That small group includes senior receiver Marvin Session. The Texas native, recruited to Weber State by Jay Hill and company, has 45 catches for 542 yards and two touchdowns over the last two seasons. He redshirted the 2022 season and is still at WSU, hoping to find that success again as he finishes his college career.

“I enjoy Ogden,” he said. “And I just want to see Weber State win again.”

That third head coach is Eric Kjar, taking over after three years under Mickey Mental in which the Wildcats went 13-20.

So far, Session is happy with the change as WSU now begins its third week of spring camp.

Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics

“Great coach. He brought the fun back for football,” Session said. “The past three years haven’t really been fun; it was always serious, serious, serious. I think (Kjar) has the balance of being serious and also having fun because at the end of the day, this is football. We’ve been playing since we were kids, and we play because we had fun when we first started. So bringing that back has helped.”

Session says for him, spring has mostly been about trying to learn a new offense — “We’re slinging the rock around, a lot of big plays” — and finding his footing as a more vocal leader. In his evaluation, players are “pushing each other more” than they have in the past.

He wasn’t worried about Kjar’s hire straight from the high school ranks.

“I wasn’t negative about it. I liked the move because I already knew he was an offensive guy, and also, he wins,” he said. “That’s all you really want in a head coach, is a coach that wins.”

Defensive ends coach James Cowser is one of a few retained coaches; he, too is with his third head coach in his time at Weber State (and, as he points out, his fifth in three years, having coached under Paul Peterson and Lance Anderson at Utah Tech before returning to WSU).

Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics

Along with Kjar’s offense, Gavin Fowler comes to Weber State from BYU to call the defense similar to Hill’s but “with his own changes,” so, Cowser says, the near-overhaul has been good, and spring ball is a good time for it.

“Everyone’s starting over from ground zero, so you get to start with culture, with little things. It’s like a fresh restart,” Cowser said. “We get to focus on the little things like, are you going to run to the ball every play? Are you going to strain with everything you have? You hope as a program and culture builds, it keeps carrying on, but we lost a lot of games last year. So we needed that reset.

“We get to use that reset to focus on little things that directly lead to wins, directly lead to good play — which is effort, fundamentals, technique. … It’s fun to let kids not stress so much about depth chart, about A, B or C. This is new for everybody. So are you going to play your butt off? And then everything just kind of rolls from there.”

Cowser realizes he was part of the coaching staff that let things slip.

“You take it to heart. I’m sitting there (counting) things I did wrong, things I need to do better. I’m very blessed to come back and be able to swing again,” he said. “But now everything’s new, everything’s fresh. Who do you want to be? Who do we want this team to be? And we start directing the ship that way.”

As for the man in charge, Cowser was familiar with Kjar before but said it’s been educational to see him in action and get a feel for what Weber State could be as a program.

“Everybody talks about how he comes from a winning culture, but you don’t know the ins and outs,” Cowser said. “He sets high expectations and expects everybody to raise to meet them. … He sets the standard, and it’s sticking there.

“I didn’t necessarily know how he ran his program, but it makes complete sense why he was successful. He’s: ‘we’re going to win, this is what it takes, raise to my level,'” Cowser continued. “And he’s got some intensity to him. He’s got fire, he’s passionate, he’s sharp. You put that together, and it’s get in or get out, essentially. Catch the vision or go; the guys are starting to catch the vision, and it’s fun.”