What will new rivalry between Nevada and Jay Norvell, CSU football look like this year?

Everyone seems to have taken a step back this season in a virtual show of “OK, let’s calm down.”

It was a bitter showdown last season when the Colorado State football team played at Nevada in Jay Norvell’s return to Reno.

There was bad blood during the week, pregame, during the game and after.

Publicly, the feuding seems to have simmered ahead of Saturday’s game when Nevada plays at CSU (1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, Mountain West Network).

Here’s a look at the history of this very brief rivalry and what’s been said about this matchup.

The (brief) history leading to the fury

Norvell was Nevada’s coach from 2017-21, finishing the 2021 season 8-4 with a blowout 52-10 win at CSU. That ended Steve Addazio’s tenure and shortly after Norvell moved across the conference to join the Rams.

Unique rivalry: Why Jay Norvell left Nevada football for CSU, setting up a showdown

Eleven Nevada players entered the transfer portal and joined CSU and another five former Nevada verbal commits flipped to the Rams upon the coaching change.

The unique cross-conference move and ability for players to follow led to plenty of angst at Nevada.

What happened last year

Nevada chose a war of words leading into the matchup last season. Norvell’s replacement, Ken Wilson, said “what happened to the players here doesn’t happen in college football very often.” He said Norvell told Nevada players to not play in the 2021 bowl game and told some players to enter the NFL draft.

Norvell didn’t respond in the leadup to the game, but confronted Wilson pregame. He did address Wilson’s comments after CSU’s 17-14 win on a last-second field goal.

“I just told him, if he wants to talk to me, he can call me any time,” Norvell said. “The public comments were unnecessary and they weren’t true and I was disappointed in him for that.”

Avery Morrow, one of the former Nevada players who joined CSU, said he and others were bombarded with messages by phone and social media in the leadup to the game, which was played in front of a hostile student section.

CSU drew the ire of Nevada with a post-win tweet that said “see ya later coach wiLson” with the “L” emphasized.

It was a feisty matchup on and off the field.

What they’re saying this year

The tone has cooled.

CSU still has several former Nevada players, including a few starters. Norvell used his Monday press conference to praise his former school.

“When you’re a head coach at a place for five years, you have some special relationships with people,” Norvell said. “You don’t lose those things.”

Some Nevada players were recruited by Norvell and staff.

“We’re just so familiar with everyone there and the players. We recruited so many of those kids,” Norvell said. “There’s a lot of familiarity. I don’t know if all the bad blood was warranted last year, but it really is insignificant to the outcome of the game.”

Wilson seemingly has taken a lighter tone, too.

"I've known him for a while," Wilson said, according to Nevada Sports Net. "I don't know (Norvell) that well at the conference meetings. There's great camaraderie in this conference with all the coaches that are in the room when we're around. Obviously, the guys that I knew and had coached with, I spend a little bit more time with those guys because your families know each other and all that. But I think what he did here in his career and building this out of his first head-coaching job, the fans are what they are with how he left and that was before my time here. But he knows how to build a team. He knows what he's doing.”

He added: "They know what they're doing, and I think Coach Norvell is one of the better coaches in this conference if not in the country."

Still, you can be sure the players are dialed in for this one.

“This game means a lot to me. Kind of been looking forward to this one,” said CSU starting guard Andrew Cannon, who was at Nevada with Norvell and still last season before joining the Rams for the 2023 season. “I didn’t get a chance to play last year and then I transferred here. I just hope to really beat them.”

New rivalry?

It felt like a rivalry last year and likely will again Saturday, but that will probably be about the end of the true heat. CSU and Nevada won't play next season. The Rams are scheduled to go to Reno in 2025, but by then there won't be much roster crossover.

It will likely be a brief fireball of a rivalry brought on by circumstance that will soon burn out.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Jay Norvell’s move to Colorado State football has turned Nevada into a new rival