2024 BOWL:Â lost to Toledo 48-46 in six OTs in GameAbove Sports Bowl
RETURNING STARTERS:Â 7 on offense, 7 on defense
KEY PLAYERS:Â QB Eli Holstein, RB-RS Desmond Reid, DT Nick James, LB Kyle Louis, LB Rasheem Biles
KEY LOSSES: WR Konata Mumpfield, TE Gavin Bartholomew, OT Branson Taylor, S Donovan McMillan, PK Ben Sauls
PAT NARDUZZI ON THE TEAM LOSING ITS FINAL SIX GAMES LAST YEAR AFTER A 7-0 START: "You look at the Cal game, we lose our left side of the line. The next game, we try to put a backup in there, doesn't go so well. So then we move our right tackle to left tackle the next game. You've got to stay healthy. And the team that can stay healthy and have a little bit of luck helps you win a championship. We had a chance to win 11 games last year; four of them we didn't finish. We take ownership of what happened last year. It's all of our faults. It's players, coaches, trainers, equipment guys. We all screwed up. I think our guys have an edge to them this offseason. They know what happened."
NARDUZZI ON HOW HE'D LIKE QB ELI HOLSTEIN TO IMPROVE: "Studying the game of football more — his overall knowledge of football and using a computer, just being a video rat. Great quarterbacks are video rats. They want to go watch all the video they can. And that mental preparation of the video work and putting that time in is critical. After practice, after your quarterback meeting, what he's doing in his free time, that will make or break you."
RB DESMOND REID ON THE OFFENSE: "Year 1 (last season) could always be hard when a new O.C. (Kade Bell) comes, a new player (Reid) comes. it's not going to be the best. When you look at some of our plays from last year, it was just mental mistakes (that hurt), stuff that'd be easy to fix. Going into this year, that's been a main focus, trying to fix the mental mistakes."
