FORT COLLINS — As Mountain West pageant contestants go, the Rams walked the stage in a ball gown and combat boots. But the boot they grabbed on Friday night, bronze and beautiful, fit Jay Norvell like a pair of glass slippers.
The Rams clinched the Bronze Boot — the beloved prize for the winner of CSU-Wyoming since 1968 — with 1:18 left in the fourth quarter, on, appropriately enough, a run up the gut.
As Jalen Dupree rumbled for 11 yards on third-and-8, CSU quarterback Brayden Flower-Nicolosi raised both arms in triumph. A kneel-down later, he ran about a 4.1-second 40 to the corner of the visiting sidelines at Canvas Stadium, where the Boot was waiting for the loving arms of its new green-and-gold overlords.
It was the Rams’ first victory in the series since 2020, and CSU’s first Border War win in front of a paid crowd at home since 2014. Three coaches ago.
Norvell’s Rams (7-3, 5-0 MW) are in the chase for a league title on the strength of defense, offensive line, chewing gum and piano wire. It ain’t pretty. But it ain’t broke, either.
Tailbacks Justin Marshall and Avery Morrow, CSU’s 1-2 punch, combined for 188 rushing yards while BFN poked and prodded for 197 passing yards, completing 14 of 17 attempts.
Yeah, the Cowboys (2-8, 2-4 MW) are a hot mess, and might not have hit 20 points against the Rams if you spotted them the first 14.
But for Norvell, you don’t apologize for a rivalry win, however unsightly. Especially when it happens in front of a sellout crowd at Canvas Stadium — a stadium Norvell needs to keep filling.
The third-year CSU coach certainly knew the stakes. Norvell was seen in the tunnel before the tilt with arms in the air, trying to fire up the crowd as he led the Rams onto the field. That fire spilled out into the opening drive, which saw the hosts ground, pound and march 75 yards on 11 plays in 3:31 to take a quick 7-0 lead.
In hindsight, it was a grass-kicking with asterisks. CSU’s training staff was a little too busy as temperatures fell and old grudges cranked up. Morrow got shaken up a few times and missed much of the second half. Kicker Jordan Noyes was wide left from 44 yards out in the first quarter and short from 57 yards early in the fourth.
CSU should’ve put the Pokes away for good with a minute left in the first half, leading 17-3 with four downs at the Wyoming 5. But two attempts by Marshall and one from Morrow were stoned, and on fourth-and-goal at the 1, the Rams fumbled away a jet sweep that opened up an escape hatch for the stumbling, how-are-they-still-in-this Cowboys.
Then again, when you haven’t raised the Bronze Boot since 2020, style points are for jerks and pedants.
The win even had a little extra historical oomph in that Friday is the last Border War game in FoCo until 2028. The first break in the series since World War II looms in the fall of 2026.
CSU and Wyoming have been conference brethren since the Rams joined the WAC in 1968. But that’ll change in two years thanks to a Mountain West exodus in which four members, including CSU, will split from the former and join the new-look Pac-12.
Kass Sprague of Laramie spoke for a lot of Cowboys fans in the second quarter as she raised a frosty beer in a cold hand to toast the Battle for the Boot.
“That’s (expletive),” Sprague said of the series going dark in 2026 and ’27. “It’s the best rivalry in sports, so it does make me sad. I feel like all of these conference switches are doing away with all the good rivalries.”
That said, she doesn’t blame the Rams for jumping at an offer from Oregon State and Washington State, the two schools left holding the bag that featured the Pac-12 name, its broadcast rights and settlement payouts.
“I think it’s kind of stupid,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to gain anything from it … you get it, but whatever.”
“They just hate each other,” Anthony Stoeter, a Wyoming fan and UW law student from Pensacola, Fla., told me just before halftime, “but they also kind of love each other. It’s kind of cool.”
So’s this: This past Thursday, the Rams and Pokes jointly announced an eight-year contract for the Battle of the Bronze Boot — as a non-conference series — that starts in three seasons and runs through 2035.
“It’s just — we’re a small state, a small (campus) town,” Sprague said of Wyoming. “And it’s really cool to beat them — beat the sheep, basically.”
As we bid adieu, that option looked to be off the table.
The opening 30 minutes was largely a green and gold party. The Rammies led at the break in total yards (274 to 61), first downs (12 to four), rushing yards (151 to 40) and passing yards (123 to 41). A 14-point deficit flattered the Cowboys, who were gashed for a 38-yard run by Marshall on the second play from scrimmage and staggered for most of the next two stanzas.
“FIRST AND GOAL, RAMS!” the public address announcer shouted above us.
“Well, (expletive),” Kass said. “I guess they might win this one.”
“Think they might,” I laughed.
She took another sip.
“It’s all right,” Sprague continued. “But it’s the first one (since 2020), so I’ll allow it.”
In truth, it shouldn’t have been that close. But if you’re Norvell, of course, you take it. Take it and run.
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