GOLDEN, Colo. — Mines Orediggers football head coach Pete Sterbick’s locker room message to his players before their second-round game against Augustana will be simple.
“Just go play our game,” Sterbick said. “Just worry about us. Take it to them. We’ve been in this situation before. This is our 11th playoff game since 2019. This is something we’re used to. We got to take that with us and understand that we know what to do to get the dub.”
A home dub! Mines hasn’t lost at Marv Kay Stadium since Week 2 of last season. The Colorado School of Mines is the best team in the country, having been ranked No. 1 for most of the regular season.
“We have the best home stadium,” said star quarterback John Matocha, who is now college football's all-time touchdown leader, in any division. “They absolutely help us out, and alumni, students, family, friends, like I said it’s electric in here. You throw a deep ball, you hit a touchdown or the defense makes a good play and it erupts. It kind of lights you up and gets you excited to go out there and continue doing it.”
There is a little wrinkle to Saturday’s game: Sterbick played college football at Augustana University, so he’ll be facing off against his alma mater.
“I’m still super close with guys I played with," he said. "It’s not like I haven’t thought about that, but man we’re just trying to go win a playoff game.”
Mines is looking to get to the National Championship game for the second straight year. Last year’s loss still looms large.
“I feel like we have just an extra chip on our shoulder with how things went last year,“ Sterbick said. “And then we feel like all the time that we got to re-prove ourselves to people because people forget about us. We feel like we’re fired up to get to it and get rolling with the playoffs.”
The Orediggers take on the Augustana Vikings at noon Saturday at Marv Kay Stadium at Campbell Field in Golden.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Sports