$6.85 million doesn’t leave room for mistakes.

Jay Norvell spent over three seasons as Colorado State football’s head coach before being fired Oct. 19.

CSU football has had varying levels of success since the former head coach’s arrival, and administration, staff and roster changes have been present through it all. Norvell’s overall record with CSU was 18-26. With his base salary, payout and win bonuses factored in, CSU paid Norvell $6.85 million dollars in his tenure with the team.

“It’s really about momentum, and … a program is more than its head coach; it’s more than a stadium,” CSU Athletic Director John Weber said. “It involves everything around it. And that’s everything from recruiting to how we scheme to how we coach.”

The Rams were playing to leave an impact within the Mountain West.

“To our staff and fellow coaches — you have been our tribe. Like-minded individuals who love and support our players with passion and integrity. I am forever indebted to you.” –Jay Norvell, former CSU head coach

The program was hopeful, showing that these individual, aggressive players were working together as one. And the Rams continued that strong formation in the season-opener game against Washington.

The loss wasn’t too significant, as the Huskies had a 20-game win streak at home beforehand and, just two seasons prior, made an appearance in the 2023 national title game. It was actually promising for fans that CSU held its own, going into halftime tied; it was the question going forward of how to maintain that momentum throughout the rest of the game.

The Rams won their next game against Northern Colorado, but it didn’t feel like a win. With just a few seconds left, a controversial call solidified CSU as the winner. After the game, Norvell said, “Everything that could go wrong went wrong.”

And from there, the losing streak began.

In the next game against UTSA, fans were so critical to the point that Canvas Stadium was ringing with boos aimed at Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi. Then, in the middle of the third quarter, Fowler-Nicolosi went out, marking Jackson Brousseau as the team’s new starting quarterback.

Yet, the spark was still absent against Washington State, and after the loss, Norvell stepped down as play-caller — for the first time in his career with the Rams — naming associate head coach and pass-game coordinator Matt Mumme to take his place.

But even with a new play-caller, similar results followed. CSU lost its next game to San Diego State by more than 20 points, leaving little hope for the coming game to then 5-1 Fresno State. But something changed within CSU, and it took the game by storm, with multiple emerging leaders and explosive plays.

But again, their precision was not sustained, as the Rams lost to Hawaii in front of their biggest crowd ever during Homecoming.

And fewer than 24 hours later, Norvell was gone.

“Ultimately, progress was challenged, and progress stalled at a very critical time for us as we ascend into the Pac-12,” Weber said. “And with that in mind, I made the decision that we needed a different direction and different leadership.”

The timeliness of a midseason firing wasn’t without administrative consideration.

“It allows us to run a very exhaustive search,” Weber said. “And in conjunction with a search firm that we’re going to use, that’s going to be able to present a lot of options and allow us to make a very informed, nonrushed decision on the next person to lead our program.”

Yet, there was once a time when former Athletic Director Joe Parker repeated the same thing after previous head coach Steve Addazio was fired after going 4-12 in two seasons.

“Our expectation is to compete for conference championships and reach bowl eligibility each season,” CSU Athletics said in a statement following Addazio’s release.

There were high standards bringing Norvell into a decorated program, and despite only having five years of head coaching experience before joining the Rams, he demonstrated through his tenure at Nevada that he was able to elevate a program to a bowl-level caliber.

His first year with the Wolfpack in 2017 was slightly worrisome for fans after they finished the season 3-9, two fewer wins than the previous year’s record.

Over the next four years — and the rest of his time with the program — the Wolfpack went bowling. Here’s a look at their final records during Norvell’s reign:

2017: 3-9
2018: 8-5
2019: 7-6
2020: 7-2
2021: 8-5

After successful seasons with UN, Norvell came to Fort Collins, and in the first press conference after he was hired as CSU’s head coach, he was confident in saying that he expected to win.

But what did the program produce under his management?

Of Norvell’s 18 wins, two games were against opponents with winning records by the end of the season. The Rams also beat Fresno State — who was 5-2 before the start of week nine — this year, which was their best game of the season.

The team also went 3-9 against future Pac-12 opponents under the leadership of Norvell. Here’s how every year panned out since 2022, with the overall combined record of opponents in each season:

2022: 3-9, combined opponent’s record: (87-68)
2023: 5-7, (67-84)
2024: 8-5, (64-88)
2025: 2-5, combined opponent’s record through week eight (30-19)

The results were inconsistent, as CSU went through multiple identity transitions throughout the years.

