In Camp, the Focus is on Finishing

The narrative could be different.

Much different.

Three games lost at the end. A grand total of 3:04 seconds on the clock changed the overall perspective. The result was a 5-7 season, a distraught Jay Norvell and company not looking forward to a long trip back home from Hawaii.

Change 1:30 at the end against Colorado. Same for the 40 seconds it took UNLV to flip the score, 54 seconds for the Warriors to do the same. All on the road. None of that happens, the Rams are 8-4 and bowling for the first time in five years.

Instead, the postseason drought has hit six years, a fact which still hangs over the program. Something the Rams intend to alter this year. A tone which has to be set in the month of August as they prepare for the season opener the final day of the month on the road at Texas, a national semifinalist a season ago.

None of them want to experience the effects of the Hawaii game again. It stands as one of the hardest losses for Norvell to stomach in his career.

"We work really hard to be good in those situations. We made a couple of plays to put ourselves in position to have a chance to win the game, and I was just disappointed we didn't finish it out with everything on the line," Norvell said. "I was very upset, and I've been upset ever since. I think it's really motivated me to really look at our team and how we do things and what we're doing. You have to be willing to change and make adjustments."

Which they'll be incorporating the next four weeks.

There will always be the little tweaks to the systems in camp. New twists to the schemes they already run. Refreshers for the most basic of tasks – blocking, tackling, running to the ball – will always be part of the script in the fall.

The psychology of it all will not be forgotten. In fact, adjusting it started long ago.

"It's using that group of games, it's never over. I feel like it all came down to just finishing the game," wideout Tory Horton said. "That's something we emphasized on the team we need to finish more. We all took it as a team; we had a team meeting about it. Even just with the players, we all talk about we need to finish more. That was installed in the weight room, in practice – everything we do – we harp on finishing. That's something we've installed on this team."

Prior to his arrival at Colorado State, Norvell was accustomed to coaching teams which played strong at the end of games. They took pride in the fourth quarter and the ability to close out a game, be from the front or coming back.

When the Rams came to life in the final four minutes against Boise State, a victory capped by an improbable Hail Mary at the end, his hope was his team had turned a corner. Instead, the next week, at UNLV, it was a step back.

Which is why the process has to continue these next four weeks. Linebacker Chase Wilson felt it was important to get started on the process as soon as possible. But the transformation isn't done, so the next four weeks are vital to carry through.

"I think that's something we need to transition into camp, because even through winter workouts and spring ball and summer work outs, we've emphasized finish," the all-conference performer said. "We want to prove we are a fourth=quarter team. We can't just show up for half the fourth quarter. We talked about playing for a full four quarters. It's knowing you have to fight for every snap, and that means finishing through the final play."

To be there at the end, Norvell is looking at what happened prior. He looked at analytics, but he didn't really need to, other than for affirmation of what he witnessed. The Rams of 2023 were hit and miss, hot and cold, throughout a game, throughout the season.

It's not rocket science. What makes a fourth quarter easier is better play the three preceding quarters.

"I think the challenge for us is to play more consistently well. That's the beginning of the game, the second quarter and third quarter," Norvell said. "We always take great pride in playing well at the end of the game, and last year was disappointing. That's really been out of character for us to not finish on the right side of those end-of-game situations.

"We want to play better as a team throughout the game, and the end of the game is really critical at that. We played a lot of inconsistent football before the end of the game, and we need to improve on that. Yes, we have to play better at the end, but our goal is to play up to our potential for 60 minutes."

In college football last season, the average length of a drive was six plays. On longer drives, the expectation is a team will bump up the chances of producing points. Which was truer for Colorado State's opposition.

The Rams has 39 drives of eight plays or longer; they scored on 20 (51.2 percent), with 11 being touchdowns. The opposition had 44 such drives, scoring 29 times (65.9 percent), with 15 touchdowns. Those numbers suggest two things to Norvell, a conclusion he'd already drawn: The Rams have to be better in taking advantage of the key situations in games.

Make the key play on offense. Find a way to get off the field on defense.

"We're going to have some good punches thrown, and they are too. If we play hard, that sets us up for more successful outcomes at the end of games," said Horton, on the brink of breaking a slew of Mountain West and Colorado State receiving records. "I do feel like we'd tend to lend up in certain minutes of the game. I agree with Coach. We need to be more consistent playing hard for 60 minutes, even more, if we go into an overtime game."

Finishing is a broad concept, and the key to change for Norvell is specific points to address in order to produce a winning equation. For instance, one basic aspect to the game – running the ball – is important to the Rams on both sides of the ball.

Protecting it is another. Avoiding explosives is also on the list.

"I've looked at it a couple of different ways. I think it starts with run defense. We need to find ways to be more consistent of holding our opponents under 4 yards a carry, and we are working really hard to be more consistent running the football and averaging better than 4 yards a carry," Norvell said. "I think when you're able to do that, that really ties into the consistency of those situations. The other thing, we can't give up big plays defensively, especially in the passing game. If we can improve our run defense and not give up big plays in the passing game, that will help us manage other people's offenses and allow us to get off the field.

"Offensively, we'd like to cut our turnovers in half. If we can do that, that can drastically change our consistency offensively and our defensive consistency. We're really looking to make some major changes in those areas of our football."

Defensively, the Rams ranked 100^th in allowing pass plays of 10 yards or longer. On offense, the Rams turned it over 22 times with 16 interceptions. Cutting those numbers will drastically help, and for returning starter Braydon Fowler-Nicolosi, improving the touchdown-to-interception ratio is just as important – the first number rising, the second number decreasing. As a first-year starter, he was expected to make mistakes. In his second season, Norvell is expecting better decisions.

For the Rams to alter perception, they have to alter their play.

"Internally, regardless of those 3:04 seconds, we know what type of team we are, and we know our capabilities. We should have finished, and we do have a sour taste in our mouth," Wilson said. "We know what type of team we are, and freshmen to the fifth-year guys, we're all in the same boat and we have the culture to not let that happen this year.

"All of those games last year … it's not a thing of really dwelling on it anymore, but we're sure not going to forget what that feels like so we're not repeating the same mistakes."

A narrative the Rams are intent on establishing in the next four weeks to carry them through 12 upcoming weekends. Actually beyond.

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