A Few Adjustments
Charliy Nash
Wednesday February 12, 2003
Well, you can’t accuse the Carolina Cobras of sitting idly by when change was needed. Coach Mike Hold tried to essentially bring an af2 team into the AFL -- Okay in the Eastern Division maybe, but the Southern??? When it became apparent that the experiment wouldn’t work, Hold quickly found some quality free agents. While the shuffling of the lineup is still going on, the team made another big move to turn the franchise around. The Cobras’ new Director of Football Operations is a man who knows something about putting a winning team on the field. Eddie Khayat, who has played and coached in the NFL and been a successful coach and GM in the Arena League, will bring stability and experience to a franchise that seems to be in need of an anchor.
Week 2 Was Even Better
NBC made some adjustments as well. The pre-game show was a wonderful addition to the game coverage, providing the studio team an opportunity to shine. Last week I said that Glen Parker added nothing – it turns out he has plenty to add. In week 1 he didn’t have much of a chance to shine, but in week 2 Parker clearly showed that he has a better understanding of the indoor game than either of his studio partners, or to quote another NBC program host “Glen was the strongest link in Round 2.”
The feature demonstrating how AFL receivers can go in motion was a great idea. Forward motion is one of those things that makes the arena game more exciting and it’s confusing to newcomers used to the ways of that other league. However, instead of showing our new friends the difference between Yo-Yo and Hi-Lo motion, it became little more than a set up for Michael Irvin to explain how receivers get separation from the defense. For the record, Yo-Yo is when the receiver runs straight back from the line of scrimmage, then goes forward, returning to the spot he vacated. I’ve seen a variation of Yo-Yo where the receiver just lines up several steps behind the line of scrimmage and goes into forward motion. Hi-Lo motion looks a lot like an end-around sweep. A receiver will line up on one side of the line, then run in an arc to the other side. Some teams will even snap the ball while the receiver is behind the quarterback and actually let the receiver run a sweep. The motion receiver used to be able to run a “freeze” play, going into motion but stopping at the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped. That little trick is no longer legal as of this season.
Just One More Adjustment
I don’t know how it is in your town, but here in Nashville folks have not been happy with the selection of games shown in our market. It seemed like a no brainer that we’d get the War on I-4 last weekend, right? Not so. For some reason we instead sat through Chicago at Dallas – a decent game, but not the one that anyone here wanted to see. The local station tells me that the network makes the calls, and so far NBC hasn’t returned my calls. How about the rest of you? Let me know what you’re seeing and if you’re satisfied with the choice (no “I want my team every week” messages please). We’ll see if we can help NBC to make some adjustments in the “regional” thing.
Charliy Nash has covered both incarnations of the Nashville Kats, and now has make the 2 hour drive to Huntsville for an Arena Football fix. He also covers the Tennessee Titans as a blogger for nfl.com and still hopes this will eventually lead to a paying gig.
