Colorado State University Athletics
What We’ve Seen: Learning on the Fly
8/7/2025 12:00:00 PM | Football
Team in Kahoot!s when it comes to learning
Wednesday brought about the first day of practice in pads, which led to a scaled-down scrimmage, mostly involving newcomers who the coaching staff are trying to get a better read on what they do and how well they do it, how much comprehension they have for the systems being run.
Welcome to the beginning of fall camp, particularly now in the portal era, where new players are being plugged into lineups. Colorado State is factoring in a new defensive coordinator and style of play.
Learning all they can is at the forefront of all they do.
"I think the thing that every coach in America is doing right now is they're looking and they're trying to learn their football team. I said this a few times last year, there's a way to play every game," Norvell said. "We need to figure out how we need to play to win. We're learning that as we go with each other. It's just different.
"It's a different style than a year ago. We're doing things differently offensively than a year ago. With this team, it's a different formula than last year's team. We have to understand that, and we have to put the pieces in place to allow us to have success when we start playing games in Seattle."
Since Tyson Summers arrived this spring to guide the defense, Norvell has been impressed with how quickly the group has picked up what is being taught, and the longer they've been together, the more precise nature of how they execute the system.
A bugaboo for the head coach last year was the way the team covered in the secondary, commenting on how much tighter the coverage has been, making it difficult for the offense to look good.
"I think one of the great things since we've been working is the competition that's making everybody better. The defense is really doing a lot of things," Norvell said. "I just believe that it's going to be easier when we get to games for our offense than it is in practice because of the things and the situations that our defense can put people in. I think all those experiences are going to pay off as we get into the season. It's my goal as a head coach to make practice way harder than games. I would say so far it is.
"Today was actually almost a relief offensively to be able to execute some things because it's been very difficult practice. I think that's a credit to our defense. I think it's a credit to how we practice good against good. We need to make each other better. We need to get challenged every time we walk on a practice field. We're trying to build a physical football team here."
Testing All the Time
Shocker here, but the football team is using a tool which the head coach wasn't aware of, but even still, is finding it fun.
"You know Kahoot!? I didn't know anything about that. Anyway, you can ask questions, multiple choice questions, but it's on a clock," Norvell said. "That's the way football is. The sooner you can get the answer, the better. It correlates the timing that it takes for you to answer the correct question. The faster you answer it, the more points you get.
"It's been a great tool. We're just always trying to find ways to connect with our players and meet them where they live. They're always on their phones and electronics and all that. We need to meet them there."
The players said it's being used in special teams meetings, with tight end Rocky Beers proudly saying he ranks in the top 10. At the top of the list: his fellow tight ends.
"All tight ends," he said, with linebacker Jacob Ellis backing him up. "Ryan Connell, Carlos Anaya, then (Jordan McIntyre)."
Beers said they don't use it in the tight end room, where if coach Grant Chestnut has a question, they have about two seconds to answer it.
As for Norvell, he doesn't play.
"I usually observe," he said. "I'm like the Alex Trebek of Kahoot!."
Knowing the Rules
Long before Wednesday's practice, the team had a chance to meet with Mountain West officials to go over the rules, how they are interpreted and how things will be called, with some emphasis put on new rules introduced this year.
The way Norvell sees it, the more you know …
"We want to be the most educated team. We want to be a mature team that understands the rules," he said. "We don't want to ever beat ourselves. It also gave our players and coaches a chance to ask questions. How are you going to look at this? How are you going to rule this?
"We've done a lot of things in camp as well. Every day I walk into a team meeting, I have two or three different situations that happened last year in games. End of game situations where guys have lost their composure, two minute situations, special team situations. The more that we can learn from somebody else's mistakes, the more we can avoid those mistakes when we start playing games. It's an education that we always try to do this time of year. We try to take advantage of that every day."
Norvell hopes they listened, because as is the case with most first scrimmage, there were more penalties than he would have liked. Better to have them now, however.
Beers quipped he didn't need it, that he studied the rule book every night (not exactly true, he admitted). But Ellis found the session informative.
