The past three weeks have not been what Club Football imagined they’d be when they set out to bring football back to DePaul.

Having been outscored 122-16 during that time, DePaul sits 0-3 heading into their bye week. But despite the lopsided scores so far, the team said they are getting better each game.

“It’s a learning process,” DePaul head coach Carlos Jones said. “Everyone is growing. They are learning to understand what it takes to win. We know it’s not going to be easy being a first-year team.”

Like every week, the majority of the team spent their Thursday night gathered in the Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center to review film of their latest game. The team’s most recent loss came Oct. 11 on the road against No. 8 Miami of Ohio where the Blue Demons were blown out 42-0.

When reviewing the tape, the team pointed out small mistakes that they made throughout the game.  Jones told the team that the mistakes they were making caused the group to beat themselves.

The first three games have been a series of lopsided defeats for the Blue Demons. Before losing 42-0, DePaul lost 50-8 against Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and 30-8 to Loyola in their first game of the year.

Club Football President Riley Halligan said that the team is better than the box scores have indicated.

“Morale is getting higher each week,” Halligan said. “The scores don’t affect morale that much on a macro scale. The scores are keeping guys focused.”

Halligan said the biggest problem DePaul has isn’t a lack of talent, but more so a lack of depth. The team started the season off with 29 players, which is short of the 35 players needed for Club Football. In addition to that, the team is also dealing with a number of injuries that have required other players to play multiple sides of the ball.

Robert Gutierrez is one of the players challenged with playing many positions on both offense and defense.

“We need to execute better and do the things we are capable of doing,” Gutierrez said.

With four games left, there is still time for DePaul to turn the season around. But Jones said he doesn’t have a finite number of games he needs the team to win. Instead, he just wants his team to improve every day on the practice field.  Good practice habits, he said, along with tough play on the field can close the gap on the scoreboard.
DePaul’s next game is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 25 at Robert Morris University, Peoria.