FORT COLLINS —On the first play of Colorado State’s intrasquad scrimmage in mid-August, Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi demonstrated the next step in his quarterback evolution.
The redshirt sophomore walked to the line with a run play dialed up. But upon seeing man coverage on star wide receiver Tory Horton, Fowler-Nicolosi checked to a vertical passing play — and promptly delivered a 60-yard touchdown strike.
As Fowler-Nicolosi looks to balance his gunslinger identity with a more situationally aware approach — translation: cut down on last season’s 16 interceptions — this is the kind of in-game processingthe Rams believe will catapult them back into bowl contention this fall.
“You kind of want to bite your lip there, but you can’t argue with the result,” CSU head coach Jay Norvell said. “(He’s showed in fall camp) that he’s learned so much from his experience last year. He has a calmness he didn’t have last year. … He’s still pretty aggressive, but we wanted to pull the reins in on him and slow (his thinking) down a little bit.”
If Fowler-Nicolosi can pick and choose the right times to air it out or take check-downs, CSU could have a program-changing season. The quarterback admits that 2023 was a whirlwind for him, especially at the beginning.
Clay Millen started the season at QB, but Fowler-Nicolosi replaced him in the opener against Washington State and then got his first start the next game at Colorado. CSU lost both, the second in heartbreaking double overtime, but the start of the trial-by-fire was what Fowler-Nicolosi needed to speed up his acclimation to big-time college football.
“I was so nervous (before the Rocky Mountain Showdown),” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “… But the difference from the CU game to the Hawaii game (to close the year) was exponential. I hope it translates to this year, and I think it will. Because towards the end of the season, the game slowed down, and I was calmer with my mind.
“There were certainly times where I was far too aggressive. I understand now that I don’t have to do it all. There’s no point of chucking an 80-yard post when I have a wide-open check-down. … I don’t need to act like a superhero, don’t need to do anything insanely special — just make my plays when the opportunity comes and understand how to play quarterback in all aspects.”
In the offseason, Fowler-Nicolosi turned down overtures from other programs to transfer — including a $600,000 payday from Kansas State, according to Norvell — and stayed in Fort Collins. Fowler-Nicolosi remained a Ram partly out of loyalty and partly because of the chance he will get to build on a 3,460-yard season that saw him emerge as one of the more promising Group of 5 quarterbacks.
“To sit there and say you could go somewhere else and throw for 3,500 yards, maybe 4,000 yards, you’re not necessarily going to get that opportunity,” CSU quarterbacks coach Matt Mumme said. “You might get a lot of money, but you’re not going to get those throws. So I think that was a big deal.”
The Rams plan on taking advantage of BFN’s big arm and matured mindset.
“He’s anxious to win out there and prove what we can do offensively,” Norvell said. “But I see a different type of leadership in him. He’s more mature, and he understands it’s a long season and we don’t have to go for it every time we’re in the red zone. … There’s a time to play fast and a time to take the air out of the ball. Experience will allow him to apply that.”
If Fowler-Nicolosi can adjust to the learning curve in college as quickly as he did in high school, the Rams will be in good shape.
Fowler-Nicolosi walked into a premier Texas high school program as a junior at Aledo after moving from California and led the team to a state championship despite starting the season at No. 3 on the depth chart.
After the starting senior QB got hurt and the sophomore behind him was sidelined by COVID protocols, Fowler-Nicolosi went from JV to the varsity starter and didn’t look back. But first, minutes before his initial varsity start with Aledo, his teammates needed to figure out who he was.
“The offensive line coach walked up to me during pregame and goes, ‘What is our quarterback’s name?’” former Aledo head coach Tim Buchanan recalled with a laugh. “I told him, and he goes, ‘OK, and what number is he? And when we leave the field, do you mind if I bring him into our offensive line meeting and let him introduce himself? Because our offensive linemen don’t really know who he is.’ Nobody in the program really did. It was comical, really.”
Fowler-Nicolosi dazzled in that start with passes “that normally don’t get thrown by a high school football player,” Buchanan said. And by the time the playoffs started a few weeks later, Fowler-Nicolosi was the guy.
“Everybody talks about his strong arm and how good of vision he has, but his football I.Q. is off the charts,” Buchanan said. “Our offense is pretty complicated, and when he was our JV quarterback, during varsity practice he would stand behind our coach that signaled the plays in and he’d have a script, and that’s really how he learned our offense. On paper.”
Fowler-Nicolosi said the way he took over the Aledo starting job is “oddly comparable” to how Norvell suddenly called on him at the start of 2023 despite Millen being entrenched at the position the year before.
“It was almost déjà vu for me: Monday morning, you get the call from coach, ‘Hey you’re going to start.’ (And I think) ‘(Expletive),’” Fowler-Nicolosi said with a laugh. “(The experience at Aledo) helped me in that aspect, knowing that I had been there before. Not at this scale obviously, but mentally it helped me a little bit.”
Now, in a pivotal Year 3 under Norvell, Fowler-Nicolosi is the centerpiece of the Rams’ dreams of qualifying for a bowl game for the first time in seven years.
While CSU has a tough test on the road against Texas in Saturday’s season opener, the game against CU on Sept. 14 at Canvas Stadium is of extra importance. The Rams haven’t won the Rocky Mountain Showdown since 2014, and they haven’t hosted the game in their stadium since 1996.
“(A bowl is) the expectation,” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “I would not be satisfied unless that’s the path we take as a team. … (As for CU), they’re nothing special to us. They don’t mean any more than anything other team does.
“Ok, maybe a little bit.”
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Originally Published: August 30, 2024 at 5:45 a.m.
