Strike 2: The Northern Colorado Bears deserved better. They deserved to win.
The Colorado State Rams, overconfident against a five touchdown underdog? Under-prepared?
In any case, CSU’s sloppy, mistake-filled 21-17 “win” over their neighbors to the east only raised more questions about the future of Rams head coach Jay Norvell and his program. It didn’t answer any.
Just down the road, Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders and his offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur were causing all sorts of hand wringing by going to third string quarterback Ryan Staub late in the first half of their game with FCS cupcake Delaware. They took a chance, and did something bold and significant to light a fire under their stagnant offense.
And it worked. Buff faithful are thrilled. Kudos.
Meanwhile, in Fort Collins, the Rams weren’t stagnant, they were self-destructive and downright crappy for most of the evening. Quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and the CSU downfield passing attack swayed back and forth between non-existent and horrid. Still, no QB change was made. Not clear if one was ever contemplated.
In the end, Fowler-Nicolosi made the game winning play with his feet. It was appropriate given his awful passing performance, and that it was CSU’s running game, mixed in with a handful of short swing passes and bubble screens to a trio of very talented running backs, that finally got the Rams moving against the FCS Bears, who have now lost 23 of their past 25 games. Question is, can CSU beat anyone else on their remaining schedule by only running the ball?
Highly unlikely.
Fowler-Nicolosi made waves as a redshirt-freshman in 2023, but has steadily regressed since the start of his sophomore season. Now a redshirt junior, he’s been woefully inaccurate, throwing off his back foot more often than not, missing receivers badly, and generally looking nothing like a guy who was coming off a 16-touchdown, 3,450-yard freshman season. Through two games, he’s barely completing half his passes (and the completions are almost always very short throws) with a single TD pass, two picks and a costly fumble against the Bears. His QBR against UNC was a mere 40.1.
“He didn’t have a good night” said Norvell. It was in fact, his second consecutive “not good” night.
Oddly enough, BFN got his first significant action two seasons ago when Norvell did pull the plug on a highly touted transfer QB, Clay Millen after just two starts. He boldly went to the redshirt freshman two seasons ago, and that switch worked. So why won’t he do so again?
Certainly money is now a factor. Today the starting QB is making excellent NIL money, and sitting him on the bench won’t sit well with his booster $upporters. But continuing to play him when he’s playing so poorly comes at what cost?
It’s no secret that Norvell is on something of a hot seat this year. No contract extension has been offered, and plenty of diehards are already calling for the head coach to be fired after just two games. Clearly CSU needs to do more than simply reach a bowl game during this final season in the Mountain West conference to save the coaches’ job. At this point, pulling the plug – even if it’s just temporary – on BFN and seeing if backup Jackson Brousseau can provide a spark in the downfield passing game may be the only thing that can save this season and Norvell’s gig.
Fowler-Nicolosi was productive when CSU was running the “Air-Raid” offense. Now that they’ve gone away from that, he looks like a fish out of water.
The Rams have a bye week to do some soul-searching before a solid UTSA squad comes to Canvas Stadium. Some significant improvements need to be made, or future losses will actually count as losses.
So in summation: A) Deion and the Buffs made a bold early season move that looks like a solid decision. B) The UNC Bears have clearly turned a corner as a program. Against the bigger and stronger Rams, they showed tremendous grit and toughness. Even while a dozen players were being helped off the field throughout the game, they kept on battling. Head coach Ed Lamb’s team outplayed and outcoached CSU. If not for a highly controversial reversal of an apparent touchdown catch in the final seconds, they would have posted a monumental upset. It would have been a win they’d earned.
Better days are ahead for Lamb and his program.
And C) at this moment, you can’t promise the same for Norvell and the Rams.
