Door is Open for New Wide Receivers

All eyes will be on Tory Horton, for good reason.

He's on All-American l and the Biletnikoff Watch List. He's an All-Mountain West performer chasing records at Colorado State and in the Mountain West. He is a playmaker through and through, a target in every defensive coordinator's game plan.

The Rams also run an offense which threw the ball 501 times in 2023, completing 311 of those attempts. Horton can't catch all of them, though he nearly hauled in a third (96). It leaves a plethora of balls up in the air, which is why the offense is attractive for wideouts.

"It's super exciting. We're all athletes, we all like to compete," transfer Armani Winfield. "We just want the opportunity and Colorado State laid out the opportunity for all of us. It's just there for the taking. That's why I chose Colorado State.

"Honestly, this is fun. Being a receiver, who doesn't want to be in an Air Raid offense? It's a lot of routes and different route combinations on display, and that's what I like about it."

There just happens to be even more opportunity heading into the season. The team's second-, third- and fourth-leading pass catchers are all gone. One vacancy is at tight end, a completely different battle all together. Louis Brown IV (47 catches) and Justus Ross-Simmons (45), both left the program.

Dylan Goffney, a veteran returner in the slot, will be looking to bolster his output from a season ago, finishing with 23 reception for 298 yards. There are some youngsters back who had a glimpse – Caleb Goodie and Jamari Person – and a vet in Dane Olson in his sixth year.

For everybody who is new – four freshmen and four transfers – there is a shot, especially the way position coach Chad Savage looks to use his room. He wants to travel eight-12 players, noting their use on special teams.

"Like I told Coach (Jay) Norvell, we've been doing all we can to build our receiver room for the last three years, and finally it's come to fruition," Savage said. "You can see the young guys trust our development process and get better, and then to see new guys come into the program and buy in what we're selling is really refreshing as well.

"I told them after practice, it's all about durability. Can they run crisp routes for an entire season? It's not just one day a week in practice, it's an entire week of practice and game day on Saturdays."

For the most experienced transfers, Winfield and Donovan Ollie, the directive comes as nothing new. Ollie had a head start, arriving on campus for spring ball with his 72 career catches with stops at Cincinnati and Washington State, where he once had a two-touchdown outing against the Rams. The last transfer to do so worked out pretty well (see, Horton, Tory). He's a graduate student, but Winfield is relatively young (still a sophomore) who appeared in 12 games at Baylor.

Savage said in this day and age of college football, it's basically a directive to hit the portal when losing a vast amount of production, so he did. Seeing what the offense has done in the past, and particularly Horton's career, Winfield was a bit amped to get on board as soon as possible when he arrived on campus this summer.

"Since I've been here, Tory, a 1,000-yard back-to-back receiver, he's accomplished things I want to accomplish. I guess you can say he took me under his wing and taught me some things," Winfield said. "I'm definitely learning a lot from him.

"At Baylor, there were a lot of older guys, and I was the young guy. I've learned from them, the things they did to be a pro. In order to go to the next level, you have to be a pro before you get there. I'm just trying to translate that here. Be early to meetings, all the little things."

He's seen the college game in action. Freshmen Jordon Ross, Landon Bell and Kory Hall are learning on the fly. It can be a lot to take in at times, others it feels like it's flowing. Getting used to the changes from day to day is part of the process.

They're all here for a reason, with Savage high on all of them. In camp, they'll get their reps with a chance to earn more. That's all Ross is looking to do.

"High school to college is a different transformation. I have to know the game faster," Ross said. "In high school, it's slower. Now the pace is getting faster and faster, and that means my routes have to be crisper and be more exact. In high school, you just run based off the defense, but here, we run them based off the defense and the DBs, so we're reading certain windows and that's what I've got to learn. I have to learn from the older guys too, so I take heed from the older guys and follow their lead."

Not everything will be thrown at them at once. Savage puts the early emphasis on energy. He wants to see it high all the time in his room. He expects it to feel chaotic for the new arrivals on campus as they move on to focusing on alignment, assignment and effort. Improving technique will soon follow.

In four weeks, he expects to have a group ready to go, but he's already impressed with the way his room is reacting to what they can all clearly see.

A chance, and right away, the vets told him to act confident from his very first day.

"They gave us the open door. We just took it," he said. "We like the opportunity they have given us with that open door. It gives us a chance to show our talent."

Because as good as Horton is, he can use some help. He's even thinking he can improve on the 1,136 yards and eight touchdowns from a season ago. The idea isn't to just replace what was lost behind him, but gain on the overall numbers, whoever earns the right to be on the field this season.

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Landon Bell

Louis Brown IV

Dylan Goffney

Caleb Goodie

Kory Hall

Tory Horton

Donovan Ollie

Dane Olson

Jamari Person

Justus Ross-Simmons

Armani Winfield

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