Longtime UW-River Falls head coach John O’Grady announced his retirement following the 2010 season. The retirement was short-lived as the hall-of-fame coach was lured out of “retirement” to become an assistant for Pat Ceroni at UW-Oshkosh.
It hasn’t taken long for the Titan offense to reflect an O’Grady imprint. With talented senior quarterback Nate Wara at the helm the Oshkosh offense has added an “O’Grady option attack” as a primary weapon.
Two weeks ago at Eau Claire the Titans came out in an offense with Wara operating out of the pistol formation. Trailing 16-7 at halftime UWO came out in the second half with Wara under center and ran an option attack on the way to a 23-16 come-from-behind victory on the road at Carson Park.
The Titans used Cole Myhra and Justin Budiac at the running back position with both runners getting much of their yardage on quick-hitters up the middle.
The key to any option attack is the ability of its quarterback. For Oshkosh, Nate Wara possesses that ability.
When it came to making the critical play In the second half of the Titans’ win at Eau Claire it was Wara who kept the ball on the option running right between guard and tackle for a first down or touchdown.
Wara was knocked out of last Saturday’s 24-3 win at Platteville with an unspecified injury late in the second quarter. His availability for Saturday’s game vs. Whitewater has not been announced.
One thing for sure – the Oshkosh offense this season is much different than last year’s “trickery based” offense. The Titans scored two touchdowns on “tick” plays in last season’s 48-21 loss to the Warhawks at Titan Stadium.
The Hawks scored on its first drive of last year’s game. The Titans responded in kind on the following possession with running back Cole Myra throwing an 14-yard option pass to Garrie Fox to knot the score at 7-all.
UWO went to its bag of tricks again later in the first quarter when running back Craig McClelland hit Paul Coburn on a 33 yard option pass to set put Jake Dostalek’s six yard touchdown run to cut the UWW lead to 21-14 with 51 seconds left in the first quarter.
The 2011 Oshkosh team will bring a much more complete offensive attack into Saturday’s game vs. the Warhawks.
On top of UWO’s impressive option running game, the Titans feature two of the top “big-play” wide receivers in the conference. Garrie Fox enters the game with 22 receptions for 388 yards (16.7 yards per catch) and 4 touchdowns. Caleb Voss has 14 catches (25 yards per catch) and 3 touchdowns.
The Titans beat Central Iowa 31-28 to open the season. Central is currently tied with Dubque for 1st place the Iowa Interscholastic Athletic Conference. In week two, the Titans suffered its only loss of the season falling 41-17 at Division 3 powerhouse Mount Union. The Titans are the only UMU opponent score more than 7 points against them this season.
With that said, Saturday’s first place showdown in the WIAC will bring plenty of intrigue with it.
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