It is starting to take form.
With being a little bit more than three weeks into spring football and with the moving around of coaches into new positions, the Colorado Mesa University football team is starting to get a feel about how they will look heading into the fall of 2018.
With the departure of key coaches and coordinators, such as the quarterback’s coach and co-offensive coordinator, Jeromy McDowell, CMU has had to make some adjustments to make to ensure the team is still progressing rather than regressing in this spring season.
“It’s going really well,” Head coach Russ Martin said. “We really haven’t the systems that we are used to running.”
Coach Martin has taken over the primary duties as offensive coordinator as well as working with the quarterbacks. Martin has been a coach in both areas with his time at CMU and his previous coaching positions at Southeast Missouri State University.
“It’s been a smooth transition,” Martin said. “Offensively it is the same system so it is not that big of a change.”
CMU has brought in Jordan Dodge as the new wide receiver coach. Dodge recently coached at Ottawa University and played wide receiver in college at Fort Hays State University.
Linebackers coach Gothard Lane is now being moved over to the offensive side of the ball where he will be the new tight ends coach for the Mavericks.
CMU has also brought in new coaches to help with the defensive line and linebackers.
During the process of bringing in new coaches and switching positions around, the Mavericks have still been practicing and going through the normal routine of spring football in order to not miss any steps and keep the momentum going while all the pieces fall into place.
“Just because we have new coaches doesn’t mean we change the system,” Russ Martin said.
In terms of the players, it has been interesting to see how the Mavericks would adjust to not be playing with the same 24 seniors they had lost at the end of last season. CMU now has a plethora of young talent that is yet to be explored and it has brought a sense of new beginnings to the CMU locker room.
“It is always a different team,” Coach Martin said. “There is a new team chemistry because of the new leaders.”
Two of the returning captains from last year, Tony Clark and Tommy Saager have not been able to be a part of the spring practices this year. This is due to the fact that both of them are using this spring semester as a part-time semester. That means they cannot fully participate in football activities.
Both Clark and Saager are using their fourth eligibility year after redshirting in order to play one more season in the fall; however, this means they have to take the part-time semester and take a step back this spring in order to play in the fall.
The positive aspect of not having returning captains no longer in the huddle is that younger players, or players who were not in the spotlight last year, can now take the reigns as prominent captains on the team.
Returning players like Josh Brown will now be looked at as more essential leaders on the team. Also, players such as Eystin Salum will now have more eyes on them due to the fact former leaders on the offensive such as running back David Tann and offensive lineman Austin Fleer will not be on the field come this fall.
Salum is now looked at as one of, if not the main, captain on the offensive side of the ball. That will add additional pressure to the starting quarterback in which he will confidently be able to handle.
“Eystin is going to be very good,” Coach Martin said. “He understands our system.”
The Mavericks will have one more spring scrimmage next weekend in which will coach Martin and the rest of the team an idea on how they will look heading into the summer and eventually, the fall season.
