Mustangs Coach Fired? Not with a QB like McDougal
Kevin Sheller
Saturday May 13, 2000
Starts like these have been making Head Coach Rick Frazier lay awake at night, “It’s huge when you’ve had the two starts I’ve had the last two years,” said Frazier, “[I] set up all night worried about getting fired, now [I have to] scratch around getting in the playoffs, basically trying to decide if I should hang myself or take a gun and blow my brains out. Now I think about winning some more football games.”
Of course, Coach Frazier was joking, but it rolled so smoothly off his tongue, you have to believe that this man takes winning Arena Football games very seriously.
But for now Coach Frazier and his team can joke and celebrate being .500 after only a month of play -- coming off two good performances against winning teams. And those wins have been attributed to gutsy play by Mustang Quarterback Kevin McDougal. In both games, McDougal was injured, but returned to play in the following series. In Grand Rapids, he was knocked unconscious in the 3rd quarter, only to come back on the following possession, groggy and unsure of the little things like the snap count and who was supposed to be in motion. After the game, McDougal couldn’t even remember what happened during the first three quarters.
In Milwaukee against the Sea Wolves, McDougal suffered a low ankle sprain in the first half, and had to be assisted off the field. He came back the following series with a serious limp, but managed to throw six touchdown passes and run for one by the time the game was over. He was unable to settle back into the pocket comfortably the entire night. His leg was visibly bothering him, “It was weak. It’s just a situation where I didn’t want to come out of the game. Just like last week. They wanted me to sit down. But if I can go, I’m gonna go,” said McDougal.
“There’s no doubt to me that’s what won the football game for us,” added Coach Frazier, “Kevin sucked it up, gutted it up, and went out there and got the job done. That’s an injury where a lot of quarterbacks would have just taken the night off and came back next week. He sucked it up and came back out there and did a marvelous job, not only throwing the ball, but running the time off the clock.”
The Mustangs have been suffering through intense adversity already this season. The first week, they lost their all-star offensive specialist, Alvin Ashley for the season to a knee injury. Then last week, defensive specialist Wayne Wade was lost to a broken finger. Their quarterback has gone down twice, and last night they suffered fourteen penalties for 76 yards, lost three fumbles, and threw an interception, but still won decisively, 59-45.
“We felt we could have easily been undefeated now,” said McDougal, “But we suffered so many injuries; it’s tough to come back. Then, with our bye week being on the first week and other teams were playing, it just made it tough on us. But now, we’re just on our way. Being .500 is a nice place to be right now compared to the other years.”
To be 2-2 after all they’ve been through is an accomplishment in itself. What would happen if the Mustangs had a “normal game?”
“I think we’re ready to go,” said Mustangs’ WR/DB Gary Compton, “I think we’re jelling at the right time, [if] everybody just stays confident in what we’re doing, we’ll be ok. We’re going to cause some havoc.”
But with all these reasons to be hopeful, Frazier came close to having more reason to lay awake at night. With less than a minute left to play in the game the Mustangs were trying to hold on to a one-touchdown lead. In order to keep the clock ticking, injured quarterback Kevin McDougal ran a series of quarterback keepers and draws. Had he been injured further, Frazier would have had to deal with another hardship – one that could have been avoided by giving the ball to a capable running back. But McDougal claimed all responsibility for that decision, “You know, we fumbled two weeks ago. I just want to keep it in my hands. If I fumble it, I can blame it on myself. I’d rather for the quarterback to take all the blame then the rest of the team.”
When you have a quarterback with the grit, perseverance, attitude, and will to win like Kevin McDougal, no coach can ever be worried about getting fired. Even after starting off with losing records for three years in a row.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
