The Denver Broncos aren’t the only football team in Colorado that has struggled to find a quality quarterback and keep one healthy.
Two games could have flipped the season around for Fort Lewis College. Instead of at least a 5-5 finish, the Skyhawks limped to 3-7. For the second year in a row, it was the offense and quarterback play that cost FLC.
“I’m going to recruit my tail off to get as many quarterbacks as I can and recruit more O-linemen. We were limited there, as well,” FLC head coach Brandon Crosby said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “When you limp all the way through the back end of a (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) season, it’s a tough place to be. It starts with recruiting, and I’m on the road right now doing that.”
The Skyhawks shot out to a 2-1 start. Crosby, the first-year head coach, had his interim status lifted by new athletic director Brandon Leimbach, and everything was going well for the Skyhawks.
But FLC fell 13-7 at Black Hills State, and in the process, lost starting quarterback Jake Lowry for the remainder of the season because of a knee injury. FLC would return home and win the Musket Game rivalry against Adams State behind 228 yards and three touchdown passes from backup Erik Ornduff.
At 3-2, FLC went on the road for a key three-game road trip. But an offense that couldn’t finish drives saw a 10-7 fourth-quarter lead at Colorado Mesa University turn into a 17-10 loss. The loss to Black Hills State was heartbreaking for the coaches and players, but recovering to beat Adams State had FLC feeling like it was still on track. After Colorado Mesa, the season was lost.
FLC would drop its next two games at Colorado School of Mines and Western Colorado University by a combined 73-0 and saw a drought of 10 consecutive quarters without a point continue into a 21-13 home loss to Colorado State University-Pueblo.
In the season finale, FLC’s 17-7 third-quarter lead turned into a 27-17 defeat to South Dakota School of Mines, which earned only its second win of the conference schedule.
Had FLC been able to turn two games around with wins at Black Hills State and Colorado Mesa, the entire season would have felt different. With higher spirits and a chance at a 6-4 finish with a win against South Dakota Mines, FLC could have recorded just its 12th winning season in program history dating back to 1963.
For Crosby, an offensive coach who was the team’s offensive play-caller in 2018 when FLC went 1-9 and lost Lowry for the season with an injury in a Week 3 loss at Chadron State, the problems again boiled down to a lack of offense.
Ornduff finished this year with 1,169 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions and completed 51.1% of his passes. He wasn’t able to add to the offense with his legs like Lowry.
FLC averaged only eight points per game the final five weeks of the season, by far the worst mark in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference during that span. FLC had 200 or more yards passing only twice.
They never had a 300-yard passing game this season. This year, FLC ranked 10th out of 11 teams in the RMAC in passing offense and finished last in the RMAC in rushing yards per game at only 84.6.
FLC’s offensive struggles came while the Skyhawks had an elite defense. FLC ranked third in the RMAC in points allowed per game at only 21.3 behind NCAA Division II national playoff qualifiers CSU-Pueblo and Colorado School of Mines. FLC’s defense also ranked third against the run and sixth against the pass. With an elite defense, even an average offense could have seen FLC finish 5-5 or 6-4.
“Unfortunately, I’m kind of kicking myself on being in the same situation as last year,” Crosby said. “We invested in a quarterback that is multi-faceted and can do all the different things. Him going down changes the whole structure of the offense. I gotta be a better football coach in creating a backup plan and having guys we know can press that quarterback position and compete at a high level.”
Crosby believed he had enough quarterbacks last offseason. Isaac Leppke was brought in as a transfer from Wyoming. He was recruited out of high school as a quarterback but was moved to wide receiver at Wyoming, and that’s where he played for FLC. He was FLC’s emergency option at quarterback this year if Ornduff would have gone down. Crosby also brought in transfers in Connor Apodaca from Northern Colorado and Terrance Trujillo, a Durango High alum, from Eastern New Mexico. Both were ruled ineligible to play in 2019 for different reasons. Cody Smith, an Aztec High alum, left the team during fall practices.
Eligibility issues also cost FLC dearly on the offensive line and at running back, making the job of Crosby and Ornduff even tougher in 2019.
For 2020, Crosby hopes to have as many quarterbacks as possible eligible and ready to compete for the starting job. His search starts at the top of the college food chain and will work down to high schools.
“I know a lot of coaches in the business at the Division I level. I want to bring in one or two Division I transfers,” Crosby said. “I’m going to start there and work my way down. I’m probably going to look at some junior college quarterbacks, for sure, but I’m more interested to see some Division I guys.”
Crosby has been happy with the type of players recruited during his two years with FLC. Now, the goal is to build more depth and find the right quarterback to bring consistent winning to a campus that hasn’t had a winning football team since 2015 and hasn’t had consecutive winning seasons since 2005 and 2006, when current defensive coordinator Ed Rifilato was the head coach.
FLC hasn’t had a quarterback throw for 2,000 or more yards since Tim Jenkins accomplished the feat three consecutive years from 2009-11, and he came within 183 yards of another 2,000-yard season in 2012. Matt Gutierrez accomplished the feat three times from 2004-06, and his 2005 season included 27 touchdowns and only six interceptions.
FLC has only seen one quarterback throw for more than 3,000 yards. That was Andrew Webb, who passed for 3,350 yards in 2001 before his record-setting 2002 season in which he passed for 4,109 yards and 37 touchdowns.
If the FLC defense can continue to play at a high level and the Skyhawks can find a quarterback who can stay on the field and challenge opposing defenses, FLC should find itself in the top half of the conference and heading in the right direction.
“You see it all over the country. Every good team has a great quarterback,” Crosby said. “I’ve gotta recruit those guys and make that position more competitive.”
Fort Lewis College hasn’t earned money to play a Division I opponent since a 2015 trip to Montana State. When Dixie State joined the RMAC for a two-year stint in 2018, the FLC schedule was loaded with 10 conference games, and the Skyhawks weren’t able to secure an 11th game against a paying school.
For a program struggling for resources, the lack of opportunity to secure a payday to play a game has been costly. Now, Dixie State will complete its transition into Division I in the Western Athletic Conference next season, and a space has opened up on the FLC schedule for such games.
Next season, FLC will open at the University of Northern Colorado. The deal was negotiated under former athletic director Barney Hinkle and will pay FLC $40,000.
In 2021, FLC will close out its season at Dixie State. Leimbach completed that deal that will pay FLC $60,000. Crosby is eager for the program to become more self-sufficient through money games while giving the players an opportunity to challenge themselves against Division I FCS opponents.
“It’s almost like a bowl game for us and is good for recruiting,” Crosby said. “You can tell the guys they will get to play a Division I school and get that shot to prove ourselves at that level and make money for the program. That can keep us afloat and help with the bear essentials to make the program go.”
Crosby would also like to be able to bring in a few more coaches. FLC currently has seven coaches, and some of them are not full time and are only on campus in the fall.
“We can always use more coaches,” Crosby said. “In the RMAC, I look at all the other teams and they have around 12 to 15 coaches.
“We are trying to figure ways to be a good program and do it the right way. We are taking the correct steps and gotta keep moving forward and put it in motion.”
John Livingston is the sports editor of The Durango Herald. He can be reached at 375-4514 or jlivinston@durangoherald.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlivi2.
