(STATS) - It still seems odd to many that a head coach other than Jimmye Laycock will be patrolling the William & Mary sideline this year.

The Tribe were under Laycock's direction for the last 39 seasons.

His successor is quite accomplished himself. Mike London returns to CAA Football as a national championship-winning coach.

And what he sees in the conference looks quite similar to the way he left it.

"Without a doubt, the CAA is the strongest FCS conference there is," London said Tuesday at CAA Football media day Tuesday. "You look at the national champions that are in the conference, coaches of the year, players that have gone on and done great things. The league is very competitive."

The 58-year-old London was a William & Mary assistant under Laycock from 1991-94 and won the 2008 FCS national title in his first season as a head coach at Richmond. He went on to guide Virginia and Howard as well, compiling a 59-58 overall record through 10 seasons.

At William & Mary, London will try to lift a team that has had three straight losing seasons since it earned a share of the 2015 CAA title. Last year, the Tribe finished 4-6 overall and 3-4 in the conference.

William & Mary returns 15 starters, including All-CAA preseason selections Tyler Crist (fullback) and Isaiah Laster (safety) as well as captains Corey Parker (safety), Bill Murray (defensive lineman), Mark Williamson (offensive lineman) and Nate Atkins (linebacker).

"Obviously, you want to score points, and one of the things that we want to do is to be a high-tempo, up-tempo (offense), run a lot of plays in a game, stretch the defense vertically and horizontally. We're a spread offense that wants to try to create mismatches," London said.

"Defensively, we want to flip (field position), but also keep the points down. Our defense is a 3-4 defense, which is angles, two-gap, pressure."