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The Baylor football players have seen the program turned upside down in the last two months following the firing of coach Art Briles.

They’ve watched Baylor signees transfer to other schools and veteran teammates leave.

After such a tumultuous offseason, there might not be a group of players in the nation more anxious to start preseason practice than Baylor Thursday afternoon.

“We’re down right now but we’re going to build it back up again,” Baylor senior quarterback Seth Russell said. “We’re going to try to do things the right way and try to win ballgames.”

There isn’t a school in the country that has received more negative publicity than Baylor in the last two months following the release of the Pepper Hamilton report that summarized the sexual assault issues in the football program.

Following all the player defections, the Bears will head into preseason drills with close to 70 of the maximum 85 scholarship players. Interim coach Jim Grobe plans to bring in about 30 walk-ons, and there’s a chance some players could see action both ways.