INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE
October 22, 2025
Above: Then-Colorado State athletic director Joe Parker and school
president Joyce McConnell introduced and welcomed Jay Norvell to the Rams' coaching job in December 2021. For what it's worth,
neither Parker nor McConnell still is at CSU. The sagas are a bit complicated, but when Parker stepped down as AD in February
2024, he was under contract through 2027; and when McConnell was fired in June 2022, she was said to be due a $1.57 million
buyout. Currently, John Weber is the AD, Amy Parsons the president.
Four years ago, when Colorado State hired Jay Norvell, I was convinced the Rams' program
was headed in the right direction again after the disastrous tenure of the perennially surly Joe Addazio.
That day, I attended the Norvell hiring news conference in the Alumni Center in Canvas
Stadium. I asked a couple of questions when Norvell was at the lectern, and then sat down with him in an adjoining room for
my turn at a one-on-one interview.
Norvell and
I mostly were social and cordial, talking about the coach being raised in Madison -- the setting of my book Third
Down and a War to Go -- and the coincidence that when Jay was an Iowa Hawkeyes defensive back, I covered his final game
as a collegiate player.
That was a 45-28 Hawkeyes loss
to UCLA in the 1986 Rose Bowl, a game still infamous because Iowa running back Ronnie Harmon was incapable of holding onto
the ball, resulting in four lost fumbles. That raised both ire and eyebrows among the Hawkeyes' constituency.
Also, I had met Jay's father when Merritt Norvell Jr. was the Michigan State athletic
director and when I spent a year checking in off and on in East Lansing with the Spartans' young football coach, Nick Saban,
for a Sporting News year-long narrative and uncannily foreshadowing story. (Essentially, it became "Nick Saban
before he was NICK SABAN.") 
By the time Jay was hired at CSU, he had to a significant extent proven himself as a capable journeyman college and
NFL assistant, and then as the head coach for five seasons with the surprisingly under-funded Nevada program in Reno. He jumped
at the chance to come to CSU and try to take advantage of Jack Graham and Tony Frank's high-ambition and vision in proposing
and gaining approval for the on-campus stadium and football facilities, which had opened in 2017.
I'll concede that Norvell failed to take advantage of that momentum -- and of the facilities
themselves. That was despite Norvell gaining style points and credit for his high-energy promotion of the program and being
a class act. The high-water marks turned out to be the 8-5 record and an Arizona Bowl berth in 2024. (As I typed that, in
fact, I was struck by the realization that touting an Arizona Bowl appearance as a major achievement can almost come off as
sarcastic. It wasn't meant to be.)
When
Norvell was fired Sunday in the wake of the desultory Homecoming loss to Hawaii, the official CSU release spent so much time
praising the Rams' coach for doing it right, it wasn't out of line to at least raise the question of whether he merited at
least a chance to finish out this season. Yes, the perception might have been that he was a lame duck, but could have been
given an opportunity to change that.
If you're
going to say how praiseworthy Norvell's program was off the field, but act as if it means nothing, why even bring it up? I
now pause while you lecture me about how naive that is. The Rams' imminent move to the Pac-12 certainly is worth celebrating
and citing, but it's more of a Mountain West reboot than a huge promotion.
I get it: CSU wouldn't or couldn't wait.
The firing during Norvell's fourth season means the Rams will go down as 18-26 under his watch.
"As we prepare to join the Pac-12 Conference next year, we need to position our
program to compete at the highest level," AD John Weber said in the Sunday release. "While we've seen progress,
a change in leadership is necessary to achieve the sustained excellence our program requires. We are continuing to invest
and work hard to ensure that the football program and the next head coach have the resources needed to capitalize on this
historic opportunity."
Weber made the same
points at the subsequent Monday news conference at the stadium.
The scoreboard as the seconds counted down in the
Rams' first game in the new on-campus stadium in 2017. The Rams trounced Oregon State, and now the two schools both will be
in the Pac-12.
Finances always
have been major considerations in coaching firings, but with the necessityto keep money flowing into the NIL coffers has increased
the pressures exponentially.
I long ago stopped feeling
"bad" for fired coaches. Norvell will receive a $1.5 million buyout, and that's a relatively paltry golden parachute
in the college football landscape of 2025. (The in-season FBS firings include Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State, James Franklin
of Penn State, Sam Pittman ofArkansas, Billy Napier of Florida, Trent Bray of Oregon State, DeShaun Foster of UCLA, Trent
Dilfer of UAB ... )
This situation has become similar
to CU's in 2022, when Karl Dorell was fired after an 0-5 start and Mike Sanford was interim coach for the rest of the season.At
least the CU students got to storm the field after the Buffs' single win, over California.
Now we'll see if CSU's next step can be anything close to as seismic as the Buffaloes'
move in hiring Deion Sanders.
This likely will be the most memorable moment of Norvell's tenure. On October 14, 2023, the Rams scored
on a 37-yard hail mary on the last play of the game to beat Boise State 31-30 at Canvas Stadium. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi heaved
it up for grabs, and tight end Dallin Holker (5), trailing the mob scene, pounced and his arms on the carom before it hit
the ground.
