Northern Colorado’s emphasis on recruiting Centennial State starting to pay dividends

FORT COLLINS When Ed Lamb began one of the toughest rebuilding jobs in FCS football he was sure the response involved a whole lot of home cooking Lamb s plan for Northern Colorado to find more competitive footing in the Big Sky one of the two power conferences at the FCS level focused on a heavy dose of local high school recruiting The undertaking hasn t won more than three games since and not more than six in any season since joining the Big Sky in It s been a slow burn for Lamb with the Bears but UNC is starting to see certain of the benefits from this path forward I feel very good about our players Lamb mentioned ahead of his gang s clash Saturday with Colorado State They are still young It takes selected time to show up on the field when we talk about developmental high school players Guys are generally going to start to compete on the field in their third year as redshirt sophomores or juniors and we ve got a lot more of those guys playing this year They have a lot of belief in themselves and in the future here UNC beat Chadron State - in Week It was Lamb s second conquest and first at home since taking over the plan in The Bears upset Weber State in Ogden Utah last year after a winless There are key contributors for the Bears on both sides of the ball who hail from the Centennial State this season and several of them helped UNC start the season with a domination Sophomore Mathias Price Fountain-Fort Carson led the ground championship with yards on carries and should be a focal point of the offense all season The Bears top three wideouts are all Colorado kids Juniors Carver Cheeks Mesa Ridge and Brayden Munroe Chaparral combined for five catches yards and a touchdown last week Five of the gang s top tacklers against Chadron State are homegrown products Sophomore Cam Chapa Eaglecrest is a preseason all-conference safety after leading the Bears with tackles as a true freshman Sophomore defensive end Makur Abrahm Thomas Jefferson had a sack in his first start Redshirt sophomore KJ Smedley Palmer Ridge had three tackles and should be a leader for the linebacker corps Lamb also noted that the left side of his offensive line junior tackle Levi Johnson The Classical Academy and sophomore guard Lincoln Fa apouli Fountain Fort-Carson are local kids I ve felt like that s the only way we can be profitable at UNC Lamb announced To see those guys start to compete and compete well and in plenty of cases they still have two three even four years of eligibility left it gives me nothing but confidence for the future It can t all be high school recruiting in this age of college football and UNC s lineup against the Rams will reflect that Starting quarterback Peter Costelli was injured last week and could be out for the rest of the season That means a first start this week for Eric Gibson Jr who began his career at LSU before a stop at Monterey Peninsula a junior college in Northern California Related Articles CU Buffs vs Delaware Blue Hens football How to watch storylines and staff predictions CSU Rams vs Northern Colorado Bears football How to watch storylines and staff predictions Buffs notes CU s Deion Sanders impressed with Delaware QB Nick Minicucci Damon Greaves continuing CU Buffs infusion of specialists from Australia Week picks against spread Oklahoma rolls Michigan Ok State at Oregon The star for the defense against Chadron State was junior safety Darrell Bryant Jr who had nine tackles and a sack Bryant began his career at Western Colorado one of several transfers up from the RMAC on the Bears roster Losing Costelli for the second straight season he was injured against Colorado State a year ago is a tough blow The Bears will certainly have their hands full in Fort Collins but the focus on building towards a better future remains I m filled with optimism and I m filled with hope Lamb commented I really enjoy working with this group of guys They are committed to being the best they can be I thought early on in our time especially our first year we had a very recreational band They required to be great on competition day but they didn t really want to prepare for it This group is the opposite They do extra work when we re not around They work incredibly hard on the preparation with video They have confidence in each other They really enjoy the preparation part of the competition Want more sports news Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver s teams