The UW Oshkosh football team will look to compete for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title this season after ending the 2023 season with a 6-4 record.
The Titans will begin the 2024 campaign outside of the D3football.com top 25 poll after receiving 36 votes in the poll released July 24.
The Titans finished the standings tied for third with UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls, while behind UW-La Crosse and UW-Whitewater. Similar to 2022, the Titans started the season with a 2-1 nonconference record, but fell to a 5-4 record before ending the season with a big win at home over nationally ranked UW-River Falls.
The Titans will be returning a ton of talent including First Team All-WIAC offensive players in tight end Clayton Schwalbe and wide receiver Trae Tetzlaff.
Outside of Tetzlaff and Schwalbe, the Titans will return their third leading rusher in running back Justice Lovelace. Lovelace appeared in five games in 2023 and totaled 195 rushing yards with an average of seven yards per game. The offense will also get their top receivers back in Tezlaff, Jon Maitheu and Dan Fynnardt.
Linebacker Kyle Dietzen, a team leader on the defense last season, will also return. Dietzen recorded 72 tackles and had six tackles for loss worth 20 yards.
The Titans had the fourth best offense in the WIAC and the fifth best defense in the WIAC last season, something UWO will look to improve on for 2024. However, the Titans will lose some key players heading into this season, most notably quarterback Kobe Berghammer. Berghammer was a First Team All-WIAC quarterback who led the conference in passing last season. Berghammer was also Second Team All-WIAC in 2022 and the 2019 WIAC Newcomer of the Year. Replacing him will be a tough task for the Titans to do but something they will need to do quickly.
UWO opens the 2024 season with a tough start to their schedule. In their first five games, the Titans will play four teams ranked in the D3football.com preseason top 25 along with an NCAA Division II school.
The Titans will open the season on Sept. 7 at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium against Wheaton University (Illinois) starting at 1 p.m. The Thunder went 10-2 last season and finished second in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) behind National Runners Up, North Central College (Illinois). Wheaton’s quarterback Ben Thorson and wide receiver Seth Kortenhoeven earned All-CCIW honors last season. The Thunder faced the Titans at Wheaton last year and beat UWO 31-20.
The remainder of the 2024 season includes:
Sept. 14: vs Linfield University (Oregon)
Sept. 21: vs Michigan Tech
Oct. 5: @UW-Whitewater
Oct 12: vs UW-La Crosse
Oct 19: vs UW-Platteville
Oct 26: @UW-Stevens Point
Nov 2: @UW-Eau Claire
Nov 9: vs UW-Stout
Nov 16: @UW-River Falls
