Cape Fear Gunning for Home Playoff Game
Keith Murphy
Saturday July 27, 2002
In the aftermath of Gluski’s season-ending injury in last week’s loss to Richmond, Wildcats’ head coach Chris Siegfried, once again, has to sort out another personnel problem. “We have three quarterbacks in here right now. Matt LeFever is now the starter. It is his job to lose. I feel good about Matt. He’s had a great week of practice. He’s got a great release and stretches the field real nice for us.” LeFever came to the Wildcats when Vic Penn left after losing the starting role to Mike Gluski.
The ‘Cats have added two new quarterbacks to their roster in hopes of solving their quarterback dilemma before their playoff appointment with Richmond. Bobby Pesavento, a 6’ 5” 225 pounder from the University of Colorado will be on the sidelines as LeFever’s backup. Siegfried says that Pesavento has a “big league arm; but he’s fairly new to the arena game. But I think he’s got a tremendous amount of potential to be a very good quarterback.” Pesavento will get a “live-fire” audition in the second half of Saturday’s game.
Zamir Amin, formerly of Menlo College, has also been brought in for a two-day workout. Siegfried says that Amin has “very quick feet; a great release; he’s a great passer. He’s a little bit shorter than what I would prefer at quarterback, he’s 5’ 10”, but I think he’s a heck of a player. He’s impressed me this week. I’ve put him under contract and we’re just going to see what happens. He may get the opportunity to play next week.” Amin has the credentials to play arena ball, he threw to Gabe Amey (Macon Knights) and Eddie Miller as a collegian and, in one game in 2000, he threw for over 730 yards.
Siegfried is, surprisingly upbeat about the quarterback situation heading into the playoffs. “All three of them looked good this week. Matt LeFever is solid. The only problem is that none of them are battle tested where arena football is concerned. Matt has the most experience. He’s played two plays this year. But as the backup in Memphis last year he played in a number of games. He’s got the most knowledge of the game and he’s been doing a good job all week.”
Siegfried says that his team is not going to let adversity get them down. “Our team’s fine. We’ve had adversity every single week this season so this is just one more thing. The guys are confident. We still feel good about our chances to go deep into the playoffs. We lost a great quarterback. There’s no doubt about it; but, we win ugly a lot. . . so, we’re just going to continue to try to win ugly. The guys are coming together and our receivers are getting healthy so we feel good.”
Not lost in all of this is the fact that Cape Fear’s playing an important game that may determine home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Siegfried says that if this were an outdoor game, he’d be playing the ground control, three yards and a cloud of dust, offense this week. “But that’s not a remote responsibility in this game, especially the way Charleston scores quickly. Our gameplan doesn’t change. Our philosophy doesn’t change. We are going in there with the same mindset: throw the ball. We run the ball more than a lot of teams in this league; but we’re not going to run anymore than we would if Mike Gluski was here. You’ve still got to throw the ball in this league to win.”
Charleston, at 7-8, is out of playoff contention. But Siegfried says that they will still pose a problem for his squad. “They’ve been the giant-killers the last few weeks. They beat Richmond and Augusta on back-to-back weeks and that scares me. I’m hoping that they’re not taking us too seriously because of the loss of Mike Gluski. If they do that, it should be an interesting game. I think we might struggle early. But after the second or third series we should be fine. It’s going to be a real gut-check for the team. ”
A Wildcat win would put the team one step closer to a hosting the first round of the playoffs. Charleston, meanwhile, will be looking to end their 2002 campaign with a win and to avoid a losing season. Kickoff is set for 7:00 pm Saturday night in the North Charleston Coliseum.
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
