Knights Ready, Despite Short Week
Keith Murphy
Tuesday August 12, 2003
One of the biggest struggles these teams will face is preparing for such a critical game during a short week. With the Thursday scheduling, Macon has only five days to get ready for the game. Knights’ Offensive Coordinator, Tres Sullivan, says that the short week will have an impact. “It’s a little difficult, from the rest standpoint. Mentally and physically getting the players back into game mode. I think that’s probably the hardest part about it.”
The Knights may also have to face Thursday’s game without top receiver Jacquez Rumph who was injured in the first quarter of the Knights’ win over Albany. During the regular season, Rumph was second in the af2 in scoring, second in receptions, first in receiving yards per game, and second in all-purpose yards. Sullivan says that Rumph’s status is still to be determined. “We just have to see how he does over the next couple of days. We’re anticipating him playing, so hopefully he will respond over the next couple of days and he won’t have many problems.”
On the positive side of the ledger, the Knights, during the last month, seem to have recaptured some of the swagger of last year’s team. “We feel pretty good with where we are at right now,” said Sullivan. “We’ve hung in there. We’ve stayed in the ballgame and given ourselves a chance to win at the end. Obviously, it’s gone our way the last couple of weeks.”
Sullivan says that the critical component for both teams will be the line play. “It’s pretty much the same Tennessee Valley. They’re going to rely on what’s been good to them all year and that’s the guys up front. They were able to get to the quarterback against Mohegan last week and create some turnovers. I think that’s the biggest thing. If our guys up front play well then I think we’ll play well. When they don’t it causes the quarterback to do things he doesn’t want to do which, in turn, creates turnovers. I think that’s going to be the battle for both teams, the guys up front, and whoever wins that battle wins the game.”
The Knights go into Thursday’s game playing their best football of the year and when that is combined with a chance to play for the championship Sullivan believes that the Knights will continue to rise to the occasion. “I think all along we’ve felt we had a pretty good team. We’ve always thought that when we play well we can play against anybody. It was just a matter of us playing well and we weren’t doing that on a consistent basis. I think we’re relishing the opportunity. There’s only four teams left and we’re one of those teams. I think our guys are looking forward to the challenge of going on the road and try to win in their place.”
Kickoff is slated for 8:30 pm (EST) in Huntsville. Fans in Macon can listen live to 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
