TONTOGANY, Ohio — Otsego overview:
2023 Record: 4-7 (Made Playoffs)
Head Coach: Craig Rutherford (1st year)
Top Returning Players:
Carter Lampe, Senior LB (2nd Team All-NBC)
Jake Limes, Senior LB (2nd Team All-NBC)
2024 Schedule:
WEEK 1 8/23 vs. Bowling Green
WEEK 2 8/30 @ Tinora
WEEK 3 9/6 vs. Liberty Center
WEEK 4 9/13 @ Rossford*
WEEK 5 9/20 vs. Fostoria*
WEEK 6 9/27 @ Genoa*
WEEK 7 10/4 vs. Oak Harbor*
WEEK 8 10/11 @ Eastwood*
WEEK 9 10/18 vs. Lake*
WEEK 10 10/25 @ Maumee*
*Denotes Northern Buckeye Conference game
Otsego is another program in the Northern Buckeye Conference welcoming new leadership. Craig Rutherford, who is no stranger to the conference, formerly spent six seasons as Eastwood's head coach and will now take over their conference rivals.
But he says he will preach the same themes he does on all of his teams.
"Football is one of those sports where you need everybody every single play, we gotta make sure everybody knows their responsibility," Rutherford said. "Just playing hard for the guy next to him. As we get more confident in our technique and the schemes, the guys keep getting faster and we're just trying to get to that full speed as soon as we can in this season."
The team made playoffs last season but lost to Oak Harbor in the first round. Senior linebacker Carter Lampe said the team is working on focus and intensity in every rep in order to have a different outcome this year.
He added that Rutherford's presence will only add to accomplishing those factors.
"We've been really inviting to him and he's been willing to mesh with us. He brings all of his experience and knowledge with all the success he's had the past few years," Lampe said. "But being able to mesh with our culture as well and the things that we've built so it's not really him coming in and making a new program but making the program better and adding to the foundations we already have."
Rutherford said his motto is simple: play hard and intense. He believes the quicker the team learns together, the quicker they will be able to play at full speed and showcase the talent they possess.
"If we play as hard as we can every Friday night, we have a chance to do some special things," Rutherford said. "I don't know how many wins that will be. Hopefully, we win them all but I think if we play really hard, we'll put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs and win a couple of games."
Lampe added that the team wants to prove people wrong when they take the field every Friday since graduating a lot of talent from last season.
"We've had a lot of guys that graduated last year, really talented guys who have been playing since their sophomore year so they had 3 years varsity experience, " he said. "It's things like that where we're excited. And just be able to prove people wrong. Like we love those guys and they did a lot of good things, but being able to show that we can do those good things too."