"Next Man Up" more than a cliche at UW-W

When the UW-Whitewater Warhawks take the field tonight at UW-LaCrosse, there will be many questions waiting to be answered at a number of positions. Will the offensive and defensive lines be able to be the powerhouse units they have been in the past after being hit hard by graduation? Will the wide receivers be able to sustain the loss of Aaron Rusch and Adam Brandes? Will injuries to Aaron Samplawski, Steve McCollom, and Josh Williams derail the 2011 season before it even gets started? Many questions, no answers. Yet. 


However, a look at the history of the UW-W football program may give some insight as to what to expect. 


When Bob Berezowitz  assumed the reigns of the UW-Whitewater football program after the 1984 season, he accomplished what he had set out to do 20 years earlier.  As a star catcher on the Warhawks baseball team and quarterback on the football team, "Brez" had career path options in both sports he loved so much. 


"I had a chance to go to Georgia to play baseball for three months, to work out down there during spring training," said Berezowitz, an All-America catcher and quarterback at UW-Whitewater at the time.

"I saw the number of people involved in professional baseball and realized that in order to get to the major leagues, there was an awful long road to go down. It wasn't worth it.

"After that, I remember telling people, After I graduate, I'm going to be the head football coach at Whitewater.' "

Berezowitz knew all too well he was succeeding UW-Whitewater's all time winningest football coach, Forrest Perkins.  He played quarterback for Perkins and led the Warhawks to the NAIA national championship game in 1966.  Undaunted by the challenge of following Perkins, Berezowitz was the next man up. All he did was coach 22 years, win 68% of his games, win 8 conference championship, win 6 Coach of the Year honors, and establish UW-W as a national football power taking his final two teams to the Stagg Bowl.  

Enter Lance Leipold. Like Berezowitz, Leipold is a former Warhawks quarterback, playing for both Perkins and Berezowitz.  Leipold still holds the UW-W all time record for attempts, completions, and passing yards in a game.  In taking the job, Leipold took stewardship of a program that had been successful for 50 years. It was also a program with huge expectations. Although a "national championship or bust" mentality is never really appropriate at the intercollegiate level, Leipold was walking into a situation that comes as close to that as one can get. After all,  with two consecutive national championship game appearances, where else could he take the program and be considered a success?  So he's won three of them. So far...

In 60 games as a head coach at UW-W, Coach Leipold is 57-3.  He has a record of 27-1 in the nation's strongest Division III conference. He is unbeaten against every conference school except Stevens Point.  His other two losses were against D2 St. Cloud State and perennial power Mount Union. He has won conference championships all four years along with the three national championships. He is on pace to be the most successful coach in terms of wins and losses, well, anywhere ever. When Coach Berezowitz retired, there was reason for some angst among Warhawk fans. It's always a huge unknown when a new man takes over for a long time coach. Count the angst unwarranted. Leipold was the next man up.

"Next man up" has been a mentality at UW-W among players for a long time. The phrase simply refers to the high expectation that roster or positional turnover within the team will not lead to a lowering of standards. The next man up simply has an opportunity to be the one to fulfill the standard.  Too many players over too many positions have stepped up during the history of Warhawks football to begin to chronicle them all. A few of the recent examples include:

QB Justin Jacobs departs after leading UW-W to 2 consecutive Stagg Bowls. Enter Danny Jones. Jones departs after quarterbacking the national championship victory over Mount Union in 2007. Enter Jeff Donovan. Donovan departs after quarterbacking UW-W to two Stagg Bowl appearances, including the national championship victory in 2009. Enter Matt Blanchard. Blanchard is injured after completing over 72% of his passes and leading UW-W to an unbeaten regular season record in 2010. Enter Lee Brekke who QB'd the Warhawks on their unbeaten playoff run and Stagg Bowl championship over Mount Union. Justin Beaver departs after breaking nearly every school record a running back can hold. Enter Levell Coppage who, if he stays healthy, may well break all of them.

The story of the 2011 Warhawks will begun being written this evening in LaCrosse. If the UW-W tradition holds true this season, there will be new names making impact plays and bearing the same standard of Warhawk football. And those new to a prominent role in 2011 have a golden opportunity to join the others that went before them as the "next man up."