Making a Strong Case to Change the Narrative
Former triggerman serves as voice of reason for Fowler-Nicolosi
Mike Brohard
The guy has been on staff for less than a year, but his name has been mentioned quite often in Jay Norvell’s tenure at Colorado State.
Carson Strong did this. Carson Strong did that. If you collected a dollar every time his name was mentioned, you probably vacationed rather well this summer.
With good reason. While playing the role of triggerman for Norvell’s Air Raid offense at Nevada, Strong threw for 9,368 yards, including 4,175 as a senior. He tossed 74 touchdown passes against just 19 interceptions. He connected on 68 percent of his passes and was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year in 2020 and 2021.
Strong would prefer this not to be the case, to not be on such a pedestal. Not that he didn’t do these things, he’d just rather not talk about himself. The CSU assistant quarterbacks coach will be the first to point out quarterbacks coach Chase Holbrook threw for more yards in his career at New Mexico State – 11,846. Or that running backs coach Jeremy Moses could sling it pretty well himself, winning the FCS version of the Heisman Trophy at Stephen F. Austin and is still the NCAA leader in career completions – 1,184 – at that level.
What Norvell and Matt Mumme (the passing game coordinator), and Holbrook (who spent time with Mike Leach at Washington State) can provide current starter Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi is the theoretical of the offense. Mumme ran it himself, but that was more than a decade ago.
Strong is in Fort Collins for a reason.
The practical.
“It's so special because they know. Carson knows how we work,” Mumme said. “It reiterates things for Brayden instead of looking at the old man, going, ‘oh, Coach Mumme, he's just old, you know, doesn't get all of it.’ But Carson backs it up and shows it to him. But it's great because now you've got two other great guys, Chase and Carson, who have played the game at different times, and have seen different stuff. And now Brayden gets so much information to understand how to just go out and do his job.
“I think that's where we're all like, ‘OK, Brayden, we're giving you all this information. It's time to take a big step like Carson did when he was going into year three and had a really explosive year. I think it's just giving Brayden all the pieces.”
Another Strong reference. Another dollar earned.
Strong was having his phenomenal senior season when Fowler-Nicolosi was recruited to Nevada. While the two never met on his visit, Fowler-Nicolosi did watch what Strong did throughout the season. When Norvell first came to Colorado State, he had ideas for Strong to be on staff, it just didn’t work out with timing and Strong pursuing a professional career.
They didn’t meet until last summer, when Fowler-Nicolosi was looking to work with somebody who had experience in the offense and Strong was running a camp.
“It kind of just fell into place because of Coach Mumme. Coach Mumme, I talked to him and was like, I just want to get with somebody who has experience in this offense and has done it recently. And he was like, well, Carson just got done and Carson's in Reno coaching high school ball right now. And so, I got his number and then obviously knew who he was, pretty much looked up to him in high school because that's who I was going to follow up at Nevada when I was committed there. And so I watched a bunch of his tape and was always reminded by Coach Mumme in meetings, this is how Carson used to do it. We heard it all the time.
“So he said I'm going to give you Carson's number, you should text him and maybe go out there at some point. And somehow it just worked out. I went out to Reno and trained with him for a couple of days.”
Strong was more than willing to help tutor the guy who was currently running the offense for his former coaches. They met, they talked and worked out.
The first impressions were positive from both sides.
“I think when I first saw Brayden throw a ball, I was immediately just amazed by his arm talent. You know, some people just have a natural ability to spin the ball,” Strong said. “I was doing quarterback training, and I was working with all these high school guys, and I hadn't worked with a college kid yet, and so he was the first college kid that I worked with quarterback training, and it just made everything easier that I was doing. All the drills I was doing before, he just made it look really easy. I really didn't have too many mechanical corrections for him.
“We really just talked about the concepts that we run, how I saw the concepts, what concept I like versus what coverages and really giving him that quarterback IQ stuff was the most that I could give to him at that time because he already has so much natural arm talent. It really was more about how can we find open receivers in this offense, what concepts do we like versus what looks.“
Flash forward to this spring and Norvell was able to expand his coaching staff, bringing in Strong on a permanent basis. Through spring camp, Strong was basically in Fowler-Nicolosi’s back pocket, seeing everything the student did and offering up constructive criticism on each and every play.
Real-time instruction Fowler-Nicolosi appreciated, even though most every play Strong told him there was a better place to look.
He has a higher ceiling than I ever did. I'm really just trying to push him to become the best he could be. I want him to be better than I ever was.Carson Strong
“I would say 95 percent of the time I was wrong,” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “It's the biggest blessing I've gotten in college football for sure. It's just having him around with so much experience and being able to point out exactly what he just said. Yeah, sure, maybe I threw a touchdown on a play, or yeah, I had a good completion, but why did I run it? Why didn't I check into something that's better? Because like he's been saying, it's a team sport.
“I can't do it on my own. If I do it, what's best for me every play, we're not going to win games, and so understanding how to get my team, my offense, into the best position to win games and be effective on drives is what he's been some of the most help with. Just helping me understand the X's and O's behind it, and also the why.”
