FOOTBALL

special … and we’ve been able to take it to another level.”

In addition to the team’s “never break” theme, Moreno said the defensive players and sta are emphasizing the idea of “competing unapologetically.” e Orediggers always aim to be the best in every defensive category, and they have the leadership and the drive to keep achieving that standard, Moreno said.

Plus, the Mines defense regularly plays against the best o ense in the nation, and that competition should help the defense achieve even greater heights in 2023, he continued.

“To compete and win, and to do it unapologetically,” Moreno said of the defense’s 2023 theme. “We should expect to win.”

The final summit

Despite facing two Top 10 teams right o the bat, Sterbick hoped the Orediggers would have a better start in 2023 than in 2022. Mines lost both its rst two games by three points each.

Sterbick said the “start better, earlier” mentality begins at practice, commenting, “So we can put a better product on the eld earlier than we did in those rst two games (last year).”

As Sterbick and Moreno said, over the last two years, the Mines football has garnered more of the national spotlight as it’s reached a new series of summits. In 2021, it made the national semi nals for the rst time in program history; then last year, it nally advanced to the title game.

Now, the nal summit in the series is winning program’s rst national title.

And whether Mines is successful in reaching that nal summit, Matocha said the attention is deserved.

“ e coaching sta , the administration, the athletics department and players have worked extremely hard to be here,” he said. “It’s not like we lucked into it, or it was handed to us. ( e spotlight) should be and deserves to be on the team.

“We’ll just have to make good on that,” Matocha continued, “and make it back to the national championship.”