Roughly halfway through the 2019 season, the Southwestern Pirates were forced to scrap their playbook after injuries swept through the entirety of the depth chart at quarterback. 

On the road against Belhaven University, the Pirates placed wide receiver-turned-quarterback J.J. Slack, a freshman, under center—which in itself was a new position for the normally shotgun-based offense. The Pirates responded with a 31–21 win. Between racking up 277 rushing yards and controlling possession for over 34 minutes, it was one of the few times last season that the Pirates bore a passing resemblance to the program that put together three consecutive winning seasons. 

Though injuries ended that streak and the Pirates closed with a 4–6 season, head coach Joe Austin sees it more as an opportunity to refocus than a need for a complete reset. 

"Having three straight winning seasons, I think we had gotten a little bit away from the process and looked more at the wins and losses," Austin says. "Last year I think was a really good opportunity to dig back into how working through the process of being good is how we got to winning the SCAC championship in 2016 and two consecutive winning seasons in the ASC. We're definitely going to be back to process for this season." 

The final vestiges of the Pirates' 2016 championship roster left with last year's seniors, who were freshmen when the first members of the modern program were seniors. With them goes the final player-to-player connection to the original Pirates who built the reborn program into a winner in just four years. 

In that way, this season marks a new era in the young history of this program. 

Fortunately for Southwestern, the foundations that built the program into a winner remain. More important than any playbook or single player is the "Standard of Performance," a 52-page document Austin instituted in the very first year of the program. 

The document is broken up into a mission statement and three sections that cover everything from daily routines and codes of ethics to travel guidelines and school traditions. Its origins go back to Austin's time as head coach at Hanover College. 

"When I became the head coach at Hanover, I assumed the returning players had an idea of how to do things," Austin recalls. "The first year was more of a mess than I wanted it to be, so I decided if I ever changed jobs again, I would lay out a manual for how the program would be run."

Austin took the idea and name directly from NFL coaching legend Bill Walsh, who instituted his own standard of performance for the San Francisco 49ers. 

The document is meticulous, setting guidelines for how to succeed on the field and off by focusing on things like time management, nutrition, and the habits of a good student. The goal is to meet the mission of the program: "To prepare our student-athletes for lifelong success as husbands, as fathers, and in their vocations." 

The Southwestern football program is a process-over-results institution. Two quotes from coaching legends that appear at the top of the first section—Bill Walsh's "Do our best, reach our potential. Winning takes care of itself" and John Wooden's "Do not mistake activity for accomplishment"—reinforce this emphasis.

A key component of the document is a list of virtues called "The Southwestern Man." The list, which was drafted by a committee of eight players, was a second-year amendment to the original document. 

"Going into that second year, I thought we had enough maturity on the team to ask for volunteers to come up with team virtues," Austin says. "I wanted them to have self-determination. It's one thing to be dictated to by a coach or parent. Sometimes that doesn't carry as much weight as something they dictate to themselves. Having something presented by players to players carries more weight." 

The committee named and defined eight virtues: loving, mature, committed, sacrificing, passionate, relentless, courageous, and honorable. 

Defensive back DeeJay Johnson '17, a member of the committee, came up with the virtue committed, defined as: To be dedicated, pledged, or bound to our cause. 

"To succeed, it takes every single player being committed to their job, from the starters to the supporting players," Johnson says. "The goal of the Southwestern Man is to set guidelines for performance on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. Once every player accepted those words, that's when we started seeing success happening." 

By focusing on the process and recognizing individual improvement across the roster, the Pirates ensure that even a down season isn't a lost one.

At the beginning of the program, the coaching staff would show its winless team how the same play was run each game, pointing out the week-to-week improvement. 

"We believe in moral victories, in small, incremental victories, in getting better every day," Austin says. "If we had a slogan, it would be 'Constant improvement.'" 

For the young players who got unexpected opportunities last season, you could see that improvement not just from week to week, but from play to play. 

Nowhere was that more apparent than in the defensive backfield. The Pirates started the season expecting 11 returning starters from a successful 2018 campaign. A few weeks in, Southwestern was changing defensive alignments on the fly just to field a healthy lineup. 

Slack moved from quarterback to defensive back and fellow first-years Peyton Ludemann and Payton Vaughn joined sophomore Jackson Reece in taking on expanded roles in sometimes patchwork defensive lineups. 

Reece and Ludemann finished second and third in total tackles with 46 and 45, trailing only senior Josiah Minnifield. The duo also combined for eight pass breakups and Reece recorded one interception. Vaughn finished with 38 tackles and two fumble recoveries despite being banged up for a good part of the season. 

"[Vaughn] did really well in his first year," Austin says. "Even though he was limited by injuries, he's a player we strongly feel we can build around."

According to Johnson, that type of performance can be summed up by another one of the Pirates' virtues: courageous. 

"When I think of 'courageous,' it means you're not going to be great just staying in your comfort zone," Johnson says. "Sometimes you have to challenge yourself to step away from what you're used to so you can put yourself in a better situation. Even if it seems like a tougher road, it might put you in a better spot than you were in before." 

Heading into this season, the roster remains something of a blank slate with no clearly defined role but a clearly valuable set of characteristics. 

The Pirates enter the season with only one returning All-ASC selection on each side of the ball: junior offensive lineman Charles De La Rosa, who earned honorable mention last season, and Ben Brockman, who was an All-ASC selection in 2017 and 2018 before missing 2019 with an injury. But they also return with talented young players who made the best of new roles last season and are better prepared for what might come their way this season. Quarterbacks Coleman Kerr and Landry Gilpin displayed different skill sets in a limited time. Return specialist Austin Castilleja looks to thrive in an expanded role at wide receiver. Newcomer Nick Hackett joins returner Grant Mitchell to provide a steady presence on the defensive line, and defensive backs Vaughn, Reece, and Ludemann showed improvement in expanded roles throughout last season.

"A lot of guys got really good experience that will make them better down the road. We kept plugging away and fighting," Austin says. "Their focus was on constant improvement and how we could get better every practice. So, we've got some good returning players who will be here for several years in the future."

No matter who steps into which role this season, the culture will make sure every player is cut from the same cloth. In this new chapter of Southwestern football, these Pirates don't have to rewrite the entire playbook. They just need to give it their own unique twist.