Having recently been in the shoes of his new teammates, Ford knows the importance of bonding off the field. He and his fellow defensive backs can be found further binding their brotherhood through fishing, bowling, or hiking, as they have recently on Kennesaw and Stone Mountains.
In April, the whole team exchanged helmets and pads for the goggles and thrills of a paintballing trip with the same fun-infused bond-building in mind.
“That builds camaraderie and breaks tension so we can really help each other and keep each other accountable,” Patterson said. “After paintballing together, it’s not awkward when you’re correcting a guy on the field.”
Given the current transitory nature of college football, it's worth exploring why proven playmakers such as Patterson, Ford and Hopson chose to return to the Owls in 2026. All three players’ responses indicated two shared purposes in their return: honoring relationships with coaches and continuing to build a legacy at KSU.
“I love the position of leadership the coaches have put me in,” Hopson said. “They’ve trusted me since day one. I was coming off an injury when they first got here, and they took a chance on me.”
Hopson also cites his relationship with the Kennesaw community as a contributing factor in his return. A native of South Georgia’s Leesburg, much of Hopson’s family has followed him north and enjoys cheering him on at Fifth Third Stadium.
“The university started to mean something to me,” Hopson said. “The way the city and the school rallied around us, that meant a lot to me and made it feel like home.”
Ford also stayed to honor the trust of the coaches who brought him here and the family atmosphere they’ve created.
“They’re always there for all of the players,” Ford said. “They’re very transparent with us. That stuck with me.”
Patterson feels established in Kennesaw and acknowledges that the 2025 team’s historic CUSA Championship and bowl-berth season are not the finished product, but just steps in the legacy he wants to build here.
“Building on top of what we did last year is the main goal,” Patterson said.
Ford echoed this, saying, “Winning one championship is amazing, but being able to come back and do it again is very impressive.”
While repeating last season’s success lives in the back of each player’s mind, Hopson and Patterson insist that this new KSU team is focused on preparing one day at a time for a new season.
“It’s all about starting fresh,” Hopson said. “Yes, we won last year, but at the same time, it’s a new team, it’s a new situation, it’s a new conference.”
Following the departure of Louisiana Tech and UTEP, the new-look,10-team CUSA offers the Owls a regular-season schedule in which they face every league counterpart except New Mexico State.
While the institutions KSU will face in 2026 are largely the same, the personnel comprising each opponent has changed vastly. CUSA teams enter the season averaging 47% returning production, according to ESPN’s Bill Connelly.
As the Owls work to coalesce into a new team prepared to face new challenges and take the program’s next step, attention to detail, to the little things that affect winning, has taken center stage.
“Lining up just a few inches offside can result in a flag, and that can be the difference between preventing or allowing a touchdown,” Hopson said. “In our summer conditioning drills, if your hand is on the line, the rep won’t count. If you miss your time, the rep won’t count. We have a sense of urgency on perfecting the little things because come Saturday night, the game can go either way.”
Ford has fine-tuned his attention to the details of pre-snap communication.
“A big piece of winning is being able to command the defense and get everybody set up,” Ford said. “When you win the beginning of the down, the rest of the down becomes easy when you actually have to play.”
There may be a new look to KSU’s roster, a new look to the conference and new urgency for helping the program meet new milestones, but Hopson has observed a common thread between last season’s team and this one:
“A lot of the new guys, and even a lot of the returners, have a chip on their shoulder,” Hopson said. “That came out in last year’s team; we were a scrappy bunch and we found ways to win. I think it will be a lot of the same this year.”
In an era of college football where the only constant seems to be change, with roving rules and rosters, building a brotherhood, winning games, securing a bowl bid and winning a conference championship are ever-moving targets.
And yet, these Owls have proven that they will hit everything that moves.
