Sting of last season the motivation on both sides of the ball
By Daniel Schoettler
Correspondent
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team looks to get back to familiar territory in 2016 – not only back to the WIAC conference title, but also the National Championship game in Salem, Virginia. The team finished 12-2, second to UW-Oshkosh in the conference and reached the National Semifinal game last season.
“If you talk to these young men in that locker room, there’s not a question (that it’s important),” head coach Kevin Bullis said. “We have one goal we talk about as a team, which is to win the WIAC.”
The team is using the motivation from last year, not winning the conference title or getting to the National Championship to get back, as goals for where they want to be this year.
“It absolutely means a lot. That’s our goal at the beginning of the season,” senior linebacker Paul Foster said. “We don’t really talk about much else. That’s one goal we always have, to win the WIAC. It’s a big deal to us.”
Foster added it hurt losing the conference title to Oshkosh last year and said the team will be back and is confident about this year.
Falling short of the ultimate goal and losing to rival Mount Union in the semifinals last year has remained at the forefront of players’ minds since then.
“Every day we would go lift and strength coach Ryan Bracius would constantly remind us that didn’t win last year, we lost,” quarterback Chris Nelson said. “It’s constantly in the back of our heads. We use that to make sure we do the little things right.”
The Warhawks return eight starters on an offense that scored an average of 38.1 points per game a year ago including pre-season All-Americans in wide receiver Marcus Hudson, and offensive linemen Tony Koepnick, Austin Jones, and Spencer Shier. Nelson returns for his second season as the starting quarterback.
The returning offensive line has gone through a lot together being a big part of two National Championships with Koepnick, Shier, Jones, as well as Mitchell Schauer and Jordan Mueller.
“For me, and our offensive guys, we were all new, except for the offensive line, which is as experienced as you can get,” Nelson said. “On the perimeter, we were all new, and we were getting our feet wet. This year we have that experience now and everyone is molding into a good offense.”
On offense, the six-time National Champion Warhawks lost two solid running backs to graduation in Jordan Ratliffe and Dennis Moore. They return sophomore running back Jarrod Ware as well as Nick Patterson and Cameron Bishop while also bringing Patterson’s brother, Drew, into the mold as well.
“We’ve got some guys that are going to do some stuff for us,” Nelson said. “Jarrod Ware is developing. He was a freshman last year and got some good time and good experience for him.”
Bullis said the Patterson family has a rich tradition of Warhawk football and has said the younger Patterson has done a fantastic job and made himself noticeable last spring.
The wide receiving core the team returns includes the preseason All-American in Hudson, along with Ryan Storto, sophomores Manny Jones and Mitchell Dess as well as bringing in transfer Josh Ringelberg. They also return four tight ends from last year in Tony Gumina, Brent Campbell, Jordan Gruettner and Jack Deichl.
“That’s a group we’re really excited about,” Bullis said. “That is a crew that is still developing and we need to continue to develop, but we’re projecting good things.”
On a defense that allowed 14.1 points per game last year, the Warhawks return six starters in 2016. Bringing back an experienced linebacking corps of Paul Foster, Jordan Strasburg, Matt Seitz and Kyle Schiedemeyer.
“Each linebacker has his own kind of talents,” Foster said. “I think all in all we’re developed there.”
On the defensive line, the Warhawks return seniors John Flood, Tim Regan, Yuri Pogosyan and pre-season All-American Brandon Tamsett.
The Warhawks lost three defensive backs to graduation, but return players with experience in Colin Buck, Mickey Morgan, Vince Mason, Jake Gierlak and Bennett Young.
“One of the things we take pride in here is that we have 11 starters on defense, but we probably play seven defensive lineman by halftime, probably 4 to 5 linebackers and 5 to 6 defensive backs by halftime,” Bullis said. “You’re developing depth by having a rotation and getting a lot of people on the football field.”
The Warhawks lost a big leg in the off-season in Lake Bachar to the Major League Baseball draft, but bring back Will Meyer, Ben Franzen as well as transfer Michael Schwictenberg to fill that void.
The Warhawks have six games at home and start off the season with three non-conference games against The College of New Jersey on Sept. 3 before Belhaven and NAIA giant Morningside prior to getting the conference slate started with UW-Platteville and UW-Oshkosh.
“The ‘Perk’ is nice for home games,” Nelson said. “Our fans bring a good atmosphere, so I love it. Any home game we get it’s awesome.”
