FIRST AND TEN
Colorado Mesa will head out on the road for a short road trip south to Durango, Colo. for a matchup with the Fort Lewis Skyhawks at Ray Dennison Memorial Field.

The Skyhawks have been playing a much more competitive brand of football this season and snapped a 40-game losing streak earlier this season giving head coach Johnny Cox his first win as Fort Lewis head coach.

The Mavericks are coming off a 21-10 win over New Mexico Highlands in their homecoming game at Stocker Stadium. The Mavericks extended their win streak to four games which is the first four-game winning streak since 2017.

This weekend will be Colorado Mesa's last regular season, in-state trip of the year. The only remaining road trip the Mavericks have is to Rapid City for a matchup with South Dakota Mines.

ROUNDUP
Colorado Mesa extended their winning streak to four games with a 21-10 homecoming win over New Mexico Highlands. It's the Mavericks first four game winning streak since 2017 and they did it by running their winning streak to 11 games in a row against the Cowboys. 

Colorado Mesa rushed for over 300 yards for the second straight game as they churned up 313 yards in the win on Saturday. Aiden Taylor rushed for a career-high 216 yards on 25 carries (8.6 ypc) and a touchdown. Brandon Belgrave finished with 93 yards on 15 carries (6.2 ypc) to round out the largest chunk of rushing yards.

The Maverick once again deployed their defense that continues to suffocate it's opponents. The Cowboys gained just 205 yards of total offense and limited the No. 1 rushing offense in the conference to just 114 yards on the ground. New Mexico Highlands entered the game rushing for over 219 yards and ranked No. 10 in rushing offense nationally.

The return game continues to be one of the best in the conference. The Mavericks averaged 20 yards per kick return and over 18 yards per punt return in the win over New Mexico Highlands.

THE MATCHUP
The Mavericks and Skyhawks are matching up for the 50th time in the two program's history. Colorado Mesa holds a 37-11-1 all-time mark over the Skyhawks including a 19-5-1 mark in Durango. All but two of the matchups occurred as conference games and the Mavericks have won 15 of the past 16 which began in 2007. Fort Lewis won three consecutive matchups from 2004-06. 

After Fort Lewis dominated the matchup in the first two meetings of the series by a combined score of 87-22, the Mavericks got a tie in 1977 at 14-14 and the series shifted momentum after that. Colorado Mesa went on to win 14 of the 15 matchups after the tie and have owned the series since. 

The Mavericks won last season's matchup with Fort Lewis 62-14 at Dennison Memorial Field. David O'Connell finished with three catches for 96 yards and a score. They rushed for 273 yards and six touchdowns.

Last Five Matchups with Ft. Lewis
Oct. 14, 2023: W, 62-14 in Durango
Oct. 15, 2022: W, 70-10 in Grand Jct.
Oct. 16, 2021: W, 55-3 in Durango
Oct. 12, 2019: W, 17-10 in Grand Jct.
Oct. 6, 2018: W, 31-24 in Durango

KNOW YOUR FOE
Fort Lewis has struggled over the last five seasons but they now have a reason to be optimistic. They snapped their 40-game losing streak earlier this season with a 17-12 win over Arizona Christian back in September. While the wins have been hard to come by following the win, the margin of victories in all of their games have been more respectable than in year's past. 

The Skyhawks are led by third year coach Johnny Cox and is the 16th head coach in program history. Cox, a two-time All-American at Fort Lewis in 1992 and 1993, spent time previously at UNC Pembroke, North Carolina A&T, and North Dakota State along with stops in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jacksonville Jaguars as a quality control coach.

Stone Walker was the Skyhawks best player before an injury shut him down a couple weeks ago. He is not on the current two deep and not expected to play. He is still the Skyhawks leading rusher at 271 yards and five touchdowns. On defense, Jacob Penney is the RMAC leader in tackles with 76 which includes an 18 tackle effort against Black Hills State earlier this season.

IN THE TRENCH
The Maverick defensive front is on the extreme side of young but has been outstanding for the defensive unit which is one of the best in the country. Colorado Mesa routinely rotates a redshirt junior, a sophomore, a redshirt freshman and three true freshman along its defensive front.

True freshman Hunter Hamilton and Omarius Dimry-Lockhart have started a majority of the season alongside sophomore Kade Street and the group is starting to come into their own. Lockhart has two sacks on the season while Hamilton is climbing the leaderboard with four sacks.

Brody Robinson, David Ives and Ryan Randall spell that group and havent missed a beat while in the action. Most forget, the Mavericks started another true freshman at tack in Troy Mataia before injury ended his season against Kingsville.

THUNDER & LIGHTNING
The Colorado Mesa ground attack has had a nice contrast in style with a Thunder and Lightning approach. Aiden Taylor provides the Thunder with his hard yards and the ability to carry defenders as seen in the win over Highlands while Brandon Belgrave provides the Lightning with breakaway speed and quick, shifty movements. 

