Madibaz head coach David Maidza said the focus of the season was for the young squad to learn and grow.
"I went into the Varsity Cup with the belief that it would take a few games for us to really come together as a team.
"As the tournament wore on, I realised that we lacked a couple of things that we needed to work and improve on."
He said that, as a young squad, they had understandably been slightly behind some of the other more established teams in technical and tactical terms.
"We learned a lot of good lessons from this tournament that we can implement going forward," said Maidza.
With a number of the Madibaz's senior players graduating, Maidza said he and the other coaches were forced to take a long-term look at the team's growth.
"I think we've done the right thing in investing in the youngsters."
He said they were still dreaming of lifting the cup one day and will once again be pushing hard from next season.
"I think the structures that we've put in place bode well for NMMU's future as long as the students keep on putting in the hard yards.
"I'm excited about the future and hopefully we can retain the nucleus of this team for next year's campaign."
The Madibaz are set to participate in the Eastern Province Grand Challenge club competition, which starts in April.
"It is an opportunity for us to start building again and we are just hoping that we can put our structures in place to really use the campaign to our advantage ahead of next year's Varsity Cup."
In the FNB Varsity Young Guns competition, the FNB NMMU Young Guns looked set to secure a final slot when they went into the break 8-8 against Tuks following the main fixture.
They were however booted from the competition after slumping to a 34-8 loss at the final whistle.
Despite the loss, the local side enjoyed their most successful season after winning three out of four games.
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