Location: River Falls, WI 54022
Enrollment: 6,350
Chancellor: Connie Foster (interim)
WIAC faculty representatives: Jim Mulvey, Kathleen Olsen
Athletic director: Rick Bowen (phone: 715/425-3246)
Assistant athletic director: Patti Ford (phone: 715-425-3244)
Head coach: John O'Grady (20th season 98-89-3 overall record; 70-63-3 WIAC record)
(best time to reach O'Grady is early mornings, phone: 715/425-3135)
Assistant coaches: Greg Bower (defensive coordinator), Andy Kotelnicki (offensive coordinator, offensive line), Dan Dietrich (defensive line), Woody Fangmeier (defensive line), Neal Folta (running backs), Zach Freese (defensive backs), Glenn Hanson (offensive line), John Kolstad (linebackers), Jesse Ostertag (linebackers), Tim Payne (wide receivers), Carlan Strand (wide receivers), Nate Tenut (offensive line), Steve Tennies (quarterbacks)
National affiliation: National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Div. III
Conference: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Conference members: Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, Superior, Whitewater
Nickname: Falcons
Colors: Red and White
WIAC championships: (18) 1915, 1916, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1933, 1938, 1947, 1958, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1998
Offensive formation: Zone
Defensive formation: 3-5-3
2007 overall record: 3-7
2007 conference record, finish: 2-5, 8th place
2007 letter winners lost: 35 (16 offensive, 17 defensive, 1 special teams) Ryan Agrimson (LB), Jay Anderson (DT), Nathan Anderson (RB), Bruce Baillargeon (LB), Jake Benike (DB), Jamie Bisch (DB), MJ Bland (WR), Jonathan Burns (P), Derek D’Jock (LB), Josh Grover (WR), James Hansen (LB), Shane Hanson (DB), Tanner Johnson (DE), Dan Keller (PK), Clynton Kistler (WR), Josh Koehn (OG), Pete Kolpack (OT), Ryan LaCount (DB), Mark Leichtfuss (DT), Andy Marx (OL), Jordan Miller (OT), Michael Mueller (DE), Gregg Neumann (DE), Tom Olson (OG), Jesse Ostertag (DE), Chris Pagel (TE), Josh Rykhus (OL), Charles Smith (DB), Ben Solin (WR), Chris Spah (WR), Nathan Tenut (OG), Steve Todd (RB), Mike Van Someren (OL), Mike Weber (LB), Sean Wolf (DT)
2007 letter winners returning: 56 (24 offensive, 29 defensive, 4 special team) Ben Arata (DB), Mike Berg (DE), John Bratcher (WR), Eric Breunig (OL), Mitchell Butterbrodt (LB), Dylan Dabrowski (OG), Cory Danielson (FB), Dominic Derricks (LB), Philip Dube (LB), Jesse Finer (PK), Joe Gangl (OL), Joe Ganske (WR), Nathan Gillett (DB), Jesse Goebel (LB), Joe Gotmer (DT), Connor Graves (TE), Addison Griffin (DB), Ryan Hansen (TE), Storm Harmon (QB), Patrick Houlton (LB), Seth Hubbard (QB), Jonathan Keepers (WR), Brent Knutson (DE), Ben Kron (DB), Ken Kuyath (DT), Mike Larson (DT), Cole Lowell (FB), Brady Luebke (LB), Ryan Luessenheide (QB), Steve Marich (DE), Ambrose Martell (DT), Kyle Milender (DE), Sam Morken (DB), Ben Mortensen (RB), Derek Nette (DE), Brad Novacheck (DT), Mark Odendahl (DB), Matthew Olson (FB), Justin Parsons (DT), Bryan Penrod (WR), Justin Petterson (DT), William Pettis (DB), Matt Pollock (LB), Ross Potter (DB), Sam Reiter (OL), Kyle Stelter (TE), Keith Stern (P), Eric Stoller (P), Nate Thoreson (WR), Kyle Tjepkes (LB), Brandon Trzebiatowski (RB), Eli Wachter (OL), Ross Wargula (OL), Scott Witte (C), Daniel Wolf (DE), Michael Zweifel (WR)
2007 returning offensive starters: (6) Cory Danielson (FB), Ryan Hansen (TE), Storm Harmon (QB), Nate Thoreson (WR), Scott Witte (C), Michael Zweifel (WR)
2007 returning defensive starters: (2) Ben Arata (DB), Ross Potter (DB)
2007 returning specialists: (4) Jesse Finer (PK), Keith Stern (P), Eric Stoller (P), Michael Zweifel (H)
Home field, phone: Ramer Field (4,300) press box phones, 715/425-3746 and 715/425-3369
Trainer: Gary Eloranta 715/425-3130 (e-mail: gary.eloranta@uwrf.edu)
Sports information director: Jim Thies 715/425-3846 (e-mail: james.g.thies@uwrf.edu)
Athletic department web site: www.uwrf.edu/sports/
Football web site: www.uwrf.edu/sports/football.home.php
Sports information fax: 715/425-4486

2008 Falcon Schedule

* WIAC Game
^ The River Falls - La Crosse game on Nov. 8 will be played at the
Maxwell Field at Alltel Stadium at Winona State University.

