Mumme Not Concerned About Age of His Room

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – In the one position room of a football team where coaches want experience, Matt Mumme is running the collegiate version of a daycare center.

"They're babies," the Colorado State quarterbacks coach Matt Mumme said.

Mumme has six quarterbacks in his room, ranging in age from 17- to 19-years old, all of them either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen. They have thrown a combined 14 passes in college, with Evan Olaes the most experienced of the group, appearing in three games a season ago and throwing 12 of those passes. Clay Millen, the only one with an extensive background in the Air Raid system, has thrown two, both against Colorado State in the final regular-season game of 2021.

It is the youngest quarterback room in the country, which in most cases would be cause for consternation for an offensive staff. Mumme wasn't sure himself, but after two weeks of spring practice, he was no longer concerned.

"Going into it, maybe yes, a little bit," Mumme said. "But after getting out here and just seeing the guys work, I told Jay Norvell, 'we're fine; we're going to be OK.' The thing you've got to remember is Clay, meeting and talking to Clay, he really understands the system, but Clay got to watch Carson Strong do it. He knows what it's supposed to look like. It's not like we had a whole bunch of new guys who had never done it before. That would be of way more concern."

Yep, only five of them had no background with the Air Raid, and in a way, that's created a fertile base for learning, all of them leaning and relying on each other. When Mumme has been around them off the field, say at a dinner, it reminds him just how young they are – and it makes him laugh.

On the field, they've taken to the teaching in an impressive manner. He expected the first day of spring camp to be a mess, but it wasn't. There have been more good days than bad, too.

"We kind of all had to mature fast. We've only been in this for a year, so it's been a learning curve and bringing young guys up is kind of new," said Giles Pooler, the other holdover from 2021. "We just had to mature fast in the room. It's an advantage and a disadvantage because we're so young, but at the same time we're building a lot of maturity and experience in the room.

"This is an easy system to learn. Even though it goes quick, it's coached very well and it's pretty easy to pick up. I'm using a lot of skills I learned from last year and they translate over. Knowledge of football in general translates no matter what system you're playing. It's been a good time learning."

For Mumme, Pooler, a local product, has been a most pleasant surprise. It requires no stretch of the imagination to understand the previous offensive system and the Air Raid are a Venn diagram with almost no overlap, but Pooler has found himself in the right place at the right time.

He just arrived a year early for the change.

"The impressive one through the entire spring has been Giles. I've been really proud to see what he's done," Mumme said. "When I knew he was on the roster, I looked at his high school film and I said he's got a chance. He's done a really nice job. He's spent a lot of time in there studying it, he spends a lot of time with Clay and so hat's off to the guy. He's a walk-on, but he's really not. He's done a really nice job for us.

"I think he's excited. Hey, sometimes things just work out for a reason, right? For Giles right now, it's been good. Probably for him it's been fun. He's playing in something he's more built for instead of what it was."

What a difference a year makes.

Pooler has gone from an afterthought to someone who is getting a large amount of practice reps. He's used them to earn the trust of the coaches and his teammates, and it has allowed Pooler's confidence to grow exponentially.

"I think so. I think I was very fortunate to end up in this system," said Pooler, who played at Rocky Mountain High School before playing a year in Kentucky. "I love the amount of reps we've gotten in spring ball. That's really helped me with my confidence, being able to see what I'm learning and being able to go out and do it on the field. Everyone in the room in general has built a lot of confidence with the amount of reps we're getting.

"Compared to last year, my confidence has grown a lot. The reps and the coaching have given me the most confidence. I've been able to learn from Coach Mumme; he's taught me a lot and I've been able to do it is the other thing with a lot of reps, so I think that's helped me build confidence. I've seen myself get better over time and that's a great confidence builder, seeing yourself get better."

The quarterbacks and their coaches are not the only folks taking notice of their progression, or their age. The people they share the huddle with have been taking notes, and like Mumme, there isn't any concern.

With Saturday's spring game looming at Canvas Stadium, offensive lineman Dante Bivens believes the huddle, and in turn, the offense, is in pretty good hands.

"They're doing pretty good. We know they're younger, so we have to pick it up on our side and protect them and give them the best opportunity every day to compete," he said. "They're definitely leaders. They're trying to get it right."

The end of spring signals the start of the next few phases, the summer work the players will do on their own, followed by the ramped-up focus of fall camp. Time is of the essence with a group this young, but there is time.

Which is what is part of what has impressed Mumme most about Pooler. None of them is a finished product – far from it – but there are aspects they are collecting to get them closer to completing the toolbelt they need.

With Pooler, it has been his overall approach.

"Just his calmness. He has a way where he just kind of stands in there and he does a really nice job of calling plays and getting us into the right plays," Mumme said. "Has he wowed me with his arm down the field? Not really, but Clay hasn't thrown a lot of down-the-field balls here in the spring either, so that's something we need to work on moving forward. We spend some time at the end of practice with Giles and Clay and Ty McCullough and Tory Horton and working on timing, of us getting those balls out and getting them in front of them and giving them a chance to run underneath them."

As for the two newest – true freshmen Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and Jackson Stratton – Mumme feels good about the knowledge they've gained, but he's waiting for the game to slow down for them, to make better initial reads and anticipate throws quicker and where to put them.

There's the other side of the room Mumme is fully aware of, and that's a large group all within a year of each other. Only one of them can play at a time, and while he hopes all will remain Rams, he understands how it works, and in every position room, coaches are looking for balance, not a bunch.

Yet most importantly, the group has helped put his mind at ease, even changed some plans. Mumme would be lying if he said he wasn't considering going out and finding some veteran leadership when spring camp started.

"No. I'm good," he said. "At this point, maybe before spring I was pondering the thought, but being that we're almost done, I think we're in a good shape."

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