When University of Charleston coach Pat Kirkland watches his players out on the field, he sees a group that has evolved over the course of the offseason.
Coming off a difficult 2016 - one that began with optimism and the chance to do great things and ended in a disappointing three-win season - the Golden Eagles entered preseason camp this week knowing they didn't want a repeat of what just happened.
"It was miserable," Kirkland said. "You always want to learn from your past, whether they were mistakes or successes, and our guys have done that. Last year, we had some injuries and things like that also, but we lost sight of the little things. We didn't give consistent effort, our discipline wasn't consistent - that shows late in close games."
After that season, several of the key players returning for 2017 came together and discussed how they could go about resolving some of the issues. UC had gone from a team in 2015 that played together and earned its first playoff berth to a group in 2016 hit hard by injuries that struggled to play as a team.
Many of this year's seniors know this is their final chance at another postseason run and they don't want to let it go to waste.
"We came together in the summer and made that decision. We aren't going to let what happened last year be our outcome this time around," running back Tevion Cappe said. "As a team, we took that really hard last year, but we can already see a difference. We're all on the same page and now we're using came to make sure we're clicking when the season starts."
Kirkland has seen the difference, and he knows that it starts with the seniors like Cappe, Zaire Lewis, Luke Sears, and several other players from a group that the Golden Eagles' coach said brings the type of leadership he hasn't seen much in his coaching career.
"I see a change every day, every meeting and practice when I watch them. A big part of it comes from those seniors," Kirkland said. "They've definitely taken ownership of this program and have been great role models for our young guys."
The Golden Eagles wear a chip on their shoulders this preseason, knowing what could have been in 2016 if all things went right. After a tough campaign, Kirkland has seen the team come into spring practice and now fall camp with the type of intensity and effort he didn't always see a year ago.
"It was a humbling experience for sure, and ultimately as the head coach that falls on my shoulders," Kirkland said. "But we had opportunities and, as frustrating as it was back then, we can look now and see just how close we were to being a great football team and having the chance to have a much different season than we did had we stayed disciplined, played with great effort and executed those little things on a consistent basis."
In order to get past the difficulties that came with the 2016 season, UC's football players needed to turn the page and start over. The less they dwell on what happened in the past and focus on what can be possible in the future, the better their chances are of reaching 2015's level of success and continuing to pick up from the promise that season provided the program.
"Last year was a really tough pill to swallow, but we've moved on. We have to. It doesn't do much to constantly think about that," defensive end Kahzin Daniels said. "We've got a lot of guys back, we've got a lot of really good new guys itching to get out here with us. We just want to get out here and be ready for September 2, we want the season to start."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.