OSHKOSH — While Tanner Zastoupil may end up putting the pads back on some day, Lincoln Keller won’t get that same opportunity.
One thing is for certain, after growing up playing football together, Saturday’s Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star game at Titan Stadium at UW-Oshkosh will be the final time the duo plays together.
At 6-4, 260 pounds, Zastoupil got the attention of coaches at the next level. While the offensive lineman originally committed to play on scholarship for the University of Minnesota-Duluth, an NCAA D-II school, the recent Evansville graduate had a change of heart.
“I would say I kind of lost my heart for football a little bit,” Zastoupil said. “Up there, they had great coaches and great people. But I really wanted to step away from football and get more into coaching.”
Zastoupil added he’s not into playing the sport anymore and is glad this is his final game. His passion for the military is another reason why he decided to pivot.
“Once I realized college is a good thing, I decided on college. Then I realized the national guard — you can go to college and be in the military. So that fit well,” Zastoupil said.
However, he’s not completely ruling out the possibility of returning to the gridiron. Zastoupil will be staying close to home and attending UW-Whitewater with the intention of majoring in business management.
If he does throw on a jersey for the Warhawks, it would have to be years down the line. He’s getting shoulder surgery this season and plans to be a manager for the team in the meantime.
“I’m going to see if I miss it or not, and then next year I will not be at my fall semester because I will be at boot camp. So it will be three years till I play,” Zastoupil said.
Keller is going to UW-La Crosse where he plans to study finance. The recent graduate rushed for 1,356 yards and recorded 18 rushing touchdowns. Keller accounted for nearly 60 percent of the Blue Devils’ rushing yards this season.
“I’m super excited,” Keller said. “It’s a great experience. I’ve seen all the guys ahead of me that came through Evansville that got to play in the game and it was not my main goal but one of them that I wanted to achieve,” Keller said.
The Evansville duo will compete in the Small School All-Star Game for the South team. They’ve been at a dorm on UW-Oshkosh’s campus for the week, practicing and learning the offense.
Keller likes the offense the team is running.
“It’s a run-heavy, hard-nosed football type of scheme. It’s always difficult trying to learn a new playbook in the short amount of time that we have, but the coaches have been doing a good job of installing it in segments,” Keller said.
The eight-player all-star game takes place on Friday at 6 p.m. The small-school game is slated for Saturday at noon and the large-school game will take place at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The games help raise money for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, with players raising funds for the cause.
“It’s one last opportunity to go out there with Tanner, who I’m obviously playing with one last time… It does make this game a lot more meaningful knowing it will be the last time I play competitive football,” Keller said.