Quitter’s Day was last Friday, apparently, when many New Year’s resolutions get chucked into the recycling bin. Not up in the Grading The Week cubicles. No way, no how. We make a promise for 2025, we keep it.
And one of those vows: full disclosure. Which means we’ve got to be 100% honest on two fronts:
1. Team GTW likes CSU Rams football coach Jay Norvell;
2. Team GTW is kinda worried about CSU Rams football coach Jay Norvell.
It’s been a challenging — to put it kindly — three weeks to be a CSU Ram. The Arizona Bowl was a dumpster fire lit right under Snoop Dogg’s nose. CSU changed defensive coordinators, only for that side of the ball to start unraveling like an old sweater. The Rams’ two best pass-rushers now play for Cal and Wake Forest. CSU’s best linebacker now plays for West Virginia. CSU’s best recruiter now works for USC.
And the move to the new-look, no-more-New Mexicos and no-more-Nevadas Pac-12 is now roughly 18 months away. Tick, tick, tick.
So, also in the spirit of full disclosure, it was good to see the Rams — and Norvell — land some wins via the transfer portal this week.
CSU football’s transfer portal wins — B-plus.
On Wednesday, the Rams landed their most highly touted offensive transfer in this cycle, ex-Ohio State wideout Kojo Antwi, a former four-star prep prospect from Georgia. On Friday, they found a Power-4 edge talent in ex-Baylor defensive end JaQues Evans, who shone at Western Kentucky but battled the injury bug in the Big 12.
It’s been something of a humbling start to 2025 up in FoCo, and certainly one of transition. A 26-point loss to Miami of Ohio at the Arizona Bowl on Dec. 28 left a sour taste in several mouths. And until this week, January hadn’t been kind.
Over the span of a few days to open the New Year, it was reported that CSU was losing arguably its two top defenders — linebacker, captain and former Ralston Valley star Chase Wilson (now with the Mountaineers) and ex-Wisconsin edge rusher Gabe Kirschke (now with the Demon Deacons), who both hit the portal. CSU also said farewell to one of its top coaches in former wideouts coach and recruiting coordinator Chad Savage.
A solid CSU defense in 2024 is undergoing a serious overhaul for 2025, and Evans figures to be a key part of that facelift. Nine of the 11 starters for the win over Utah State in the home finale either transferred out or exhausted their eligibility. Former defensive coordinator Freddie Banks joined Wake Forest as a defensive backs coach on Jan. 3. His replacement, Tyson Summers, was most recently a defensive coordinator with CU under Mel Tucker (2019) and Karl Dorrell (2020) and is expected to transition to a three-man defensive front. For better or worse, Summers is staring at a largely blank slate.
UNC men’s basketball’s record streak — A.
More full disclosure: Team GTW won’t ever apologize for loving college hoops, even when the local men’s squads have hit a rough patch.
The Big 12 so far has been as brutal and unrelenting as advertised for Tad Boyle’s rebuilding Buffs. Niko Medved’s Rams have gotten good mojo from Nique Clifford but are still trying to get a foothold in the Mountain West. Denver’s Pios went into the weekend having dropped five straight tilts to open Summit League play.
It’s not all gloom and doom — if you’re looking for a wagon to hitch some fun headlines over the next two months, it might just be in Greeley. UNC is off to one of its best starts to a Big Sky season, heading into Saturday’s test with Sacramento State having won seven straight games, tying the program’s longest victory streak as a Division I program. UNC’s 5-0 record to open to Big Sky play was its second-best as a member of the league. Senior forward Isaiah Hawthorne had been the bell cow, averaging 19.3 points and 7.3 boards in his previous three games before Sacramento State.
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