GOLDEN — When Bob Stitt first arrived at Colorado School of Mines in 2000, the program had only two winning seasons in two decades. So in Stitt’s inaugural year, when his Orediggers went 2-8, the goal was to just win some quarters.

Starting his second stint as Mines’ head coach this fall, his and the Orediggers’ goals are much larger than that. But Stitt is focused on making sure his players don’t get ahead of themselves.

The Orediggers, now a Division II powerhouse, didn’t make the playoffs last season after consecutive national championship appearances in 2022 and ’23. And that’s cause for concern around Golden these days — partly because of what Stitt built during his first stint at Mines, and also because of what followed in his wake.

“We had a really good football team last year, b

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