New London — Eli Maurer, one of the Coast Guard Academy's four starting defensive backs, once called the atmosphere "spirited" among the members of the secondary.

If a guy has two interceptions in a game, his buddies want to know why he didn't have three.

"We're all in the same class, Class of 2016," senior strong safety Joe Rizzardi said. "We had good role models — Drew Russo, Mark Bonner, Dante Adams, Evan Rothfeld. Now, we're all equally talented, we all fit into our roles well. We've been playing together. We've been saying that when we're seniors we have our best chance of going as far as we can.

"As a secondary, we want to be the most bad-ass unit on the field," Rizzardi said. "Like the 'Legion of Boom' in Seattle. We don't want to be cocky, but you play with a high level of confidence. Those guys in Seattle, they don't second-guess themselves; they come out and play hard. We had a saying in high school, 'Stay humble. Stay hungry.'"

Saturday marked the first practice of the season for Coast Guard, which will open the season Thursday night, Sept. 3, at home against Anna Maria.

The faces in the secondary were familiar ones, among them the four starters in Maurer (left cornerback), James Rizzo (right cornerback), Rizzardi and Mark Behne (free safety).

The group combined for 11 of the Bears' 13 interceptions last season, the third-best total in the New England Football Conference. Maurer led the way with five picks, while Rizzardi was second on the team with 85 tackles, earning first team all-conference honors. Behne had 55 tackles and three interceptions and was named to the NEFC second team.

Rizzardi was named to the USA Football Preseason All-America first team and Behne to the second team.

Coast Guard (3-7 overall, 2-5 NEFC) held conference opponents to 28 points or fewer in all seven games, including a 17-0 shutout of Curry on Oct. 11.

Coach Bill George labels it "as good of a returning group as we've had," in the secondary, but also called on his team beginning with Friday night's first meeting and into Saturday's first practice session not to think they're going to walk in and pick up where they left off right away.

"I'm counting on the defense. It was a good defense," said George, speaking Saturday from his office. "But I look at guys that left here in the summer and they're skinnier right now. You have to start off as if you're at the bottom of the pond.

"We're returning a lot of guys from a 3-7 team. They can't go out there thinking they're special. Nobody else thinks they're special. I hope that our defense can play even better than last year, but they can't assume they're going to pick up where they left off. ... I see the entrapments."

The returning defensive backs are a personable group, starting with Rizzardi (6-foot, 185 pounds), whose brother Victor led the team in tackles as a senior linebacker last season. Behne (5-10, 150) has a younger brother on this year's team, Jake, a freshman linebacker.

Maurer (5-11, 175) missed five games as a sophomore with a foot injury before coming back to lead the Bears in interceptions last year, recording two of his five against Hampden-Sydney quarterback Nash Nance, a transfer from Tennessee. And Rizzo (5-9, 185) is from Glens Falls, N.Y., the same hometown as George, the Bears' coach — "He's a big name in my school; he's in the hall of fame and he's on all the record boards," Rizzo said.

"It's always a competition, but we don't care who gets the credit," Rizzo said of his fellow members of the secondary. "It's a friendly competition with each other, but it's all toward a team goal. A person is always going to pick somebody else up. ... We have what it takes to be a good team."

The Bears also return first team all-conference picks in linebacker Kyle Wood and punter Tyler Henning. Coast Guard's offense will be led once again by quarterback Derek Victory (221-for-410, 2,072 yards, 13 TDs, 21 interceptions), a junior who was NEFC Offensive Rookie of the Year as a freshman.

Coast Guard will be looking to improve an offense which was second-to-last in the league last year with 15.1 points per game.

The Bears will be captained by seniors Paul Puddington and Wood at linebacker and offensive lineman Tom Condon.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieatheday.com