Colorado State Football’s spring practices kick off this week.

But not on Tuesday, as was originally scheduled.

The team announced this morning that spring practices will now start on Saturday, March 25, with a 9 a.m. MDT beginning for the first one. All of the team’s 15 spring practices are scheduled to run for three hours, with the final session being the annual Green and Gold Game, with kickoff coming at 1 p.m. MDT on Saturday, April 22. (Full schedule posted below.)

Jay Norvell, entering his second season in Fort Collins, has embraced Ram Nation with open arms. For the entirety of the spring session, his practices are free and open to the public.

Norvell’s Rams went 3-9 last year, the same record they had in former head coach Steve Addazio’s final year, 2021. The new head man’s Air Raid offense is expected to revolutionize that side of the ball. However, in 2022, the Rams were one of the worst offensive teams in the nation, scoring a mere 13.2 points per game. Only fellow Mountain West team the New Mexico Lobos (13.1) and UMass (12.5) scored less than CSU last year.

Defensively, the Rams allowed 26.9 points per game (71st) which was an improvement from the year before when they gave up 28.2 PPG (82nd).

Last year, Colorado State finished fifth in the Mountain Division, ahead of only New Mexico. Boise State went 10-4 to win the division, while Fresno State also went 10-4 to take the West Division. Fresno State ultimately beat Boise State in the Mountain West Championship last year.

Simply, CSU wants to find themselves in contention for not only the division, but the Mountain West Conference as a whole. That all starts in spring practices, where teammates learn who one another are, learn their coaches’ expectations and fine tune their craft leading into the summer and ultimately the season.

Colorado State Football kicks off the 2023 season at Washington State of the Pac-12 on Saturday, Sept. 2.

CSU’s full spring practice schedule:

A visual description of Colorado State Football's spring practice schedule for 2023.

A visual description of Colorado State Football’s spring practice schedule for 2023. Credit: Colorado State Football