Knights prepare to lay siege to Troy
Keith Murphy
Tuesday August 5, 2003
The Knights, however, come into the game peaking at the right time. They’ve lost only once in July and August and have racked up wins over top seed Tennessee Valley and sixth seeded Florida in the last two weeks. “I think we’ve caught our second wind,” said Macon Offensive Coordinator. “I think we’re playing pretty well and it probably couldn’t happen at a better time than now. I think we feel pretty good about where we are at. I think we could continue to improve. It’s a good sign when you can turn the ball over the way we did the other night [vs. Florida] and still give yourself a chance to win. If we can eliminate those mistakes. If we can eliminate the turnovers and those kind of things it will put us in a good position.”
Sullivan says that the Conquest will pose quite a challenge for Macon. “They’re a good football team. You don’t win 26 games over two years without knowing how to win games. Quite a few guys from this year were on last year’s team. They’re a good, solid ball club. They don’t turn the ball over. They’re pretty potent offensively. They believe they can win. You don’t win football games without knowing how to win and having good players. They’ve done a good job.”
The biggest challenge that Albany offers comes from their offense. They feature two receivers (Corey Hill and Phil Taylor) who each have over 1000 yards recieving on the season. The engine that pushes this offense is quarterback Ryan Vena who racked up a gaudy 123.31 passer rating while throwing 85 touchdown passes for Albany. Sullivan says that stopping Vena, “will be a little bit harder simply from the standpoint that he moves around quite a bit in the pocket when he doesn’t have an open receiver. He goes from his first to his second read and if he doesn’t have anything open he moves around pretty well and he creates some things for them offensively. So, not only do we have to get to him, we’ve got to tackle him. Get him in our grasp and hope that he doesn’t want to run around and make things happen. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week.”
This game will be the first time these teams have met and Sullivan says that initial meetings pose problems all their own. “You always feel a lot better playing someone that you have played before because you’ve got a pretty good understanding of what they’re going to do. They’ll throw some wrinkles in there, but generally you have a pretty good understanding of what they’re going to do. Going against a team for the first time means there will probably be a feeling-out period the first quarter and then you try to get a hold of what they’re going to do. If you’ve played a team more than once you know how the players play; the strengths and weaknesses of a particular player. It will be a little bit different and I would much rather play somebody that I’ve already played.”
The Knights are also trying to make sure that the players have fresh legs when they hit the field Saturday night. “We’re flying up Thursday. So we’ll be there a good 48 hours before the game. That will give them plenty of time to get their feet under them and to rest. We’re leaving a day earlier than we normally would.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm at the Pepsi in Albany. Fans in the Macon area can listen to the game live on WAYS 105.5 FM.
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
