I am bullish on this current team. Joe Willie, I cannot speak for Nagle's overall record but I believe that he and his staff have assembled the parts for a great season and here is why. Some key take away's from last year.
1) Team was very young with predominantly underclassmen starters
2) After mixing a few lineups early settled in on a lineup and finished 7 and 4
3) Young team lost leads in 4th quarter and came back to win against Vermont, UML, and Hartford. That builds character and resolve
4) If Virginia game was 3 minutes longer?? Team put 6 straight on the board in the 4th quarter against #9 team in country. Tell me what other teams in D1 did that last year against a top 10 team. Again, character building
5) Penn State was a 2 goal game in the 4th quarter
6) Albany was a 2 goal game late in 3rd quarter when we missed a face break conversion that would have completely quited that crowd before the wheels fell off. We had 4,000 fans almost silent and stunned. PS we did not win a faceoff in that game, We were about 0 for 17 at that point. Meaning SB was winning the 6 on 6 battle
7) Vermont playoff game was a 1 goal game to start the 4th.
Reason I am mentioning losses because I think this team will learn from them.
9) If last year's team was 10% better on faceoffs and 50/50 groundballs alone, they would have had 10 wins. I believe they will be at least 10% better on these two items this year.
10) There are no gimmies in D1 lacrosse. I think the good and bad from last year and that the majority of the team returns puts them in a great position to take a big step forward