LEWISBURG -- Tim Landis has been a winner at every school he's been at.
Now he's hungry for a Patriot League title.
With 17 starters (9 offense, 8 defense) and 39 lettermen returning, Bucknell held its annual spring game on Saturday afternoon at Christy Mathewson-Memorial stadium in conditions that felt more like August two-a-days.
Entering his seventh season as head coach in 2009, Landis is returning one of the largest groups of players in recent years.
"Any time you have veteran guys, it makes the whole operation run smoother," he said. "These guys know how we like our practices to go. They know what our offense and defensive schemes are and practice just flows better."
Landis was without 11 players for spring practice because they had postseason surgery.
Southern Columbia graduate Ian Fullmer did not practice in the spring, but the team is hoping to have him back for fall practice. Fullmer missed all of last season with a shoulder injury.
"The guys who were hurt did a great job in the weight room with our strength coach John Field. They didn't get a day off or come and to watch practice, they worked while we were out practicing," Landis said.
The Bison (5-6, 2-4 PL in 2008) ended last season in dramatic fashion with an overtime win over Fordham University. Bucknell opens the 2009 season on Sept. 5 at Duquesne.
"You had to work real hard to get championships," Landis said. "We want to be in the mix this year and we think we can be. Are we going to waltz right in and beat everybody because we have 23 seniors and a fair number of starters coming back? No. I mean, each team gets better as well. We just have to keep working on our goals."
When quarterback Marcello Trigg went down with a knee injury in the Holy Cross game last season, the Bison were 4-3.
"Our goal was, whether you were hurt, or a second-team player or a starter, you were going to get better," Landis said. "If you were able to practice, you were going to get better. If the only thing you could do was lift weights, you were going to get better."
On Saturday, freshman quarterback C.J. Hopson, who saw playing time last year when Trigg went down, had the first pass of the day picked off at the 1-yard line. Later, Hopson left the game with what Landis described as had a minor bruised shoulder.
Landis, who designs his spring game for certain situations, liked the fact that his team came ready to play.
In the "coming out drill," where the offense has their backs to their own end zone and the object is to get one first down, both the first and second teams were able to achieve that, which pleased Landis.
Among the big plays of the day was a 50-yard screen pass that went for a touchdown from freshman quarterback Burke Batten to sophomore wide receiver Marlon Woods.
Sophomore wide receiver Shaun Pasternak, whom Landis considers to be as good as any of the receivers in the conference, had several nice catches, including a touchdown reception in the overtime period.
The receiving corps received praise from Landis for their work on Saturday afternoon, including Mifflinburg graduate Levi Finsterbush, who is coming along after making the switch from defense to wideout.
"Levi had a very nice catch coming across the middle and he's blocked very well all spring and he's really improved his physical approach to the game," Landis noted. "He struggled a little bit early in camp with being consistent in catching the ball, but over the last four or five practices, he's really come on and become a complete receive. He'll be a really good No. 3 guy for us next year with Cale Cadman and Pasternak back as starters."
"It's been a little tough tying to adjust to the college receiving level," Finsterbush said. "I feel a lot more comfortable with my hands and route running."
Defensively, Landis was pleased with the way the unit put pressure on the quarterback.
"I thought the defense started to play better when we got into the drive sequence of the scrimmage and they came up with a big turnover in the red zone."
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