BEAUMONT, Texas – Approximately 110 players reported to campus Thursday afternoon for the start of football preseason camp. The 2024 season, which will be the second year at the helm for head coach Pete Rossomando, got started with team meetings as the Cardinals will take to the field Friday for their first workout.
 
Little was expected of the Cardinals in 2023, but Lamar methodically began rewrite the script under Rossomando's direction. After an 0-3 start against teams that included a top 10 squad, two teams that would go on to be national seeds in the FCS playoffs and two road games (including FBS UL Monroe) many of the pundits thought they had LU figured out. But, the Cardinals responded by rattling off wins in their next four games and opening conference play 3-0 – its best conference start since the 1960s.
 
Proving it was no fluke, the Cardinals remained in the title hunt until the next to last week of the season. Flash forward nine months, and excitement for a new season in the Golden Triangle is greater than it has been since LU made a run to the 2018 playoffs.
 
Proof of the excitement comes directly from the Southland Conference's media day in San Antonio last month where LU had 12 players named to the preseason all-conference team and was picked fourth – with a first-place vote – in the preseason poll. Obviously, preseason teams and polls exist for no other reason than to give fans a reason to trash talk and provide media a story opportunity, but one thing can be gleaned from preseason polls – excitement and energy.
 
Not every preseason all-conference selection will wind up on the postseason team but the Cardinals' 12 selections this season are more than the team has received in the previous six years combined. It was LU's highest preseason selection in a poll since 2016.
 
For Lamar to meet those higher expectations a lot of things have to come together just right, health always plays a big role and let's face it a little good luck is never a bad thing.
 
The Cardinals return to Beaumont with the luxury of having 52 returning letterwinners and 20 returning starters, 10 of which are the offensive side of the ball. Lamar will kick off the 2024 regular-season schedule Saturday, Aug. 31 at Texas State. Following the road game, the Cardinals return home for three consecutive games.