Monday Presser: Norvell Experiencing a Youth Movement Like Never Before

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8:30 PM

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – If you do something long enough, you'll encounter just about everything.

This season, Jay Norvell is experiencing a first he would rather have bypassed, and the loss to Boise State put it on display more than ever before.

"I have to give Boise credit. They have a really deep roster," Norvell said at the start of his weekly press conference on Monday. "Really talented defense, and it really gave us a measuring stick as a program to what we need to do and where we need to go. We need to recruit long, tall, athletic guys and guys with size. We need to develop our players in our weight room and really have the type of size and depth to be able to compete against a team like that."

In the game, Colorado State had 12 walk-ons play, and three of them started. The Rams have used four quarterbacks, which is not the norm, but even more out there is the fact six different centers have played in a game.

Yeah, that's never happened.

"It's been an unusual year. I think we're down in the 50s now in scholarship players, so yeah, it's been a very unusual year and it's forced some of these young player to have to take a bigger role than probably their experience allows them to," he said. "I looked up in the first quarter, I got on the plane watching film, and we had three walk-ons on offense all playing at the same time. I can't really ever recall ever doing that in 42 years in coaching. A lot of things have happened this year that haven't happened in 42 years of coaching, but I'm really proud of some of the kids. I told them today, we didn't lose that game because of the lack of toughness."

Colorado State has had 40 different players start on offense and defense along, among the most in the nation, eight of them freshmen. To Norvell, it brings to the surface the need to build up depth and get it some experience.

Building Depth

Which leads to a very important offseason, especially when it comes to recruiting. It will be a large class, and there are multiple needs, but don't expect a major push toward immediate impact.

Parts aren't parts to Norvell, because he knows the program needs the right players.

"It's going to be a really critical recruiting year, and I think the big thing is we're going to really have to be disciplined," he said. "I think in this day and age with all the transfers, and everybody is looking for a quick fix to grab certain players, I've really been on our coaches about following our profile. We've got to have kids who love to play ball. If you have guys that love to play, then practice is not a chore to them. Practice is like a game to the guys who love to play. They'll work hard in the weight room, and they'll have great camaraderie together. I think we really have to follow our profile and our athletic profile.
"We want long, physical kids. We like versatile players. Our best football players can play any position. Our receivers could play DB, our DBs could play wideout, our linebackers could play running back. When you have versatile players like that, they're really good special teams players as well. We're going to stick to the profile. It will be filled the majority of high school kids and some junior college. We'll be selective about transfer players. I think you have to be careful and make sure you get the right guys here. We want guys who want to be here, who want to play at CSU and really fit our culture."

The new rule for transfer players is a program is committed to them scholarship wise for the remainder of their eligibility, even if they leave the program for any reason and remain on campus.

Here and There

San Jose State leads the Mountain West in passing offense, averaging 281.3 yards per game. The trigger man is Chevan Cordeiro, who is averaging 301.9 yards per game in total offense to lead the league, 278.6 per the air. It's a familiar name for CSU, just at a different location. He threw for 406 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 34 yards another score as Hawaii's QB in 2021 … Clay Millen qualifies for the stat sheet now, leading the MW in completion percentage at 72.1 … Jack Howell still leads the MW in tackles per game at 12.0 coming off a career-best 17.

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