SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A new season of Incarnate Word football is almost here, and on Thursday the team trotted out for their first organized practice of summer camp. <\/p>\n
Coming off a lackluster 5-7 season in 2025, head coach Clint Killough said it\u2019s important for the team to not get ahead of themselves, which was part of the problem last year. He said the team has mastered the techniques implemented throughout the offseason and is excited for their potential to get back to winning football. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a lot of intentional work this summer in terms of how to practice and how to be focused on the day \u2014 just the goal of being better every single day and not getting our eyes too far down the road,\u201d Killough said. <\/p>\n
According to Killough, the coaching staff doesn\u2019t harp too much on how last year went. But that doesn\u2019t mean the team isn\u2019t motivated by what went wrong. <\/p>\n
\u201cI put together a little video just to perk the hair on the back of their neck up last night, just to give them a little bit of extra motivation,\u201d Killough said. \u201cBut this is the 2026 football team. Every year is different in college football nowadays, so obviously they\u2019re aware of the mistakes that that team made last year. But that was last year, and we\u2019re focused on today.\u201d <\/p>\n
Defensive lineman Josh Gonzalez, who\u2019s been with UIW since 2021, said he feels the team is back at the level it was in 2024 when the Cardinals reached the second round of the FCS playoffs and won the Southland Conference with an 11-3 record. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting, especially that we\u2019re going to show people what talent we have now since last year, and we\u2019re ready to go,\u201d said Gonzalez. <\/p>\n
Like every team, the Cardinals are looking for a fast start, so Killough wanted to add \u201ca little something\u201d before practice to get the competitive juices pumping. <\/p>\n
Tug of war. <\/p>\n
Two players are matched up from each side of the ball, giving their teammates something to root for. The game appealed to Killough because it\u2019s low-contact and doesn\u2019t put players at risk of getting injured. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there\u2019s some rules around what we can do one-one-competition wise,\u201d Killough said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s a great way to start practice off, and y\u2019know, it\u2019s one-v-one and who\u2019s going to pull the other man.\u201d <\/p>\n
The team perhaps needed an injection of grit after losing a bit of their edge last season. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom last year, we (were) kind of, I guess, comfortable,\u201d wide receiver Isaiah Champagne said. \u201c(Weren\u2019t) really working as hard as we possibly could. I think this year the coaches are just pushing us to be better every day. That\u2019s our motive, better every day, and just keep on working.\u201d <\/p>\n
With opening day one month away, every goal for the season is still within reach, and maintaining that clean slate to work from every day will be key to Incarnate Word\u2019s long-term success. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe get an opportunity to be present in the day,\u201d Killough said, \u201cand these guys are really embodying that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Read also:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A new season of Incarnate Word football is almost here, and on Thursday the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83,154,1702],"class_list":["post-393028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sports","tag-uiw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}