Semi-finals Rests Top Offense vs. Top Defense
Keith Murphy
Saturday August 10, 2002
Macon Offensive Coordinator Tres Sullivan says that the Firecats’ defensive success is a sign of strong line play. “They’ve had success on defense, especially the last four or five weeks, because they’ve been really good up front. Whoever puts pressure on the quarterback in this league is going to have some success. That’s what they did last week in Tallahassee. They put pressure on the quarterback and didn’t give him a lot of time to throw and, consequently, they were able to hold Tallahassee to a low number of points and eventually pulled off the win.”
The Firecats’ defense is strengthened by the return of Roy Stabler, a 6’ 3” 210 pound WR/DB from Southern Miss. Sullivan says the Knights’ won’t change up their offensive plans as a result of Stabler’s return. “He [Stabler] is their quarterback back there and I’m sure that they feel a lot better having him back there than they did the last three or four weeks without him; but, at the same time, they played pretty well without him. I’m sure they’re happy to have him back. It’s not going to change our gameplan. We’re looking at their overall defensive scheme and not so much at individual players.”
Macon’s approach to the game, according to Sullivan, is going to look familiar to anyone who’s watched the Knights play this season. “It’s going to be the same approach we’ve taken all season. Get out there and make good decisions with the football. If we protect up front that will be the big key. If John continues to make good decisions with the football we’ll be okay.”
The “John” Sullivan speaks of is John Rayborn, Macon’s 6-2 220 pound quarterback from Texas-El Paso. Rayborn ended the season as the highest rated passer in the American Conference and third highest in the league (behind only Tulsa’s Joe Phears and Wichita’s Ron Lopez). Since taking the starting role from Mike Gluski, who’s season ended with a broken collarbone against Charleston, Rayborn threw 58 regular season touchdown passes and only eleven interceptions leading the Knights to the divisional championship.
Coming off a solid 16-point win over division foe Augusta, the Knights’ aren’t taking anything for granted. Sullivan says that the team has had a strong week of practice. “We’ve had a good week of practice. We’ve gone back to refocusing ourselves for one week at a time. They did real well with that last week and approached last week as if it were our last game of the year. We want continue to plan and approach it the same way this week. This is our next challenge and for us to move on we’ve got to win this game. They’ve done a really good job of refocusing themselves.”
Last week, the Firecats shocked intrastate and divisional rival Tallahassee 43 – 31 for their first win over the Thunder. However, this week, the Firecats will be on their fourth road trip in a row. Sullivan says that, even in the playoffs, this amount of travel isn’t easy.
“I don’t what kind of toll it’s going to take on them. It’s about 550 miles or so up here. It’s going to be a pretty good bus trip. But five weeks ago they went to Columbus, which is about 100 miles from here, and they beat Columbus. So it’s nothing they’re not used to. At the same time it will take a little toll on them. But, I’m sure they’ll be ready to play come Saturday night.”
Macon enters this game as healthy as they’ve been all season and are, “ready and raring to go” according to Sullivan. The tone of the game should be set early. Macon will want to stretch the field and turn the game into a track meet. If Florida can’t stop the Knights they’re in for a long and unpleasant evening. The Florida defense has to keep the game close and make the outcome hinge on special teams’ play, which was Birmingham’s successful game plan against Macon three weeks ago.
Kickoff is set for 7:30pm at the Macon Coliseum. “Camelot” the Knights’ tailgate party gets underway at 4:30 in the Coliseum parking lot.
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
