Fort Lewis has struggled mightily in Division II college football over the past five years. The Skyhawks hold the nation’s longest losing streak regardless of division with a 39-game losing streak. FLC last won a game on Oct. 5, 2019, against Adams State.
Skyhawks football head coach Johnny Cox has not won a game yet as FLC’s head coach. He’s looking to change that going into his third year as the Skyhawks head coach with this year’s recruiting class.
This is the second installment of this series where The Durango Herald looks at the incoming class of transfers and freshmen for all of FLC’s fall teams.
The first part of this series was on the Skyhawks’ men’s soccer team and can be found here.
Cox acknowledged and thanked last year’s seniors for their character, work ethic and for helping to improve the program’s culture. He mentioned the efforts of senior quarterback Braden Wingle and senior wide receiver Peyton Monson along with some senior offensive linemen who graduated.
“They definitely have a really good legacy as far as the program,” Cox said about last year’s seniors. “Obviously, we weren't successful as we wanted to be on the field, but we definitely made strides that you can see internally. We'll miss those guys with their dedication toward the preparation and their attitude toward being coached.”
FLC only lost two players to the transfer portal, according to Cox. Therefore, the Skyhawks have a lot of last year’s team returning which goes hand-in-hand with Cox’s recruiting philosophy.
Cox isn’t a fan of building a roster through the transfer portal like many coaches today who build a new roster each year with kids who are immediately eligible out of the portal.
The former FLC star likes to focus on bringing in high school kids and developing them in hopefully four years at FLC.
Cox and his staff like to recruit players who are from within a six-hour radius of FLC. This includes the Denver area and Colorado Springs which Cox said is where a majority of this year’s freshmen will be from.
With a large nucleus of last year’s team returning, Cox said the Skyhawks coaching staff focused on adding athleticism and speed with the incoming freshmen. He thinks the staff did a great job of accomplishing that.
Another added benefit to how Cox builds his roster is a new NCAA rule with redshirting freshmen. According to Cox, freshmen in college football can now take a redshirt year if they play three games or less.
“That's a huge advantage for a team like us that's like a developmental team,” Cox said. “So we got a lot of players three games and then kept them freshmen. Now they've lifted, they played big games and then they're prepared to be fresh for next year, but they're second-year players. We feel like we're going to take advantage of that new rule, we'll try to continue to do that and it just keeps getting us older with more experience.”
FLC football will be bringing in about 60 freshmen this fall. Cox likes bringing in a class this size to inspire as much competition as possible and this makes the players accountable.
Since there is so much depth on the roster, the players appreciate their opportunities and if they aren’t performing, there’s someone behind them that can take their spot.
The depth helps a lot in practice because it keeps the scout team fresh.
“Say there are 60 plays on an offensive practice,” Cox said. “Well, now if you're able to rotate guys instead of having one guy on the scout team play 60 plays, now he's playing 30 plays, so he's a little bit more juiced. Oh, we got three guys now, okay, now they’re playing 20 plays each. It keeps guys fresh, it keeps guys more productive and more energetic. The overall idea of having depth is a really good concept. With football, there are always some injuries. That's part of the game where someone's out for a week or two, or whatever that looks like and we are able to survive it.”
The top position group in this incoming class is defensive line with about nine players, according to Cox. He’s excited about the potential of the defensive line this year. Two other positions with a lot of incoming players are wide receiver and quarterback. Cox said the staff got a lot of the top receivers on their recruiting board so the staff is excited about that position.
Cox also said it’s also tough to predict how these incoming freshmen will adapt to college football.
The lone local incoming freshman is Durango High School graduate Mason Palmer. Cox said he’s excited to get a quality kid who comes from a great family. Cox also said FLC has some players from Cortez who didn’t play last year but have developed into possible contributors this year.
Cox said a priority for the staff is to recruit local kids who want to play college football. He said his staff goes to high school games every week they’re home to evaluate the local talent.
“I would say this is the best one,” Cox said about this year’s incoming freshmen class. “It's one of the biggest, definitely one of the fastest and then overall, we're getting some really good football players. Potentially, they could be the best class, but they’ve got to go and earn it.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
