CSU football fails to meet expectations, loses to Fresno State in biggest game of season

Damon Cook, Sports Editor

November 24, 2024

Colorado State University football coach Jay Norvell rallies his team against the U.S. Air Force Academy Oct. 19. CSU won 21-13.

FRESNO, Calif. – Hey, Nevada, Colorado State football has a favor to ask.

Just about everything went wrong for CSU in its chase for the Mountain West title. With the 28-22 loss to Fresno State, the only way for CSU to reach the title game is to beat Utah State and hope Nevada can beat UNLV.

Throughout the entirety of conference play the Rams have made their living by slowing the game down, trusting their defense and running the ball.

FSU needed just one half of football to amass nearly 300 yards of offense, 143 of which came on the ground from Bryson Donelson. Allowing the 10th ranked rushing team in the MW to gash the middle of the defense like Donelson did is plain and simply inexcusable.

With everything going wrong for CSU, Henry Blackburn gave the Rams one last chance.

On fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line, with 6:32 left to go in the half FSU quarterback Mikey Keene tried to jump the pile, looking to extend FSU’s lead to 14, only to be met by Blackburn at the peak. Keene fumbled the football and CSU had an opportunity to tie things up on the other end.

But the offense couldn’t answer despite starting the drive with a 20-yard rush from Justin Marshall. Three plays after Marshall’s carry, CSU punted again and the Bulldogs drove the field 54 yards to go up 14.

After another 4-play drive from CSU, FSU scored again and a 21-point lead at half was the final nail in the coffin for CSU.

For so long, games with as much hanging on the line as there was Saturday night have haunted CSU faithful. The loss is another one that can be thrown onto the pile.

Coach Jay Norvell recently talked about how his team has won on offense, defense and special teams. None of those units could be found in Valley Children’s Stadium on Saturday night.

With just 144 yards offensively for CSU to match FSU’s production, The Rams went into the half down 21 points, the largest halftime deficit they’ve had since week one.

While things did get a little bit interesting in the second half, CSU couldn’t put the comeback together.

The Rams defense returned to form in the third quarter, holding Fresno State scoreless. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi scampered in from nine yards out with 3:25 remaining in the quarter.

That could have been the second touchdown of the third quarter had the Rams converted on fourth down just six yards from pay dirt. That failed conversion was just one of the two prime opportunities CSU had to make things a lot more interesting. The second came in the fourth quarter with 10:49 left on the clock. Tommy Maher was streaking down the middle of the field wide open, but Fowler-Nicolosi just overthrew him, in what likely would have been a touchdown.

From that point, it was just about Fresno State hanging on and running the clock. A task they completed to perfection.

The Saturday night loss is one of the most haunting ones in recent memories, on par with the one last season against Hawaii. The Rams likely won’t be traveling to Boise State for their first ever MW Championship game.

Now its time to wait and see which bowl the Rams get to be a part of. While the 2024 season will almost certainly end with a ton of what-ifs, it’s also the best season CSU has had in six years. There is a lot of young talent on this roster and Norvell has done a great job recruiting, so there is a solid foundation from this year to build on.

Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.

About the Contributors

Damon Cook, Sports Editor

Damon Cook is returning as one of the sports editors for fall 2024 at the The Collegian. He's been at the paper since August 2022. After starting as a construction management major at Colorado State University, Cook quickly found out he didn't have a passion for it. After taking a year off, he realized he could work in sports — something he has always been passionate about. So with newfound aspirations, he switched his major to journalism and media communication to chase those dreams. After a year of working as a beat writer covering volleyball and women's basketball, Cook took over as sports editor in summer 2023. Since then, he has become established in reporting on football and men's basketball and looks forward to providing that coverage this upcoming season. Cook will begin his third semester as the sports editor before graduating in December, having borne witness to some of CSU's historic feats. His passion for bringing readers the best coverage has only grown. Having started in the wake of a complete overhaul of The Collegian sports desk, Cook has watched the desk grow considerably, thanks to the efforts of so many amazing people he gets the pleasure of working alongside. Having learned so many things from so many people, including to never wear a tie, Cook looks forward to helping The Collegian sports desk reach heights never imagined before. With a much greater understanding of the power of words, one of Cook's inspirational quotes for this upcoming year has been from Eric Cartman in South Park: "Respect my authoritah."

Cait Mckinzie, Photo Director

Cait Mckinzie is a second-year student double majoring in art and journalism and media communication. She is one of two photo directors for the 2024-25 school year. Despite growing up in Renton, Washington, Mckinzie knew she wanted to go to Colorado State University since middle school. She had only ever been to Colorado twice, but she visited campus once, and that was all it took. At first, there wasn’t much in Fort Collins that Mckinzie was familiar with. But in high school, she was the co-head of visuals for her school newspaper, so she applied to The Collegian as a photographer to get back into a similar environment. Mckinzie was first introduced to photography by her grandfather, who has been a photographer most of his life. After he gifted Mckinzie her first camera in her junior year of high school, she began to take any assignment she could for her high school paper to improve her skills. Of all the memories made in her first year at CSU, most of the interesting ones came from The Collegian. One Halloween drag show assignment, a lot of mentorship and a few months of practice later, Mckinzie found herself being offered the position of photo director for the next academic school year. Mckinzie is excited for another year at The Collegian and aims to continue learning and growing during her time as one of the photo directors.

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