17 Facts About Jay Norvell

Merritt James Norvell III was born on March 28,1963 and is an American college football coach and former player.

Jay Norvell is the head football coach at Colorado State University, a position he has held since the 2022 season.

Jay Norvell served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Reno from 2017 to 2021.

Jay Norvell played college football at the University of Iowa from 1982 to 1985 and professionally in the National Football League as a linebacker with the Chicago Bears for one season, in 1987 as practice and replacement player.

Jay Norvell's coaching career began at his alma mater Iowa in 1986 when Norvell took a job as a graduate assistant.

From 1988 to 2001, Jay Norvell served as an assistant coach for multiple positions at Northern Iowa, Wisconsin, and Iowa State.

Jay Norvell briefly spent time in the NFL as an assistant coach from 2002 to 2003 with the Indianapolis Colts and Oakland Raiders before returning to college football at the University of Nebraska to take his first ever offensive coordinator job in 2004.

Jay Norvell spent a season as the offensive coordinator at UCLA in 2007, and then served as the assistant offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Oklahoma from 2008 to 2010 before being promoted to co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2011.

Jay Norvell remained at Oklahoma until January 2015 when he was fired.

Jay Norvell was hired as the wide receivers coach at the University of Texas where he held play calling duties.

Jay Norvell then spent the 2016 season as the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Arizona State before landing his first head coaching job with Nevada in 2017.

In 2017, Jay Norvell was named head coach for the Nevada football program.

Nevada posted winning records in 2019,2020, and 2021 as well, and Jay Norvell finished his tenure at Nevada recording a winning record in four of his five seasons.

Jay Norvell led Nevada quarterback Carson Strong to back-to-back Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year awards in 2020 and 2021.

On December 6,2021, Colorado State hired Jay Norvell to be their 24th head coach.

Jay Norvell's father, Merritt married his mother, Cynthia, who was a model, on July 4,1962.

Jay Norvell's mother died at 79 after a battle with cancer.