Asked whether he feels more supported at Colorado State than he did at Nevada in his quest of winning a MW championship, Norvell said "that's what we looked at and what we evaluated when we came here."<\/p>\n

"And let me just say this: I think Nevada can support football and basketball," Norvell said. "I don't think there's a lot of people that believe that in that town. Not enough. I don't mean to drop any bombs. I'm just trying to be honest. I wouldn't have took this interview if I wasn't going to be honest with you, but it's important. Nevada's got a proud football history. A lot of that had to do with Coach (Chris) Ault, and there's a lot of great former players that invested in that program. And it's tough times. Just look around college athletics and the change going on, and it's tough. I think there's a place for a school like Nevada in all this. I really do. And so I don't have any hard feelings. I'm a football coach. It's what I chose to do. There's times when you have to make decisions for your family who sacrifice so much for you and your staff who I love and I wanted to keep together, so that's what it came down for me."<\/p>\n

Asked what Nevada must do to get to that championship level \u2014 the Wolf Pack is one of four current MW teams to never play in the conference championship game along with Colorado State, UNLV and New Mexico \u2014 Norvell said adjusting to the modern landscape of college athletics is important.
"It's just a different era," Norvell said. "It's not the '70s anymore. You've got to look at what's going on in the landscape of college football. It's very difficult to recruit. You've got to be competitive and kids have got to be attracted that you do have a chance to win championships and play great teams and play with excellent players. That's something that you've got to be realistic about. I don't think you can rely on things that have happened in the past to pull you forward today. Even in this Mountain West, there are people doing competitive things that are helping them get to the top of the ladder. That's not going to change. Football constantly evolves, and you have to be on top of those changes.
"The transfer portal was a big deal and being able to track players, being able to keep players you recruit. We always took a lot of great pride in recruiting great high school players, but now to keep those players in your program, you've got to have resources that make them want to stay. It's not easy. It's complicated, and I know it's not easy for Nevada, but they still have a lot of great history and a lot of people that care deeply about that program to help it be better."<\/p>\n

Earlier this season, Norvell hit the national spotlight prior to Colorado State's game against rival Colorado. The game in Boulder hosted ESPN's College GameDay and Big Noon Kickoff pregame shows. A few days prior to kickoff, Norvell said on his weekly radio show he takes his hat and sunglasses off when talking to adults, a perceived dig at first-year Colorado coach Deion Sanders that went viral and was the talk of the sports world for multiple days.
The game lived up to the billing with Colorado State leading much of the way before the Buffaloes scored a 43-35 double-overtime victory.
"I knew how much it meant to the fans at CSU," Norvell said of the rivalry game. "I get it: Deion's a celebrity. ESPN wanted to prop him up and milk the whole story for as long as they could. I just was tired of hearing about it. ESPN came and interviewed our kids and all they did was ask about Colorado. I thought it was really disrespectful. It's a rivalry game. We wanted people to know we were there to win the game and we have a good program. I just made that comment on my own personal values. I don't wear sunglasses when I speak to adults, I take them off. I take my hat off. And I expect our players to do it to. I just felt like as a leader, that's my job to set an example. They took it whatever way they took it, but I really was making a message to our players in our program."
Colorado State enters Saturday's game against Nevada at 4-6 in a season that included a Hail Mary win over Boise State that marked the Rams first victory over the Broncos in 13 games. Colorado State could reach its first bowl game since 2017 if it beat Nevada this week and Hawaii next week when Norvell will face his former Wolf Pack assistant Timmy Chang. Norvell said the job in Fort Collins is a different rebuild than the one he faced at Nevada, but he likes the improvement his team has shown since last year's 3-9 record.
"We started with babies with freshmen that had never really played," Norvell said. "We knew we had to bite the bullet and let those kids make some mistakes. I think that was probably the biggest difference. The other thing is the rules were different with transferring. We had a lot of kids that weren't really committed to staying here last year that were on the roster. In many ways, this is kind of like our first real year here having a roster and trying to teach that roster how to play and win. We're still playing with a young quarterback. Brayden (Fowler-Nicolosi) started last year against Nevada, but that was his only start and he didn't really play after that. We made a change and he became our quarterback versus Colorado, and he really played great. We had three 100-yard receivers, played outstanding. He's going through his first year, kind of like Carson (Strong's) first year (in 2019) learning how to play. He's learned some valuable lessons and now he's trying to learn how to finish strong."
You can watch the full interview with Jay Norvell below.<\/em><\/p>\n