FORT COLLINS — you ever forgive us, Nick Stevens? You never miss the water ’til the well runs dry.
In The Year of Our Lord 2026, Stevens remains the last CSU quarterback to be named to the Mountain West’s all-conference team. That was, what, 2017? Rams faithful are staring at a nine-year drought. Imagine how much more fun the New Belgium Porch would’ve been if Trey McBride or Tory Horton were celebrating in front of it.
In fact, if Jay Norvell had given CSU a Strong passing game, chances are, he’d still be here. As in,
You’d like to picture every outgoing CSU coach, like Presidents of the United States, leaving a note of good-luck-and-Godspeed for their successors to find on that desk whenever they take over at Canvas Stadium. It could afford the outgoing boss a chance to reflect on what he did wrong. Or would do all over again, if given a chance.
2019: Dear Steve Addazio, try not to lose all those rivalry games. Signed, Mike Bobo
2021: Dear Jay Norvell, try not to be a complete @#$&%# jerk. Signed, The Daz (P.S. Go sign some duuuuudes)
2025: Dear Jim Mora, try not to make QB promises you can’t keep. Signed, Jay
Norvell was hired four years ago, in part, because he was a good guy — a refreshing personality contrast to the coach (Addazio) who directly preceded him. He was also hired because of Carson Strong, the strapping young QB who’d put up video-game-level numbers under Norvell at Nevada from 2018-2021 — 32 games, 74 TDs, 19 picks, 293 passing yards per game. It was promised, if not expected, that Jay would find Rams fans a Strong of their own to embrace.
As we know, that … never happened. Clay Millen was supposed to be “the guy” and got thrown into the fire as a true freshman behind an awful offensive line. The roof fell on his head routinely. Millen got shell-shocked, got phased out and eventually transferred out.
His replacement, Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, looked more comfortable throwing and processing while also running for his life, which seemed like an upgrade at the time. BFN also had unusual moxie, if terrible mechanics, for a redshirt freshman, and was blessed with one of the best wideouts in program history, Horton, to play pitch-and-catch with. The problem? Fowler-Nicolosi more or less peaked as a redshirt freshman. Kid got shell-shocked, got booed, got booed even louder, got phased out annnnd … eventually transferred out, too.
Neither of them turned into Strong. In fact, funny enough, the closest CSU ever got to having its own Strong was having Strong himself working on Norvell’s staff at one point. Rams AD John Weber didn’t give his coach a third chance to try and groom a “franchise guy,” canning Jay last Oct. 25 after a 2-5 start.
The new Pac-12 will be a strange, hybrid footballing beast, a marriage of strange bedfellows. But the passing verities never throw out of style. The last five Mountain West champions post-pandemic — Boise State thrice (’25, ’24 and ’23), Fresno State once (’22) and Utah State once (’21) have had one thing in common, offensively. All possessed one, if not two, quarterbacks who could find the end zone consistently.
The last five MW champions featured offenses that averaged 26 touchdown passes per season. CSU hasn’t had a season with more than 24 TD tosses since 2017, when Stevens — there’s that name again — threw for 29 (against 10 interceptions).
If anyone knows about Pac-12 signal-callers, it’s Mora. At UCLA, his passing games averaged 26 passing scores per season, thanks largely to Brett Hundley and Josh Rosen. Once Joe Fagnano turned a corner under Mora at UConn, so did the Huskies — his QBs averaged 28 passing touchdowns over the ’24 and ’25 campaigns.
Which is why I asked him Saturday afternoon at Canvas Stadium: What exactly are you looking for from your QB1?
“I would say that the keyword is consistency,” the first-year Rams coach replied.
“Can he operate in our offense with consistency? Can he take care of the football? Can he make great decisions with the football in his hand? And that may be throwing it away. At times, that may be taking a sack. (Or) That may be running and getting out of bounds. Is he going to slide and protect himself? Is he going to be able to operate down-to-down and move us down the field and get us in scoring position? And do all those things on a consistent basis that we can count on as a staff?”
He’s got options. The official word is that it’s a two-man derby between Ksaan Farrar, who transferred in from UConn, and former TCU and former Oklahoma State signal-caller Hauss Hejny, another transfer. The latter’s got the best straight-line speed and elusiveness of the group, but is also slight in frame, standing about 6-foot-even in stocking feet.
“Why should you be the No. 1 guy for Wyoming?” I wondered.
“Shoot. I’m not going to say why I should be the guy,” the young Texan replied. “But, I mean, I’m going to work my ball — er, work my nuts off until Week 1 to be that guy, just because that’s who I am.
“I’m a competitor, and no matter if I’m named a starter three weeks ago or I’m named the starter (in) Week 3, I’m going to compete just the same and be the same person every day.”
Points for swagger, at least. CSU hasn’t featured a QB who threw a consistent deep ball since Stevens — or maybe Garrett Grayson, the slinger who predated him. Locals insist that a little unknown behind center, for now, is a good thing. Mora insinuated that an honest-to-goodness QB battle in FoCo could continue through the summer months.
“Well, first of all, we’re a long ways from making that decision,” Mora said. “A long ways. I mean, we’ve got (time) … we don’t have to make that decision until kickoff before the first game.”
He knows the drill. Hundley was an All-Pac-12 choice under him in 2014. Rosen made the conference’s second-team offense three years later. If CSU is to live well in its new neighborhood, FoCo can’t be a place where QB careers go to die. When the right arm pops, the Rams can’t afford to pass him up.
