FORT COLLINS — Jay Norvell loves big-armed quarterbacks and tall, athletic wide receivers. The first-year Colorado State head football coach talked about it at his introductory press conference last December. And it’s clearly been an emphasis for the Green & Gold on the recruiting trail ever since.
CSU signed three quarterbacks and six wide receivers in its 2022 class, which provided much-needed depth and a couple of key starters for this upcoming season. When it comes to the future, though, Norvell and Co. are swinging big and the early results are encouraging.
The Rams’ first 2023 verbal was Jackson Brousseau, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound QB out of Lehi, UT. He committed back on April 30 — even with CSU presently having four quarterbacks that are all redshirt freshmen or younger on the roster. That said, it’s encouraging that Brousseau is not intimidated by the competition. And considering it’s the most important position on the field, it makes sense for CSU to try and stack as many talented gunslingers on the team as possible, particularly in the transfer era. The Rams signed three quarterbacks in the 2021 cycle, two were off the roster within six months, and the third left after spring ball with Norvell (Evan Olaes).
CSU’s second verbal for the 2023 cycle, Stephon Daily, announced his commitment on June 12. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound wide receiver out of Sierra Linda High School in Tolleson, AZ, visited campus over the weekend and pledged his allegiance to CSU afterwards on Twitter Sunday evening.
Fort Collins? Locked in!!🙏🏾✅ @CoachPreyer @TheNateGill @ErmaNeal20 @Steve_Daily1 @Coach_Mac70 @JUSTCHILLY @jacob_seliga @azc_obert @SLHS_Bulldog_FB @CoachJayNorvell #GoRams pic.twitter.com/n8E6E4Tm9P
— stephon (@StephonDaily7) June 13, 2022
Daily is a three-sport star at Sierra Linda HS, where he competes in track and field, in addition to playing for the football and basketball teams. As a junior last fall, Daily recorded 51 catches for 1,001 yards and 12 touchdowns in nine games played. He averaged 19.6 yards per reception and 111.1 yards per game. And his season-long reception was 90 yards, which is unsurprising because he is absurdly explosive in the open field.
According to On3.com, Daily also currently holds offers from Hawaii, Nevada, Northern Arizona and Washington State. 247Sports lists the same schools but also shows an offer from Army for the three-star prospect.
With Daily’s commitment, June is off to a solid start, but it’s going an extremely active recruiting month for CSU, as many prospects will be taking official visits and others will be competing in camps. So, really, the action should just be getting started.
Norvell did a nice job of securing talent under unique circumstances during his first recruiting cycle, it’s the second and third classes, though, that will be key in helping get the Rams where everyone would like the program to be. We’ll see what he has up his sleeves in a more traditional recruiting cycle.
