The Colorado Mesa football team will open the 2021 campaign on Thursday evening of September 2 against William Jewell at Stocker Stadium. The Mavericks came away with a 2-1 record in three games during the COVID stricken 2020 season. Thursday will be Youth Football and Student Night with a kick for a book scholarship at halftime while the University will announce the winners of the Vaccine Promotion. 
 
OFFENSE
The Mavericks will feature a bevy of new faces on offense including the man doing the signal calling in Brayle Brown. Brown comes over from Oklahoma Baptist where he helped mentor the Great American Conference Offensive Player of the Year and helped guide the Bison to the top marks in the conference in total offense, scoring offense and passing offense.
 
Assuming an added role and helping Brown out with the signal calling will be offensive line coach Mike Barela who is now serving as Co-Offensive Coordinator.
 
QB1
Colorado Mesa will have a new person running the offense this year and will begin the season with redshirt freshman Karst Hunter running the show. Hunter, a transfer from South Dakota State, played in 10 games last season for the Jackrabbits and contributed mostly on special teams.
 
He was a three-time all-State selection at Miller High School in South Dakota where he amassed 3,900 passing yards, 3,300 rushing yards and combined 81 touchdowns during his high school career.
 
Another transfer will backup Hunter in Christian Moore from Central Washington. Moore threw for 2,224 yards and 28 touchdowns for the Wildcats in 2019. He threw five touchdowns in two games for the Wildcats including once against Azusa Pacific.
 
RUNNING GAME
The Mavericks will have a pair of familiar faces and a newcomer as the primary ball carriers to start the season. Returners Isaac Maestas and Jesse Rodriquez will see carries and be on the field at times during week one. Maestas was injured on the first play from scrimmage during the 2020 season while Rodriquez was the primary ball carrier after the injury. The Bennett, Colo. native rushed for 406 yards and three touchdowns during the three games.
 
With all that said, newcomer Avian Thomas will start game one for the Mavericks in the backfield. The Boonville, Mo. product rushed for more than 4,600 yards and 60 touchdowns that led him to all-State honors twice during his high school career.
 
PASS CATCHERS
The Maverick receiving corps has been completely revamped heading into the new season. Colorado Mesa lists three receiver positions on their two-deep depth chart every week and the starter at each spot is brand new to the team in 2021.
 
Enter Dwight Blakey, Elijah Lilly, and Lionel McConnell. Each a Division I transfer looking to win a championship in their final season of eligibility. Blakey comes to Colorado Mesa after two years at Central Arkansas where he was a two-year starter for the Bears while Elijah Lilly comes to the Mavericks after spending four seasons at New Mexico. The speedster was a threat on special teams during his time with the Lobos earning Mountain West Player of the Week honors as a freshman.
 
McConnell is a transfer from Abilene Christian and played significant downs for the Wildcats a season ago. He caught 36 passes for 366 yards on the year including an 11 catch, 101-yard performance against Army last season.
 
KJ Sapp, Isaac Salazar and Zayden Davis will also factor into those spots on the field.
 
Dagan Rienks and Jacob Whitmer will anchor the tight end position and are both big targets in the middle of the field for the Mavericks. Rienks missed most of last season but was an all-RMAC performer in 2019. Whitmer had a breakout year in 2020 recording five catches for 89 yards against Black Hills State.
 
UP FRONT
The big men up front is easily one of the most improved units on the team from a year ago with nearly 25 offensive lineman in camp and plenty of experience among some of the new faces. Four of the five starters along the offensive line return from a year ago in Jack Metcalf, Osvaldo Torres at tackles, captain Justin Cobbley at guard and Caelen Keenan at center.
 
Demetrius Cooley is the newcomer at left guard after coming to Colorado Mesa from Tennessee State.
 
Four of the five listed as the No. 2 guy at their position were not on the roster last season including backup right guard Alex Bruns, a freshman from Parker, Colo.
 
DEFENSE
Back for his second year in command of the defense is Brandon Andersen. Andersen called the shots on the defense during the 2020 season where the Mavericks limited opponents to just over 12 points per game and under 280 yards of total offense.
 
Prior to his time at Colorado Mesa, Andersen served as the linebackers coach at Lindenwood in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. He previously worked with Coach Jackson at Lindenwood and the University of Sioux Falls.
 
212
You may hear or have heard the defense chanting "212" during the game or in practices last season and this season. This refers to the motto of the defense and we will try to give you a brief explanation where that comes from.
 
Water boils at 212 degrees and creates steam. Steam is extremely powerful and can power a locomotive which doesn't stop for anything in its path.
 
THE TRENCHES
A position that continues to get better for the Maverick defense is the line. Three of the four primary guys that will play inside are back from a year ago in Logan Bayus, Pierre Hayes and Brian Rattery. The group combined to limit opponents to just 87.7 yards of rushing per game and had three and a half sacks in the three games.
 
