Give Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh points for honesty. He hasn’t tried to treat his first two (and more likely three) regular season games any differently than an NFL preseason matchup.
Imagine how first-year Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell felt when he learned his team would be used as a quarterback audition in his first game guiding the Rams. At least Norvell will have company within his own conference.
Harbaugh announced that last year’s starter Cade McNamara, who led the Wolverines to a 12-2 record, a Big 10 championship, and a spot in the College Football Playoff, would start the opener against Colorado State. J.J McCarthy, a QB who has the perceived better upside, will get the start in Saturday’s home game against Hawaii, a member with Colorado State in the Mountain West Conference.
Then presumably a starter will be picked, although there is a safety net of playing Connecticut in Game 3, where who knows, the auditions could continue.
Anyway, it’s a heck of a way to make a debut at your new school, being audition fodder for one of college football’s heavyweights.
As it turned out, Colorado State couldn’t use the slight as a motivational advantage. The Rams went into Ann Arbor and lost 51-7 to Michigan in the opener for both teams. Redshirt freshman Clay Millen, who came with Norvell from Nevada, was sacked seven times. Little went right, although Colorado State may not have been the only one suffering a big loss.
McNamara didn’t wow anybody in his audition (18 for 36 passing, 136 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions).
So Colorado State couldn’t take advantage of Michigan’s public slight. Then again, Colorado State has bigger worries than being slapped in the face by the Wolverines.
This is a program that hopes to reverse a recent trend of four straight losing seasons. Actually, since Jim McElwain parlayed a 10-2 season in 2014 to accept the Florida head coaching job, the Rams have been clearly under the radar.
Yes, they went 7-6 in each of Mike Bobo’s first three years, earning a bowl bid each season, but is that enough to keep fans in Fort Collins happy? Actually, the CSU fans would take that rather than the last four years, 3-9 and 4-8 under Bobo, and then the disastrous Steve Addazio seasons, 1-3 and then 3-9.
One quick question – what in Addazio’s resume would have made him a good hire at CSU? After tutoring Tim Tebow at Florida, Addazio earned his first head coaching job at Temple, and following a 4-7 second season, was somehow hired by Boston College. Then his record at Boston College spoke of the mediocracy of his seven-year reign: 44-44, never more than seven wins in any season. After two seasons, he had worn out his welcome at CSU, setting the program back.
Now it’s Norvell’s turn.
Norvell made a lot of noise with his air raid offense, but it never produced more than eight wins in any of his five seasons at Nevada.
Just as he road Carson Strong the last three years at Nevada, Norvell hopes to do the same with Millen.
Strong was especially effective his final two seasons, throwing for 63 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
When Millen wasn’t running for his life against Michigan, he performed fairly well – completing 16 of 20 for 137 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He made a strong throw to junior Tory Horton (under duress) for a 34-yard TD in the fourth quarter.
Continuing a theme, Horton is also a transfer from Nevada. So is fellow senior receiver Melquan Stovall, who had three catches for 33 yards in his CSU debut.
Much of the staff and some other players also came from Nevada. When building a program, raiding Nevada may not be the best blueprint, but Colorado State was starting from the bottom after the Addazio era.
And most of all, if a program has a young quarterback with promise, it’s an excellent start. Keeping that player in this day and age of the active transfer portal is another story.
If the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Millen can be the building block, then Colorado State can have some hope. Maybe not quite this year, but who knows after that?