This season was defined by injuries and a new defensive scheme, among changes to the offensive play-caller and starting quarterback roles. The results up until Norvell’s firing weren’t up to the administration’s standards.

“We are going to go through a very deep dive analysis of our program and what we need to do in order to ensure that we sustain success,” Weber said. “Because we haven’t done that, you know, we’ve, we’ve had, you know, moments of success and and we’ve had moments of wishing that we would have done better. And when I look at the attributes here at CSU, there is no reason for us to not be successful year over year.”

The program has set high expectations in prior years, though. Take 2023, a season that generated a lot of excitement.

With Tory Horton and Fowler-Nicolosi producing plays the Air Raid system, it seemed like CSU had a legitimate bowl-game opportunity early in the season. But Norvell and the team couldn’t close out certain games, finishing the season with three one-possession losses and three one-possession wins — one of which was among CSU’s most electric wins in recent years against Boise State.

And, on paper, some of that momentum lasted into the 2024 season when CSU made a bowl game appearance and went 8-5 with what is still CSU’s best football recruiting class, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. Norvell shifted the focus to a more balanced offensive approach compared to the previous year, with a 1,000-yard rusher in Avery Morrow.

The combined record of opponents in both 2023 and 2024 was 131-172, the softest and second-softest schedules since 2022.

The 2022 season was a transition year for Norvell and highlighted the best overall opponent season record from his time with the team. And just the year prior, he was hired during Parker’s tenure as director Dec. 6, 2021.

Parker stepped down abruptly into an advisory role for what The Collegian’s sources cited as overspending on CSU’s new softball and football fields. CSU is saving some money by moving on, as Norvell’s salary for the 2025 season is $1.9 million, according to the Coloradoan. He is owed a $1.5 million buyout from CSU.

Here were the contract details of his base salary:

2022: $1.6 million
2023: $1.7 million
2024: $1.8 million
2025: $1.9 million
2026: $2 million

Norvell also had a pool of $3 million for assistant coaches when he was hired.

Per Norvell’s contract, he made an additional $250,000 off bonuses for winning six conference games in 2024, winning eight overall games in 2024 and making a bowl appearance in 2024.

With Weber at the head of Athletics at the time of Norvell’s release, CSU is preparing for the transition to the Pac-12. Current CSU President Amy Parsons and Weber have spoken on the importance of entering the new conference, and Weber has background as a CEO and experience in business.

During Parker’s time, the basketball program made two NCAA tournament appearances, soccer made a MW championship appearance and volleyball made an NCAA tournament appearance. Each of those programs’ head coaches was hired by Parker, and Norvell was also hired during his era.

And although the Rams aren’t playing at the level demanded this far into the season, Norvell’s impact on the culture of CSU Athletics spans beyond the field.

“One of the things that I admire about Coach Norvell is the culture that he’s built on his team,” Weber said. “It’s a tight group of coaches, it’s a tight group of players and (I’m) very proud of that.”

Norvell hosted the Grit Run, a 5K run around campus with all proceeds going to cystic fibrosis, a condition that impacts his wife. And after three years, he raised more than $60,000 to go toward research causes.

Then, before the 2024 season, Norvell established a minority fellowship position, allowing a young minority coach to gain experience in honor of his late father, Merritt Norvell.

“I think Jay did a tremendous job with (building a team culture),” Summers said. “And over the course of the last 10 or 15 years, I felt like he spent a tremendous amount of time on those things and investing into it.”

On the field, he helped elevate players to star quality — most notably, Horton, who was recently drafted in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft to the Seattle Seahawks. It was no secret that Horton occupies a special place in Norvell’s heart.

“I think everybody’s known he’s been my favorite since I got him as a freshman,” Norvell said after Horton’s pro day performance.

Alongside Horton, recent players such as Jacob Gardner and Drew Moss have found their careers expanding past the collegiate level. But Norvell has worked with several players now involved in the NFL and has attempted to elevate each program he’s been with, despite the 2025 season not panning out the way he planned.

“To our staff and fellow coaches — you have been our tribe,” Norvell said in a statement on X. “Like-minded individuals who love and support our players with passion and integrity. I am forever indebted to you. And to our players — you are the reason we do what we do. I’ve never regretted a single moment of sacrifice made to help you reach your goals.”

Reach Michael Hovey and Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey or @sophgwebb.