"Personally, I didn't ask any questions, but I felt that it was very beneficial for the team to learn the new rules," he said.
The team had it's first day off from practice on Thursday.
Welcome to the beginning of fall camp, particularly now in the portal era, where new players are being plugged into lineups. Colorado State is factoring in a new defensive coordinator and style of play.
Learning all they can is at the forefront of all they do.
"I think the thing that every coach in America is doing right now is they're looking and they're trying to learn their football team. I said this a few times last year, there's a way to play every game," Norvell said. "We need to figure out how we need to play to win. We're learning that as we go with each other. It's just different.
"It's a different style than a year ago. We're doing things differently offensively than a year ago. With this team, it's a different formula than last year's team. We have to understand that, and we have to put the pieces in place to allow us to have success when we start playing games in Seattle."
Since Tyson Summers arrived this spring to guide the defense, Norvell has been impressed with how quickly the group has picked up what is being taught, and the longer they've been together, the more precise nature of how they execute the system.
A bugaboo for the head coach last year was the way the team covered in the secondary, commenting on how much tighter the coverage has been, making it difficult for the offense to look good.
"I think one of the great things since we've been working is the competition that's making everybody better. The defense is really doing a lot of things," Norvell said. "I just believe that it's going to be easier when we get to games for our offense than it is in practice because of the things and the situations that our defense can put people in. I think all those experiences are going to pay off as we get into the season. It's my goal as a head coach to make practice way harder than games. I would say so far it is.
"Today was actually almost a relief offensively to be able to execute some things because it's been very difficult practice. I think that's a credit to our defense. I think it's a credit to how we practice good against good. We need to make each other better. We need to get challenged every time we walk on a practice field. We're trying to build a physical football team here."
Testing All the Time
Shocker here, but the football team is using a tool which the head coach wasn't aware of, but even still, is finding it fun.
"You know Kahoot!? I didn't know anything about that. Anyway, you can ask questions, multiple choice questions, but it's on a clock," Norvell said. "That's the way football is. The sooner you can get the answer, the better. It correlates the timing that it takes for you to answer the correct question. The faster you answer it, the more points you get.
"It's been a great tool. We're just always trying to find ways to connect with our players and meet them where they live. They're always on their phones and electronics and all that. We need to meet them there."
The players said it's being used in special teams meetings, with tight end Rocky Beers proudly saying he ranks in the top 10. At the top of the list: his fellow tight ends.
"All tight ends," he said, with linebacker Jacob Ellis backing him up. "Ryan Connell, Carlos Anaya, then (Jordan McIntyre)."
Beers said they don't use it in the tight end room, where if coach Grant Chestnut has a question, they have about two seconds to answer it.
As for Norvell, he doesn't play.
"I usually observe," he said. "I'm like the Alex Trebek of Kahoot!."
Knowing the Rules
Long before Wednesday's practice, the team had a chance to meet with Mountain West officials to go over the rules, how they are interpreted and how things will be called, with some emphasis put on new rules introduced this year.
The way Norvell sees it, the more you know …
"We want to be the most educated team. We want to be a mature team that understands the rules," he said. "We don't want to ever beat ourselves. It also gave our players and coaches a chance to ask questions. How are you going to look at this? How are you going to rule this?
"We've done a lot of things in camp as well. Every day I walk into a team meeting, I have two or three different situations that happened last year in games. End of game situations where guys have lost their composure, two minute situations, special team situations. The more that we can learn from somebody else's mistakes, the more we can avoid those mistakes when we start playing games. It's an education that we always try to do this time of year. We try to take advantage of that every day."
Norvell hopes they listened, because as is the case with most first scrimmage, there were more penalties than he would have liked. Better to have them now, however.
Beers quipped he didn't need it, that he studied the rule book every night (not exactly true, he admitted). But Ellis found the session informative.
"Personally, I didn't ask any questions, but I felt that it was very beneficial for the team to learn the new rules," he said.
The team had it's first day off from practice on Thursday.
Players Mentioned
Thursday, May 14
Monday, May 11
Friday, May 08
Tuesday, April 28