St. Thomas football began its spring practice schedule on April 4 in preparation for a spring scrimmage game on May 4, as well as the opening of its 2024 season on August 29. 

Coming off of its 2023 season, in which it placed second in the Pioneer League (8-3, 7-1 Pioneer), the team picked up five new coaches — Caleb Corrill, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, previously at Mount St. Joseph University; Chace Gadapee, tight ends coach, from the University of Central Missouri; Reid Johnson, director of football operations and recruiting, from Syracuse University; Regi Trotter, cornerbacks coach — and married to softball coach Jennifer Trotter — previously at Central High School in St. Joseph, Mo. and Trevor Warner, safeties coach and video coordinator, from Stony Brook University.

Coach Glenn Caruso said that the program’s consistency is what attracts “high-end talent” to St. Thomas and gives coaches a chance to focus on further honing the team.  

“We have coaches that are coming out of here that are in the NFL, we have coaches that have come out of here that are at Power Five schools, and we’ve had great coaches that are at other colleges and high schools throughout the country,” Caruso said, “And if you ask them, what I hear when they reflect back: they were grateful for the systems that were in place because they didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

The offseason shuffle saw the departure of eight coaches: safeties coach Thomas Barber, quality control specialist Brady Beeson, offensive line coach Jeff Duvendeck, cornerbacks coach Brett Holinka, who moved to the University of Minnesota as a defensive analyst, offensive coordinator Jake Landry, director of on-campus recruiting Maddie Lyons, inside linebackers coach Joe Ties and director of video Noah Wing.

Caruso said that the team’s preparation was helped through utilizing Countable Athletics Related Activities hours — which the NCAA’s website defines as “any required activity with an athletics purpose that involves student-athletes and is at the direction of, or supervised by, any member of an institution’s coaching staff.”

Caruso said that the goal of these practices was “pure education,” allowing coaches to teach lessons in February and March that would not take up time in the spring and fall.

“When we (used to) come here in the fall, and you go out to practice in fall camp, you’re installing on the same day you’re practicing,” Caruso said. “Now this allows us to decompress the amount of education that’s put into a small period of time and do a lot of the classroom education and walkthrough stuff that we need to do a month and a half earlier so by the time you hit the fields, this has been reviewed three times already.”

Caruso called this the “purest form” of coaching, in which time management plays a key role.  

“If you look at the practice the other day, we were on the field for an hour and 30 minutes and that was it,” Caruso said. “And as long as we can be consistent with our teaching and our retention of information, then we can keep our players a lot healthier.” 

Caruso’s goal is foundational, too; the team’s core principles are a key focus during off-season training, especially due to the influence of roster changes.

Between seasons, the Tommies saw several key players enter the transfer portal — including junior wide receiver Andrew McElroy, who was named part of the 2023 Stats Perform Football Championship Preseason All-American Team, junior linebacker and first-team All-Conference member Jonathan Bunce and junior running back and third-team All-Conference member Shawn Shipman.

Conversely, the team added a total of 35 new players during signing season as of April 15. 

“When we get to fall camp, we’re going to have another 30 kids that are not here with us now because they’re in high school right now,” Caruso said. “So what I love most about how our guys look at the process is they understand that even though we want to be growing every day, they understand that there’s a portion of what we have to do that has to be retaught.”

Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.