Taylor had the big 200-plus yard game against Highlands which was the first 200-yard game since David Tann's 200-yard game against then Dixie State in October of 2017 while Belgrave had the monster game against Adams State where he went for 163 yards in the win. Combined the duo has over 900 yards and six touchdowns.

Junior Myles Newble has been a nice compliment to the aforementioned duo. Newble has 32 carries for 90 yards on the season. He had a season-high 32 yards in the win over Adams State.

Let us not forget about some of the other contributors to the Maverick rushing attack in Noah Greer and Trevin Edwards who run a lot of the Jet Sweeps. The duo has rushed for 125 yards and a touchdown.

THE HOG MOLLIES
The Colorado Mesa offensive line has been a work in progress for the last two years and it seems they are growing up right in front of our eyes over the last four weeks. The Mavericks have rushed for 245.8 yards per game and seven touchdowns as opposed to the first three weeks where the team rushed for 63.7 yards per game. 

In terms of pass protection, in the last four games the Mavericks have allowed five sacks including zero sacks in the games against Adams State and New Mexico Highlands. In the first three games of the season, opponents were averaging two sacks per game.

The Mavericks seem to have settled into a starting line of Cooper Mumford, Zach Dibella, Gus Campbell, Corbin Throgmorton, and Calem Grimble as they have started the last three games.

MAVS ON THE TUBE
Colorado Mesa and KREX/KGJT TV are continuing their partnership by allowing patrons to view all RMAC and home games this year through the RMAC Network. Viewers will be able to access the video broadcasts through CMUMavericks.com/TV along with WesternSlopeNow.com.

While those games will be broadcast on TV, fans may still also watch the game on the RMAC Network by visiting CMUMavericks.com/TV

RMAC PRESEASON POLL
Colorado Mesa was picked to finish fourth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this season after finishing with a 6-5 record a season ago. The Mavericks finished in a tie for fourth place with Black Hills State last season with a record of 5-4. CMU started the conference season with a 1-3 record but closed out the season by winning four of their final five games that included a season finale win over New Mexico Highlands. 

2023 National Runner-up Colorado School of Mines was the unanimous selection to win the RMAC again as they garnered seven first-place votes. They were followed by Western Colorado, who qualified for the 2023 NCAA Playoffs, and CSU Puebl0 to round out the top three teams.

COACHING STAFF QUICKIES
Offensive line coach and Offensive Coordinator Trevor Wikre is back where his college football career took place in Grand Junction. Wikre played both defensive and offensive line and holds a place in college football lore after an incident during his playing days. Wikre damaged his pinkie finger at the end of practice during his senior year and had to get it surgically repaired. His options were to get it repaired right and lose his final season of football or amputate and miss one game and play the remaining four. He chose the latter and his story reached People Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and ESPN.

Assistant Defensive Line Coach Austin Berk is a former Colorado State Ram player who prepped at Grand Junction High School. His father, Mike Berk, was an All-American offensive lineman for the Mavericks in 1985.

Colorado Mesa added Darrell Funk to the coaching staff during the offseason and he is slated to assist Trevor WIkre with coaching the offensive line. Funk will be making his second appearance on the Maverick sidelines as he coached then Mesa State in the early to mid-90s. Funk has made stops at Colorado State, Ball State, San Diego State, Michigan, Akron, Purdue, Indiana State, Texas-San Antonio, and most recently at BYU.

SIGHTS ON THE SCHEDULE
This will be the second straight season the Mavericks will play a full 11-game schedule and are one of six schools taking advantage of the new zero week in Division II college football. After their season-opening game, Colorado Mesa will have a 'bye' week next week before their home opener with Central Washington. 

The Mavericks will play in five games that feature teams ranked or receiving votes in the preseason AFCA poll and the two Super Region IV finalists from a season ago. They will play three of those five teams at home beginning with the home opener on September 14 against No. 8 Central Washington. Texas A&M-Kingsville (RV), CSU Pueblo (RV), Colorado School of Mines (5), and Western Colorado (15) are all on this season's schedule. 

This season's homecoming game is set for Saturday October 19 as Colorado Mesa will play host to New Mexico Highlands at 1pm from Stocker Stadium. The Mavericks will look to make it 11 in a row against the Cowboys.

OUT ON THE RANGE
The NCAA membership passed a proposal to permit football games to be played a week prior to the Thursday precedeing September 6. The change allows schools the flexibility to schedule and play 11 contests over 12 weeks. It provides the ability to schedule a bye week during the season, benefitting student-athlete health and safety.

New this season all across college football, tablets will be allowed on the sideline to help with game planning and scheme adjustments. In the RMAC, coaching staffs are allowed five tablets to be used with two in the coaching box and three on the sidelines. 

ON THE HORIZON
The Mavericks will return home the following week for a showdown with Black Hills State at Stocker Stadium. The Yellow Jackets take on Chadron State in Spearfish this weekend but are coming off a stretch where they faced No. 8 Western Colorado and No. 14 CSU Pueblo in back-to-back weeks.

Colorado Mesa will head back out on the road for a long road trip to Rapid City, S.D. for a matchup with the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers. South Dakota Mines is currently 3-5 on the season.