July 2, 2018 at 1:10 p.m.
Titanic assist
UW-Oshkosh coaches hold defensive camp for Hodag football
Titanic assist
Several members of the UW-Oshkosh coaching staff, led by head coach Pat Cerrone, were in Rhinelander last Thursday holding a defensive camp for members of the Hodag football team.
There's quite a bit the Hodag coaching staff can learn from the Titans, who played in the Stagg Bowl (the National Championship game for Division-III) two years ago and were national semifinalists last season. What's more, Oshkosh employs a defensive scheme similar to the 3-5-3 look used by Rhinelander.
"It's very similar," Cerrone said, comparing Oshkosh's defense to Rhinelander's. "Today was a technique day. We worried about things that they've done wrong. I'm a pretty pragmatic guy. There's things that you do bad, let's fix it. That's what we did today. We tried to fix some of the things they aren't very good at. I think today they got better. They're going to do a great job with it. They really care."
Rhinelander coach Chris Ferge took a back seat on Thursday and was more of an observer, playing close attention to what Cerrone and his staff had to say during the two-hour practice.
"It's a complete mesh," he said. "It really fits us with the players that we have, with some of our better athletes being safeties and outside linebackers and making sure those guys are always involved in (stopping) the run with more intensity than we had in the past.
"It looks really, really good right now and I'm excited to see how it looks with pads on."
Thursday's camp didn't just come to be out of the blue. It took, quite literally, a perfect storm of events to happen.
For starters, Rhinelander assistant coach Mike Roberts got to know Cerrone and his staff after his son - former RHS tight end Luke Roberts - transferred from La Crosse to Oshkosh to play football.
Then there were a number of clinics that Ferge and the Hodag coaching staff attended where Cerrone was a speaker.
"I thought about the athletes that we have and the message that he was saying and I said to myself, 'This is for us,'" Ferge said. "It was just like he was speaking to me."
Through Roberts, the Hodags coaches arranged to meet Cerrone and staff at Titan Stadium to look over film the weekend of April 15 - when much of Wisconsin received well over a foot of snow.
"I got to the stadium and I never thought there would be two coaches there that day," Cerrone admitted. "It was really a bad day. It took them 3 1/2 hours to get there and when I saw nine guys in the room I said, 'Holy cow, these guys really care.' I'm a pretty passionate guy about this sport and when you've got guys who are really trying to work hard, I just want to help them out."
It also happens that ever since Cerrone took over at Oshkosh in 2007 his coaching staff has held an annual summer retreat in Rhinelander, staying in the guest cabin of RHS and UW-O alum Jim Miazga on Lake Julia.
"Jim and (Miazga's wife) Jean have allowed us to come up and stay on the lake with them for 12 years," Cerrone explained. "As a coach, I think Jim can attest, I think we've become a better staff. We're not coming up here to screw around. We meet, we get better and, more than anything we began to love each other because we're like a family now. That's what this is all about."
The Miazgas' cabin was the site of one more meeting between the Hodag and Titan coaches before Thursday's camp.
"We're talking face-to-face with one of the best coaches in Division III in the nation by far. He's giving us his time," Ferge said.
As for the camp itself, more than 30 players were in attendance on a sweltering afternoon. Both Cerrone and Ferge said the camp was less about reinventing the wheel for the Hodag defense, rather fine-tuning some things in an effort to improve a defensive unit that finished ahead of only Lakeland in conference play last year in terms of points and yards allowed.
"It's really the small things," Ferge said. "It's how you line up. More than anything the comments he was making to our guys their technique, where they line up, how wide they are, speaking up more often, understanding your read and knowing exactly what you are supposed to do."
Added Cerone, "We're just trying to put a system in place and you've got to give Chris a lot of credit. I don't think people understand that he wants to get better. He'll bring a guy in like me to coach his kids. There ain't a lot of people who want anybody else touching their kids, you know what I'm saying? So give him a lot a credit. He's trying and he has my 100 percent support - and that's what it was all about today."
It's all part of an offseason program that's included time in the weight room and 7-on-7 football. Ferge said attendance is up this summer, noting that the team brought the second-largest contingent of athletes to the Eastbay 7-on-7 tournament in Wausau June 23.
"I'm excited about where we're going," Ferge said. "The kids are competing for positions. I'm excited about the way it's going. I want to see it grow. I want to see who steps up this year to be that leader."
The Hodags will hold their four-day team camp July 16-19. The first day of official fall practice is set for Aug. 1.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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