Sports Reporter
There are three major holidays for fans of football: The BCS National Championship, the Super Bowl, and National Signing Day.
Feb. 5 is the day that thousands of talented high school athletes sign the next four years of their lives and athletic careers to a university, and as the popular saying goes, “championships are won in February.”
While the major drama and headlines occurred on the division one level of college athletics, Colorado Mesa assembled another solid recruiting class under third-year head coach Russ Martin. The 23 signees are scattered among the western states, with 11 coming from Colorado, four from Arizona and three from both California and Texas.
Offensive linemen accounted for the most signees with five, followed by linebackers with four. Quarterback, defensive line, defensive back, and kicker/punter follow with three each.
Although this year’s class was not nearly as large as last year’s, the coaching staff feels as though this class has potential.
Due to personal matters, coach Martin was unable to attend the press conference, and assistant coach Jeff Wilkerson introduced the signees before the media.
“We are really excited about this year’s class,” Wilkerson said. “We feel as though we have built upon an already solid group of guys and we addressed all the issues we felt needed to be addressed and created depth at a lot of positions.”
One of the biggest concerns would be who would fill the massive hole left by All-American middle linebacker Jake Edmiston, who was named Daktronics player of the year and earned multiple honors while setting NCAA records with 16 tackles per game, and nine solo tackles per game.
Wilkerson expressed the coaching staff’s praise of linebacker Levi Hoagland, another Palisade product. At 6’1” and 210 pounds, Hoagland has some pretty big shoes to fill, but the coaches feel that Hoagland has the potential to play right away and make an impact.
“Hoagland is going to be a great addition for us,” Wilkerson said. “You’re going to be really surprised by his burst and quickness and he is just a solid player.”
Local prospect Ryan Whiteside of Delta High School is another player the coaching staff was excited to sign.
“Whiteside is a big, strong, physical receiver, and is another guy that could see the field early,” Wilkerson said.
More information on the recruits can be found on the CMU Mavericks website.
The Mavs also signed Marcus Patton to take over as defensive coordinator. Patton was hired by the coaching staff to replace the void left by Todd Auer, who left this offseason to become the new defensive coordinator of Southern Illinois. Patton previously coached at Fairmont State and was a former player under coach Martin.
“Marcus is an outstanding football coach,” Martin said. “He has a diverse background having spent time coaching at the high school, D-I and D-II levels as well as his playing days at Kansas State. He will bring a great dimension of recruiting, having experience in Florida, California and Texas. We are excited to get him here and get him to work. He will be an outstanding addition to our outstanding staff.”
Patton said he and Martin always talked about possibly coaching together one day, and things just happened to work.
“Coach Auer left the defense in great shape,” Patton said. “There’s still a lot of work to do on my end, as far as watching film and seeing where we can improve, but Coach Martin and Auer has this team heading in the right direction.”
Patton inherits a defense that returns multiple starters, and with the addition of the incoming freshman class, will have plenty of talent to work with.
kparkhu@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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