‘A Smoking Gun,’ Inside the Allegations of Kansas State Wooing Colorado State QB With $600K
COLORADO STATE ALMOST LOST THEIR STARTING QUARTERBACK. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi has been the Rams’ first-team passer for three seasons now, but allegedly he almost wasn’t when a Kansas State coach rang him up and offered him $600,000 to enter the transfer portal and take his talents to Manhattan.
During his press conference at the Mountain West Conference’s Media Day, Colorado State’s head coach Jay Norvell revealed two cases of supposed tampering involving both wide receiver Tory Horton and Fowler-Nicolosi.
“[Fowler-Nicolosi] said that a guy from Kansas State called and offered him $600,000 [if he entered the transfer portal] because they lost their quarterback,” Novell said. “I’m not accusing Kansas State of anything, I’m just telling you what the kid told me. If they don’t want their name thrown in it, I think they should probably get a handle on their people.”
While coaches all around the NCAA landscape agree that this isn’t a unordinary occurrence in college football’s NIL era, it still remains very illegal under the organization’s law. Tampering is outlawed under the NCAA charter and remains a hot topic within the association’s upper ranks. No coach can reach out to a player when he hasn’t submitted his name in the portal, yet it’s the general consensus that such tampering altercations happen nearly everyday.
“There’s no doubt tampering is real,” Florida head coach Billy Napier said. “… And I think that until there’s something done about it, I think that you’ll continue to see it.”
Rumors have swirled of various schools, coaches, and even fans attempting to draw players to a certain team and enticing them to enter the portal with monetary incentives. The NIL era has opened up a pandora’s box of these situations, a box which the NCAA seems overwhelmed to close. Many times, a team’s NIL collective will offer the incentive, though not entirely through the school– it serves as a loophole in order to compensate a player for picking a certain school.
“If you have enough evidence, you can prove it,” Norvell said. “Smoking gun is a smoking gun.”
Kansas State exiled Will Howard this year in anticipation of former five-star quarterback Avery Johnson finally getting the reins to the team. Big expectations loom for Johnson, who the team has invested in heavily over his time with the Wildcats. Johnson is the former Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year– drawing possible skepticism to Norvell’s claims.
AFTER ALL, WHY WOULD THE WILDCATS be looking for a quarterback when they’ve shown and stated time and time again it’s the Avery Johnson show throughout this offseason?
“We saw enough last year for us to know that he was going to be the guy long-term for us,” Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman said. “He was ready for that moment. I told him when I recruited him, I knew he was going to be the face of the program.”
Perhaps the Wildcats were looking for a formidable backup in case things go south with Johnson, but Fowler-Nicolosi has less eligibility than Johnson– an interesting fact that surfaces when you try to go down that route. Either way, there seems to be no solid proof that this interaction ever happened other than first-person accounts and the ones directly involved in the allegations. Fowler-Nicolosi did not end up transferring, and stayed at Colorado State underneath Norvell making the entire situation naught.
In college football, there is no staying still. You either dig yourself out of a hole or dig yourselves into a deeper one.
But Norvell didn’t stop the accusations there. Instead, he continued on to say that both Texas A&M and Ole Miss offered similar deals to his players to enter the portal as well. The exorbitant offer is important for a reason, the $600,000 valuates the player and sets the stage for the context of the deal. Was Kansas State and the other schools truly willing to pay north of a half-million dollars for a signal-caller who was all but certain to be the Wildcats’ backup?
The $600,000 seems wild in this context, eroding the legitimacy of the claim in this certain context perhaps a tad. Fowler-Nicolosi was good, but not off-the-charts, pay him the big bucks good. The Aledo, Texas native threw for 3,460 yards and 22 touchdowns last season. Paired with a moderate number of interceptions– 16, Fowler Nicolosi finished the year with a respectable 132.6 passer rating. Yet, that’s not worthy of being paid the same amount as some NFL players to be a backup behind one of the positions in college football that seems to be the most locked in place. Avery Johnson is not losing his job.
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Norvell’s other accusation does make a little bit more sense. Horton, who finished the year on a tear– racking up 1,136 yards and eight touchdowns on 96 catches does seem like the type of player who could demand such a monetary figure. But, Klieman has once again showed immense faith in his returners at receiver. The team could be willing to pick up receivers from the portal but with most of the team banking on solid chemistry, it’s hard to see anything tangible coming from Norvell’s cries.
Norvell’s fiery talk at the podium does cast a dark shadow over the current status of college football. The idea that tampering and bending the rules is a commonplace item is a major problem for both the NCAA and the integrity of the game itself. Coaches and administrations are vocal about seeing the aftermath and the process, but also aren’t afraid to dip their hand in stained waters as well.
“When you’re not getting devastated by the portal, it’s not anything you’re doing right or wrong,” one veteran Group of Five head coach said to The Athletic. “It’s just a blessing is all it is. Because it’s just a matter of time before you get picked apart.”
NORVELL’S APPROACH HAS BEEN DIFFERENT. He called out specific programs– something many coaches on other teams refrain from doing. While, plenty of coaches publicly speak on the issue– transfer portal tampering, Norvell went after Kansas State, Ole Miss, and A&M. This marks somewhat of a first. Why? It’s simple, coaches rarely have actionable proof other than witness accounts, phone calls are out of the blue, and plenty of times teams use third-party negotiators to make sure anything can’t be traced back to them.
“It’s bulls—,” the same G5 coach said. “That’s just being dumb. The whole thing is a complete joke. And it’s also happening with the agent calling the collective. Or it’s going through the high school assistant. It’s all of the above.
Most of the really good players aren’t going into the portal without knowing where they’re going. They already have a home.”
Shady? Sure. Protective? Definitely.
For a lot of teams, the transfer portal is an ugly reality and has turned into a necessary evil. You either play the game or get left in the dust.
“In the old days, you recruited your class, right? Now, you re-recruit your class every year,” an anonymous head coach says. “That’s the most amazing story: If I get through this cycle and I don’t lose any of these kids, it’s gonna be a miracle.”
On top of that, Norvell’s finger pointing lays serious significance because teams rarely choose to get down and dirty. Any unnecessary drama could taint a reputation for a program, no matter the circumstances.
In college football, there is no staying still. You either dig yourself out of a hole or dig yourselves into a deeper one. One look at the University of Colorado and it’ll show you that any action on behalf of a program shines bright or outcasts a team more. So, without concrete proof– teams rarely choose to single out other programs, possibly alleviating the issue.
“You know what the narrative is going to be: ‘The coaches are going to leave. Why can’t the players leave?’ That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying you shouldn’t be messing with someone’s kids not in the portal,” UTSA coach Jeff Traylor explained CBS Sports.
In the old days, you recruited your class, right? Now, you re-recruit your class every year.
Anonymous Head Coach
The stories are endless, coaches losing their players in the portal to various spiels: schools tell players about the NIL collectives, promise him a starting spot on the team, set up sponsorship deals with car dealerships and boutique opportunities, or just say they’ll put him in a better spot for the NFL. The sales pitches are endless, what used to be relegated to the naive and wide-eyed high schoolers has made its way to existing players.
“They were coming out here and recruiting high schools, and then they’re meeting up with my player in the same town,” one unnamed coordinator alleged. “They were encouraging my guy to get in the portal, offering him $150,000 to $200,000.”
Norvell’s claims aren’t out of left field. Instead, they are simply a unredacted version of exposing what’s been happening. If the claims are true, the NCAA must do everything in their power to stop it. If this sport is to keep any semblance of amateurism, Norvell’s outing is a stepping stone, but not nearly the final string.
