Who Says Sacks in the AFL Don’t Matter?
Matthew Pickut
Friday March 12, 2004
Anyway, Wilpolt, who credits current Colorado Crush head coach Mike Dailey with much of his formation as a coach, knows that he has a lot to live up to, but remains excited about the prospect of joining the head coaching ranks.
“The first thing I felt was excited,” Wilpolt revealed. “You hate to get an opportunity like this at the expense of another coach, but John Kolner made the decision and I was excited to accept it.”
Wilpolt inherits a winless team in his first head coaching position and he is looking for a fresh start.
“I’m 0-0 and, to be honest with you, I told our team that we’re 0-0 also right now,” said Wilpolt. “Our goal is to go 1-0. We`re not looking forward or behind. This game is it for us.”
After serving as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for the past five years, Wilpolt’s credentials as an experienced AFL coach stand in contrast to former head coach Steve DeBerg, who had no AFL experience before joining the Firebirds this year. Wilpolt’s experience goes beyond just coaching, however. He also played four years in the AFL with the Charlotte Rage, Las Vegas Sting and Anaheim Piranhas as a defensive specialist. During his time in the AFL as a defensive specialist Wilpolt set the AFL record for tackles in a game with 16.
One bright spot on the team Wilpolt takes over is young quarterback Adrian McPherson, who DeBerg was instrumental in bringing to Indianapolis. In spite of the connection with the past regime, Wilpolt is committed to McPherson being a part of the Firebirds.
“He is my starting quarterback,” Wilpolt stated. “We had a short discussion today and yesterday and he’s excited. He wants to play football right now and I told him, ‘The job is yours; just go out and perform.’”
The removal of DeBerg comes on the heels of a disappointing performance against the Orlando Predators that saw the Firebirds fail to score on their first three possessions.
“Last week was a tough week and, after they got up 21, our confidence was lacking,” recalls Wilpolt. “We could never catch up. We need to get out to a fast start this week and try and take pressure off of Adrian and let some of the other guys be playmakers, and that’s what we’ve worked on this week in practice. The biggest thing right now is to cut down on our mistakes. We’ve played pretty solid football for five games; obviously we need to increase our scoring output.”
This week, Wilpolt is counting on his team coming out strong against the Austin Wranglers.
“I’m expecting us to go down there and win the ball game,” Wilpolt revealed. “They are an expansion team. They have a lot of good free agents there. Their coaching staff has done a great job, but we are expecting to go down there and beat Austin.”
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.
