On a rainy Wednesday afternoon in Golden, Mines Head Coach Brandon Moore finally felt that week after winning feeling, “I think it took a little too long but it was an awesome day,” said Moore. “I couldn’t have drawn it up any better.”
Moore is in his first season as the Head Coach of the Orediggers. He was hired after longtime coach Greg Brandon retired following the 2021 season, a season where Mines went to the Final Four of the Division II national playoffs.
The first two games under Moore in 2022 didn’t go as planned, though. He had to endure two straight three point losses, with the second coming at home in Overtime, on a last second field goal at the buzzer.
“It got difficult to try and figure out what the problem was, and to fix issues, and to do those certain things, but that’s what we do, during the normal course of the week anyway. Whether we win or lose, we’re always gonna go back and reassess.”
After Mines put up a program record-tying 84 points in Saturday’s win at Adams State, Moore was given a celebratory Gatorade shower, “That was exciting,” Moore smiled. “That was my first time ever experiencing anything like that. I was happy that the boys got to do that.”
Senior linebacker Nolan Reeve, was one of the players giving Moore his Gatorade shower, “Starting Monday, we were like, hey he deserves this. We can’t be leaving him out to dry by three points every game, he needs one. He needs a great year. He doesn’t need this, you know, shabby transition year that a lot of teams go through after a head coaching change.”
Moore acknowledged his phone blew up with messages from past and present colleagues of his. He also mentioned that there was a mini celebration with the coaching staff after his first win, but he says there are bigger things to get excited about, “Since that staff is so cohesive and since we’ve all been here, I think that we all have an expectation of where we want to be and what we want to do. I think we’re saving the big celebration for that.”