After a 9-3 season last year and an Eastern Conference Championship, the Northwestern Tigers are poised for even bigger things in 2014. Their success stems from having a strong group of players, many of whom are now seniors, who have endured the lows of a 3-7 season in 2012 and helped to turn that into the success that they enjoyed last season.

Two of those seniors are writing their names in Northwestern record books.

Quarterback Frank Dangello set season highs for passing yards (1,306) and touchdown passes (17) as a junior. He stepped into the career lead for passing yards (2,396) and touchdowns (29).

Cam Richardson missed time with a foot injury last season, but still reached school highs in receiving yards for a season (625) and tied for both the most touchdown catches in a season (7) and receiving yards in one game when he torched North Schuylkill for 135 yards in the Eastern Conference Championship.

Richardson is also tied for the school's career lead in touchdown catches with nine and will look to become the school's all-time leader this season.

Ironically, Richardson will be breaking the record set by Tiger head coach, Josh Snyder.

When you combine the offensive firepower of Dangello and Richardson with junior running back Harry Hall, who is also likely to see his name in Northwestern record books before his high school career is done, you've got a combination of players ready to give the Tigers a huge offensive attack.

Hall made his presence known last year when he rushed for 1,571 yards and 16 touchdowns.

"I had a really great offensive line last year, so it was mainly just follow them," said Hall. "I think having guys like Dangello and Richardson does a lot because even at our scrimmage, when our running game wasn't doing very well, our passing game picked it up immediately and was able to perform.

"Defenses are going to have to spread out to be able to cover us."

Dangello and Richardson are entering their third season as starters and know personally about some of the hard times that the team has endured.

"Yeah, we learned a lot from that," Dangello admitted. "To be honest, we were really a glorified JV team that year; there were so many freshmen and sophomores playing that season, more than the seniors.

"I think the turnaround we had last year taught us how to win and that will help us a lot this year when we come in and face adversity or face a tough team. We'll know how to win this year."

All three players are proud of what the team accomplished last season, but none of them are taking anything for granted coming into the season.

"We just need to worry about ourselves and what we can control and not worry about what the papers are saying about us winning the league and all that," said Dangello. "We just need to concentrate on what we can do."

Hall believes it's easy to get comfortable after having tasted some success.

"There's definitely a difference in how we're thinking right now," he said. "Last year, I remember being a lot more ready and hungry to get at people and willing to do whatever it takes to win and that's what we have to get back to this year. I think we need to work on it a lot more because we sort of got high and mighty after last year and so we're not working as hard as we should be, in my opinion."

Richardson missed time last year with a foot injury, but still had impressive numbers. He's completely healthy coming into this season and has worked on two key areas of his game that he believes he could do better, in an effort to help the team improve.

"Definitely foot-work for defense and route running for offense," he said. "Routes are a big thing in high school and d-back is a difficult spot to play if you run good routes, so I'm trying to improve that

"Where my parents grew up, all football players ran track in high school. It definitely helps with your legs and makes you faster and speed kills in football."

All three offensive stars also played defense last season on a unit that allowed just 198 points, the third-least in the Colonial League. With those three and others returning to the defense, opponents could find that Northwestern's defense will be even better than what they experienced last season.

"I love playing both ways," said Dangello with a smile. "If I could, I would be on all six special teams, too, especially since it's my senior year. I want to be on the field the whole time. Our defense has progressed really well, too. Last year, we had a pretty good defense and our D-Line is back, for the most part. Our linebackers are back and our defensive backs have progressed. I think as long as our defense plays responsibly, we'll have a really good defense."

Richardson finished tied with the team lead in interceptions with Taylor Breininger, another senior, who each had three. Hall led the team in tackles with 44. Last year, Dangello split time between safety and cornerback, but Snyder is going to anchor him at corner this season.

All three have contributed on special teams as well, guaranteeing that opponents get to see much more of Dangello, Richardson and Hall than they want to.

As with every season, younger players will be expected to step in to help and Richardson has been taking note of some younger players that he believes will help the team. He's also done what he can to provide leadership and help those players get acclimated to the system.

"We definitely do have a lot of young athletes,said Richardson. "Trevor Cunningham and Tyler Foster are two guys who are probably going to be seeing the field and they're both sophomores. We have a few young guys who can definitely step on the varsity field during the season.

"We learned how to pick people up when things got tough from the seniors before us, because we faced a lot of adversity in a lot of close games last year. Coming into this year, we just have to take what we learned from them and carry that over."

With the season right around the corner, Hall believes the team needs to work even harder. Dangello isn't buying into the hype surrounding the team. Richardson is only focused on the next game.

"We look at that, but right now, we've got to get past Notre Dame and Bangor and the other teams," said Richardson. "Towards the end of the season, we're going to worry about that kind of stuff. Right now, we've got to worry about the games coming up on our schedule."