(U-WIRE) PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Brown football team will look to improve upon its stellar 1997 season and to make a run at winning its first Ivy League title since 1976.

The 1997 team finished the season with a 7-3 mark (4-3 Ivy), and the Bear gridders hope top be become the first squad since that championship team to win eight or more games. Their fate would seem to rest squarely on the shoulders of Brown's high-octane offense, which returns 10 of 11 starters from last season.

At quarterback, junior James Perry has proven to be both a prolific and cerebral leader. Perry partially tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a scrimmage last week while attempting to eek out extra yards on a first-down scramble, but he hopes to return in time for next week's opener against Yale.

Brown’s receiving corp is undoubtedly one of the great strengths of the team. At tight end, senior Zach Burns was a second-team All-Ivy selection in 1997. Burns caught 19 balls last season for 263 yards and two touchdowns.

Sophomore Stephen Campbell fills one of the wide receiver spots. Campbell was a surprise rookie last season, catching 35 passes for 403 yards and five touchdowns. He ended the 1997 season brilliantly, accumulating a total of 16 catches for 235 yards against Dartmouth and Columbia.

One of Brown's starting wide receiver needs no introduction. Co-captain Sean Morey, who had the finest, season by a wide receiver in Ivy history in 1997 (74 receptions for 1,434 yards and 15 touchdown catches), holds eight Brown receiving records.

Not surprisingly, Morey became the first player in Brown history to be named Ivy League Player of the Year. Even better things are expected from Brown's star wide receiver in 1998.

Several publications, including The New York Times and The Boston Globe, feel that Brown and Harvard, the 1997 Ivy champions, are the two teams to beat in the Ivy League in 1998.

"We obviously have a great deal of talent on this football team," said Brown Coach Phil Estes. "The big question is our character. If we display enough character, this team will be tough to beat."