The Colorado Mesa Football Team will host the Chadron State Eagles on Saturday at Stocker Stadium in the second home game of the year. Saturday will also be Faculty and Staff Day at the game with Colorado Mesa Faculty and Staff selected to be honorary captains and recognized throughout the game.
 
MOVING UP
For the first time this season, Colorado Mesa was mentioned in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) National Rankings. The Mavericks picked up a vote in the rankings and are now in the list of teams receiving votes for the National Poll.
 
Colorado School of Mines moved up to No. 5 in the AFCA poll with Western Colorado and CSU Pueblo joining the Mavericks in teams receiving votes.
 
TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING
This weekend's game with Chadron State takes Coach Jackson back to last season when he led the Mavericks onto the field for the first time. He guided the Mavericks to a 10-7 overtime thriller against the Eagles at Stocker Stadium with Lucas Ruiz Diaz hitting the 38-yard game winning field goal.
 
That game was the first for the Mavericks during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.
 
THE START OF A COACHING CAREER
Head coach Tremaine Jackson has already accomplished something that hasn't been done since 1950. Coach Jackson's 4-1 start to his coaching career at Colorado Mesa hasn't been accomplished since Bus Bergman started his football coaching career 4-1 in 1950. Bergman's next game was a 7-7 tie with Fort Lewis Agriculture School.
 
Only three other Colorado Mesa football coaches started their career 4-1 or better; John Whalley in 1929, Elmer Schwalm in 1931 and Ralph Prator in 1935. Prator had the best start to his career going 12-1 before a tie with Westminster Junior College 6-6 in 1937.
 
GOING BACK-TO-BACK
Redshirt freshman quarterback Karst Hunter is making a big-time name for himself after just two games in a Maverick uniform. Hunter garnered RMAC Offensive Player of the Week for the second straight week the Mavericks have played after his performance against New Mexico Highlands. Hunter was 18-for-25 passing for 314 yards and three touchdowns while adding 53 yards on the ground and two more scores.
 
It is believed to be the first time a Colorado Mesa quarterback picked up back-to-back RMAC Offensive Player of the Week awards and he was the first quarterback since 2016 to throw for 300 yards in back-to-back games. Sean Rubalcaba had back-to-back 300 yard passing games to open the 2016 season. He had 326 yards against Western State and 396 yards against this week's opponent Chadron State.
 
Hunter also added National Football Foundation Colorado Chapter Player of the Week this past week. Hunter edged out Colorado's Nate Landman who finished with 19 tackles in the Buffalos loss to Minnesota last Saturday.
 
TOTING THE ROCK
Redshirt freshman Avian Thomas led the Maverick rushing attack against the Cowboys with 130 yards on 11 carries. A large chunk of that came on a 72-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and helped Thomas to his first 100-yard rushing day of his collegiate career.
 
In all, six players carried the ball for the Mavericks that churned up 272 yards rushing against the Cowboys. Morian Walker added 74 yards on eight carries and Isaac Maestas got 27 yards on three carries with a score.
 
Colorado Mesa is averaging over 250 yards on the ground and have had eight different ball carriers in the two games.
 
ALL VERTICALS
The Maverick receivers have shown their ability to get up the field in a hurry in the first two games of the season. For the second straight game, they have had a catch-and-run of over 60-yards for a touchdown. This week it was Lionell McConnell who scored on a 70-yard touchdown catch that helped him finish with five catches on seven targets for 165 yards.
 
Week one, Karst Hunter found 12 different receivers in the win over William Jewell while this week he found eight with the leading receiver from game one not catching a pass.
 
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.
 
ALL THREE LEVELS
Despite the slow start to the game against New Mexico Highlands, the Maverick defense made the halftime adjustments and received production out of all three levels of the defense.
 
The defensive line accounted for 17 tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. Torren Calhoun and Zach Elefante accounted for a sack while newcomer Michael Gayden had two tackles for a loss and was a forced to be reckoned with up front in his debut.
 
Remington Green gets a lot of the buzz for the linebackers but he got a lot of help from Brooklyn Hardiman against Highlands. The De La Salle High School product finished with a game-high nine tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry in the win.
 
As a linebacker group should, they had the top four tacklers against the Cowboys.
 
The defensive backs had their hands full but buckled down in the second half. Bryce Stevenson had two pass break-ups while Devante Loggins had one. Creighton Sanders and Damar'ren Mitchell each had five tackles and the group had their first interception of the season.
 
PICK
COVID redshirt freshman Liban Shongolo came away with the first interception of the season for the Mavericks. Late in the fourth quarter with the Cowboys looking for a comeback winning drive, Shongolo intercepted a Ramon Atkins pass on the Mavericks side of the 50-yardline and returned it deep into Cowboy territory. The pick was the first of his career and setup the game clinching touchdown run by Isaac Maestas.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH CHADRON STATE
Colorado Mesa and Chadron State have an interesting history as the Eagles hold a 20-10 all-time edge in the series of the two schools. Chadron State has been a long-standing power in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and owned the Mavericks through nearly all the 2000s and most of the 2010s, winning 11 in a row from 2004 to 2014.
 
Since that streak, the Mavericks have won five of the last six meetings with the lone setback coming in 2018, a 38-34 setback at home.
 
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
The Eagles opened the year with two losses before picking up a 31-20 win at home over South Dakota Mines last Saturday. They dropped a 23-10 road game to Western Colorado to open the season before a narrow 28-24 loss to No. 22 Angelo State in their home opener in week two.
 
Dalton Holst continues to be the cog that makes Chadron State go. Holst is 50-for-90 with 627 yards this season and had his best performance last weekend against the Hardrockers. He was 22-for-29 for 327 yards and two touchdowns with Cole Thurness being on the other end of seven of those passes. Thurness is the leading receiver with 16 catches for 119 yards.
 
Jeremiaj Makahununiu leads Chadron State in tackles with 32 including two sacks and a blocked kick. His best game this year came in the narrow loss to Angelo State where he had 16 tackles and a blocked kick.
 
Eagle kicker Gunnar Jones is the back-to-back recipient of the RMAC Special Teams Player of the Week honor after he connected on a 45-yard field goal and was a perfect 3-for-3 on his PAT chances in the win over South Dakota Mines.
 
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 head back out on the road next weekend to take on the CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves at the ThunderBowl in Pueblo. The ThunderWolves have started out the season 1-2 with losses to traditional powers Texas A&M-Commerce and Grand Valley State but rebounded in the RMAC opener with a 19-16 win over Black Hills State last weekend.