During the team's annual Media Day on Monday, he said the Vikings have a lot of experience.
"We have multiple kids that had multiple starts so in essence right now, the way I look at it, we have 29 returners coming back that saw significant, significant time as a starter at some point during the season."
But it could be another difficult year for Augustana - he thinks the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin is the best conference in the country, and it's likely to have as many as three of its teams in the top 25.
Despite having 30 years experience, Bell says recruiting at the Division-3 level is never easy. Instead of standards for student athletes set by the NCAA, each institution sets its own.
"So it is a very tough landscape to recruit in because you have to be competitive in those areas. You are who you are academically, and we're really good, but we also have to be able to compete against the schools we're going to compete with financially."
The new football season for Augustana begins on Saturday, September 3rd when it'll host Rhodes College.
