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Spring game displays new and improved Fort Lewis College football team

Spring game displays new and improved Fort Lewis football team

The Fort Lewis College football team closed a 3-8 campaign in 2014 feeling much better about the future of the team than the previous seven losing seasons.

If Saturday’s spring game was any indication, the team has a chance to be a winner for the first time since 2006.

“I’m pleased with spring ball, and we’re miles ahead of where we’ve been,” said FLC head coach John L. Smith, who will enter his third season leading the Skyhawks after previous stops coaching Division I powers Arkansas, Louisville and Michigan State.

With his fingerprint finally evident on the FLC football program, Smith has built a team with substantially more athleticism and size. A defensive backfield that gave up the most big plays in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference a season ago has been rebuilt, and FLC now has a stable of running backs just one season after plugging in defensive backs and linebackers into the running back position after injuries and inexperience took their toll.

Adding to the excitement is knowing FLC still isn’t playing with the full roster it will have once fall camp opens. Several big recruits won’t step foot on campus until then, and some of FLC’s top seniors also haven’t returned from injury just yet.

“We made a lot of progress with the guys we have this spring, and we got to see a lot of kids play a lot of reps, which is good,” Smith said. “Our depth is not what it needs to be, but it’s not what it will be come fall with a lot of new guys here. The biggest thing for the coaches will be to get those new guys indoctrinated in our system as quickly as we can, because many of them can play.”

A quarterback competition will brew this fall between senior Jordan Doyle and junior transfer AJ Thigpen from Phoenix College. Both took their turn with the starters during spring game rotations.

Doyle was the starter a season ago until a severe leg injury sidelined him for the rest of the season. Doyle has recovered from the broken fibula, tibula and ligament damage and has been cleared for contact well ahead of schedule.

In eight games last season, Doyle passed for 1,509 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 55.5 percent of his passes. He also was the team’s second-leading rusher with 428 yards and six touchdowns.

Though he was medically cleared for contact, Smith held Doyle out of contact drills during the spring to be safe.

“This is nice; first scrimmage I actually got to play in,” Doyle said after Saturday’s spring game. “It was a long rehab, hard one for me. But I got back, lifting and all the strength back and good to go. Feels good running on it and cutting. I can do it all.

“I’m a little slow right now, but over the summer I’ll run some more, and I’ll be good to go Week 1.”

Still, Thigpen will have a chance to earn the starting job for the opener Sept. 3 at Montana State. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder passed for 1,343 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions last season for Phoenix College. He completed nearly 59 percent of his passes, and he rushed for an additional 189 yards.

He’s looking forward to the competition this fall.

“I love competition, so we will see what happens in the fall. I won’t back down from anything,” Thigpen said. “I’m going to go home this summer, train real hard and get my arm strength up and be a better quarterback when I come back next fall.”

Thigpen showed off his ability to make big plays with his feet, scrambling out of the pocket for big gains during Saturday’s spring game. But he also made a few questionable throws, particularly in the red zone.

“The great thing about Thigpen is he can win you a game, but he can also lose you a game,” Smith said. “He’s gotta learn when to win the game and not to lose the game. He’s very, very talented. He can run and make people miss, create some big plays, but he can’t afford to throw it up in the end zone and lose ya the game. He’ll learn that.”

But FLC’s emphasis again likely will be on running the football. The Skyhawks had the fifth-best rushing attack in the RMAC a season ago at 176 yards per game, and a three-headed attack should be even more effective next season.

Returning from last year is PJ Hall, who as a freshman led the team with 714 yards in nine games before going down with a high-ankle sprain. He came on strong late in the season before the injury, and he’s looking to build on that going into 2015.

“I feel good after my injury. Coming back and being able to run feels really good,” Hall said. “Last year, we were decent in some spots running the ball, but we weren’t consistent enough. This year, we have two more guys who will really help us out.”

Those two guys are Terrence Crowder and Gabe Ogbonnaya.

Crowder is a 5-foot-10, 220-pound downhill runner who transferred from the University of Colorado. He busted an 80-yard touchdown run Saturday, displaying his size and speed along with a strong cutback to finish off the run.

Ogbonnaya also got into the end zone Saturday, scoring on a goal-line carry. He adds a burst of speed to the backfield that will complement Crowder’s size and Hall’s all-around ability.

“All of our running backs are doing a great job. PJ is coming back strong, Crowder is helping out as a big load who runs downhill good, and Gabe had brought a lot of quickness to us, as well,” Smith said. “We’ve got big-play guys, and our running back stable is three times what it was a year ago.”

Add all that to an improved defensive line, linebacker core and defensive backfield, and FLC likes its chances of competing.

FLC defensive backs came up with five interceptions during the spring game, and the defensive line showed an ability to get off the ball and create havoc in the passing and running game.

They’ll be even better when linebacker Ryan Ross, last year’s leading tackler, returns from injury.

Smith credited the team’s improved play this spring to taking more time studying football than time on the field.

“We tried to spread the spring out as long as we could. The first half before spring break was real good, productive on both sides of the ball,” Smith said. “We came back after the break and spent a lot more time learning football. We took a break between each practice to study the film and get better.”

Only time will tell if FLC can end its losing ways, but Smith’s athletes are buying in, and they’re hungry to prove they can do more than simply compete.

jlivingston@durangoherald.com



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