With many -- but not all -- of its top players back this season, the UW-Whitewater football team was feeling the pressure to reach the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl for a third consecutive year.

But the pressure the Warhawks faced was nothing compared to the burden shouldered by their rookie coach, Lance Leipold.

Not that Leipold will admit it.

"Most of the pressure is probably self-induced," he said Tuesday.

Sorry, no one's buying it. That's because Leipold, most recently the offensive coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha, had much to live up to in his first season back at Whitewater, where he was a quarterback in the 1980s.

He was replacing a Warhawks legend in Bob Berezowitz. He had never been a head coach (though he had worked for Barry Alvarez at the University of Wisconsin and Frank Solich at Nebraska). He took over a team with 23 seniors that had gone 28-2 the previous two years and had set the bar at reaching the NCAA Division III title game. And he had to justify his selection over long-time Warhawks assistant Stan Zweifel, a highly respected offensive coordinator who had solid -- but not universal -- support in the Whitewater community.

So all Leipold had to do in his first year was gain the respect of the players, some of whom were visibly upset when Zweifel wasn't promoted, learn how to operate as a head coach and, oh yeah, get Whitewater back to the national championship game.

Well, that's exactly what he's done.

Athletic director Paul Plinske, who made the gutsy call to hire Leipold, and others in and around the Whitewater athletic department say Leipold's temperament, people skills and coaching ability have won over the players in a big way and had a positive effect on the coaching staff. Proof will come Saturday in Salem, Va., when the Warhawks (13-1) meet Mount Union (14-0) in the NCAA title game for the third straight year.

Unfortunately, the Internet-fueled politics of the situation have led to a season-long debate over who would have done better, Leipold or Zweifel. Truth be told, Plinske probably wouldn't have gone wrong with either one. But when Whitewater beat Mary Hardin-Baylor on Saturday to return to the final, it showed Plinske had picked a winner in Leipold.

Now it can be said Leipold has matched what Berezowitz did. Leipold would never say it, of course, but if that doesn't qualify as validation, nothing does. Moreover, he did it without graduated stars Justin Jacobs, Derek Stanley, Pete Schmitt and Ryan Kleppe.

Leipold will only say he stepped into an awkward situation that was not of his making and tried to make the best of it.

"In Nebraska, I don't think I was really aware of maybe the possible division that was there early on," he said. "But I don't want any of that, and never have, to deflect (attention) from what this team has accomplished, from what these guys have done. That's what I tried to say the day I got here. This is about Warhawk football. (It's been) 29 years of Forrest Perkins, 22 years of Bob Berezowitz and hopefully they can say those kinds of numbers about me someday. But it's about the program."

With so many seniors back, Leipold walked a fine line between implementing things he had dreamed of doing as a head coach and retaining things the veteran players knew. It helped that he was able to put together an impressive staff, which included hiring successful Lakeland head coach Jim Zebrowski as offensive coordinator and retaining Brian Borland -- "Brian's been the unsung guy of this program for this championship run," Leipold said -- as defensive coordinator. Borland would not have stayed on had Zweifel been named coach.

Leipold had a rocky start, losing to Division II St. Cloud State in his second game, but in the next two games the Warhawks shut out eventual WIAC runner-up UW-Eau Claire and overcame an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat rival UW-La Crosse. It was about that time Leipold felt the players developed the trust in him they needed. Whitewater has been rolling ever since.

Despite the intense pressure he has been under all season, Leipold admits to no great sense of relief now that he has guided the Warhawks back to Salem. Don't believe for a minute, though, the competitor in him doesn't want to one-up everybody by coming home with a title.