In part three of Spectrum News 1's preview of the 2024 Holy Cross football season, Kevin Shea sat down with captains Joe Pesansky and Frankie Monte. 

After starting two games in 2023 for the injured Matt Sluka, Pesansky takes over the quarterback position for the Crusaders. He said the team has adapted well to the changes during the off-season.

"We experienced a lot of change over the last couple of months. There's a learning curve to everything," Pesansky said. Nothing's going to be easy, if it was easy everyone would do it. Everyone has handled it really well. Kids are diving into their playbook, kids are out here. We go throw and the receivers are bringing their playbooks out with them to get more reps, to learn it, to get better."

Senior linebacker Frankie Monte returns as the leader of the Crusaders defense. Monte said he likes the mix of experience and youth.

"We look really good," Monte said. "Obviously there's a learning curve to everything, but throughout the spring, we really put things together. Pretty seamless transition with Coach BV [Brian Vaganek] back there. The experience that those guys gained last year is just tremendous for our defense. They're coming in as very experienced players this year.

"On paper, we may look pretty young with a lot of sophomores out there, but they've started pretty much all season last year, so we're really excited about them."

Holy Cross opens the 2024 season at the University of Rhode Island on Saturday, August 31 at 7 p.m. Spectrum News 1 will air three Holy Cross football games live this season, starting with New Hampshire on September 6 at 2 p.m.