Oilers fuel up to #14 national ranking with perfect early season
By Luke Ellerbrock
ellerbrockl@findlay.edu
The Findlay Oilers are off to a blazing 7-0 start in the 2025 football season. This week the team reached the highest ranking in program history at No. 14 in the American Football Coaches Association National Poll. Ashland University is the only other school in the G-MAC ranked nationally. The Eagles stand at No. 20. They are tied at No. 1 in the conference with a 5-0 conference record. raced out to a 7-0 start and are gaining attention throughout the conference. For head coach Kory Allen, the key goes back to that old saying, “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’,”
“I think their belief in the team concept, it’s not just about one guy, it’s about one team and their idea that we’re all in this together,” Allen said. “That’s been a really positive thing for us.”
Coach Allen also believes that this team has a lot of resolve. In two of its first three games the team faced a deficit at some point in the game. “We were down 17-7 against Indianapolis, they didn’t blink. They just kept playing and kept playing.”
Even though the Oilers are having a lot of success on the field, Coach Allen believes that spending time with the team is his favorite part of the season.
“I just think being around them every day has been the best part of it, it’s a really good group of seniors, it’s an upperclassmen lead group. Saturdays are fun, but I think the Monday through Friday and just spending time with them has been the best part of it.”
For senior defensive back Christion Stokes his confidence has been at an all-time high.
“When you play your role in whatever position you are playing, it helps the team,” Stokes said. But it also helps what I want to accomplish individually, and it is also bringing success to me individually. The team’s success plays a part in my confidence for sure.”
For Stokes the mindset for the rest of the season is to take it one week at a time and to get better every day.
“1-0 every week and the way I think about it is I want to get better at something every day, no matter how big or how small,” Stokes said. Whether it’s learning a call or a new technique, I just want to get better at something every day.”
For Athletic Director Jim Givens, he looks for the Oilers to excel off the field too.
“My expectation is that Coach Allen supports his student-athletes the way we all expect administratively and that he makes sure that they are excelling in all phases of their life,” Givens said.
Oiler athletics reports UF is one of just eight unbeaten teams in the country.
The remaining four games are predicted to be the true test of character as three of the teams are still in the hunt for the G-MAC championship. The Ohio Dominican University game is Oct. 25 at 12 p.m., at Northwood Nov. 1 at 12 p.m., Nov. 8 at No. 20 Ashland at 1 p.m. and back in Findlay vs Tiffin University Nov. 15 at 12 p.m.
Latest Pulse Media
- A twist on your average glass of water is coming to UFUF to Introduce New Beverages in Henderson By Victoria Hansen hansenv@findlay.edu After the replacement of Coke Freestyle machines with Pepsi fountains, University of Findlay Dining Services is introducing a new beverage option: Bevi. “Bevi is a dispenser, specifically for water… that allows students, faculty, and staff to kind of customize their water beverage. It’s [...]
- Neighbors Unite to Tackle Findlay’s Feral Cat CrisisLocal volunteers lead TNR efforts, offering food, shelter and second chances to the city’s strays. By Sydnie Schaffer schaffers@findlay.edu Five bowls sit on a porch in Findlay’s south end, each already half empty by the time Findlay resident Calvin Stewart steps outside his home. Tiny paws scurry across the concrete as cats of every [...]
- AWS global outage spills onto UF’s campusBy Erin Moran morane@findlay.edu Students across the University of Findlay campus faced a disruptive shutdown on Monday morning when Canvas, the learning management system the University uses, was unresponsive for 12 hours. All Canvas sites were down as part of a larger, nationwide outage affecting Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud hosting platform. [...]
- Beyond the basics: UF’s Microsoft 365 plan vs Microsoft 365 PersonalBy Victoria Hansen and Pulse Staff hansenv@findlay.edu Every University of Findlay student account comes with a Microsoft 365 A3 license, one of Microsoft’s education licenses that has more features than the Microsoft 365 Personal. But Microsoft made news recently when it announced that it would be giving away a free year of Microsoft 365 [...]
- UF student-athletes host annual Trunk or Treat for Findlay familiesBy Erin Moran morane@findlay.edu The University of Findlay’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is gearing up for one of its most popular autumn community events: Trunk or Treat. The event is open to campus and the public as a safe, family-friendly trick-or-treating opportunity. Athletes decorate their cars, dress up, and hand out candy to positively represent [...]
- More than $126 million raised during Fell’s 16-year tenureOn Oct. 17, Dr. Katherine Fell announced her retirement at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. The end of her tenure will coincide with the anticipated end of the “Together We Will” capital campaign, one of two major fund-raising campaigns Fell helmed during her time in Findlay. On Oct. 8, 2022, Fell launched the [...]