CMU Mavericks Begin Football Season With High Hopes

The CMU Mavericks kick off their 2013 season Saturday night with a non-conference game against Menlo College from Atherton, California. Head Football Coach Russ Martin begins his second season at the helm and is expecting good things from a lot of young football players.

The Mavericks will be led by a pair of redshirt freshman quarterbacks, Aric Kaiser, of Broomfield, a transfer from University of Nebraska-Kearney, and Kyle Duran, from Chandler, Arizona.  Kaiser has won the starting job, but Coach Martin says both quarterbacks will see action.

Junior running back Jake Cimolino, from Fort Bragg, California was second in the RMAC in rushing last season and is back for his third season. Cimolino has rushed for more than 2,000 yards in two seasons. He'll  share the ball carrying duties with junior Ricky Trinidad from Trinity, Florida, another transfer from UNK, and Grand Junction High School product Jerreon Dennis, a redshirt freshmen.

At the wide receiver position, senior Nate Neville, from Littleton, will be joined by newcomers Daniel Purse, a 6-5 freshman from Broomfield, and junior Ian Juede, a 5-9, 185 pound speedster from Spencer, Iowa. The combination of explosive backs and talented receivers has the potential to score a lot of points this season.

There are seven underclassmen who will start for the Mavericks along with seven players that started last year, and several that saw significant playing time. It's a good mix of youth and experience.

The Mavericks look to improve on a 4-7 season from a  year ago, and Coach Martin says a lot of things are different this season including the attitude of the players."Last season we as coaches could see that they didn't necessarily fully expect to win. This year our players expect to win."  Martin says another difference is that now the players know exactly what is expected of them and their work ethic has been phenomenal.

Kickoff is set for 7:00 Saturday night at Stocker Stadium.(Broadcast  is on AM 1230 KEXO, and on line.)