Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell knows all about rivalry games.

As a head coach at the college and professional levels, he has participated in plenty of them. He knows about the energy and atmosphere. He knows about the passion and enthusiasm.

His task this week as the Rams prepare for Saturday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown against CU is to make sure his team learned from its mistakes in last year’s game in Boulder, while tuning out the distractions the biggest game in Colorado this year will present — especially with the game being in Fort Collins at the Rams’ home stadium.

“First of all, there’s just naturally going to be energy,” Norvell said.

“When you play a passionate rivalry game, there’s going to be energy. I think we have to do a better job of controlling that and really focusing it the proper way.

“I think the one thing that as a coach you learn is that there’s going to be emotion and passion and that’s part of the game and we need that. You’ve got to play with an edge and physicality, but it’s got to be funneled the right way. I think we’ll learn from that from last year’s game. I think we’ll have an incredible environment in Canvas (Stadium). I thought last week was great and I think this week will even be better because of the nature of the opponent and the game. We’ve been looking forward to it.”

Last year, the Rams led 28-17 early in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field before the Buffs scored 11 points in the final 71/2 minutes to tie the game and send it to overtime. After each team scored seven points in the first overtime, CU scored the only touchdown of the second one to claim the victory.

It was an instant classic and a game the Rams believe they should have won.

This week’s rematch will mark the first time since 1996 the teams have played in Fort Collins, and the first time they have ever played at Canvas Stadium.Last week’s game against Northern Colorado was a sellout. The attendance of 36,573 made it the third most-attended game in Canvas Stadium history.

That this year’s Showdown will be played at home has the players even more excited for their opportunity on Saturday.

“Last year was a very hostile environment,” CSU defensive back Jack Howell said. “Boulder has a great crowd, and they made the game day super fun, and obviously a lot of media platforms were there. That was huge, and that was something that was hard to overcome. This year it’s at home, and that makes us feel a lot more comfortable and we’re excited to be able to put on a good show in front of our fans. We had a great crowd last week, and I know everyone is super excited for this week, so we just want to go out and play for them.”

On the field, the Rams know they made mistakes in last year’s game. Eliminating them will be a key focus this week.

One area Norvell believes his team has already improved in is its ability to close out games by being able to run the ball and use the clock. The Rams did so against the Bears on Saturday and got a late touchdown to seal their victory.

“We had too many penalties last year,” Norvell said. “We lost a double-overtime game where we had 18 penalties. We had four turnovers, two in the red zone. We had three touchdowns called back. You just can’t win games that way. It was still a double-overtime game and a game that we should have won. We have to correct those errors, and we have to be better. We’ve got to be better at the end of the game.”

As a native of Colorado, Howell has seen his share of Rocky Mountain Showdown games, although he has only played in one.

It was one of the reasons he committed to CSU and believes it is the reason many of his teammates did as well.

He also knows he doesn’t want his last chance to beat CU to need multiple overtimes and go deep into the night. He wants to win the game.

“This is definitely a game you look forward to when you commit to Colorado State, those big rivalry games, but this takes it a step further and obviously there’s a lot of hype around Colorado every week, so it’s a huge blessing for us to go and make a name for CSU,” he said.

“We’re not playing for an entertaining game. We’re playing to whoop them. Hopefully the fans can still find entertainment in that, but we don’t want to make it a double-overtime game. We want to win by any means possible.”

Injury report

Norvell said Monday he hopes star wide receiver Tory Horton can play this week after leaving Saturday’s game against UNC in the third quarter with a groin strain.

“Tory is sore, but I think he is going to be available to play,” Norvell said. “So we’ll see how he progresses over the week.”

Defensive end Nuer Gatkuoth will miss his third game to begin the season as he deals with turf toe.