Knights One Step Awway From Grail
Keith Murphy
Wednesday August 20, 2003
The two teams have followed different roads to the title game. Tulsa rolled to Central division title racking up 13 wins in the process. Macon followed a more difficult path. A mere six weeks ago, Macon faced elimination from playoff contention and now have battled their way, upsetting the top two seeds in the American Conference playoffs, to the title game. Knights’ Offensive Coordinator, Tres Sullivan, says that, “It feels great. Me and Kevin [Porter] had talked about it earlier in the week after we beat Tennessee Valley about how far we’ve come. Six or seven weeks ago we were fighting for our playoff lives. Although, as I’ve said before, we were playing pretty good football, or I thought we were. We hung in there each week and gave ourselves a chance and it just so happens that things have been going our way. And here we are.”
For the Knights, the difference between wins and losses earlier in the season seemed to be that all the breaks went to the opposition. That trend has reversed and Sullivan says that the reason is a a combination of playing hard and a little luck. “I think we’ve created our own luck. We had a couple of turnovers last weekend and, in turn, our defense created something for ourselves. So I think we’ve helped ourselves out, but it’s been a combination of things. I think it’s a confidence thing too. I think the players understand that they’re playing pretty good and they’re playing at a high level so when we had a couple of early turnovers last week our defense went out and created some stops. All that does is boost your confidence. When you get a couple of stops in a row you begin to feel that you’re doing some good things.”
One critical factor for the Knights’ success has been the emergence of players who, like Mario Evans and Anthony Snead whose play has paced the Knights during their playoff run. “It was a combination of things. Kevin [Porter] always told the story to the players about Wally Pipp,” Sullivan said. “He would ask the players if they knew who Wally Pipp was. He reminded the players that when people got the most to play they have to make the most of that opportunity. I think we’ve had a number of people like that. It just so happened that if a player wasn’t playing real well, we made a switch or players got hurt and the guys who took their place have done a real good job and have never given up that spot.” Pipp was the Yankee’s first baseman who, because of a headache, took a day off and lost his starting job to an unknown rookie named Lou Gehrig.
One injured Knight who has not lost his job is Offensive Specialist Jacques Rumph. Rumph suffered a groin injoury in the first quarter of Macon’s win over Albany and has not played since. Rumph’s playing status, according to Sullivan, is still up in the air. “We’re really taking it easy in him because we don’t want him to push himself and have a setback. I think it will be a game time decision again. Him having a good ten days off is going to help him. Hopefully, by Saturday he’ll be ready to go.”
In any title game, the players start the game fighting the jitters. Sullivan says that Macon is not changing their pre-game preparation in an attempt to counter the problem. “We’re going to go out and try to play the same game we’ve been playing the last eight or nine weeks. It’s worked for us. Although there is a little more at stake this week. I don’t think we’re going to change much at all. We’re just going to continue to do what we’ve been doing and, hopefully, it continues to work for us.”
In Tulsa, the Knights face a team that landed eight players on the all-af2 National Conference team. Lead by quarterback Craig Strickland, the Talons have averaged 60 points per game during the playoffs. Sullivan says that this team will pose a challenge to the Knights. “Looks like they’ve got some good athletes. Got some good guys up front who rush the passer pretty well. They’ve got some athletic secondary guys and they don’t give up a lot of deep touchdowns. I think that’s their trademark on both sides is that they don’t do things to beat themselves. They keep everything in front of them and make you move the ball down the field and make you work for touchdowns. I think that’s also the way they are offensively. They don’t make mistakes. They don’t turn the ball over. They make good, safe throws. I think that’s part of the way it’s going to be this weekend. I think the ball game is coming down to whoever has the ball last and whoever makes the fewest mistakes.”
Kickoff is set for 8:30pm local time and can be heard in the Macon
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
