GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Christian Speller had tossed the football around with friends growing up, but he was a basketball player by trade.

At 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, the guard on the Colorado Mesa men's basketball team has a football build, and he didn't mind taking a hit attacking the rim.

It was impossible for the CMU football coaches not to notice his build and athleticism.

"Just the explosion he has, with his size and length and the way he plays," CMU head coach Miles Kochevar said of seeing Speller on the basketball court. "We watched him in practice all the time and had the opportunity to sit and watch as they were trying to win a championship with Coach (Mike) DeGeorge.

"It started off kind of as a joke at first, and for whatever reason, our paths kept crossing and then I said, 'Hey, seriously, you have some abilities that would transfer onto the football field. It would take a lot, but it might be something worth looking into.' "

It got Speller thinking.

"Coach K, they actually recruited me a little bit, asking me, 'Have you ever played or thought about playing?' I just never really entertained it, but this past year I decided, you know, I might as well just give it a shot," said Speller, who joined the football team last spring after the basketball season.

"I got a text from him and said he was very interested in coming out and I said, let's finish your basketball run, you're on a good one, go win a dang championship and we'll sit down and talk to Coach DeGeorge and see how we do it," Kochevar said.

"We had the (basketball) coaching change and we met with (Athletic Director Joan McDermott) and everybody else and he came out in the spring. Just the progression for the athletic ability, you could see it."

Speller had never donned shoulder pads and a helmet or played a down of organized football.

"I actually have never played real football before. I mean, I've played like with friends growing up, pick-up games, stuff like that, but I never actually played real organized football in my lifetime," Speller said.

He proved to be a quick study in the spring. The Mavericks tried him at a couple of different spots, initially settling on defensive back. JaCari Williams, one of the Mavericks' veterans in the secondary, became an on-field mentor.

"JaCari Williams was able to teach me things when it comes to footwork," Speller said. "Definitely footwork is a big one he helped me with, so shoutout to JaCari. He's definitely a big mentor. He was able to take me under his wing and just open me up to the world of football."

As his twin brother, Christopher, met his new teammates on the basketball court over the summer, Christian was getting to know his new teammates on the football field.

Before he decided to give football a try, Christian talked with his father, Kyle, who played college basketball and is the public address announcer for the Denver Nuggets, a nice side gig to his vocation as a minister.

"My dad, in college, he played basketball and he actually had a chance to play football but he didn't see that through," Christian, also known as "Dior" — more on that later. "He was telling me, 'You know, might as well. If you have an opportunity, you might as well just take it. You never know what that could lead to and how well you may do.' … This past year I decided, you know, might as well just give it a shot."

Taking that shot wasn't easy, however.

"It definitely was a scary decision. I mean, just going from one sport that I played my entire life to one that was completely new, there definitely was a hesitation, a little skeptical and a little nervous, obviously, but I felt like I was overall ready for it," Speller said. "My teammates and my friends and family around me, they all felt like it was a pretty good decision. And they all felt like they can see me playing this game and being able to succeed at it and not just play."

At first, he felt like a basketball player who was on the football team. Now, he feels like a football player, especially after one practice when he used his basketball instincts, leaping to knock down a pass like he was blocking a shot.

The biggest question the football coaches had wasn't if Speller could physically make the switch. It was where to play him.

"We were trying to find the right spot where can we move him and actually utilize him," Kochevar said. "It started at receiver, then corner and then … we moved him to outside 'backer and eliminated some of the thinking stuff and let let him go play."

That process, Kochevar said, taught the coaches something, too.

"It's kind of an eye-opener for you as a coaching staff," he said. "We can't make it so complicated that we hamper a guy's ability. That was kind of the test for us, how can we utilize an athlete like that."

Although Speller didn't shy away from contact in basketball, he quickly learned that football contact was a whole new ballgame.

"Overall, the contact is definitely a big change," he said. "I noticed after the first week of spring, I was like, dang, I'm kind of sore. It took about a week to get used to."

