More Changes Means Another Win for Cobras
Chuck DiLullo
Wednesday April 21, 2004
The promise that started in October of 2003 with the announcement of, arguably, the most experienced coaching staff in league history and the signing of high-profile, former All-Arena players has deteriorated into a disappointing 4-7 campaign for a franchise that truly thought they were going to make a run at the ArenaBowl championship this season.
“The only goal is to win the ArenaBowl and to win it right now in 2004. Anything short of that is a failure and I’m not interested in any option other than winning it all.” These were the emphatic words of Senior Advisor Billy McGehee prior to the season starting. I don’t think McGehee, owner Pete Loftin and general manager Darrell Harbin ever imagined this season would take the turn it has but reality set in very quickly after a fast start that there was something missing in the mix. The first casualty was head coach Eddie Khayat. The second was his replacement, John Gregory. Neither could seem to find the pulse of this team and this lead to a dramatic picture of underachievement.
“This organization is committed to making progress and to winning games,” said Cobras General Manager Darrell Harbin in announcing the promotion of defensive coordinator Ron Selesky in the week leading up to the game versus Philadelphia. “We will continue to make changes until we find the right combination of players and coaches to accomplish this goal.”
Selesky promised the team that would take the field versus the Soul would have a different look and different feel. Selesky wasted no time in putting his finger on what he thought was the best-fit combination to win football games. Ricky Foggie was named the starting quarterback over Matt Nagy. Damien Groce was moved to the starting OS, replacing an inactive Todd Doxzon. Both players responded with tremendous efforts. Foggie passed for 338 yards and five touchdowns while Groce posted career highs for receptions (8), receiving yards (173) and touchdown receptions (3).
“Looking back at what we have, I felt like we had to make some personnel changes going into this game,” said Selesky. “I felt we had some guys that we had to get on the field and some guys we had to look at in different positions. This was not to show disrespect to any of the guys who didn’t play but I felt these changes had to be made in the best interest of the team.”
“I stay sharp during the week by practicing and watching film. I prepare myself as if I am the starter,” said Foggie. “I was a little rusty in the beginning after not playing all year.”
“This was a total team effort. I am proud of this team because of the adversity this year has had to play through,” said Selesky. “They really pulled together. We have a variety of people that we can get the ball to and can make plays.”
Special Teams Still an Issue
Special teams continue to be a liability for the Cobras as they surrendered a return for a touchdown for the third consecutive game and continue to give up huge chunks of yardage that have put the defense in vulnerable positions all year – this is one of the main reasons the Cobras have given up over 600 points so far this season.
The defense did make two huge stops during the course of the game. One on the very first drive and one on the goal line on the last play of the game, stuffing the Soul’s Ricky Ross on a toss play with no time left on the clock.
“We knew they wanted to run that sweep they were successful on the whole game,” said defensive coach Mo Blanding on the game’s final play. “I was expecting a pick route that they scored on before but I chal- lenged our lineman to stay low and plug up the middle and the entire defense met the challenge with a huge play.”
The Cobras are 4-7 entering their bye week. The team’s playoff chances are very slim at this point but the team promises to continue to fight every game. Foggie echoed this sentiment stating, “It’s all of our job to work hard every day. As long as we continue to do just that, we will be in every game. We are going to play hard, we are going to compete and we are going to have fun.”
Selesky thinks the bye week is coming at a good time for the Cobras, saying, “It will allow us to come back to earth a little. You can only ride the momentum of a win like we had for so long and then you have to get back to the basics and fundamentals and I don’t think that it’s (the bye week) bad right now.”
The Cobras will next take the field against Selesky’s old team, the Columbus Destroyers, on May 1 at the Charlotte Coliseum. Kickoff will be at 7:30 P.M. and the Cobras look to continue their quest for equilibrium, not only in the drive to finish the season but in the drive to promote continuity and develop- ment going into next season.
Chuck DiLullo works for a manufacturer of process control instrumentation as a sales engineer. He has been a fan of professional, college and high school football since he could walk. Chuck is originally from Philadelphia and he became a huge Arena Football League fan while living in Buffalo. Chuck has lived in Charlotte since 2000 with his wife & three children.
