That's because the Division III Ursinus Bears are bringing back a lot of talent from a 2018 team that went 8-3 (6-3 in the Centennial Conference) and wrapped up its campaign with a 70-14 win over Misericordia University in the Centennial/MAC Bowl Series.
"There haven't been a whole lot of years that I've been here, in my 19 (years), that you come into camp pretty confident how things are going to shake out, at least in the two deep," Ursinus head coach Pete Gallagher told KYW Newsradio. "That's not taking anything away from the recruiting class that we brought in, because we feel we've brought in some talented kids, but we're pretty much where we thought we were going to be coming out of the spring."
The Bears have a special talent at quarterback in senior Tom Garlick. He threw for 2,772 yards and 17 touchdowns last year, while rushing for nearly 300 yards and six more scores. He holds all kinds of program records, including for career completions and yards, and he needs ten passing touchdowns to set that career mark.
"Tom's certainly the straw that stirs the drink and he's done an excellent job growing into an elite quarterback," Gallagher said. "What does that mean? That just means understanding his progressions, understanding when to check the ball down, when to take a strike, when to change the protection, when to get out of this play. Certainly to have him out there from that gives you a great comfort level. Then, he's the ultimate competitor, no matter what the situation is and our kids rally around him, and we're excited to have one more go around with Tom and looking forward to seeing how far he can take us."
On offense, Ursinus will also feature dual threat junior running back Samuel Ragland, who rushed for 954 yards and 18 touchdowns, while catching a team high 56 passes for 645 yards and four more touchdowns in 2018.
Last year, the Bears allowed just under 21 points a game and Gallagher says they have a lot to offer on defense.
"The strength in our unit is the number of kids that we're going to be able to put in a football game," Gallagher said. "Having (defensive coordinator Steve Devlin) back for a second year and having a lot of kids back that went through the winter program, went through another spring with Coach Devlin, I think that we have a tremendous amount of depth at most positions."
Ursinus will open up its 2019 season on Saturday, Sept. 7 at home against Bethany College out of West Virginia.
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