Indiana Firebirds: Naughty or Nice?
Matthew Pickut
Monday December 22, 2003
Naughty or Nice
Santa’s elves are working busily to find out who is naughty or nice.
First on the list is new head coach Steve DeBerg.
“Laid back guy, good guy, wants you to work hard, but wants you to do it in a perspective where no one gets hurt,” reports OS/WR/LB Eddie Brown. “You allow a guy to make a play. You know, maybe a guy makes a short catch, don’t tackle him, you butt him up and let him finish the play. It’s not like your job is on the line for every snap, it’s more a relaxed environment where you do your job and have fun doing it.”
However, being relaxed doesn’t mean that Coach DeBerg is not willing to do some of the work himself.
“He works hard. It doesn’t matter what kind of guy you are. If you’re a hard worker people will follow that,” says OL/DL Chris Snyder. “I came in last week and was throwing with the QBs – actually I was catching the ball – and he was out here running routes.”
“He’s [Coach DeBerg] focused, excited. He’s still feeling his way around a bit, but that’s expected – he’s got a real good game plan in order and its up to us to follow our individual coaches and get the plays down pat,” adds FB/LB Leroy Thompson, who worked out with Snyder during the offseason for a second consecutive year.
Verdict: Nice… so far, so good. Even Coach DeBerg admits it’s a learning process, “It’s football and I love football. Arena football is a little different so there is a learning curve, but it’s exciting to learn new stuff.” But he appears to have the confidence of the players and that goes along way.
So what about the little boys and girls in the front office? Taking the unusual step of having mini camp two months ahead of the season makes a big impression.
“I haven’t seen a chump out there – I mean every year you have a few – there’s none of those. Anyone could have a starting job—it’s just a matter of experience,” says Snyder. “I think it’s been productive. We got in and moved around – pretty intense got some guys flying around little bit – we’ve got some guys learning and the coaches are learning the players.”
“I think it’s good for the situation. I think with all the changes, with all the new coaches and new players, I think this is a good move to get everyone together as well as familiar with the system. It gives us a jump start,” observed Brown. “We definitely upgraded ourselves. A lot of guys look good for now, but I’m quite sure that when we come back they’ll look a lot better.”
Even the AFL veterans on the team know that picking up the indoor game takes time and the mini-camp seems to have been a good first step. “Starting off in Arena football you have to learn the other side of the ball,” remembers LT. “Right now we have a lot of defensive minded guys who will have to learn the offensive to make the transition – I think that’s the good thing about mini-camp. It’s [mini-camp] a chance to get in and learn the new system, learn some new technique stuff that comes with the new system.”
Coach DeBerg seemed happy with the progress of the players at mini-camp, which speaks well of his new system and the players that the front office brought in for the mini-camp. “I was very impressed with the team catching on as well as they did,” said Coach DeBerg. “But it is new. In my opinion it’s a simplified system that allows you to do anything, but it’s exciting to see the players catch on so quickly.”
Verdict: Nice, very nice. From the little I saw when attending mini-camp as an outsider, I have to agree with Chris Snyder – there doesn’t look to be too many soft people coming in the doors to camp this year (well besides me that is). In fact, there appear to be several players who will be able to make a contribution to the team right away including OS Mike Horacek (learning how to spell Hlavacek was hard enough!) and WR/DB Tony Simmons on the outside, and OL/DL Hans Olsen on the line among others
O.K., so every one seems to have been nice so far this year. It looks like they’ll get that bright shiny new offensive system that they’ve wanted (let’s just hope they don’t shoot their eye out with it).
But the introduction of a new system will take some time and the players will need to become familiar with their responsibilities and how Coach DeBerg’s new coaching staff wants things done.
“The new system is good. You have to look at this has only been our second day to become familiar with it; we’re not going to be as crisp with it as we will be months from now,” said Brown. “They’re [the coaches] getting more particular about the technique.”
Offensively, a fair amount of time has been spent on refining the offensive line play. LT admits that they have been spending time on “more technique as far as assignment learning with the line – in the past we were pretty much assigned to an area or a zone in protect – right now it’s more footing as far as getting in position and a lot of timing.”
By far, the system has required most out of the prospective QB’s on the roster, David Priestly, Tony Zimmerman, and Kevin Daft. The added stress on the quarterbacks has made the job easier for the wide receivers however.
“It’s a little different, it makes it simple for us,” said WR/DB Evan Hlavacek. “But it makes it harder on the QBs because there is a lot of verbiage and it’s new to them. For us it’s a piece of cake. It tells us where to run, but it puts it on the quarterbacks – but he’s a QB guy so he’s making it a little tougher on the quarterbacks, but when they get it, it will be alright.”
Coach DeBerg admits that the success of his new system relies on the ability of his QB’s to be prepared and to understand the system.
“There are two basic philosophies in calling plays. The first is to use one word and everyone memorizes what that word means to them, which makes it a lot simpler for the quarterback, but you’re relying on everyone to prepare properly so that they know what to do within that word. The other type of system is the kind were you put more of a burden on the quarterback and the quarterback tells everyone exactly what to do,” Coach DeBerg revealed. “The system I prefer is the kind where the quarterback tells everyone what to do so there is no question as to what I’m supposed to do if I’m a certain receiver. The quarterback is almost always the best prepared player, usually the smartest and knows the system the best, so in my opinion that’s a better way to do it. That way you only have one guy who memorizes things and telling people what to do. I believe you tell people exactly what to do so that as a play caller you don’t have to worry if a guy is going do what he’s supposed to do.”
As to which QB will have the honor of taking on the task of running Coach DeBerg’s new system the coach wants each player to have an chance to compete for the job.
“Its an open competition,” said Coach DeBerg. “I have a feel for who I think is stepping up, but it’s definitely an open competition.”
Yes, Salvation Army Bells, snow days, QB competitions and 40 man rosters. It is indeed beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here in Indiana. Merry Christmas to all and keep studying the playbooks. You never know who’s still watching to see if you’re naughty or nice.
Matthew Pickut is a pastor in northern Indiana and a long time AFL fan. He also writes for his own website: The Brown Paper Blog. He graduated from Taylor University in Upland Indiana (class of `96) with degrees in Biblical Literature and Sociology as well as a healthy respect for the medicinal properties of coffee.
