Oregon’s football program found success last season that had been elusive for about a decade.
The next step?
In third-year coach Broc Kundert’s estimation, that measure will be how the Hawks handle the spoils of success.
“I feel like last year, even after a few games we won, we thought we had arrived,” Kundert said. “We can’t overlook anybody. Week after week has to be our best effort.”
Hopes are understandably high in Oregon this fall. The Hawks, coming off a 5-5 season and their first playoff appearance since 2014, return eight starters on offense and six on defense. It’s a senior laden group with close to 25 seniors, four of them third-year starters Jack Washburn, Josh Crandall, Hunter Bartel and Briggs Sellers.
“Small schools, kids get pulled in a ton of different directions, but that senior group are football-first guys,” Kundert said. “They play other sports, but they’re the group that has pushed us in the right direction in the weight room and work ethic. Everything that we’re trying to build, they are the group that we have built around.
“Hopefully we’ll have a pretty successful year. They’ll set the tone.”
Washburn is a quarterback who can throw it with accuracy, and Kundert probably is called the smartest guy on the team.
“He is the guy in the huddle that knows everybody’s responsibilities, what they are doing, understands the game and embraces the role of quarterback,” Kundert said. “He’s a leader by example. He does everything right.”
The Hawks’ vocal leader is the one who snaps Washburn the ball. Sellers, Oregon’s 6-foot-1, 285-pound center, was a first team all-conference offensive lineman as a junior.
“He sets the tone for us,” Kundert said. “He’s one of the guys that after practices sticks around with the coaches and talks for 20 minutes. He plays hard, he’s a big kid – he’s tough.”
Crandall, 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, holds scholarship offers from Illinois State, Illinois Wesleyan and Sacred Heart out of Connecticut. He will play tight end, defensive line – wherever the Hawks need him.
“He is a big kid, runs well, we’ll split him out at wide receiver, H-back, tight end – he’s a guy that will move around for us,” Kundert said. “He is talented, smart and physical. He wants to put people on their backs. He is a hard-nosed football player.”
Bartel, the fourth third-year starter, will play receiver and defensive back.
“He is kind of the Jack on defense. He knows what everybody is doing, is real smart defensively, has things figured out,” Kundert said. “He runs real well – we’re hoping for a big year for him. Put the ball in his hands, he’s pretty dangerous.”
Senior running back Logan Weems, a first team Sauk Valley Newspapers pick and second-team All-Big Northern pick as a junior, rushed for 1,111 yards on 223 carries with 14 TDs. Tough as they come, Weems dislocated an elbow on the third play of Oregon’s playoff loss to Du-Pec last year, but popped it back in and kept going.
“He is just hard-nosed. He wants to run you over, not run around you. He very rarely will go down with one hit,” Kundert said. “He has sneaky speed on the football field. He is faster than he looks. He’s a gamer. He was injured most of last year, and you wouldn’t have known.”
The Hawks had to lean on Weems quite a bit last season, but with added depth Kundert is hopeful they can keep him fresh. He’ll run behind an offensive line with three returning starters that Kundert considers one of his team’s strongest units. Andrew Young and Seth Rote started every game at guard as juniors, and Kyson Morris is at tackle.
“Nobody out there should not know what’s going on. We have experience, and nothing has really changed,” Kundert said. “There might be times where we’re overmatched by a guy, but that shouldn’t happen a ton.”
Oregon doesn’t have to look far to recognize what taking success to the next level looks like. Just up the road, Byron is coming off a 14-0 season and Class 3A state championship. That kind of week-in, week-out consistency doesn’t happen by accident.
“You look at Byron, every game is their best game. That is what we have to be,” Kundert said. “Approach every game like it’s the state championship and go from there.”
Schedule: Aug. 30 at North Boone; Sept. 6 at Dixon; Sept. 13 Genoa-Kingston; Sept. 20 Winnebago; Sept. 27 at Byron; Oct. 4 Stillman Valley; Oct. 11 at Rock Falls; Oct. 18 at Rockford Lutheran; Oct. 25 Athens