The message is out for the Fort Lewis College football team: Win one for the seniors; win one for Jordan Doyle.
Doyle, the team’s senior starting quarterback, was lost for the season last week when he suffered a severely broken elbow in a win at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison.
Enter junior transfer Allen “AJ” Thigpen behind center. Last week, Thigpen rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown and passed for another 137 yards and a touchdown in relief.
Fort Lewis head coach John L. Smith said Thigpen performed well in practice this week working with the starters in advance of the annual rivalry game against Adams State scheduled for noon Saturday at Ray Dennison Memorial Field.
“It’s a rallying cry for the whole team to play as hard as they can for all the seniors and Doyle,” Smith said Friday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “The underclassmen, someday they will be in that seat playing their last home rivalry game, and we expect everyone to give everything they have.”
Saturday’s game is the 49th installment of the Musket Game. On the line is a Springfield .45-70 military issue rifle that has been used as a traveling trophy between Adams State and Fort Lewis since it was donated in 1966 by Maholn “Butch” White. Seniors from the winning team fire the rifle after the game.
Smith not only wants a chance for this year’s seniors to fire the musket, he also has an empty place in the trophy case to fill.
“We had a trophy case built to hold the musket, and it’s been empty,” Smith said. “Doggone, it’s our responsibility to fill that case. That’s what rival games are all about, and it’s why college football is so fun and exciting. Regardless of either team’s record, you’re playing for something big that should mean a lot to ya.”
The FLC Skyhawks have fared better in 2015 after losing the musket to Adams State last year. FLC is 5-4 overall and 4-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, putting the Skyhawks in fourth place behind three-nationally ranked opponents, all of which beat FLC this year.
Adams State is 3-6 and 3-4 in the RMAC but has won two of its last three after a 1-5 start.
“They’re gonna throw the ball around. Their quarterback (Johnny Feauto) has been throwing it 60 percent or better the last three games, and I know they’ll be looking for those short completions,” Smith said. “We have to do a great job getting pressure on him.”
Pressuring the quarterback hasn’t been a problem so far this season for the Skyhawks, as they have 16 sacks this season. OJ Thompson leads the team with 5½ sacks.
But FLC will have to keep Thigpen upright with only redshirt freshman Bo Coleman behind him on the depth chart. Thigpen also handles much of the team’s punting duties and has seen the field in a variety of packages offensively this season.
“He has a lot more plays on his shoulders than the past, but he’s done pretty darn good,” Smith said. “We have to find the best offense to match his talents. We don’t want to create indecision. We have to keep it in our family and maybe resurrect some things we worked on earlier this season that fit this guy better.”
Adams State’s defense is susceptible to giving up a lot of points. They’ve allowed an average of 39.2 points while only scoring 21.8 per game this season.
Adams State leads the Musket Game series 34-14-1 and is 37-15-1 all time against the Skyhawks. FLC will try to chip into those marks Saturday.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
