Weber State’s football team took to the gridiron Tuesday for the first of many fall camp practices, exactly one month from the team’s season opener at Northern Colorado.

With a new head coach and upwards of 70 new players, almost everything’s new for the Wildcats as they prepare for the 2026 season. Fifth-year senior and transfer quarterback Devin Brown says he likes what he sees from his teammates as they finally emerge from their summer practice sessions and tried to beat the heat of a late-July day with a morning practice.

“I’ve seen a different energy from when I first got here in the winter … from spring ball until now, I thought there was a totally different energy,” Brown said. “Obviously, there’s going to be excitement going into Practice 1; we’ve got to continue that the rest of fall camp because it will get long … but I think it was really good energy and we’ve made strides from where we were in the spring.”

After three years at Ohio State and another at Cal, Brown tries to help lead the team through fall camp as the Wildcats aim to do something more than they have in two straight 4-8 seasons.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

“I’ve had a lot of experience at a big-time level and the way we prepare here has been very, very good,” Brown said. “I think the biggest thing for us is just to stay focused out there. … There’s a lot of newness around here with new players, new staff; really it’s a whole new program. But I think we’ve done a lot of good things building up … I think we’re on the right track.”

Fifth-year senior safety Trevian Tribble is looking around to see how everyone approaches camp.

“I just want to see maximum effort. I want to see everybody buy in, and everybody can give full effort every day,” Tribble said. “We’re in fall camp now, we have a lot to do, so I want to see a lot of focus and energy through everything.”

First-year head coach Eric Kjar said he’s pleased with how associate head coach Tanner Jacobson has led the player leadership council and expects that group to set examples everywhere they go. That includes Brown, who he says has become more vocal as fall camp approached and has a calm confidence that players are getting behind.

It’s Kjar’s first college fall camp but he says it’s not too much different than his decades on high school fields, outside of having one practice each day instead of occasional two-a-days and days off peppered in.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

He said a “toughness mindset” is required to be ready to play next month.

“A mindset standpoint, and being mentally tough as they go into some of the things, and having the aches and pains that come along with that as they try to practice and work through that,” Kjar explained as the needed approach. “We have to still show up and be productive, and get things done, and guys have to continue to put themselves into position to win jobs.”

It’s hard to pin down anything for a team so entirely different than who took the field in 2025. Kjar says he likes where most of his position groups are at, but plenty of eyes will be on his offensive line and interior defensive line. Things are looking better than they were in spring camp, he says.

“They’re growing, they’re getting better. We’ve had better leadership across the board there. They’ve been a full offseason now into it where they’ve been able to build up strength and some physical tools that will help them be more productive as players,” Kjar said. “That’s really what we were hoping for. … We’ve really got to take some steps forward there.”

Overall, though, Tuesday mostly brought the usual pep-in-step smiles that the first day of fall camp brings.

“You get hungry to get back into it, which is what we were able to do today,” Kjar said. “So it was fun; good energy by our guys.”