Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell and the Rams are headed to Boulder to play the Colorado Buffaloes, where ESPN’s “College GameDay” and a flock of energized locals are sure to greet the in-state rival.
Norvell said on his coach’s show on Wednesday that underdog CSU is tired of the pomp and circumstance around the game with much of the attention cast on new Colorado coach Deion Sanders and the hot-ticket Buffs.
Colorado (2-0) enters the game ranked 18th in the Top 25.
In particular, Norvell took a thinly veiled jab at Sanders’ press conference attire after he was interviewed in a baseball cap and sunglasses. Norvell consistently wears a visor on the sideline.
“We had to do a bunch of ESPN videos, and it was great, I loved it,” Norvell said on his coach’s show. “But our kids came out of all those videos really with a chip on their shoulder. They’re tired of all that stuff. They really are tired of it.
“I sat down with ESPN today. And I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder. I told them I took my hat off and my glasses off. And I told them, ‘When I talk to grownups, I take my hat and my glasses off.’ That’s what my mother taught me.”
Sanders, flanked by his players on the practice field, had a response for Norvell on Thursday.
“I’m minding my own business, watching some film trying to get ready, trying to get out of here and be the best coach I can be,” Sanders said. “And I look up and read some bull junk they’re saying about us. Why would you want to talk about us? We don’t talk about nobody.”
And a fired-up Sanders said Norvell turned the contest into more than a game with Colorado State (0-1) of the Mountain West Conference. The Rams were thumped 50-24 by Washington State on Sept. 2.
“It was just going to be a good game. They messed around and made it personal,” he said. “It was going to be a great test. The battle of Colorado. But they messed around and made it personal.”
The Rams have dropped 24 consecutive games against ranked opponents since beating then-No. 7 Colorado in 2002 during Sonny Lubick’s tenure as Rams coach.
Colorado State has lost the past five meetings — the most recent was in 2019 — in the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
