Six offensive touchdowns in three-plus games isn’t the kind of production offensive-minded head coach Brandon Crosby envisioned going into 2019. Especially with two of those coming on drives of 25 yards or less thanks to a defense that has three touchdowns of its own. The first-year head coach may be frustrated, but he is far from defeated.
Despite the offensive struggles, the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks will go into a homecoming rivalry showdown at noon Saturday at Ray Dennison Memorial Field against Adams State University (3-1) with a 2-2 record.
Crosby admitted the team was rightfully frustrated to get back to Durango this week with a 13-7 loss after a nearly 1,500-mile round trip to Spearfish, South Dakota. Two missed field goals and squandered red-zone opportunities saw the Skyhawks come up with points only once despite dominant field position and 41 minutes of possession compared to only 19 for the winning Yellow Jackets.
“I think it was one of the hardest losses I have ever experienced,” Crosby said. “It’s hard to come out of a football game with a loss when you completely dominate. I think the percentages on that kind of stuff are extremely low. Our kids understand it. We know we should have won. There’s a lot of things we’re trying to mentally and emotionally overcome throughout the week.”
The Skyhawks have turned in spirited efforts every week. The two wins are already one more than all of last season, and the two losses have come by a combined 13 points. For the first time since John L. Smith resigned as head coach after a 7-4 season in 2015, there’s something to look forward to when it comes to FLC football. That’s rarely been said with only 11 winning seasons in program history dating back to 1964.
Crosby’s positive attitude has been the most refreshing force surrounding the team. He’s been dealt a tough hand this season. A roster that looked to be loaded with depth has suddenly become depleted, as players believed to be eligible going into August were quickly deemed academically ineligible by the compliance department. That had FLC playing without its top two running backs entering the season along with some key linemen.
On top of that, quarterback Jake Lowry went down with a sprained knee in the second quarter of last week’s loss. Though Crosby was optimistic about his chances to return, an injury could bring an early end to a second consecutive season for Lowry. As he did last year, Erik Ornduff, a junior, will step into the starting lineup for FLC, and it’s possible the Skyhawks won’t have a backup for him.
Going into 2019, FLC had five quarterbacks on the roster, and that didn’t include Wyoming transfer Isaac Leppke, a wide receiver who was recruited as a quarterback coming out of high school. One player has yet to receive a waiver from the NCAA to declare him eligible to play this year. Another was ruled academically ineligible, and promising freshman Cody Smith out of Aztec left the team before the start of the season.
Now, Crosby is in a similar position to last year when he was the team’s first-year offensive coordinator and saw the team’s top-three quarterbacks go down with injury, leading him to put wide receivers and even defensive backs at quarterback to run a wildcat offense.
Since Week 1, a 7-0 win for FLC in a game that was canceled in the second quarter because of dangerous weather at New Mexico Highlands, FLC has sustained plenty more injuries besides Lowry. Key defensive weapon Suli Tukumoeatu, a senior, is likely out for the season after a foot injury Week 3 against Chadron State. FLC has further injuries in the defensive backfield and suffered more on the offensive line last week in South Dakota.
That could give a new coach at a struggling Division II program plenty to hang his head about. Not Crosby.
“You gotta come out and enjoy every day and figure out why you’re out here and really look within,” he said. “I walked out to practice (Tuesday) and looked around at the mountains and looked at my defensive line coach and said, ‘Man, thank God I live in Durango.’ It could be raining, cold, snowing, so many other things that could test you for that motivation.”
That positive attitude and leadership led first-year athletic director Brandon Leimbach to quickly drop the interim tag in front of Crosby’s position only two weeks into his first season as head coach. He was given the interim position in January when previous coach Joe Morris left FLC to become defensive coordinator at West Texas A&M after two years on the Skyhawks’ sideline. During that time, what FLC didn’t have in terms of facilities and funding for scholarships in comparison to its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals was the talking point while the team went only 6-15. Instead of focusing on what FLC does not have, Crosby and his staff have focused on what it does have. Right now, that’s a head coach and staff the players can rally behind.
It’s clear Crosby is where he wants to be and building the program he wants to build.
“Injuries are injuries. That’s football. I’m starting to get used to it,” Crosby said. “You hope these things don’t happen. As far as building a program, we’re really trying to work on having backups we feel comfortable with coming in and filling holes. It’s about creating a program.
“When you’re recruiting junior college guys every year, it’s kind of a new team every year. It hard to have depth when you do that. This year in recruiting and the recruiting we’re already doing for next year, the huge focus has been on bringing in talent and building guys up to be implemented in building the program so it’s not a huge hit when someone goes down.”
Crosby and his staff brought in 31 true freshmen last offseason. Twenty of those freshmen are from Colorado, and another four are from New Mexico. It may take some time, but if even 17 to 20 of those players have four- or five-year careers at FLC to mix in with the junior-college talent the Skyhawks recruit each year, Crosby will have the kind of program he desires in a couple of years.
As for the immediate future, Crosby is putting in the hours to find ways to get an offense filled with players originally projected as backups into the end zone more often.
“I gotta do a better job with our offense in the red zone and get more points on the board,” Crosby said. “For some reason, we’re still searching for our identity on the offensive side of the ball. I’m tired of saying it every week going into Week 5, but we’re trying to figure stuff out with the injuries and that kind of stuff. It’s part of the job. As coaches, we just continue to work harder and harder and harder and not give up trying to figure out ways to get the ball in the end zone.”
Through the attrition, Crosby won’t give up, and it’s clear his players won’t, either. If the Skyhawks can keep that focus, they will continue to compete and win some games against the odds. That should be celebrated by the homecoming crowd Saturday against Adams State.
“I think it will be fun, a good environment,” Crosby said. “We gotta come out and seize the moment and enjoy it.”
John Livingston is the sports editor of The Durango Herald. He can be reached at 970-375-4514 or jlivingston@durangoherald.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlivi2.
