Each week during fall camp, we'll take a look at how the various position groups are taking shape for the CMU football team. First up: The offensive and defensive lines. Check back on Thursday, Aug. 8, to read about the big men in the trenches.
GRAND JUNCTION — Magnetized nameplates fill a large whiteboard on one wall of Miles Kochevar's office at the Maverick Center.
Broken down by position, it will become an ever-changing depth chart as the Colorado Mesa football team works through fall camp. The Mavericks check in Saturday, with their weekend filled with physicals, equipment check-out and meetings.
They'll be on the field before the sun comes up Monday for conditioning, with the first practice later that morning.
How those nameplates shift is up to the players, with Kochevar and his staff eager to see how the competition for playing time shakes out.
"Especially with a young team, these guys come back and they look different every time we get a break and we come back," Kochevar said. "To be around them and see that growth that they're going through … you can't be scared to shake it up and see what guys do when they're thrown into the fire a little bit."
The team the Mavericks put on the field this season will be dotted with familiar names, but, Kochevar said, after a successful offseason in the weight room, those players are bigger, faster, stronger, and just as important, more experienced. Now in his third season, Kochevar believes CMU is primed to compete for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title — the Mavericks are picked to finish fourth in a preseason poll of conference coaches.
The three teams picked ahead of CMU in the poll are the three teams that convincingly beat the Mavericks last season, Colorado School of Mines, Western Colorado and CSU Pueblo. Their other conference loss came on a last-second, 50-yard field goal by Black Hills State.
"The time is now. These guys, I told them the other day, they have to to take it to them, nobody is going to give it to them," Kochevar said. "That's our job (as coaches) as we meet and prepare for fall camp, we've got to teach these guys to go out and have the confidence to win."
The buy-in from the players is there, with more than 100 spending most of the summer in Grand Junction, working out on their own.
"Championships are made in the offseason, working together and developing chemistry and working together when coaches aren't around," Kochevar said. NCAA rules allow only limited interaction between coaches and players in the summer. "It's been awesome. All July there's been 100-plus guys. That's going to go a long way. Now you're on the verge. We were really happy about the spring and what we were able to get out of it as far as an identity of who we're becoming."
A big part of that identity lies with the experienced defense, which returns its top five players in terms of total tackles, led by Liban Shongolo (63) and Kash Bradley (60). Also back is Jason Thome, who had five interceptions and 35 tackles his freshman season and a deep, veteran linebacking corps, including Colin Stuhr, Levi Krebs, La'Markus Reed and Lex Leany.
The coaching staff has changed a bit, especially on the offensive side, with Trevor Wikre taking over as the offensive coordinator after Tom Thenell returned to coach high school on the Front Range. Anthoney Hill has moved into the quarterback coach role after working with tight ends and running backs last season. Darrell Funk, who coached at Mesa from 1993-97 and has had stops at several Division I schools, including Colorado State, Michigan and BYU, has returned to coach the offensive line along with Wikre and is listed as "chief of staff," as is defensive line coach John Arledge.
"We've got a lot of years with those guys and their knowledge and I want them to feel that they can make sure we don't hesitate to call each other out and make sure we're running and operating the way we need to," Kochevar said of the unique job description.
Funk was on CSU's coaching staff when Kochevar played for the Rams, and during Kochevar's time on Joe Ramunno's staff at Mesa, Funk's son, Tyler, played for the Mavs.
Kochevar also hired Neil Linhart, who was the interim head coach at William Jewell (Mo.) in 2023, but moved into an athletic administration role in January. Linhart will coach the wide receivers along with Donnie Holmes, and Kochevar joked that with the experience the offensive staff has, he expects to see the scoreboard light up.
"You should be able to score 50 a game, and and if not I'm going to have to fire all of you," Kochevar said with a laugh about his expectations. "They've got an NFL staff put together over there, they've still got Coach Holmes, and they've got a lot of experience."
Developing the offense into a unit that can not only consistently move the ball, but put it in the end zone, is of utmost importance this season. Wide receiver Trevin Edwards is the most experienced of the skill position players and has developed into the leader of the offense.
"A guy like Trevin is now able to rise to the front and be the leader, an that's exactly who you want to lead that group as you go," Kochevar said. "There's a lot of untapped potential right now. That's what we've talked about as a staff, we have to find the guys that can help us, but I do like the group overall and I think there's a lot of guys that are going to be able to do some special things."
The quarterback battle will be one of the most-watched of camp, with Leslie Richardson and San Diego State transfer Liu Aumavae looking like the top candidates, but, Kochevar said, don't count out Minot State transfer Cole Hansen. Tyler Harms, who signed out of Durango High School, graduated last December, enrolled at CMU and has already been through spring ball, giving him a jump-start on his career, and sophomore Brock Bider will also push to play.
"Obviously we need these quarterbacks to lead. That's just the nature of the game," Kochevar said. "You've got to have a guy back there that can come to do it and the ones we have we're expecting a great first week of competition but there is a point and they've both been told, actually they've all been told, we've got to make some decisions and move forward with our plan."
Kochevar also expects a good battle for playing time at running back, with Myles Newble the most experienced in CMU's system, but a couple of transfers, 220-pound junior Alex Cardona (Butte College) and 215-pound junior Aiden Taylor (Idaho State), along with senior Brandon Belgrave, who came in from Northern Colorado last year, and several young players in the mix.
With less than one month before the season opener (Aug. 29) at Texas A&M-Kingsville, there's plenty of work to be done. With limits placed on practice time because of player safety concerns (two-a-day practices are no longer allowed), it's a matter of working smart, with nearly every minute of the Mavs' day accounted for. After the first two days, the Mavericks, who expect nearly 150 players to report, will be split into two groups, with one group practicing in the morning while the second group is in the weight room. They'll trade places in the evening, which guarantees the incoming freshmen and those coming off their redshirt seasons the reps and coaching they need to progress. In turn, the coaches can better evaluate to see which of the young players are ready to contribute on game day. Scrimmages are planned for Aug. 16 and 22, with times to be determined.
"You're always trying to pinpoint how do we accomplish (everything) in a very short amount of time," Kochevar said. "You have to make sure you're efficient each day and still be able to cover all the different situations that are going to arise, but sometimes we get too caught up in that. We need to figure out how we can improve each day, continuously improve on our fundamentals, do a good job at controlling the controllables."
