Never them, always us: WIU football coaching staff keeps focus simple as training camp nears

MACOMB, Ill. — There’s a phrase first-year Western Illinois University football coach Joe Davis dropped during his time talking to media members during Wednesday’s Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Virtual Media Day that the Leathernecks better be prepared to hear often.

Never them, always us.

WIU is venturing into new territory this fall, having left the Missouri Valley Football Conference to become part of the Big South-OVC. It coincides with having a new coaching staff after Davis was hired in January and a largely new roster.

When training camp begins in early August, the Leathernecks will have 65 or more new players. The combination of new faces on the field, new coaches on the sideline and a program that hasn’t won a game since 2021 is why WIU was selected ninth out of nine teams in the league’s preseason poll.

So worrying about new road trips, new game day environments and a new league isn’t worth the Leathernecks’ time. They have to worry about setting their own standard first.

“It’s not about the opponent. It’s not about the stadium or the conference. It’s about us,” Davis said. “It’s about being the best version of ourselves every single day.”

The Leathernecks believe this coaching staff is guiding them in that direction.

“This is more organized and this coaching staff knows what they want,” senior linebacker Juan DelaCruz said. “They do their best to preach it towards us to make us understand what the standard is and what they need from us. All we have to do is go out there and get it.”

There’s plenty of work to do before that opportunity comes August 31 at Northern Illinois. It’s the first of three consecutive road games — the second of which is at Indiana — that should adequately prepare the Leathernecks for the rigors of the Big South-OVC.

But time is needed with so many new faces.

“There are still a lot of unknowns about our team,” Davis said.

That’s an opportunity as much as it is a challenge.

“How do you get those 65-plus new guys integrated? How do you figure out what pieces fit where? Those are challenges,” Davis said. “But I’ll be honest with you, those are the fun challenges as a coach. Those are the things we look forward to — getting to work with players and watching them develop and really adapt our football scheme to the strengths of the players we have.

“That’s going to be the challenge. That’s going to be the focus.”

The goal is to put a team on the field that is competitive now with the chance to be highly competitive in the future. 

It takes experience to reach that level.

“Our hope and prayer and our job as coaches is to develop these young men and figure out a way to put the best 11 guys on the field every snap,” Davis said. “So we have some work to do over the next four to six weeks to figure out who those guys are.”