The two ends are not new to the program but will be making their Maverick debuts on Thursday. Torren Calhoun was on the team a year ago but was nursing an injury during the season and didn't make an appearance while Dirion Hutchins has been in the program for two seasons but has yet to make an appearance.
 
TACKLE MACHINES
One of the more improved areas of the defense that came with the new coaching staff is the linebacker group. Two of the three starters from a year ago return including the top two leading tacklers in Bryant Bowen and Remington Green. Bowen, a transfer from Jacksonville, finished last season with a team-high 27 tackles with an interception while Green, a transfer from Liberty, finished second on the team with 24 tackles including five for a loss.
 
Freshman Kaden Stewart will be making his first start of his career at the other linebacker spot on the field. Stewart, a ThunderRidge product, will also be making his collegiate debut in the contest.
 
NO FLY ZONE
The biggest strength of the team is the defensive backfield with numerous options at every position. Damar'ren Mitchell and Davante Loggins are the veterans of the starting group for week one. Mitchell has seven interceptions in 14 games as a Maverick while Loggins has one interception and 18 pass breakups in 14 games at the cornerback position.
 
Newcomer Darrien Young will make his debut opposite Loggins at the other cornerback position while regular starter Deeandra Ervin is out this week, newcomer Creighton Sanders will step in and start alongside Mitchell at the other safety position.
 
D'Angelo Lindsey, Scrappy Norman, Bryce Stevenson, Eugene Bowman and Liban Shongolo should all factor into the game on Thursday as well.
 
SPECIALISTS
The Mavericks will return all their specialists form a year ago with Lucas Ruiz Diaz doing the place kicking, Blake Moore doing the punting, and Brian Morales doing the long snapping.
 
Ruiz Diaz has three years of kicking under his belt now heading into his junior season. He was just 1-for-4 on his attempts last season but his one make was a big one as it came as the game-winner against Chadron State, a 38-yarder in overtime.
 
Moore averaged 42.4 yards per punt a season ago and had two punts go for more than 60 yards. He launched a 62-yarder as his season long and had six punts end up inside-the-20.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH WILLIAM JEWELL
Colorado Mesa and William Jewell will be meeting for the first time in the two program's history. The last time the Mavericks squared off with someone for the first time in program history came on November 19, 2016. The Mavericks traveled to Texas to take on the Texas A&M Commerce Lions and fell 34-23 in the NCAA Playoffs.
 
SCOUTING THE CARDINALS
Like Colorado Mesa, William Jewell played three games last season but those games were played in the spring rather than the fall. The Cardinals went 0-3 in those games, all against GLVC opponents, but were competitive in all of those games. Their closest matchup came against a historically tough Southwest Baptist team where they fell 55-50 in Liberty, Mo.
 
Despite having not played against each other before, head coach Mike McGlinchey isn't unfamiliar with Colorado Mesa and Stocker Stadium. McGlinchey spent four seasons at Colorado School of Mines as the co-Defensive Coordinator and coached the defensive lineman.
 
The Cardinals are likely to put the ball in the air more than using a ground attack as quarterback Anthony Pritzel averaged over 40 attempts per game during the spring season. He threw for 876 yards and six touchdowns in those games. He has a pair of primary targets that most of those attempts go to in Jalik Jaggwe and Grant Latina. Latina led the Cardinals in receptions with Jaggwe leading in yards while both finished the spring with two touchdowns.

The defense will be led by Mario Magana and Kian Betancourt. Magana led William Jewell in tackles last spring with 22 tackles and is listed as the No. 2 safety on the two-deep this week. Betancourt will get the start at outside linebacker and led the team with two sacks last season.
 
THE COACH
Head coach Tremaine Jackson enters his second season at the helm of the Maverick football team. He guided Colorado Mesa to a 2-1 mark during the COVID shortened 2020 season.
 
He was hired in December 2019 just prior to the COVID pandemic and thus has had to wait almost 19 months to compete in his first game that could go towards a championship.
 
Coach Jackson has made several stops along his coaching path that ranges from all levels. Most recently he made stops at Texas State as the defensive line coach and at Abilene Christian as the defensive coordinator.
 
RMAC PRESEASON POLL
Colorado Mesa was picked to finish in fourth place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as voted on by the coaches. The Mavericks finished last season's abbreviated schedule with a 2-1 mark with wins over both Chadron State and Black Hills State. Their lone setback came to South Dakota Mines at home in what turned out to be the final game of the season.
 
Colorado School of Mines was selected to win the conference with seven first place votes and 76 points. Mines finished the 2019 season with a 12-1 mark and a perfect 10-0 mark in the RMAC.
 
CSU Pueblo was second in the poll followed by Chadron State to round out the top four.
 
ON THE HORIZON
The Mavericks will be off for a week with an odd week two bye. They will return to action on the road when they face the New Mexico Highlands Cowboys on September 18 in Las Vegas, N.M. for the first road contest of the season.
 
Colorado Mesa will return home for a matchup with Chadron State on September 25 for Faculty and Staff Day at Stocker Stadium.