OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — The UW-Oshkosh football team is 1-1 to start its season after going up against two very good programs on the road, and in their fourth year under head coach Peter Jennings, this squad feels like it's hitting its stride.
"We're a gritty football team," said senior linebacker Kyle Dietzen. "We're hitting first quarter, first play, all the way to last play."
Peter Jennings has learned about himself since taking over the Titans program.
"You can't do everything yourself," he said. "You gotta ask for help, and not everything is a Category 5 hurricane, and sometimes you just gotta let things roll off your back."
He still remembers what he told the team when he got the job.
"I wanted us to be a we-first group," said Jennings. "A group of guys that was gonna fly around with reckless abandon that we were going to be wood-hooking war-daddies but we're going to do things the right way. We're going to love each other, we're going to love the game. We're going to respect each other, we're going to respect the game. We're going to always try to set the standard and be good teammates."
In the first two games the Titans trounced Linfield, which is ranked No. 15. But this past weekend the team was humbled in a 31-point loss to 2024 champion North Central College, the No. 1 team in the country.
"You come to Oshkosh — I feel like — if you want to play in big games," said senior quarterback Quentin Keene. "Every game in the WIAC is a big game and then before you get into that slate, you want to be tested by the best and in order to be tested you gotta play the best."
The senior class who came in with Jennings say their play during that loss this past weekend exemplified all the characteristics Jennings wanted his players to have when he spoke to them as freshmen.
"Just being able to stay together, stay composed, was a great learning experience for us," said Keene.
Another message Jennings has instilled on his players is to leave the program better than you found it, and he has no doubt this senior class has done that and he's excited to see how they finish out their UW-Oshkosh careers.
"Watching these guys for the last four years is really cool and I'm going to be extremely sad when these guys graduate. Yea, I've grown up as a head coach with these guys."
And the Titans host Roosevelt University in their home opener at 1 p.m. this Saturday in their last non-conference game.
