Monday Presser: Norvell’s Emotions Extended Beyond the Game

Saturday's stunning victory was naturally fresh on everyone's mind, and the rollercoaster ride the evening – even the next morning – was amazing and emotionally draining.

For Colorado State coach Jay Norvell, it extended well into the early hours as he didn't head home after the win to celebrate, rather he and many members of his staff headed to Poudre Valley Hospital to check on Kennedy McDowell, who was injured in the contest.

"We ask a lot of our kids, and for them to play as hard as they can. We play a different sport. Our sport, people get hurt every week, sometimes seriously," CSU head coach Jay Norvell said. "I just really appreciate how our kids put themselves on the line for us. Being in a winning locker room, there's nothing like it. You can't buy it; it's totally earned. To be able to share that with everybody … it's special, because there's a lot of hard work and disappointing times that go into it before that.

"There's only two things that can get me to dance, my wife and my kids after a big win. That's an amazing thing, but I was concerned about Kennedy. We had a pretty big crew there. There were probably more than a dozen people waiting at 3:30 in the morning. It was great to see him. We gave him a game ball, and I had that for him in the hospital. It was great to see him smiling and kind of laughing."

Early in his Monday press conference, Norvell was quick to applaud the work of the training and medical staff on hand when McDowell went down on a kickoff in the third quarter, stopping play for a lengthy time as he was attended to by multiple personnel.

He was put on a stretcher, carted off the field and taken to the medical facility. Norvell noted he wasn't the only one who stayed up long after the game.

"You're always concerned when a kid goes down like that. Then Greg Jensen (the head football athletic trainer), I don't think people really realize when the game is over their job's not over," Norvell said. "Our trainers stayed all night with Kennedy. They don't go home; they don't go home to their families. That's part of their job, and they do an amazing job with that. I'm very appreciative to our medical staff and our trainers for the great work that they do."

McDowell was released from the hospital at 4:30 a.m. Sunday and Jensen and his staff have taken over his care at the facilities at Canvas Stadium. Before the game was finished, the team was told McDowell was going to be fine, which eased their minds.

"Kennedy being in that situation was really scary for all of us, especially for Kennedy and his family," linebacker Justin Sanchez said. "Knowing he was OK throughout the game gave us that confidence and play within ourselves, not like we had to avenge him, so we could focus on our jobs and what we had to do to be able to win that game."

Next Year

Kobe Johnson came to Colorado State after a strong four-year run at North Dakota State, ready to test himself at the next level. However, injuries have kept him from really getting going and on Monday, Norvell announced they'll give it another run next season.

Johnson, who has missed two of the past three contests with an injury, will redshirt the rest of 2023.

"I've had a chance to sit down with Kobe, and we're going to redshirt Kobe," Norvell said. "Kobe's not going to play the rest of the year. He has a pretty significant wrist injury, and we want to give him the best chance to play a full season."

He will continue to practice with the team when he is healthy enough, then reboot his involvement next spring. Norvell said the team does expect to get Avery Morrow back this week, which will be a boost. The Rams only had one regular back ready last week, Vann Schield, with tight end Peter Montini picking up some of the reps after learning the position last week at practice.

Morrow led the Rams in rushing a season ago, rushing for 866 yards on 173 carries with four touchdowns, while adding 18 receptions for 63 yards.

Delayed Reaction

On the Hail Mary, nobody really had a good view of the catch other than Dallin Holker, who actually caught the pass. For everybody else, it felt like a moment frozen in time.

"I didn't see it until it was on the jumbo screen. I was on the sideline, standing on top of our seats," Louis Brown IV said. "It took me like 7-10 seconds after to know. We had half of the team standing up, so I was trying to see, but I couldn't really see."

Sanchez was in a group of players kneeling on the sideline hoping for the best. In the jumble of people involved in the play, no one really knew.

"I didn't really get a good view of it. I was sitting there praying, holding hands with other players and praying for a miracle to happen," Sanchez said. "God answered our prayers, and a miracle did happen. I saw everybody running on the field. We shouldn't have done that in hindsight, but we were just so happy and ecstatic that we got that, and Jordon Noyes really sealed that deal at the end. That was amazing."

Norvell said he had his analytics staff draw up numbers. They told him recovering the onside kick and hitting a Hail Mary each carried a 10-percent chance. Getting both was 1-in-1,000 they figured.

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