TUCSON, Ariz. — A total letdown.
The Colorado State football team had big talk about the importance of making and winning a bowl game, but the Rams put in a poor performance in front of a big Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl crowd.
Miami (Ohio) took advantage of frequent CSU mistakes and won the 2024 Arizona Bowl 43-17.
Here are takeaways from the game.
This was a stage CSU fans and administration have been chasing for years.
CSU had not played in a bowl in seven years. The Rams have been desperate to boost the football program to relevancy.
It came with this bowl. Snoop Dogg is an icon and the first year of his sponsorship of the Arizona Bowl brought lots of interest and intrigue.
It was a surreal show, with Snoop stopping by the team locker rooms before the game. Social media was awash with photos of Snoop and CSU.
It was a huge crowd for a mid-tier bowl (announced at just over 40,000). The Rams sold out their allotment of tickets multiple times.
And the team failed to meet the moment.
One game in a weird bowl season won’t dictate the future of the program (good or bad result) but this was a great chance to take momentum and pour gasoline on it.
This was a fire extinguisher instead.
So many CSU fans were ready for this. The pep rally the night before was electric. Wall-to-wall with CSU fans celebrating the return to relevancy for the program.
Now many of the familiar questions will re-emerge about the team under Jay Norvell.
Is this program truly heading the direction it needs to go ahead of the 2026 move to the Pac-12? Eight wins can’t be ignored, but the huge letdowns in big games (highlighted by the bowl and the game against Colorado) are big red flags.
Norvell repeatedly said the Rams needed to play clean to beat Miami.
CSU turned the ball over four times, plus two turnovers on downs (which don’t count as official turnovers).
They were costly, too. Three times Miami started drives in CSU territory after a turnover and the RedHawks scored 19 points off of them.
The offense was bad almost throughout. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi was inconsistent in the air, with a poor pick into the arms of a defensive lineman in the first half costly.
He also had a few excellent throws, which highlighted the up-and-down nature of his play still.
The Rams need to figure out what the offense is moving forward. The 2024 edition was not good enough.
CSU (8-5) had a terrible second half. Miami (10-5) led just 9-3 at half, but went 76 yards in six plays in the third quarter to set the tone.
Miami scored touchdowns on its first three drives of the second half. The RedHawks scored 34 second-half points and had 271 yards of second-half offense. Miami ran for more than 200 yards on the ground, including a 97-yard touchdown run to set an Arizona Bowl record.
CSU hadn’t made a bowl since 2017. The Rams haven’t won a bowl since 2013.
Both are pretty staggering stats to highlight the long-running issues for CSU football.
The Rams are now 6-12 all-time in bowl games.
Again, with a move to the Pac-12 looming these are the types of figures CSU must start to change.
A big-time program doesn’t take that long to return to the postseason and a big-time program wins in the postseason.
Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on X and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.
