GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Finish.
If the Colorado Mesa football team expects to challenge for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title this fall, it's on the offense to finish what it starts. Finishing to the Mavericks not only means finishing drives with touchdowns, but finishing the season with victories when the playoffs are within reach.
"Our goal offensively is to shorten the game. We've got to keep our defense fresh, so we've got to shorten the game," said Trevor Wikre, the Mavs' offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator along with tight ends coach Neil Linhart.
"We should have done that last year, we just didn't finish.That's been our big thing. We're talking to our guys about it daily, just finishing. Not settling with a field goal, finishing in the end zone, making sure when we get on the field we take advantage of it and truly get up on people, keep the defense off, keep them fresh, but get up and stay up. We've got to keep putting pressure on."
The Mavericks converted 37.7 percent of third downs, which was fourth in the conference, but far behind Colorado School of Mines' 52.2 percent conversion rate last season. CMU's defense, conversely, was No. 2 in the RMAC in third down conversions, allowing teams to convert only 29.3 percent.
Just as the defensive line will be key this season, the men in the trenches are the focal point on offense. Four of five starters return from last season — center Max Kibbee, who missed the final seven games with injury; left tackle Cooper Mumford and right tackle Calem Grimble, both of whom started every game, and left guard Zach Dibella.
Here's the really good news: There's not a senior in the OL room.
"I was 18 going against 24-year-olds. It's a little crazy," Grimble recalled about his freshman season. He's actually listed as five pounds lighter (295) and one inch taller (6-foot-5) than his first year, but has developed plenty of strength as his body has matured. "Now I've grown into my body. Just a ton of confidence thinking that you're not going to get pushed around any more. You've got the size and ability to to out there and do it."
Mumford (6-4, 275) is another junior lineman who was thrown into the fire his first year in college. He's that guy — the offensive linemen who drew national attention when, as a freshman, he scooped up a fumble and threw a touchdown pass to help the Mavericks beat FCS University of San Diego in 2023.
"I think everybody on our line right now, we're all juniors, we're all the same class, so we've definitely grown a lot together," Mumford said. "This is our third fall camp now, spending that time together, growing together, and I think it's really helped us, like, become more of a unit, more of like a family than a team.
"I'm very proud of people saying that about us (being the key to the offense), and I think we're definitely capable of holding them to their word. We're all very close with each other up front, but we're also not afraid to hold each other accountable, like, if I'm messing up, Grimble will get in my ear and tell me messing up and I'll get fixed."
It's no secret that the Mavericks are going to be a run-first football team. The coaching staff has worked to build the offensive line's strength and depth to be able to control the clock and wear down opposing defenses.
"We've gotta follow what Coach K (head coach Miles Kochevar) is," Wikre said. "We're just a blue-collar staff, a blue-collar team. We've got to go beat 'em up. That's got to be our mind-set, got to be who we are."
CMU returns its 1-2 running back punch of seniors Aiden Taylor and Brandon Belgrave, who rushed for 669 and 668 yards, respectively, last season. Taylor scored six TDs, Belgrave four. A third senior, Miles Newble, ran for 116 yards and one TD last fall.
The backs have noticed the maturation of the offensive line and are relying on that experienced group to open holes.
"The big boys are out there blocking, and all we have to do is run by them," Belgrave said with a grin. "It's good to have the whole offensive line (returning), I kind of know how they like to play and I feel it's very important to have them out there doing the work."
Taylor is a tough run-between-the-tackles back and Belgrave has that burst of speed once he slips through the line.
"We blend in the system pretty good," Belgrave said. "He's more of a, you know, heavy back. He's strong. He'll get you the short yards. I'm more of a fast back, I'm trying to get those explosive plays every time I can."
That's not to say Taylor (5-11, 220) can't break off big chunks of yardage or Belgrave, who has grown from a 150-pound freshman at Northern Colorado to a 205-pound senior at CMU, can't convert a third-and-short, and it's not to say that the Mavericks won't throw the ball, even though the receiver corps is relatively untested.
"Watching them grow up right now, Trek's (Keyworth) doing very well right now," Wikre said of the Mavs' top returning wide receiver. Keyworth, a 6-3, 185-pound redshirt sophomore out of Fossil Ridge High School, had 10 catches for 165 yards and two touchdowns last season. "He had a great spring and Noah (Greer, a 6-0, 190, redshirt sophomore out of Cherokee Trail who had 6 catches for 24 yards) is coming along. We've got a coupe of additions, so we'll see how we get them to a spot where we need them.
"It might mean putting them inside, it might be having one of them coming out of the backfield, whatever it is to create that one-on-one, especially with our guys who can run, put them in the best situation."
The first several days of fall camp are spent installing the schemes, stressing the fundamentals. Once they got in full pads and scrimmaged, the evaluation process began as the Mavericks inch closer to the season opener, a unique Thursday afternoon game, kicking off at 1 p.m. on Aug. 28 at Central Washington.
That game is part of the Lone Star Conference's streaming network subscription package on FloCollege. The remainder of the regular season will be on the RMAC Network, which is now a subscription service. Proceeds from subscriptions will be distributed to the RMAC schools to enhance their online streaming programming (please select Colorado Mesa when subscribing). A monthly or yearly subscription gives viewers access to all RMAC-produced events.
"We're finally through our install, and now we get to start having some fun," Wikre said. "It'll be good to get to mess around with those puzzle pieces and seeing what we can do with them."
There's another piece to the puzzle — quarterback.
Liu Aumavae, a 6-3, 205-pound redshirt junior who started eight games and played in all 11 last season, and Cole Hansen, a 6-4, 220-pound redshirt junior who played in two games last season after transferring from Minot State, are the top candidates to trigger the offense.
Aumavae threw for 1,431 yards and 12 touchdowns and had 52 rushing yards — sacks are figured in as rushing yards in college, so he netted minus-64 yards rushing. Hansen had two rushes for 21 yards and one touchdown but did not attempt a pass in his limited time last fall.
It's been a good competition since last spring, Wikre said.
"Obviously we'd love to have one of them step up and just take it, take the bull by the horns and get it done, show that piece," he said. "Both of them are very capable to operate in the offense and do what we need them to do, but like we do with all of them, we challenge the line every day to be better and finish the play. Same thing we're doing with all of them and the QBs, we're putting that heat on them pretty hard right now. Who's going to be the top three, and then week to week, who's the guy?"
No matter which quarterback gets the call, it's up to the line to protect him in the passing game, open holes in the running game and keep the Mavericks moving down the field.
"I mean, when I make a good block and I look up and I see the running back running down field, that makes me feel pretty proud," Mumford said. "I love seeing Belgrave or Aiden, whoever's back there, I love seeing them run down and scoring the touchdown, then come back and celebrate with us."
To do that, the linemen knew they had to continue to get stronger in the offseason.
"We were one game away from the playoffs, maybe two, and Coach 'Scum (Dan Linsacum, the football team's strength coach) really took that on his shoulders. We've got to finish the season strong," Grimble said. "We all went in there like, hey, this is where we want to be, we're one step away. We just need to take that leap.
"The game's won up front, everybody knows that. It puts a lot on us to say we've got to go out there and we're doing to do it, but I think we have the ability now. We all look the same size, we're walking out there as a unit. We've played together, this will be our third year now, same offensive line, so I think we can do it.
"If you can run the ball, you can do whatever you want, yeah?"