2007 Falcon Results
3-7 Overall, 2-5 WIAC
Home 2-3, Away 1-4

*WIAC Game

2008 UW-River Falls football preview
The Falcon football team will rely on 57 returning letter winners to build upon in 2008.

Most of the team’s returning starters are on the offensive side of the ball. Six starters return on offense with just two starters back on defense. The special teams are in good shape with a place kicker and punter back.

Offense
Of the six starters back, only two from the line return. Center Scott Witte is back after earning honorable mention to the All-WIAC team the past two years. He has been a starter for three seasons. The senior will be the team’s leader in the offensive line. Ryan Hansen returns at tight end. The junior was named to the second All-WIAC team last year after he caught 48 passes for 502 yards and six touchdowns. He was the top receiving tight end in the WIAC in 2007.

The Falcons return most of their skilled position players. Quarterback Storm Harmon returns for his senior season after he completed 202-342 passes for 2,163 yards and 17 touchdowns. He threw 15 interceptions. He tied or broke six UWRF passing records in 2007; game completions (34), game attempts (49), season yards (2,163), season completions (202), season attempts (342) and touchdowns in a game (4). His favorite target also is back in wide receiver Michael Zweifel, who also rewrote the Falcon records book in 2007. He set a WIAC single game record with 18 receptions against La Crosse. He also set Falcon records for receptions in a season (97), season receiving yards (1,056) and he tied the record for season touchdown receptions (9). The 97 receptions is a NCAA record by a freshman. The sophomore earned honorable mention to the 2008 Consensus Draft Services Div. III Pre-Season All-American team, and was named to the second D3Football.com Pre-Season All-American team. Nate Thoreson also returns at a wide receiver spot. In six games the sophomore caught 10 passes for 205 yards.

Gone is running back Nathan Anderson who rushed for 1,468 yards and 14 touchdowns last year. Senior fullback Cory Danielson does return to the backfield. He carried the ball six times for 12 yards.

“We have most of our skilled position players back,” said Falcon Coach John O’Grady, who enters his 20th year as head coach at UWRF. “Harmon has a year’s experience running the offense and Zweifel and Hansen are two very good targets. We had a great year last year in point production (305, second in the WIAC) – hopefully we can do that again. We have to cut down on interceptions.”

Defense
Just two starters return on defense for the Falcons - defensive backs Ben Arata and Ross Potter. Potter was second on the team in tackles last year (69). He had 33 solo stops and two and one-half tackles for loss. The junior had one sack and broke up two passes. Arata was third in tackles (57) and had 30 solo stops. He recovered two fumbles and had one interception that he returned 44 yards. The junior broke up three passes and had one tackle for loss.

“We’re going to use a 4-3 defense this year,” said O’Grady who needs two wins to reach 100 in his career. “Even though we lost a lot of seniors on defense, we still have people back who have experience. We will use more zone coverage and we need to reduce the number of long pass and running plays that we gave up last year. We need to limit the points – I hate to win, or lose, games like 45-42.” UWRF allowed 332 points last year, last in the WIAC.

Special Teams
A place kicker, a punter, a return man and holder return to the special teams. Senior Jesse Finer returns as place kicker. Finer made 3-10 field goals. He was good on kicks of 47, 30 and 41 yards. He was good on all eight extra points he attempted. Finer handled all of the kick offs except one. Sophomore Eric Stoller returns to punt. He averaged 38.9 yards per kick last year with nine downed inside the 20. Thoreson returned eight kick offs last year and averaged 13.6 yards per return. Zweifel returns as the team’s holder. Sophomore Matt Pollock could also help in the return game.

“I think Stoller can be an All-American punter. We have to fine some return men – and we’ve got several incoming players who can help us there,” said O'Grady.

WIAC
“It’s always hard to predict the WIAC,” said O’Grady. “Whitewater and Oshkosh both lost a lot of players, but both will be good again. La Crosse has a lot of talent back and Stevens Point has a veteran quarterback, and a great running back, returning. And no one thought Eau Claire would have the year they had last year.”

2008 Falcon Schedule
For just the second time in O’Grady’s career the Falcons have three NCAA Div. III non-conference opponents. “We open at St. John’s, the best place to play a Div. III football game. Then we have Northwestern from the Twin Cities – a team that is well coached. Next we travel to Alma, Mich., which is a team that has played well against some other WIAC teams.” O’Grady likes his early conference schedule. “This year we have Stevens Point (Oct. 4) and Whitewater (Oct. 11) at home to start the WIAC season – last year we had to travel to those two places to start the year and that was tough.”

2007 Returning Letter Winners

Falcon 2007 Statistics Page

WIAC Football Page

John O'Grady
Head Coach

Andy Kotelnicki



Greg Bower

Storm Harmon

Michael Zweifel