Football coaches are all about preparation and repetition. Now for the Holy Cross football team there's been a lot of that virtually, there has not been a lot of that in full pads on the field. They are opening up their season a week from Saturday at Lehigh. Now they do have a lot of guys with game experience and they'll be leaning on them and their experience with a very shortened time to prepare for the season. 

Crusader quarterback Connor Degenhardt, "Yeah like I feel the game has slowed down for me this year. When I'm out here in team situations or even running drills I can picture certain plays from last year and stuff that's relevant, ways that I have to make throws, certain things that I saw last year. So everything's slowed down for me this year. I'm able to see things a lot better. I have a lot more confidence in myself and my abilities and I feel a lot better going into this year than I did going into Navy last year." 

Holy Cross running back Peter Oliver, "Yeah I think having experience. It's a new offense but there are a lot of similarities to what we have been doing and just being able to show guys different tips and ticks as you're going through things like that are super beneficial."

Defensive back John Smith, "Every game rep that I get is continuing to add on to the experience that I continue to progress. It comes from practice as well but leading up to now I was projected to be a pre-season First Team All-Patriot League and I want to continue that and I want to show the reason why."

Holy Cross head coach Bob Chesney, "So that's what this thing's all about right? Is being able to test it in fire. So for us we're going to make sure there's compete periods in here. We're going to make sure that any situation that maybe ailed us in the past is addressed and we have a deep understanding of because there is really no other way to do it right now. If you wait to get your experience from a game it's going to be way too late so having those veterans, having those guys that have been in those situations before certainly adds a ton of value to this team and allows them even in our virtual meetings to lead."

Holy Cross opening up on the road March 13 at Lehigh. 

Kevin Shea reporting.