Football Team Starts With Clean Slate for Spring

The Ottawa Braves have gotten a fresh start of sorts this off-season. The back-to-back KCAC champs graduated 22 seniors, but head coach Kent Kessinger said the team has been working hard and wants to keep improving.

“We are a team that has to fill a lot of spots,” Kessinger said. “We don’t have an heir apparent quarterback that’s established themself, so we’ve got guys competing there. We have some new faces in the offensive line that are kind of congealing together, so it’s a lot of work for our guys, but it’s one that I think they’ve taken on as a good challenge.”

Kessinger acknowledged a majority of the team lacks experience in the team’s particular system, but said the new junior college transfers have fit in well with the team and are making an impact.

“We’re gonna be young, and we brought in some guys at semester,” defensive coordinator Josh Homolka said. “When you bring in juniors, hopefully they can be thrust into some leadership, but we got some older guys that have really stepped up on defense.”

Senior linebacker Jake Granitz said the off-season training program has improved since he transferred to OU from Los Angeles Valley College.

“I feel like the weight program is one of the biggest improvements,” he said. “Everyone seems to be into it, everyone likes it and a lot of people have gained from it.”

Homolka said there has been more re-teaching of the defense after losing nine starters from last year’s squad.

“We’ve made it easier schematically on how we’re gonna do stuff,” he said. “We’ve just evolved a little bit - same principles defensively, just our players are gonna be a little more comfortable maybe with how we changed it.”

The biggest thing he learned from last year’s playoff loss to Missouri Valley though, was in the number of impact players.

“I think for us to accomplish a (KCAC) championship and move on to the playoffs, we have to achieve depth,” he said. “We’ve always had a great top-11, top-15 guys. We need to get to 22.”

While he said he thinks the spring season is going well, Kessinger said the biggest thing players have to do is continue working hard in the summer, when there are less team obligations.

“We don’t want to be just a great spring team,” Kessinger said. “Whatever we build on in the spring and the experience we gain, we can’t just stop it and then try to start back over in the fall.”

So far, though, the coach likes what he is seeing from his team.

“I really feel we have a very good team kind of vibe going on right now. It seems like there is a ton of encouraging of each other,” Kessinger said. “There’s a really good competitive spirit that we’re seeing within the team, which is extremely encouraging.”