To the outside world, it may seem rather harsh, making a good play and being told it wasn’t good enough, or even the right thing to do. Not to the quarterback, who despite having thrown for 6,450 yards in his career and sits just 2,742 yards off Garrett Grayson’s career record, knows he can produce better numbers.
Cut down the turnovers. Increase the scoring passes. It’s what he asked for, and what Strong promised to provide, each and every play. It’s the type of feedback Strong told the disciple he wished he had gotten at the pro level, what he was doing wrong in the moment, not at the end.
“One of the first things I told him is I'm always going to tell you if I think that you should be doing something differently because I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you that,” Strong said. “So I said, Brayden, I'm always going to tell you if I think you're doing something right or if I think you should be doing more of something. Whatever the case is, I'm always going to shoot you straight because I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you.
“So, every time that there's something that pops up, I'm never afraid to call him out like, hey, you should be doing this. You should be doing that. Why didn't you do this? Because we already had that understanding going into everything that I was going to shoot him straight about everything.”
Mumme has seen nothing but positives. Not just the work on the field, but what they talk about in meetings. It’s not just Fowler-Nicolosi who benefits, it’s the entire room.
They’ve seen it, too. Not just in old Nevada game film, but on the field. Short an arm for some on-air drills in the spring, Strong took his spot in line and threw some rockets of his own.
“My knee has always been a problem for me, so it was really stiff at first, but about halfway through spring, I started to feel a little bit loosened up, and I feel like I was spinning it decently well on routes on air,” Strong said. “That was one of my favorite parts of practice, I have to say. I did love routes on air because I get to throw the ball around a little bit.”
Then the student chimed in: “Yeah, he's still got it.”
But the student is catching up in some regards, and on one specific aspect, he can correct the master.
The bucket drill, where quarterbacks try to put a ball into a trash can or a basket from a distance. One day, Strong stepped in for an injured player.
“I'm the best bucket drill quarterback in the room, so I'll say that,” Strong said, drawing an immediate smirk from Fowler-Nicolosi. “It’s a team drill. In the spring practice, we do bucket drill challenges, and we did the best out of seven. It ended up coming down to game seven, and Brayden and Jackson Brousseau did win over me and Darius Curry, so I'll admit I lost.”
“So, he's not the best,” Fowler-Nicolosi stated, noting he only mentions it up when the time is right.
“Just whenever he wants to bring it up,” he said. “The edge is still there for sure. He's still got the competitive edge. He wasn't very happy when we beat him.”
With Holbrook and Strong in charge of quarterbacks, Mumme is allowed to roam a bit more. He can spend time with the running backs and hone in on their part of the passing game. Same with the receivers. He can then blend them in, and has he puts it, show them all when and where the magic can happen.
The magic being points. The past nine seasons in college football, the really good offensive teams – roughly the top 50 squads each of those campaigns – are averaging 30 points per game or better. In an offensive age of the game, the number has become the target.
The Rams just haven’t reached that level, not just under Norvell, but in a while. The last time the Rams averaged better than 30 points a game was back in 2017 – when Canvas Stadium opened – and CSU ranked 31st in the country at 33.4 per outing.
That’s explosive, productive offense. That’s what Nevada had the final two years of Strong’s career.
Which is why Strong is here. Not to tell Fowler-Nicolosi he’s wrong but explain why. Not to highlight how good he was but getting Fowler-Nicolosi to the point where he’s even better. To understand the bigger picture. It’s not just the offense counting on him, but the entire team. The university to a degree.
Don’t think about that, per se. Focus on the offense and finding the most efficient route to the ideal outcome. One play can make a difference.
“Play the next play, and I think with him, understand that I'm always one throw away from getting hot,” Strong said. “Quarterback, and especially in this offense, has so much to do with rhythm, and when you are in rhythm in this offense, you feel untouchable because you have the keys in a sense, and so whenever something bad happens, I tell him, bro, you're one play away. You're always one play away, and having that mindset of, OK, I can always turn this thing around on a dime.
“All I've got to do is get one completion. I get hot, and when I'm hot, I'm super dangerous, and no one can touch me. He has a higher ceiling than I ever did. I'm really just trying to push him to become the best he could be. I want him to be better than I ever was. I don't want to be, I'm better than you. It's never been like that. I want to make him the best he could be.”
Which is why a summer ago Fowler-Nicolosi went seeking outside help with inside knowledge.
As luck would have it, Strong was available. As fate would have it, he’s here on a permanent basis. Each time Fowler-Nicolosi hears he’s wrong, he understands he’s one step closer to being right.
“It’s exactly what I needed, and having someone with so much knowledge and so much experience and knowing exactly what I'm doing and understanding all that goes with it -- not just on the field stuff, but everything else also,” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “And so having someone around like that is just a huge blessing for sure.”
Strong is hoping it all goes as planned. Because then Norvell can talk about somebody new for a change.
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