Brigade coach not averse to shaking things up
Dan Stroud
Thursday April 3, 2008
When the cards aren’t falling the way you’d like, there seems one thing left to do; shuffle the deck. That’s exactly what Kansas City Brigade Head Coach Kevin Porter did last week prior to his squad’s meeting with the San Jose SaberCats.
After the team gave up the 92 points, the second highest total allowed in the history of the Arena Football League, to the Grand Rapids Rampage, the coach went to work.
Porter released a couple defensive players, added a couple more from his practice squad, and spent extra time with his high priced defensive back Jerald Brown, among others. Just as a charcoal briquette needs re-positioning at times to create the best fire possible, a jostling of the Kansas City defense was in order.
Truth be told, the Brigade defense had played fairly well in the first two games of the year against the Tampa Bay Storm and the New York Dragons. But after what must have been an incredible shot to the squad’s libidos, the pot likely needed some stirring.
The results attributable to Porter’s particular brand of persuasion were impressive, if not inspirational.
“We just got back to the basics of defense,” Porter said during his weekly press conference. “We wanted to force the [SaberCats] offense to a certain spot. I thought we did a good job.”
There are certainly no arguments here.
Brown played like the man Brigade management expected to get after signing him to a six figure salary in the off-season. As for the rest of the defense, with two pivotal goal line stands along with a pair of interceptions against San Jose quarterback Mark Grieb, they performed well enough for the team to nab its first win of the season. Too bad it didn’t turn out that way.
This week it was ineptitude on the offensive side of the ball that the coach addressed. John Fitzgerald, re-inserted in the lineup in week five due to a thumb injury suffered by his replacement Matt Kohn was released on Tuesday. Porter was straightforward in his explanation of this roster move as well.
“Offensively we weren’t performing to the level that we obviously felt like we needed to,” Porter said. “We feel like when you’ve got a veteran quarterback, he’s supposed to play better. John didn’t play better.”
Understated perhaps, but the assessment was accurate. Fitzgerald threw six interceptions and fumbled the ball seven times in just three games played, and was largely responsible for the losses in the games in which he played.
In the National Football League turnovers can be costly. Too many can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
In the AFL, just one turnover can hearken a death knell. Porter was adamant in addressing this point.
“When one team turns the football over [in the AFL] , that’s when the game starts,” Porter said. “You cannot turn the football over.”
One can’t clarify the situation much better than that, but let’s try anyway. The Brigade’s turnover margin sits at -10, good for last place in the AFL.
That being said, there’s little coincidence involved with regard to the team’s 0-4 start to the season.
The best news coming from the Porter this week has been saved for last. Rookie quarterback D. Bryant was announced as this week’s starter against the Georgia Force.
Week four’s starter Matt Kohn was still nursing his injured digit at mid-week and Porter and his staff decided it best to go forward with Bryant as they laid out their game plan. It seems urgency has hit the Brigade locker room.
After being passed over in the early season shuffle that saw Kohn jump to the starting job from the practice squad, Bryant is excited to finally get his opportunity.
Bryant acknowledged that when he was named the back up to start the season, he thought he’d get first shot at the job if things went south. Then, he said when they threw him “the curve ball” he just went back to worked and continued to hope he’d receive a shot.
When asked what he hoped to accomplish now that his chance was in place, Bryant offered what should be an encouraging word to Brigade fans.
“My job is just to get the ball into the playmaker’s hands,” Bryant said. “I’m going to do everything to the best of my ability to make sure that happens.”
But the confident rookie quarterback said one more thing that Brigade fans and maybe even the coaching staff need to hear.
“If we come out with a “W”, Bryant said, “I anticipate being in there the next week.”
This writer couldn’t have said it any better.
