ORONO – So close.

The University of Maine Black Bears were this close to being a factor in the Colonial Athletic Association last season, even with one of the youngest teams in the conference.

How close?

“We lost a lot of close games last year, and I think we can build off of that,” said senior defensive end Jovan Belcher, who saw his team lose one game in overtime, one in double-overtime and another by one point. “It was bad, but we learned from it, and we can’t make the same mistakes again.”

This close.

Head coach Jack Cosgrove is counting on the same mistakes not being repeated, what with 34 lettermen, including 15 starters returning. Now the Black Bears think they have the talent and the experience to not only improve upon a 4-7 record (3-5, fourth in the CAA), but bloom into a playoff contender.

“I think this team understands that it’s more than just the talent that we bring to the field on game day. It’s more than just the game plan we bring to the field on game day,” said head coach Jack Cosgrove. “It’s about them as young men and some of those intangible qualities.”

They showed some of those intangibles by winning three of their last four in 2007. So besides how far the team has come since then, this season will be about how quickly they can show how far they’ve come. Cosgrove believes this schedule, which kicks off Aug. 30 at Big 10 power Iowa, may be the toughest he has played in his 16 years at Maine. Besides Iowa, there are five NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff teams on the slate – James Madison, Delaware, Richmond, UMass, and UNH.

“It’s going to take us managing our players, keeping them healthy, and some luck always factors into it,” Cosgrove said.

Training camp opened Monday (double sessions begin Saturday), and already, the coach likes this team’s synergy, comparing it to the 2006 Black Bears.

“That was one of my favorite teams to be around. This team has that type of feel. And yet that team was 6-5. Why? Because we missed an extra point at UMass, we got beat in a monsoon at Rhode Island and we lost in overtime to UNH. Otherwise, it’s a 9-2 team and in the playoffs,” he said.

Six starters are back from an offense that sputtered at times last season (16.9 ppg), led by tailback Jhamal Fluellen. A preseason all-conference pick, he finished seventh in the CAA in rushing with 1,052 yards and five touchdowns last season.

“He’s a special athlete, and we obviously want to get him the ball in as many ways and as many times as we can because he can do some unbelievable things,” sophomore QB Adam Farkes said.

Too much of the offensive burden fell on Fluellen last year. The 5-foot-9, 186-pound senior is confident the younger teammates who used to look to him to make the big play will become game-changers themselves this fall.

“I think our offense is headed toward more balance this year,” he said. “The young guys have grown up a lot and they were here for the majority of the summer, working out, and working on the chemistry with the quarterbacks.”

Cosgrove is looking for more out of his passing game and has handed the reins over to Farkes, who split time last year with Michael Brusko.

“He’s probably made as profound a step forward as we could have wanted,” Cosgrove said. “His talent, I think, is really ready to blossom this season.”

Brusko, a junior who started five games under center in 2007, will start the season as a slot receiver to take advantage of his athleticism. Cosgrove expects him to help junior wide receiver Landis Williams, sophomore wideouts Tyrell Jones and Jeremy Kelley in the passing game. Jared Turcotte and his fellow redshirt freshmen Derek Sessions, Derek Buttles and Roosevelt Boone and sophomore tailback Jermaine Henderson will help take pressure off Fluellen.

Turcotte, the 2007 Fitzpatrick Trophy winner, won’t get the carries he was used to during his stellar high school career at Lewiston, but his role as blocker and pass-catcher out of the backfield will be vital.

“I look at Jared as one of the key reasons if we’re successful,” Cosgrove said.

“I know the offense a lot better now than I did last year, Turcotte said. “Everything is going smoother.”

The defense, which gave up 24.5 ppg last year, returns eight starters who will have their working cut out for them if they want to live up to the lofty goals set by their captain, Belcher.

“I always expect a lot out of my guys and I’m always going to put everyone on a pedestal to perform to the maximum that they can,” said Belcher, who led the league in sacks last year (10.0). “We would like to finish first in every category. I know we were up there a couple of years ago, but we want to get back up there if we can.”

Belcher, the CAA’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, should have plenty of help, particularly up front with nose tackle Jonathan Pirruccello, a senior out of Leavitt, and junior Jordan Stevens of Mt. Blue, who is moving from linebacker to defensive end this year. Eight of Maine’s top 10 tacklers from last season are back.

Maine spent much of the 2007 preseason getting to know each other, their coach and their playbooks. This year, Cosgrove believes they have hit the new FieldTurf playing surface at Alfond Stadium running.

“We seem to be much further ahead with our working knowledge of assignments and understanding where the ball goes and why,” he said. “I think everything in this game is knowledge-based; if you know what you can do then you can do it, and we’ve demonstrated that. There are a lot of guys playing with confidence on both sides of the ball.”