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Spring Practice In The Books For Penn Quakers

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The University of Pennsylvania football team wrapped up its spring practice schedule over the weekend with the annual spring game.

Head coach Ray Priore liked what he saw during these off-season workouts.

"It was a good start to the 2016 campaign," Priore tells KYW Newsradio. "I think the kids did a great job over the winter program getting in shape, getting bigger and stronger and faster and we took that onto the field."

Listen to the entire interview with Penn head coach Ray Priore:

 

This is Priore's second season as Penn's head coach. His first ended in an Ivy League title, the Quakers sharing the 2015 crown with Harvard and Dartmouth. But Priore says they can't take anything for granted, despite last year's success.

"I think it's the mark of any program that wins, you have to get right back to square one," Priore says. "You've got to go back to the building blocks, the fundamentals and you can't start at step five or six or seven, you go back to the fundamentals, the things that were good for us last year, which is attention to detail, the little things. We started right back there. It does not mean that now, schematically, you can't do things a little different, because with a second-year offense, second-year defense, now you know a little bit better what your guys can or can not do, so you make those adjustments. But it all comes back to attention to detail."

Priore says the spring workouts provided an excellent opportunity to get a look at some of the younger players on the roster.

"We know where some of our upper classmen coming back, kids who played a lot, where they are," Priore says. "Obviously, we want to see them improve. Try some new things out, schematics we've done some research on during the winter months. But it's really an eye to the freshman and sophomores, kids who did not get a lot of playing time last year, really focusing to see where those guys will be falling into our two-deep come the fall."

Penn will open the 2016 season on September 17th against Lehigh at Franklin Field.

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