Sports Editor
With the 2012 season wrapped up, all eyes are on coach Russ Martin and how he will handle his first offseason. Many different aspects are being noted as the biggest area for improvements, but none quite as often as the team’s passing game.
CMU’s offensive passing struggles have been documented time and time again this season, however, the overall extent of CMU’s struggles passing the football is rampant throughout the team’s history.
“Our quarterbacks’ mechanics are inconsistent,” Martin said. “I think that’s because it’s never really been emphasized in the past.”
The all-time CMU records for passing yards and touchdowns in a season are 2,417 and 16, both set by alum Jake Logue in the 1994 season. To put this in better prospective, the RMAC passing records stand at 4,220 yards and 41 touchdowns, set by the 2010 Colorado School of Mines’ team.
Quarterbacks in the RMAC pass CMU’s record marks without a second glance. Four quarterbacks this season passed for over 2,417 yards, and five quarterbacks threw for more than 16 touchdowns.
Martin and and his staff not only have to buck last season’s passing struggles, but a school’s 87-year history’s worth of them.
“This is a system that doesn’t just improve overnight,” Martin said. “It does take some time, and one of the things that we told the guys that they had to do was get over [to the Pavilion] on their own, because we can’t require it.”
In 2005, during Martin’s tenure as offensive coordinator for Nebraska-Kearney, the offense was one of the most successful in RMAC history, with its passing touchdown total of 37 remaining the second highest total of all-time. Martin shared that this was proof of the worth ethic the team had and not necessarily the talent level.
“The quarterback for that team, Marcus Goldenstein, probably had one of the weakest arms of any quarterback I’ve ever coached at the college level,” Martin said. “But what he did was he threw so much to those receivers that he knew where those guys were going to be and when they were going to be there. We don’t have that right now. We told the quarterbacks and receivers that they’ve got to run those routes and get that timing.”
Among the changes coming in the course of the next few years is the overall makeup of the team. 50 freshmen are listed on the roster with all but two being red-shirted this season.
By red-shirting a large number of freshmen, Martin intended to give the players a year to acclimate to the college level while also being able to learn on the sideline.
“That was part of our intention coming in,” Martin said. “We’ve brought in what we feel are some pretty dang good freshmen players. We knew we were going to have to bite the bullet this season with some of the depth situations.”
One of the freshmen brought in with this recruiting class is quarterback Kyle Duran, who set numerous records at Basha High School in Arizona. He was featured on ESPN.com, where it was written that Duran’s outstanding play was a big reason for the team’s success in his senior season. He was one of Martin’s favorite recruits this year and will be competing for a starting job next season against starters Deke Cisco and Jason Haferman.
“Next year or even this spring, I think you’re going to see three guys compete big time,” Martin said. “Do I see Kyle having the ability to step in front of both Jason and Deke? Yes I do. Does that mean he will? No it doesn’t. Each one of them has some different talents and different abilities and it’s going to come down to who is going to manage our system the best.”
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