WALTHAM, Mass. – Eighty-seven players, including 54 returnees, are expected to be on hand when the Bentley University football team begins its first training camp under first-year head coach Bill Kavanaugh. The Falcons will arrive on campus Wednesday morning and the first practice will be Thursday.

Kavanaugh, a 2004 Bentley graduate who spent the last six seasons at Penn State, inherited a number of key players on both sides of the ball, including the prolific passing tandem of Danny Guadagnoli (Framingham/Framingham HS) and Jeff Hill (Mansfield/Mansfield HS). Also among the returnees are veteran linebackers Blaine Hopwood (New Bedford/New Bedford HS) and Kyle Young (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial HS).

Guadagnoli, a graduate student, broke the Bentley single season records for both passing yards (3,310) and total offense (3,645) while completing 61 percent of his passes for the second straight season. He accounted for 28 touchdowns, throwing for 22 and rushing for a team-best six. The career totals for the six-foot-one, 200-pounder include 5,732 passing yards, 38 TD passes and 6,324 yards total offense.

Most of those scoring strikes have landed in the hands of Hill, a six-foot-four senior who was a first-team All-Northeast-10 selection last fall. He finished 2013 with 75 receptions for 1,225 yards and 12 TDs, and averaged 143.7 yards over the season's final six contests.  Third in program history in career receiving yards, he has 25 career TD catches, with 17 of those covering 28 yards or more.

Hopwood, a first-team All-Conference honoree in 2012, is back for his fifth year after injuries limited him to two games last year. His 174 career tackles is tied with Young, another fifth-year player, for the most among returning players and includes 18.5 tackles for losses.

Another player returning for a final season is senior tailback Lorenzo Warren (Boston/Catholic Memorial HS). His 2013 season ended in the second quarter of the opener, after 34 yards on only seven carries, and he'll come into this year 52 rushing yards shy of 1,000 for his career.

The defensive returnees also include seniors Nick McCarthy (Winthrop/Winthrop HS), Brad Keirstead (Waltham/Waltham HS) and Bob Richman (North Attleboro/North Attleboro HS). McCarthy led last year's squad in tackles (84 out of the strong safety position) and is one of only two players to appear in all 31 games over the last three seasons, a distinction he shares with Richman, a defensive tackle. Keirstead, who has started every game the last two years, was among the Northeast-10 leaders in passes defended last season with 12.

Other players back this fall include senior running back Jet Kollie (Lowell/Lowell HS), junior receiver Chris Walsh (Attleboro/Attleboro HS), sophomore defensive back Sam McDonald (Norfolk/ King Phillip Reg. HS) and sophomore kicker Michael Baron (Medfield/Roxbury Latin School).

Kollie led Bentley in rushing last year (541 yards, 5.8 per carry) and Walsh had 277 receiving yards, on 14 catches, in only four games. McDonald was tied for the NE-10 lead in interceptions (five) and Baron was second on the team in scoring with 64 points (9-13 field goals, 37-38 extra points).

Bentley, 6-5 a year ago, is home for three of its four September games, beginning with Mercyhurst University in the Sept. 6 opener.