Hooves over hearts, Rams fans: If I’d have told you on Aug. 10 that Tory Horton would only play in five games this fall, you’d have bet the under on CSU’s victory total with Jeff Bezos’ bank account.
“I really do believe that Jay Norvell has got the ability to be successful — very successful,” former CSU quarterback and athletic director Jack Graham told me recently. “His game management, we could debate that forever and a day.”
Several days, now that you mention it. Oh, to have Oregon State back. And Fresno.
Although the nits to pick are fairly small compared to 2023. And let’s be real, here: An offensive play-caller probably wouldn’t have changed much against Texas and CU, except to perhaps lessen the collateral damage.
Yet your 2024 Rams — minus Horton, CSU’s best player — went 8-4 in the regular season, clearing that preseason over-under of 6.5 victories several weeks ago.
If the Rammie fan next to you is still freaking out about the Pac-12 in 2026, pour them a cold one and remind them to enjoy what’s left of 2024. To enjoy trophy wins over Wyoming and Air Force in the same season for the first time since 2015. To enjoy a victory at the Academy for the first time since 2002.
In the 50 years since Graham hung up his QB cleats at CSU, the Rams have burned through nine football coaches. Only five of those guys ever won eight or more games in a season. Between Jim McElwain’s 10 victories in 2014 and Norvell’s 8-4 this year, CSU survived 10 long years, a Bobo and a Daz.
“Joe (Parker) hired Jay Norvell, that’s who he got,” Graham said of Parker, who left the CSU AD chair earlier this year. “You’ve got to give Joe all the credit in the world for that.”
And no, the job’s not done. Not even close. Over the last five decades, CSU’s won eight or more games just 12 times. Sonny Lubick accounted for seven of them. McElwain did it twice. Earle Bruce once (1990). Sarkis Arslanian once (1977). Norvell once. That’s it.
But if you want to see more of them, Graham says, the answer isn’t some whiz-kid coordinator who’ll lighten Norvell’s load on gamedays. Oh, no.
The answer’s cash.
I mean, isn’t it always?
“It’s absolutely clear to me, the only way Jay’s going to be successful the way we want him to be successful,” Graham continued, “(is that) he needs money and he needs talent.”
He needs the former, specifically, to help pay for the latter. For the Rams to step up, the coffers have to perk up.
The move in two summers to the Pac-12 Lite/Mountain West Plus is the opposite of what just happened in Boulder. CU re-joined a diluted, weakened Big 12 it could conceivably win, or come darn close to winning, for as long as Deion Sanders wants to sit on the throne.
Buffs fans won’t admit it to their CSU pals without some serious libation, but the black and gold took a step down. Yet it was also a step that’s worked brilliantly in their favor, from direct exposure to the best recruiting pools (Texas and Florida), cultural uniqueness (Boulder is the Berkeley of the Big 12 again!) to the nationalization of the Coach Prime brand.
Brett Yormark’s Big 12 was built for basketball, meaning the football side looks like a collection of oddballs (BYU, Baylor), little brothers (Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State) and assorted historic middleweights (West Virginia, Arizona State, TCU, Texas Tech, etc.). Only with — and this is the key — Power 4/College Football Player status largely already grandfathered in, giving the Buffs the best of all worlds. At least until they get matched up with some old-money Big Ten or SEC bully in a postseason game.
The Rams’ 2026 move is going the opposite direction — westward and northward in terms of both football challenge and geography.
When it comes to the core membership, CSU is joining ’em before it’s really beaten many of ’em. Since 2015, the Rams are 0-2 vs. Washington State, 1-1 vs. Oregon State, 1-8 vs. Boise State, 2-3 vs. San Diego State, 3-2 vs. Fresno State and 3-6 vs. Utah State.
Combined, it’s a record of 10-22. If you’re playing seven league games, that translates into an average conference record of 2-5. Which does not translate into a CFP berth.
Even as the transfer portal dilutes its oomph, early National Signing Day seems to arrive quicker each December. On Wednesday, Norvell is expected to introduce a class, as of Saturday morning, ranked eighth in the Mountain West by 247Sports and 104th nationally.
“Jay needs two things. He needs money and he needs talent. For him to get that talent, he’s got to have money,” Graham continued. “At the end of the day, his job is to find ways to pay for players — that’s what college football has become. If you’re going to compete at the Power-4 conference level, you’ve got to have a pool of roughly $3.5 million (in NIL money), and to legitimately compete, you’ve got to be at $5 million. You don’t have to be at $20 million.
“You can attract a lot of talent with less money than that … but without it, CSU football is never going to compete at a Power-4 level. It’s just that simple.”
For all the hand-wringing over Norvell’s X’s and O’s, it’s the about the Jimmies and Joes. The ones good enough to pull your bacon out of the fire in Boise or Pullman will write the next chapter in CSU history. And those scripts won’t come cheap.
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