Knights’ Defense Takes Care of Business While the Offense Struggles
Keith Murphy
Saturday April 12, 2003
The second half improvement was due to head Coach Kevin Porter; but Jackson claims it wasn’t a paint-blistering sermon. “We have a lot of veterans on this team so the screaming and yelling – that’s over. Coach Porter comes in and says, ‘Look guys. You know what you need to do; let’s get it done.’”
Knights’ head coach Kevin Porter summed up the evening this way: “It’s the beginning of the season and we have a lot of work to do. I thought we played good in spurts but this isn’t the kind of game where you can play good in spurts. We’re not very efficient on offense. We’re playing pretty good on defense but we’re still having lulls there too. We’ve just gotta continue to work and continue to try to improve the things we don’t do well.”
Knights’ line coach, Webbie Burnett, points to two other veterans as important to the Knights’ defensive punch, “I can’t say enough about Byron Douzart. He’s having an excellent season so far. He sets the standards and he sets them high and that’s how we expect him to play. Now if he can just bring the rest of his teammates up with him. It’s amazing how Douzart and [Andre] Slappey challenge each other. ‘I’m gonna get more sacks than you,’ that sort of thing. They make it a competition. But I always tell these guys you gotta get the win first.”
Byron Douzart, who was named the Ironman of the game, says that the leadership role he has assumed comes with being a three-year veteran. “Being a three year veteran, it has kind of been placed on my shoulders. I think I get respect from all the guys because every day I give the team everything I’ve got and, hopefully, I can use that to push everyone else to step up to my level.” Douzart did admit that he, “and Slappey have a little battle going on. Last year I won the hit ratio and he was second. So he’s pushing me and telling me that he’s going to get it this year. The more he pushes me the harder I’m going to come.”
Denario Smalls, who racked up five tackles, and an interception, was named the ADT defensive player of the game. Porter says that Smalls’ work in the offseason is paying off. “He was a player that spent a lot of time here in the offseason. He had a chance to work and we had the chance to sit down and work on the things that were relevant to his game and that’s made him a better player. The fact is that he’s playing better and he’s playing with a lot more confidence, he’s just doing a great job right now.”
Smalls agreed with Porter’s assessment. “I just trained hard in the offseason. And you ain’t got no choice but to get better with Coach P coaching you. It’s all a credit to him. And at practice, when you’re covering Jaquez Rumph every day you have no choice but to get better.”
Knights’ quarterback Sean Peterson was 24 of 37 for 240 yards and three touchdowns. His work tonight was an improvement over the opener but he admits there is still work to be done. “Things went a little bit better. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We struggled at times but we are coming along. It’s only week two and we’ve got a long way to go. But it is good to see signs of improvement. We’re getting better. I still have a long way to go; but I’m learning and I’m getting better each week.”
Macon Offensive Coordinator, Tres Sullivan, was not pleased with the overall performance of his offense, “We stopped ourselves. Our biggest problem is consistency. We’re not real consistent and I don’t know what we gotta do. The guys have to figure out, within themselves, what the problem is. We had things open tonight; they just didn’t execute. There’s nothing I can do about that. So they have to find a way within themselves to become more consistent. That’s the only way we’re going to get better. At this point in two games I don’t think anyone’s stopped us but ourselves. It’s all the more frustrating on my part because the way we are playing defense; if we score on all four possessions in the first half it’s 28–7 and the game is over. So, it makes it even worse, for me, when our defense plays so well. Our guys need to go back and do some soul-searching and I’ve got to go back and re-evaluate what I’m teaching things. Because we’ve gotta get a change on offense.”
Jacques Rumph was named game MVP. Rumph caught ten passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns. He also added two rushing touchdowns and a couple of impressive kick returns.
With the win, Macon goes to 2-0 and will host divisional foe Birmingham next Saturday. Greensboro falls to 1-1 and travels to Florida next week.
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
