{"id":45529,"date":"2021-07-28T15:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T21:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-football-gears-up-for-first-full-season-since-2019\/"},"modified":"2021-07-28T21:55:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T21:55:00","slug":"fort-lewis-college-football-gears-up-for-first-full-season-since-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-football-gears-up-for-first-full-season-since-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lewis College football gears up for first full season since 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College wide receiver Dylan Holt reacts after making a catch Saturday night against Dixie State in St. George, Utah.<\/span>Breanna Biorato\/Dixie State Athletics<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

When asked to give one word or phrase to describe the upcoming 2021 football season for Fort Lewis College, junior wide receiver Dylan Holt said, \u201cMake them believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a team that no one is looking at,\u201d Holt said Wednesday during the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference\u2019s football media day.<\/p>\n

Frankie Ayon, a junior transfer from Reedley College, echoed his teammate\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

\u201cFind a way or make a way,\u201d Ayon said. \u201cWe have to find a way to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are our battle cries,\u201d head coach Darrius Smith said. \u201cWe are determined to make things different at Fort Lewis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith took over the Skyhawks program just before the pandemic shut down the sports world in 2020.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Skyhawks won twice in nine games under coach Brandon Crosby, and in 2018, went 1-9 under Joe Morris. They haven\u2019t had a winning season since 2015, when they went 7-4 under John L. Smith.<\/p>\n

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College head football coach Darrius G. Smith works the sideline during a game this spring against Dixie State in St. George, Utah.<\/span>Breanna Biorato\/Dixie State Athletics<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Without a season last fall and only an abbreviated two-game season in the spring, Smith will coach his first full season at Fort Lewis this year. The couple of games the Skyhawks played last year, however, allowed the players to showcase their abilities and let the coach see what they could do on offense and defense.<\/p>\n

Now, Smith wants to build on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Fort Lewis to be recognized in the conference and be recognized in the nation,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe need to develop standards for the program, rise and accept them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get there, Smith has capitalized on time off the gridiron. Without a schedule full of games, the team\u2019s opponent became academics. He started tutoring sessions for the football unit, encouraging players who excel in the classroom to help their teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat helps develop the same type of chemistry (as football) since you have to rely on each other,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n

This fall, the team will have a full slate of opponents. Fort Lewis begins its season \u2013 11 games on 11 consecutive Saturdays \u2013 at home Sept. 4 against New Mexico Highlands University. The Skyhawks will then play at Tarleton State University, host Colorado School of Mines, play at Western Colorado University, host Black Hills State University, play at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, host Colorado Mesa University, play at Chadron State College, host Colorado State University-Pueblo and then play at Adams State University and Dixie State University.<\/p>\n

The thing Holt said he was most looking forward to about returning to the field is, to \u201cget together with the guys, win some games and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get on the winning side of things,\u201d Ayon said. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep grinding, keep building and build that chemistry so we can win some games.\u201d<\/p>\n

At quarterback, Smith called it a \u201cfive-man competition right now\u201d and then compared the position to the rest of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want challenges and guys who won\u2019t back down from challenges,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI\u2019m going to put the best 11 on the field on both sides of the ball to help us win games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018We are determined to make things different,\u2019 coach says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[926,132,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-football","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45529"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}