Coach Mike Emendorfer will bring his club out for the season opener on Sept. 5 at 1 p.m. vs. Buena Vista.

Posted August 11, 2009

UW-Platteville's football team reports to campus Saturday for the school's 111th season. Coach Mike Emendorfer, beginning his 11th year, talks about training camp with Sports Information Director Paul Erickson.

How excited are you to have the Pioneers report on Saturday?

"Every year begins with a new sense of excitement, and each team brings in new opportunities and new challenges. We play in the best conference in the nation, and many of our teams will prove that they are among the best teams in NCAA Division III. We have to meet that challenge, to beat the best teams in Division III. But first and foremost, we have two and one-half weeks to build that foundation and work on fundamentals. We have to be great at blocking and tackling. I know how simple that sounds,but that's what it comes down to. That's out starting point."

Is it a challenge trying to figure out how much time you spend building the team and also evaluating the young players?

"It is a balancing act. We have a good core group of players back, as we anticipate 70-75 returning players making the 100-man roster, although we start from scratch and assume we have a brand new team. That's exciting for Whitewater, Stevens Point, Platteville. What was accomplished or wasn't accomplished was last year. This is a whole new year, and we have to focus on the 2009 season and not worry about the mistakes or missed opportunities we made on 2008."

One thing that jumps out about this season is your coaching staff. Last year you were bringing in new full-time coaches in Rob Erickson and Jason Wagner, but now this is the second year with them and with almost all of your coaches. Can you talk about the cohesiveness of your staff?

"In the 11 years I've been here, one of the biggest challenges I've had as a head coach, especially at Division III football, is putting together a staff. Many times, with the resources we have, we have to hire young coaches. The young coaches not only need to be enthusiastic, but also coachable, just like players, where we can teach them how we do things at UW-Platteville and also have them bring in new ideas to better ourselves. This is the best staff I've had in my 11 years as far as working together. That is a very important aspect going into the season. Everyone has each others' backs. We will face adversity, but if we stick together as a staff, we can solve things together. It allows us to focus on what is happening on the field."

You have many returners at most positions, but the glaring exception is at running back, where there isn't a player on the roster who has had a carry before this year. Would you like to go with one guy, like (three-time all-WIAC back) Mike Genslinger was, or do it by committee or is that something that will just play out?

"That's something that will play out. We believe we have some talent there and potential to have some very good running backs. What's scary about potential is that it is unproven. We have players like Travis Nelson, Jeremy Payne and Brandon Hertrampf and others who have the ability to be very explosive. We just haven't seen them in game-like situations. Time will tell if it's one person or by committee. We typically take the first week to evaluate personnel, and by the second week of camp we have to make a decision on who are our ones and twos and give them the majority of the reps.

"The other thing is we must decide on the quarterback. Mitch Shadley, Jake Wiederholt and Nick Anderson all are players we'll take a look at to start with. Nick Anderson really made strides in the spring and will be a freshman. He's very mature and throws the ball well. Mitch Shadley has good experience as a starting quarterback and knows what we expect. Jake is 6-6, a strong thrower, but we may also want him on the field as a tight end. That's what we'll find out in practices."