Let the youth movement begin.
When the Rams take the field against Nevada on Friday night, there’s likely going to be three freshmen starting on offense.
Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi will presumably be the team’s starting quarterback with Clay Millen still dealing with a shoulder injury. After starting the season behind Giles Pooler on the depth chart, the true freshman from Aledo, TX, has impressed the coaches enough to officially take the backup role. And after playing in relief of Millen against Sacramento State, he’s been practicing with the ones in preparation for the conference opener.
In his Week 4 appearance against the Hornets, we saw that like Millen, Fowler-Nicolosi has a big arm and can beat teams over the top. A big reason why he was able to shoot up the depth chart though, was that he is the most mobile option the Rams have on the roster.
The hope is that CSU will have offensive tackle Dontae Keys and offensive guard Dante Bivens back to help stabilize things in the trenches, but the ability to extend the play or simply prevent a big loss by escaping the pocket could be a benefit for the offense with having the dual-threat option under center.
During his weekly press conference on Monday afternoon, Jay Norvell credited Fowler-Nicolosi for being assertive, showing confidence and really taking charge.
“He can spread the ball around and get it to different playmakers. And so, really, all of the things we look for in a quarterback, he’s got those qualities,” Norvell said. “He kind of gives us a spark. So we’re excited to see him play.”
In a preseason interview with DNVR, Fowler-Nicolosi, who was “QB3” at the time, talked about how everything has to be earned on the football field. He also started lower on the depth chart in high school, but he eventually worked his way up, took advantage of an opportunity to play and then went on to have an impressive prep career. As a senior at Aledo High School Fowler-Nicolosi completed 114-of-171 passes for 2,051 yards with 24 touchdowns and one interception.
“Nothing is going to be given to you,” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “So being third on the depth chart is really a familiar spot, but I’m not super worried about the situation. I think it’s a really good opportunity for me to learn and grow and get better. And obviously, I’ll see where it goes.”
While Fowler-Nicolosi did not give any bold proclamations about getting to play back in August, he did say that you always have to be ready to go if your number gets called and that he would be if that chance came for him.
All things considered, he did a nice job in his first significant college snaps against Sacramento State. Getting to consistently run with the ones and prep as the starter should benefit him going into this one though. It’ll be intriguing to see how the young gunslinger does against Nevada and if he’s able to get some of the other freshmen involved in the passing game.
Starting alongside Tory Horton at receiver will be the first-year duo of Justus Ross-Simmons and Louis Brown. Ross-Simmons has seven catches for 47 yards and a touchdown over the last two weeks, so it would benefit CSU’s young quarterbacks to continue to get him involved.
We’ll see what these young bucks can do now that they have assumed larger responsibilities in the offense — sometimes the pressure of the moment can be a lot on inexperienced individuals — but their overall talent is definitely encouraging based on what we’ve seen since fall camp.
Regardless of outcome, getting these live reps early in their careers should only serve to benefit them down the line. There’s always going to be some lumps that come with playing true freshmen, but the focus is on the rebuild at this point anyways. And besides, maybe the youth movement is exactly what this program needs.
It’s been a long five years for CSU football. Sometimes you simply need to embrace the future and stop looking in the rearview.
