For a guy who doesn’t have a coordinator yet on that side of the ball, CSU Rams football coach Jay Norvell opened his first National Signing Day news conference somewhat on the defensive.

“In this day of modern football, there are lot of challenges,” the new Rams coach explained Wednesday at Canvas Stadium. “And one of the challenges is (that) when coaching changes are made in the middle of a recruiting cycle, it kind of stops everything.”

Football coaching regime changes are rarely painless. And when a new coach is importing an entirely new offensive scheme and philosophy, and has the transfer portal and a December signing date to speed up that process, those changes can feel seismic. At least at first.

Which explains why half of the 22 new faces announced by the athletic department as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday — 11 — arrived via the transfer portal.

And why nine of those 11 hailed from Norvell’s previous stop, the University of Nevada.

And why several Front Range commitments under the previous coaching staff were told in recent days that their scholarship offers were on hold or wouldn’t be realized.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a complete overhaul,” Norvell said of his initial recruiting haul, which ballooned from zero gets last Saturday to more than 20 by Tuesday night.

“But it’s significant. Some of the positions (of the current roster) don’t reflect what we need to do at all, moving forward.”

To put it another way, the current Rams, as left by former coach Steve Addazio, were built more like a monster truck. Norvell, who’ll utilize the “Air Raid” passing attack designed by Hal Mumme and proselytized by Mike Leach, is used to zipping around the Mountain West in a Maserati.

“It’s not a thing that people like to hear,” Norvell said. “That they had a scholarship, they had committed (to CSU) and you’ve got a new coaching staff and you kind of have to start all over again. It’s unfortunate. But it is the reality … some of those players will fit our needs going forward. And, probably, some of them won’t.

“You’re not going to make everybody happy. It’s just not going to happen. You just try to do the best you can.”

Of the top 20 prep prospects in Colorado, according to 247Sports.com’s database, two 3-star talents that had previously committed to the Rams, Highlands Ranch tight end Jade Arroyo and Arapahoe defensive lineman Jareb Ramos, decommitted from the program last week, shortly after Norvell was hired. The new coach honored the commitment of 3-star Cherry Creek wideout Ky Oday and flipped 3-star Pomona offensive lineman Aaron Karas from Nevada to CSU.

“It doesn’t mean that we won’t recruit them,” Norvell said of former commits such as Ramos and Arroyo. “It just means that we need more time to recruit them.”

Norvell’s first-day recruiting spoils included three former Front Range preps, as well as former Grandview offensive lineman Trevyn Heil, who’d originally signed with the Wolf Pack from the Class of 2021. He is transferring in.

The coach said the scholarships put on hold will likely be filled after he hires a defensive coordinator — a move expected within the next 10-11 days — and after that coordinator is given a chance to evaluate game footage.

“We just put a freeze on the number of (local) kids that were scheduled for a visit last weekend that we didn’t know at all,” Norvell said. “So it was only fair to give us a chance to evaluate them and see if they fit our system. It would make no sense to take kids and bring them here and have them not fit, and then they would have to leave anyway.”

Norvell said the Rams expect to have 10 scholarship slots to fill as recruiting continues through the winter, and that the doors weren’t closed to the in-state commitments who are currently in limbo.

The coach’s initial yield was heavy on offense — especially at wide receiver (six new players) and the offensive line (seven). And true to Norvell’s promise to get bigger and faster at wideout, three of the new receivers — transfer Tory Horton and preps Justus Ross-Simmons and Louis Brown — are 6-foot-2 or taller.

All 11 transfers and all three new CSU quarterbacks are expected to enroll in January to get a jump-start on the spring. The Rams’ incumbent center behind center, Todd Centeio, entered the transfer portal earlier this week. To the surprise of no one, Centeio’s dual-threat strengths but inconsistent passing skills were not expected to be good fits for the Rams’ new scheme.

That scheme does, however, look to be a better match for incoming redshirt freshman Clay Millen, a quarterback out of Snoqualmie, Wash., who’s the son of former NFL signal-caller Hugh Millen. The Nevada transfer was likely to have the inside track to replace outgoing Wolf Pack starter Carson Strong, a highly touted 2022 NFL Draft prospect.

“(Clay Millen) was going to be our next man up after Carson Strong,” Norvell said Wednesday. “(I) really love Clay. He’s got a great temperament.”

Given the number of moving parts both from a coaching and roster standpoint, Norvell, said, the Rams will likely start their five weeks of spring ball after spring break.

When you’re trying to convert a program that’s used to handling like a truck into one that handles like a sports car, it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not always going to be pretty, either.

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