Wranglers in Prime Position for Regular Season
Mick Cornett
Monday April 9, 2001
Quarterbacks All three did well. Ron Lopez got off to a shaky start but looked good in the fourth quarter. Bill Lindquist and Joe Phears looked much better than they did a week earlier at Carolina. Justin Fuente is out until Week 3 with a broken finger.
Linemen Oklahoma dominated the line of scrimmage. The Wranglers had four rushing touchdowns. Let’s put that in perspective. In the 15-year history of the AFL, there have been four teams that rushed for four or fewer touchdowns in an entire season.
Wide Receivers Even with Carlos Johnson, Melvin Phillips and Wes Caswell out with injuries, Oklahoma had players wide-open all night long. Lamont Cooper is living up to the hype. His six catches, coupled with five in the opener, gave him 11 preseason receptions. He has not dropped a pass.
Defensive Backs Barry Dillard is an excellent number-one cover guy. He had three interceptions against Buffalo. But it’s still too early to tell how the DB’s will play as a unit. Obviously, that’s a key to winning in this league.
Kicking game Unsettled at best. Ronnie Gulikers kicked against Buffalo and missed two extra points. Jeremy Alexander kicked last week with a pulled groin and missed two extra points. There is no immediate answer here. The return game is solid with Cooper. He always appears to be the fastest player on the field.
Ahead This week, the Wranglers open their season with a Saturday night home game against Houston. The ThunderBears played well enough to win both of their pre-season games but blew fourth quarter leads to both Florida and Indiana. One of Houston’s players is former Wrangler and OU Sooner Anthony Fogle. Fogle scored the ThunderBears first touchdown of the preseason when he recovered a fumble in the end zone against Florida. He was a defensive specialist for the Wranglers but he’s going both ways for Houston and scored on a key fourth quarter pass reception last week. ThunderBear quarterback Todd Hammel is one of the best in the league. Overall, Oklahoma has better players but indoor football is a game of breaks and funny bounces. The Wranglers will have to play well to win as Houston is very capable of pulling off the upset. Kickoff is set for 7:30 Saturday night in the Myriad.
Mick Cornett was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2001.
