It’s no secret now; change is in the air at Dix Stadium for the second year in a row, but it is being embraced in a much different way this year.

Last season, first-time head coach Darrell Hazell came in with an all-new staff and a new offense that players had never seen before. With new coaches came a whole different level of trust.

“When you come in as a new staff, and you come in with a different approach, but it sounds the same and you’re not winning, kids kind of think ‘aw here we go again’ until we start winning, and they kind of bought into the system,” Thad Jemison, wide receivers coach, said Monday. “What we see now is a carryover from last year, and you’ve got to win the kids.”

The coaches certainly appear to have won over the players.

With just one year of eligibility left, senior wide receiver Tyshon Goode said he is doing things he skipped last season in order to “redeem” himself. The coaches have noticed a change.

Jemison, who was critical of Goode last season, said he is proud of the player Goode has become. Noticing that Goode has been spending a lot of his free time studying film and working out in the field house, Jemison said Goode has done a lot of growing up this offseason.

“It was hard for him coming in last year; he didn’t know us, didn’t understand what we were expecting, and I think by him saying some of the things he said, now he gets it,” Jemison said. “He was in Saturday and Sunday watching film by himself. Last year, he wasn’t doing that. So for him, your heart goes out for a kid that, you know, in his senior year, and he wants to be good. So he has a chance, and if we can get all the guys doing that, well, we’ll be great; we’ll have a great season.”

Goode’s sophomore season in 2010 was a highlight year for the receiver with 59 catches for 743 yards and five touchdowns. Last season, Goode regressed with a new offense and struggled until the second half of the season but managed to salvage the year with 24 receptions for 316 yards and two touchdowns.

“I want to get everything I can get out of [this season],” Goode said. “Actually, I want to redeem myself for last year— I want to show these coaches as well as my teammates, that I can be the guy that they count on in tough situations and really just be that leader, the guy that can step up, the guy that they can go to on third and long.”

Hazell has noticed the fire behind Goode’s ambition to be the great player he is capable of being.

“He has been really good, right now,” Hazell said. “He’s been a leader. He’s helping those other guys out, and I think, with him, a lot of it has to do with understanding; he can’t communicate to the other guys until he understands it. I think he’s starting to get a pretty good understanding.”

Players are now in full pads for the first time since they took the field at Temple back on Nov. 25. A kick scrimmage is scheduled for Thursday from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.

Contact Matt Lofgren at [email protected] or @MLofgrenDKS.