Season Preview: 2025 Football

DURANGO, Colo. – With the turnover of a new year, the ghosts of the past are gone, and the small victories are clear out of sight in the rear-view mirror. All that remains is for Fort Lewis Skyhawks football to continue to climb up through the ranks of a daunting Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Looking Back

The Skyhawks took a sizable leap forward last fall, ending the program’s 40-game losing streak, which dated back to 2017, with a narrow 17-12 victory at home on Ray Dennison Memorial Field over National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Arizona Christian University. Fort Lewis continued to erase plagues of the past, besting Adams State 27-17 on the road in Alamosa in the inaugural Clash for the Pass Rivalry Game before handling New Mexico Highlands 44-22 at home the following week. The pair of wins snapped a 38-game conference losing streak and marked the first RMAC wins for the Skyhawks since 2017. 

Despite the 3-8 overall record and 2-7 mark in conference play last season, the Skyhawks made strides to set the program up for future success. Fort Lewis remained steady from the season prior, averaging 280.5 yards of total offense per game, but leaned into a more balanced attack with a split of 154.64 passing yards and 125.8 rushing yards per contest. Now redshirt-sophomore quarterback Stone Walker got his first taste of running the FLC offense, settling in for eight passing and seven rushing touchdowns and 1,759 total yards. 

Six Skyhawks captured All-RMAC honors for the season, highlighted by Second-Team selections for redshirt junior linebacker Jacob Penney and sophomore returner Orlando Guevara. Additionally, the duo was named First-Team All-Colorado by the National Football Foundation Colorado Chapter (NFFCC). Junior offensive lineman Chielotam Udengwu, junior free safety Kalib Davis, senior punter Hunter Villavicencio, and senior offensive lineman Jacob LaCroix each picked up Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors. Villavicencio and LaCroix have since graduated from Fort Lewis College. 

The Schedule

Fort Lewis will run a nearly identical schedule to 2024, with a few sites of competition flipped against familiar opponents. William Jewell College will make the trip to Durango from Liberty, Mo., for the second-straight season for the 2025 season opener up on the rim tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 30, with a noon kickoff. The Skyhawks will then hit the road for Phoenix, Ariz., and a fourth-consecutive matchup against the Firestorm at Arizona Christian University on Saturday, Sept. 6. 

The Skyhawks will enjoy a bye week on Saturday, Sept. 13, before welcoming fans back to Ray Dennison Memorial Field on Saturday, Sept. 20, for its RMAC opener against Black Hills State. Fans can also enjoy home matchups with preseason-tenth-ranked Western Colorado on Oct. 4, Chadron State on Oct. 18, Adams State on Nov. 1, and Colorado School of Mines on Nov. 15. FLC will make road trips to South Dakota Mines on Sept. 27, preseason-sixth-ranked CSU Pueblo on Oct. 11, Colorado Mesa on Oct. 25, and New Mexico Highlands on Nov. 8. 

Week Zero – The Cardinals

Saturday afternoon’s matinee up on the rim will feature the third-straight season-opening contest between Fort Lewis and William Jewell, and the second here in the Four Corners region. There’s no doubt the Skyhawks will be playing with an edge after falling 42-6 to the Cardinals two years ago and 35-20 last fall. WJC enjoyed a solid first season under the tenure of Jason Ambroson, running out to a 5-6 overall record and a 3-5 record in Great Lakes Valley Conference action. 

Ambroson coached his squad to the program’s most overall wins since 2014 and conference wins since 2015, while also earning six All-GLVC honors alongside an Honorable Mention All-American nod for running back Keaundre McCullough, who torched the Skyhawks for 402 yards and five touchdowns last year. 

The Cardinals put up an average of 317.7 yards per game on offense, tallying 168.36 yards through the air and 149.4 yards on the ground, with 1,262 of the team’s net rushing yards belonging to since-graduated McCullough. WJC totaled just 1,852 yards through the air with 12 interceptions against 15 touchdowns. The Cardinals’ defense gave up an average of 347.7 yards and 25.64 points per game. 

A Glance At The Newcomers

Fort Lewis brought in another sizable recruiting class last offseason, signing 61 new student-athletes, including 13 transfers, bringing its roster to 139 student-athletes for 2025. In total, the Skyhawks added 11 linebackers, 10 wide receivers, 10 offensive linemen, eight tight ends, eight defensive backs, seven defensive linemen, four running backs, two kickers, and a quarterback. 

