Strike 2: Even after his decision to hand over at least some of the play calling duties to assistant head coach Matt Mumme, it’s almost impossible to fathom a scenario where Colorado State goes into the new Pac-12 next fall with Jay Norvell as the head football coach. After his team fell to 1-3 last Saturday – the finale of three consecutive dismal showings before the home crowd – Norvell’s firing still feels inevitable. So far this season, CSU fans have witnessed a glut of penalties, turnovers and brain cramps from both players and coaches. CSU looks disorganized and poorly coached. So it’s no longer a matter of if Norvell is let go, but when.
Now we need to ask ourselves why? As the old song says, “Well, how did we get here?”
Refresher: The Rams stayed with Big 10 power Washington for three quarters in this season’s opener, then the wheels fell off. The Huskies put the bumbling Rams away in the fourth before CSU returned home for what was thought to be a launching pad sort of three-game homestand. What the Ram faithful saw instead was not that.
A gift replay overturn gave them a win over the more deserving UNC Bears. Then they slogged through a pair of games against teams with porous defenses, losing to Texas-San Antonio and then last Saturday, future Pac-12 conference member Washington State. UTSA arrived in Ft. Collins having given up well over 100 points in three games. CSU mustered 16. Then it got worse. After benching their starting quarterback, the Rams could muster only a long field goal in a 20-3 loss to WSU. Coming in, the rebuilding Cougars had given up 59 points two weeks in a row.
That’s where things stand. Where they’re going – new play caller notwithstanding – is anyone’s guess.
There was a time – just a couple of seasons ago – when CSU was a threat to put up 50 points on almost any opponent. In December of 2021, Norvell arrived in the Fort fresh off a 52-10 beatdown of Steve Addazio’s CSU Rams when Norvell was still the head coach at Nevada. He brought with him his “Air Raid” offense that was all the rage, and Ram fans got pumped when CSU pushed Shedeur Sanders and Co. to double overtime in Boulder early in the 2023 season before falling 43-35. The CSU offense looked formidable.
At Nevada, Norvell had a gunslinger at QB in Carson Strong, the two-time Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year. Ram fans envisioned similar things ahead for redshirt freshman Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi. In his first season, BFN led the conference in total offense and in yards per game by a quarterback. He threw for 3,460 yards and 22 touchdowns. There were too many turnovers to be sure. Six fumbles and 16 interceptions.
Clearly that didn’t sit well with Norvell.
Very quietly and with no fanfare, Air Raid was laid to rest after just one season in FoCo. Going for a more conservative approach, presumably to limit turnovers the following year, CSU was blasted 52-0 by the Texas Longhorns in the season opener. Nicolosi only threw 24 passes for 74 yards. Somewhere along the line, Norvell had decided to scrap the Air Raid – which was pretty much invented by Hal Mumme, the father of his assistant head coach/pass game coordinator. In its place was a shift to a pro-style offense.
Round hole, meet square peg.
The Rams offense, which still featured a number of quality skill players, nevertheless sputtered a season ago. Yet with a favorable schedule and a solid defense, CSU won eight games and went to a bowl. Things were trending up. The question was, would Norvell’s program be able to take the next step? Would he do the right thing and bring in someone else as the offensive play caller to start 2025? Perhaps finally hand those duties off to Mumme at the start of the season, or maybe someone like quarterbacks coach Chase Holbrook, who had plenty of experience calling plays as well?
Didn’t happen. Norvell did fire defensive coordinator Freddie Banks after last season when the two couldn’t get on the same page, especially about pass coverage. Norvell, a former college and NFL defensive back, reportedly spent a lot of time second guessing coverages.
He’s also spent time – apparently too much time – believing that he was still the one who should be calling the offensive plays. He continued to bypass Mumme. It was, and appeared it would always be, Norvell’s offense, with steadily diminishing returns.
This question still lingers: How can a guy who had such great success and Nevada – where the resources are very limited – come to CSU – where the resources are excellent – and do so much worse while competing in the same league?
A lot of successful head coaches are “control freaks.” In other scenarios, like Nick Saban at Alabama for instance, quality play callers were brought in to run the offense. Head coaches who are play callers certainly aren’t uncommon, but in many cases, it’s a case of too many balls in the air at the same time. Something inevitably drops.
Now Mumme has been handed the keys – sort of – to the offense just in time for a short week (CSU plays at San Diego State on Friday night.) As for why it took so long, all signs point to a head coach with a level of stubbornness, perhaps a bit too much ego, while trying to maintain too tight a grip. As an even older song goes, “Hold on loosely, but don’t let go. If you squeeze too tightly, you’re gonna lose control.”
It sure appears that Norvell lost control at CSU by squeezing too tightly. Now we’ll find out if a little bit of loosening will be able to save his job. Probably best to not bet on that.
