Al Bagnoli discusses upcoming Penn football season

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A year ago, expectations were huge for the Penn football team. The media picked the Quakers to finish first in the league and threepeat as Ivy champs. Instead, a team that lost 33 seniors from the previous season finished with a 4-3 league record and ended up in a four-way tie for second place.

After a disappointing 2011, coach Al Bagnoli said his team has a different mindset coming into this season.

"I think our focus is much better, our work ethic is much better, I just think our attention to detail is much better," he said during Tuesday's Ivy League media teleconference. "Coming off a year where we graduated 33 seniors, it was probably unrealistic to think that we were going to go and not have any snags along the way ... It was a learning experience for us and a great reminder of how fragile everything in this league actually is and how hard you have to work. It was a life lesson starting with me on down, and I think our kids really went after the offseason program and I see them now as being excited and motivated and focused. Hopefully that translates to getting things back on track."

Penn has 17 returning starters, and Bagnoli emphasized that their experiences and maturity will greatly benefit the team this season.

"We have the chance to be a pretty solid football team," he said. "We have a lot of kids back at virtually all the positions. I think we have as good a chance as anyone else to be a pretty solid football team and we've got to put it all together."

Check after the jump for more from Bagnoli about the upcoming season.

On quarterback Billy Ragone's improvement:

I think he had a pretty solid year last year. His numbers improved and I don’t think we played well around him, but he improved. He wasn’t as dynamic of a runner as he was the year before, but I think you can kind of see the maturity and his understanding of the leadership role, and just his improvement overall as a quarterback, in terms of throwing and in terms of being the field general.

He’s worked very hard and he’s come back on campus. He looks good physically. He’s coming off a really good spring. He’s a very dynamic athlete so he gives you some of those intangibles and that ability to kind of hurt you not only throwing the ball but also running the ball. And he’s a kid now that has a lot of snaps under his belt, so we’re optimistic that he can become one of the better, if not the best, quarterback in the league. Now, we just have to get some consistency from him and out of the players around him.

Lyle was cleared to play in the spring and he responded really well to spring workouts. We were cautious with him and didn't let him go all-out for 12 practices but we did put him in some contact scenarios.

He's such a positive kid that it's great to have him out there. He brings an energy and a great deal of versatility to our offense. Each of the last two seasons, we've lost him to injuries early in the year in non-league games and both times they were season-ending injuries. We are a deeper, more versatile, better team with Lyle than we are without him. We're hopeful that he can take the improvements he made in the spring into the fall and stay healthy the entire year because he's obviously a talented kid.

We’re obviously delighted to have him. He was a great high school player and has tremendous versatility, not only as a receiver but also as a returner. He’s an explosive player and hopefully can stretch the field for us. We’re going to give him an opportunity to get on the field. It’s going to be up to him as to whether he can take that next step as quickly as we hope he can. It’s really going to be up to him.

We think we recruited well and we’re certainly pleased to have him and hopefully he can take that next step quickly and can provide that game-breaking ability we’re all looking for.