Preparing for One Team at a Time
Keith Murphy
Wednesday July 31, 2002
The Wildcats come into the game after having found a surprising answer for the quarterback dilemma created when a broken collarbone ended Mike Gluski’s season. Without their field leader, the ‘Cats pummeled the Charleston Swamp Foxes 67 to 28. Wildcats head coach Chris Siegfried’s backup quarterbacks managed go 16 of 23 for 218 yards and four touchdowns. “We were pleasantly surprised by what went on against Charleston. To have an untested backup quarterback, in Matt Lefever, perform like he did and then to have a new quarterback like Bobby Pesavento come in with only three days practice and perform the way he did has been a saving grace for us this year. And it gives us a lot to look forward to this weekend.”
Despite having brand new quarterbacks at the helm, Siegfried says that he’s not going to over-simplify the offense. “I’m going to put in enough stuff so we’ve got some options. I’m going to try to put it all on the receivers as opposed to having it all on the quarterbacks. Our offense has been pretty simple all year. With Mike Gluski at the helm we were able to do a number of things in addition to the basics. Most of the stuff we did with Gluski was to keep people off balance. I threw a lot at these guys last week and they responded. I added a number of new plays in and they responded. So, I’m going to add some more plays, just for Richmond. I base what we do on the opponent. I gear our offense toward Richmond as opposed to just playing offense and letting them stop us.”
Siegfried says that despite their 0 and two record against Richmond, his team will be ready to play Saturday. “The guys are real confident this week. The fact that they’ve beaten us is keeping us from being over-confident. We expect this to be an absolute war this weekend against Richmond. They’re a very good team. Every big game they’ve been in, they’ve won. They still have the advantage.”
The game will hinge on the battle between the Cape Fear line and the Richmond passing attack. As Siegfried explains, “We’re going to do what we’ve been doing. Hopefully we’ll beat them up front. The game will be won or lost up front, Skill-wise we’ve got to stop Harvey, Townsley, and Thompson. Townsley’s the guy who killed us last game. I’ve always felt that Kevin Harvey is their best all-around player. He is the guy we’ve got to keep in check. If we can do that and minimize what Townsley does, then we can beat them.”
The Richmond receiving corps is a talented unit. Kevin Harvey has over 1100 yards receiving and 19 touchdown catches. Jeff Townsley has 32 touchdown catches and nearly 1500 yards receiving. Even though he has only played in five games for the Speed, Damon Thompson has also proven himself to be a threat, averaging nearly 100 yards receiving in each game. With that level of productivity, the pressure will be on AF2 sack king E. J. Burt to keep Speed quarterback Bob Bees preoccupied. Burt has racked up 27.5 sacks and 19 tackles for a loss so far this season to lead one of the top defensive units in the league.
That top-ranked Wildcat defense will, once again, be the key Saturday as Siegfried expects the defense to keep Cape Fear in the game. “My main concern right now is that I want to make sure we keep it close and have an opportunity to win the game. Like we did last time. I’m not totally upset with how we performed against Richmond last time. We had an opportunity to win the game and we didn’t. I don’t want it to come down to extra points and field goals. Although two of our losses have seemed to come down to that.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm at the Cumberland County Crown Coliseum. The winner of this game will face the winner of the Albany v. Rochester match up next weekend.
Gluski Update
According to Wildcats’ head coach Chris Siegfried, quarterback Mike Gluski’s surgery to repair a broken collar bone was successful. “He going to be able to play in arena one next year if he gets the shot.” Mike Gluski is recuperating, at home, in Michigan.
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