Click the link below for a full list of the newest additions to the Skyhawks locker room.

Key Returners

Entering his redshirt sophomore season, Walker will have all eyes on him as he looks to lead the Skyhawks through another season of growth. The six-foot-three, 190-pound dual-threat product out of Northland Christian School in Houston, Texas, began to find his stride at the end of 2024, having a career outing with 270 yards and two touchdowns on 16-of-21 passing while adding another 51 yards and one touchdown on the ground to power FLC to a commanding 44-22 win over New Mexico Highlands. In his first full season as the starter, Walker scampered for 346 net yards and seven touchdowns while throwing for 1,413 yards and eight touchdowns in the air on 137 completions in 260 attempts (52.96 completion percentage). 

It's no surprise that the Skyhawks’ defense will look once more to Penney after the Sparks, Nev., native ranked fifth across all of NCAA Division II with 122 tackles and 11.1 tackles per game. The six-foot, 205-pound backer was a one-man wrecking ball, racking up 75 solo tackles while forcing a team-high three fumbles, recording four quarterback hurries, and picking up one fumble. 

Special teams will be another strong tool for Fort Lewis, largely in part to Guevara, a standout two-sport athlete at FLC. A sprinter on the Skyhawks track and field team, Guevara burst onto the scene for FLC, rushing for 283 yards and two touchdowns on five carries, returning 21 kicks for 536 yards and a 99-yard kick return touchdown, and hauling in 22 catches for 133 yards and two more touchdowns. Guevara posted the second-most return yards in the RMAC and 33rd-most in DII and ranked 31st across the country, averaging 25.5 yards per return. 

2025 RMAC Media Day Kickoff Event

New this summer, Fort Lewis made the trek up to the Denver area and the CAVEA Theater located on the campus of Metropolitan State University of Denver for the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Football Media Day. Representing the Skyhawks were head coach Johnny Cox, linebacker Jacob Penney, and wide receiver Jamille Humphrey. 

Below are a few excerpts from media day, and fans can also click the link below to rewatch the full media day broadcast for free on the RMAC Network. The Skyhawks session begins at 1:45:40, following remarks from RMAC Interim Commissioner Lexie Vernon. 

Head coach Johnny Cox on the 2025 season… 

“As a coaching staff and an administration, we’re very excited about where we are as a program. We took the long road to get here, really invested in high school seniors, got them experience, year after year, we got better, and we really developed a culture. Now we feel that it’s time to put that culture on display with a team that’s prepared and physically ready to compete. It’s been a long process, we’ve seen glimmers of it over the years, and now we feel like we’re ready to go.” 

Senior Jamille Humphrey on the excitement within the community around football…

“One of the best things about Durango is how deep and involved the community is with [Fort Lewis College], regardless of winning or losing, the community is always there. Being from Denver, deeper in the city with a lot more going on than what Durango has, it’s super great for me, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Redshirt junior Jacob Penney on his success and the fun of being out on the field…

“It’s a lot of fun. First of all, I would say I personally am not way caught up in how many tackles I’m getting per game, I’m play-by-play trying to do my job so that our defense can be good. Last year, compared to my first year, especially when I was a freshman, we didn’t really compete in any games. Fast forward to this year, it’s just night and day. Our defense is making plays, maybe not every game, but we’re taking steps in the right direction. Our offense is playing good, we’re playing together more, and I’m so excited to get out here this year.”  

Community Service: Children's Hospital Colorado 

Anschutz Medical Campus

For the third straight year, the Skyhawks took part in an annual community service event at the Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus with others from across various RMAC football institutions. Coach Cox, as well as Penney and Humphrey, spent the day creating chalk art out on the hospital’s patio for patients to enjoy during afternoon strolls. In addition, the Skyhawks also made their way inside and visited with kids in the hospital’s Teen Center, which featured video games, card games, a small theater, 3-D printers, and much more for everyone to enjoy. 

Coaching Additions

Fort Lewis retained a large part of its staff, bringing in just two additions with assistant coach Justin MacArthur, who will serve as a defensive line coach and the program’s recruiting coordinator, and Holden Hill, who will assist the Skyhawks as the director of football operations. 

MacArthur was both a player and a coach on the defensive line for the Leopards at the University of La Verne. Hill, on the other hand, previously worked in operations at the University of Northern Colorado and with the Colorado Rockies baseball team. 

For more information on both of Fort Lewis’ coaching acquisitions, click the links below. 

Countdown to Kickoff