MIAA Preview: Fort Hays State

JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Fort Hays State coach Chris Brown roams the sidelines at Bearcat Stadium on September 14, 2024.

EMPORIA, Kan. — There weren’t many teams in the country playing better football at the end of the season than Fort Hays State when they finished 5-1 in their last six — three of those games against teams ranked in the top-12 nationally at the time.

“Hopefully we carry over a little bit from how we played last season,” Tiger coach Chris Brown said.

That stretch of impressive play coincided when the Brown made switch to Caleb Heavner at quarterback. The sophomore was phenomenal with 1,649 yards on 70% passing with 13 touchdowns and running for 353 yards and five touchdowns.

“He soaks everything in,” Brown said of his quarterback. “He is continuously watching film, taking notes. He is always in Coach (Tom) Ross’ office going through things and trying to learn our offense a little better. Great leader.

“This guy is football, football, football. And when you got a guy who is football all the time and thinking football continuously … when you got a guy like that on your side, you got a good chance to win.”

Now, Heavner enters the year as the unquestioned leader of the Tiger offense.

“This spring, I just really wanted to focus on being a leader,” Heavner said. “Being more vocal in the first spring taking reps with the ones and all that. Just get more comfortable in the offense by meeting with our offensive coordinator more. I feel 100% confident in this offense now and I am just ready to go.”

It will be a new-look offense around Heavner with the departure of running back Shane Watts and top receiver Jayden Horace.

The team does have plenty of proven pass catchers coming back though led by Second Team All-MIAA tight end Cale Cormaney. Ryan Allen (323 yards and two touchdowns) and Jabari Lewis (469 yards, three touchdowns) also return at receiver.

While Watts was responsible for an incredible amount of the rushing offense last season, Fort Hays bring back senior Joshua Clark and junior Kenyan Miller who were previously second and third on the depth chart.

The most experienced returner on the Tiger roster is the return of Travis Dixon after missing all last season with an injury. As a junior, he ran for 568 yards and six touchdowns. They also add Kent State transfer Curtis Douglas, who ran for 145 yards at the Division-I MAC school last season.

The offensive line returns three starters with First Team All-MIAA left guard Josh Shaw, Second Team All-MIAA right tackle Porter Dannevik and center Brandon Kerr. Senior David Sjoberg also made two starts at guard while Jacob Mattice made three starts at tackle.

“We’ve had a great summer and we know that the MIAA is a tough conference,” Heavner said. “We are just ready to go. We are tired of talking about it. We are ready to get to it.”

The strength of Brown’s teams over the years has consistently been the defensive side of the ball and just like the offense, the defense is getting a huge boost from the return of a player coming back from an injury.

Parish Terry, a 6’6, 245-pound defensive end, was a breakout star in the MIAA as a freshman with 46 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 4 1/2 sacks in eight starts — earning Third Team All-MIAA status. As a sophomore, he was limited to just four games.

With Terry out, Gavan Haselhorst, a Kansas State transfer, stepped into the starting lineup and had 31 tackles, six tackles for loss and 3 1/2 sacks. He returns to form an experienced defensive end duo.

In the middle, the Tigers return 6’3, 305-pound defensive tackle Jakolbi Wilson, who started all 11 games last year. Defensive tackle Jonah Smith also made three starts.

Linebacker has been a strength for Fort Hays in recent years and John Johnson leads that group after an All-MIAA First Team selection in 2023 and second team last season.

“We are a big family,” Johnson said. “These young guys look up to us, and being able to be that role model for them means a lot.”

Johnson had 63 tackles and an interception last season.

“John has really grown into a tremendous leader for our defense,” Brown said. “He plays the game physical, has good speed, has great size, knows our defense well, gets our guys lined up and has become that leader that we knew we need to have because we have so many new guys in the back end to get coached up.”

The secondary is where the Tigers will be breaking in the most new faces — replacing All-MIAA picks Mason Perez, Benyon Williams and Kobe Rome.

“We lost quite a few guys in our back end,” Brown said. “A few guys who were 3-year starters at safety and corner. I really feel like those guys who were behind them learned a lot from those young men who were ahead of them. … It is just that game experience right now that some of those guys don’t have in that backend.”

Free safety Jaxon Kolzow returns as the most experienced piece in the defensive backfield. He had 34 tackles last season.

The Tigers test themselves in non-conference with their first two games being against Lone Star favorite Angelo State and RMAC co-favorite Colorado State-Pueblo.

“Especially the non-con games, you really root for your conference to win those games cause at the end, that is going to help you out and help you get to the playoffs,” Brown said. “… I root for all of our teams in those non-conference games. I hope they win those games cause that just shows how tough this conference really is.”