shorts and shoulder pads.
“We won’t scrimmage Saturday. We got our two big scrimmages in and got in plenty of hitting,” Norvell said.
Norvell wants to stay fresh
While Norvell does want to continue to challenge his team, he emphasized that he does want to push things too far between now and the season opener.
“I don’t want to come out of fall camp with dead legs,” Norvell said. “I think it’s typical to do that, but we should start getting pretty fresh here as we move into next week.”
Final thoughts
It seems like just yesterday I was driving up I-25 for the first weekend of fall camp. Fast forward a month and now the Michigan opener is just about here.
The 2022 season opener has been long anticipated since Norvell was introduced as head coach last December. Hope y’all are ready. Football is finally back.