He's played in six of the Mavericks' seven games leading into Saturday's rivalry game against Fort Lewis in Durango, at first mainly on special teams and then rotating in on defense, especially in nickel formations.

His best game came in the Mavs' biggest win of the season, Oct. 5 against Colorado School of Mines, which was ranked No. 4 in the nation at the time. Speller made one solo tackle, was in on another, shared one tackle for lost yardage and teamed up on a sack.

As a testament to his improvement, he was on the field with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.

"It's just the competitor he is," Kochevar said. "That's what we saw in basketball practice and some of the action we were able to see him in, he just competes at a high level and has that football mentality. We get to that game against Mines and we were in a nickel package and there were some situations that suited him well."

With 42 seconds remaining and the Mavs clinging to a 14-13 lead, Kade Street got to Mines quarterback Evan Foster for a strip-sack. There was Speller, pouncing on the loose ball to seal the victory.

"That definitely was a game that like, solidified the feelings," Speller said. "There was still a little bit of, I wouldn't say doubt, but just a little bit of skepticism, just being a little hesitant. But that game, I would say for sure, I was like, 'OK, I'm a football player.' "

And that built-for-football basketball body has become a football body through the Mavericks' strength and conditioning program.

"When I see people, they say, dang, you know, you've gotten a little bigger," he said with a grin. "And I just say, 'I'm a football guy, yeah.' "

He had his brother's blessing, and the basketball team makes plenty of noise at football games when Speller runs onto the field.

He still loves basketball and will be there this winter to support his brother and the Mavs — and might just take a turn at following in his father's footsteps behind the mic.

Blessed with a deep bass voice like his father, Christian used that voice on a podcast last summer as part of an internship.

"I was able to do some voice-over work for them as well," the business major said. "I felt like it was a pretty cool experience that I could see myself doing, you know, following a career into that path.

"I mean, I have the voice for it. Might as well put it to use."

He and his brother have been fortunate to hang with their dad at Nuggets games, including Denver's NBA championship run. Now that he's not playing basketball, Christian might get over for a few Nuggets games this season.

"Man, definitely some cool memories. I would say the coolest one so far was when the Nuggets, they had just won their their first ring," Speller said. "We got to go in the locker room, celebrate with the team, everything, take pictures with the trophy and all that. It was a crazy experience, something that was priceless. I wouldn't trade that one for the world."

So, about that nickname...

It was given to him by a buddy in high school.

"He was a photographer and he made this edit of me one time, in the background there was — there's a Kanye West song — and he (edited in) 'Christian Dior.' And then he made another edit of myself when I played for the Rangeview Raiders. On our jersey, it said 'Raiders,' but he switched that out and said 'Dior.' From then on it just took off and everyone started calling me Dior."

And yes, he said, Dior followed him onto the football field.

That's OK, because he's a nickname guy. His brother is known as 'Pher (short for Christopher), and as he's gotten to know his football teammates, Christian is coming up with nicknames for them, too.

Speller spent his freshman year playing basketball at MSU Denver, then transferred to Colorado Mesa to play with his brother, who had a standout first season as the RMAC Freshman of the Year. The twins had led Rangeview to a state title in 2019 and were poised for a repeat, entering the Final Four undefeated in 2020 before the Covid 19 pandemic canceled the playoffs and cost them another title.

Christian redshirted in 2021-22 after transferring, then played two years for the Mavs as a reserve guard. With the Covid bonus year of eligibility, he's a redshirt junior, so he has one more season to play.

"That's the plan," he said of sticking with football. "I would definitely be open to playing another year of football and we'll see where that takes me."

He's a rare athlete who, at age 22, switched sports to one in which he had absolutely no background, and has succeeded.

"It's definitely a blessing, it's a huge opportunity," Speller said. "It's rare for people to play college sports in general, but to be able to play two, yeah, that's definitely a blessing. And I don't take that for granted at all."