Rams Reward Big Crowd with Ag Day Win

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Sep 20

12-Days

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5:30 PM

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Take things for what they are, which is what Jay Norvell did all night.

The Colorado State coach was happy his team was winning. Still, at times, he was mad. He wanted more. He wants his team to expect more, execute better.

But winning is not a guarantee, which wasn't overlooked after Saturday's 38-17 win over Northern Colorado in front of a Canvas Stadium crowd of 36,573, the third-largest in facility history, the fifth-biggest in Fort Collins.

"It's hard to win. It doesn't matter who you're playing, so you have to enjoy the wins," Norvell said. "Don't take them for granted. We talked in the locker room; we can play so much better. We have a lot of guys in that room who are really just scratching the surface of how good they can be. I really want to see our guys grow every week. We got back to work (Sunday) for our weekly routine, and we've got to get ready. We get another big opportunity next week."

It wasn't a blowout. It wasn't always pretty. It was a needed step – Norvell hopes the first of many moving forward.

The Rams controlled the game from start to finish – really just two glitches – opening the scoring before the offense had run a play when Tory Horton returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown, then it was 10-0 when the first drive stalled inside the 5, resulting in a 20-yard field goal by Jordon Noyes.

For the remainder of the game, Colorado State ground out yards and the clock with an impressive two-tiered running attack early with Keegan Holles and Justin Marshall wearing the conductor's hats.

Marshall, coming off a 100-yard game in the loss to Texas, started the party with an early 42-yard run, the longest of his career. Holles joined the party later, more than doubling his career rushing yards by halftime.

And on and on it went. The Rams rushed 40 times for 246 yards, the largest total since going for 289 in 2019 against Toledo. It was effective from start to finish, featuring four explosive runs, eight different rushers and the ability to grind out the final 4 minutes of the game, resulting in an Avery Morrow 8-yard scoring run.

"We're happy about it, but we're not satisfied," tackle Saveyon Henderson said. "We know we have a big game coming up and we need to do a lot better. We're definitely excited."

Holles finished with 89 yards on 10 carries, both career bests, and added his first career touchdown on a 4-yard run to push the lead to 24-7. Marshall finished with 67 on 10 carries, and quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi scored on a 2-yard run.

UNC took advantage of a Marshall fumble off a screen pass, resulting in the first of two scoring passes by the Bears' Peter Costelli. His 50-yard connection in the third led to a moment of pause as it allowed the guests to close to within 24-14, but the Rams answered back with a deep ball of their own, Fowler-Nicolosi hitting Caleb Goodie in stride for a 40-yard score.

Again, the players felt like their coach. The win was nice. More would be better.

More should be expected.

"We're hungry," Goodie said. "That's our mindset."

The defense felt the same. The Rams held UNC to 298 yards of total offense, stopped the run effectively, but did allow four pass plays of 20 yards or longer. On third down, the Rams found a way to stop drives more often than not, the Bears converting five times in 15 tries.

"Coach was talking about the biggest things teams do from week one to week two, and I really feel like we showed lot of good things out there, but there's obviously some things we need to improve going into week three," said linebacker Buom Jock, who led the team with nine tackles. "It's a big game next week. I feel like we put some good things on tape, but I really feel like there's some things we need to improve on.

"I feel we did a really good job stopping the run, getting off the field on third down, things like that. We did a little bit better stopping some explosive passes. I think we did a really good job stopping the run; that's a big emphasis from us."

So is winning. And winning at home. This was the first of three successive home games, and it was the first time in four years the Rams won their home opener. They were 4-2 in their place a year ago, but Saturday felt special to Norvell. It felt like a big-time college atmosphere to Norvell.

A start, but not the end.

"We've got three homes games. We just finished the first one, and we have two more in a row," he said. "Its' an opportunity. It's an opportunity to play well, play in front of our fans. It was an amazing atmosphere out there tonight. Standing there on the sideline, seeing all the orange, seeing our band and our students over there. That was a really awesome sight."

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Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi

Players Mentioned

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi

Caleb Goodie

Saveyon Henderson

Keegan Holles

Tory Horton

Buom Jock

Justin Marshall

Avery Morrow

Players Mentioned

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi

Caleb Goodie

Saveyon Henderson

Keegan Holles

Tory Horton

Buom Jock

Justin Marshall

Avery Morrow

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