Spend any time around Jay Norvell, and it hits you like a Northern Colorado hailstorm. He is becoming a politician. He can really talk.
Early Thursday morning, during a visit to The Denver Post, he fielded a question about his team’s offensive identity and turned into Sen. Corey Booker.
You don’t serve as a head coach for nine years without learning how to turn a conversation about a receiver into a filibuster. Full transparency: Reporters likes Norvell. He is engaging, forthcoming and accessible. How many head football coaches would meet at 7 a.m. 65 miles from campus during training camp?
But follow social media, tip-toe-type onto message boards, go down college football rabbit holes, and it is clear Ram Nation is not as crazy about Norvell. He has become a divisive figure in three years in Fort Collins.
He went 8-5 last season. He reached a bowl while overcoming the loss of his best offensive player in Tory Horton. But the Rams were blown out by Miami. Not that Miami. Miami of Ohio.
Realistically, Norvell seems like the ceiling for CSU. But hardcore Rams fans believe their football team should be closer to 9-3 than 7-5 every year. They want Sonny Lubick. Not a solid guy with a sunny disposition.
Overall, Norvell is not bad at his job. But, is he good enough to warrant a contract extension?
This was the question posed to athletic director John Weber.
“I have had active conversations both with (Norvell) and his representatives. I am confident that we are going to get to a deal,” Weber said. “I am unbelievably excited about the things they did this offseason and what we will see this fall. We are in a great spot. We saw great progress. I am proud of that program. I am proud of that coach.”
Norvell operated with urgency last year. He had to win a rivalry game after taking the donut in his first two seasons. He beat Wyoming and Air Force, but the Rams were skunked by CU at home.
cHe boasts a 16-21 record at CSU, the program improving from 3-9 to 5-7 to 8-5. Had Norvell done this five years ago, he would have met expectations. But the college football landscape is changing in seismic ways. Splashy means money. Deion Sanders made CU relevant. Norvell made CSU competitive.
Will CSU president Amy Parsons be comfortable with this trajectory?
CSU doesn’t have to do anything with Norvell. Weber can wait. It would not be ideal for recruiting, but in an era where every dollar is needed to pay athletes, he must tread carefully. Even with a future bump in Pac-12 media money, he cannot afford to screw this up.
The Rams were in a similar position with Mike Bobo in 2017. He went to bowl games in his first three seasons with identical 7-6 records. He was given a contract extension by AD Joe Parker with the blessing of president Tony Frank. And it proved an awful misstep. Bobo went 7-17 over the next two seasons as CSU agreed to pay Bobo $1.825 million to not coach for them.
Norvell seems a wiser bet. But is he too safe?
“We all expect to win championships, coach included,” Weber said. “All the tools are there. This is not something where I feel like we are fighting uphill and can’t win. We are all confident that we have a bright future.”
Norvell made it clear that a conference championship is the goal in the Rams’ final season in the Mountain West. CSU has long dealt with little brother envy, which has been amplified by the Klieg lights on Coach Prime in Boulder. A title game in Canvas Stadium, which has become a true homefield advantage, could help change the narrative.
“We want to improve on what we did last year,” said Norvell, who will attempt to do this with only one returning starter on defense and a new coordinator. “We have to play our best against our best competition on our schedule.”
So what’s Norvell’s real weakness? His offense hasn’t delivered. He was hired for the way he operated the Air Raid at Nevada.
The dream was that his attack would look like Mike Leach at Texas Tech. The reality has been closer to Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz. Norvell was able to reinvent the Rams on the ground after Horton’s season-ending injury last fall and deserves credit for the finish.
But his handpicked quarterback took a step back. And nothing hides a multitude of coaching sins — clock management is chief among them for Norvell — like a star under center. That was supposed to be Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi. He turned into a game manager, finishing with 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
It’s hard to see CSU capturing the state’s attention without Fowler-Nicolosi playing significantly better. BFN is a lot like his coach. You are happy you have him, but your eye is wandering.
But how would CSU do better than Norvell? If the plan is to hire the Kenny Dillinghams of the college world every three years, you better be fine with your head coaching position becoming a stepping stone. Do proud alums want that?
It is hard not have a soft spot for non-Power Five coaches. The current chaos of college sports ran Nick Saban off. How do you think Norvell feels when bigger schools pluck away players and pay them six figures to become backups?
If Weber gives Norvell an extension, he is saying there will be a bump, that CSU won’t be OK just being OK. With Norvell, there needs to be more air there. And not just of the hot variety.
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