Knights Prepare for Battle in Florida
Keith Murphy
Thursday June 26, 2003
Sullivan said that this game is the beginning of a long stretch of important games if the Knights are to reach the playoffs. “It’s a real big game in terms of playoff seedings. At this point we’re fifth out of six teams in the playoff standings and there are an awful lot of teams who are six and five. In order for us to assure ourselves of getting into the playoffs I don’t think we can afford to lose another game. If we lose another game we start counting on other people to lose games. I think that’s the approach we have. Kevin [Porter] has been telling the team all week long that every game we play from here on out is a playoff game for us and I think we have to approach it that way. And we’ve got to get that monkey off our back against Florida.”
Since the addition of Alfred, the Macon offense has been slowly creeping up the league rankings. Macon now ranks seventh in total offense and fourth in passing offense. “We’re eleven games into it now and everybody should have a pretty good feel for what’s going on,” Sullivan said. “He’s [Macon quarterback Jermaine Alfred] into his fourth game now. I think it’s a combination of everybody around him and himself getting comfortable with what’s going on. I think that’s just where we are at this stage of the year. Everybody feels good about what we are doing offensively and, hopefully, if we do have to get into a shootout we’ll be able to match teams touchdown for touchdown.”
Sullivan says that he expects the players to step up to the challenge facing them. “I don’t think we’ve had a guy really stand out all year long. A guy that has done anything to separate himself from the rest of the team and give us that edge to put us over the top. I’m not sure who it’s going to be. I hope we get a number of guys that step up and make plays for themselves and for their teammates. I’d like to see our whole team step up and play a good offensive game and a good defensive game and good special teams game. We haven’t had that all year long. I really hope that we all play a full sixty minutes in all three phases of the game.”
The Knights currently hold the fifth of six spots in the American Conference playoff picture. Macon is a game behind Cape Fear and Mohegan and a game ahead of Norfolk, Birmingham and Florida. Sullivan admits that this logjam is leading to some scoreboard watching, “A little bit. There are a number of teams that are six and five behind us. I think that 6-10 will possibly get you in the playoffs. 12-4 obviously does and I think 11-5 probably gets you in as well. So we are right there on the bubble and we can’t do anything but control what we do and hopefully that will be good enough to get us into the playoffs.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm Saturday night at the TECO Center.
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
