Kats Ready to Rumble with Rampage
Charliy Nash
Thursday June 7, 2001
“Dogghead” started it.
After scoring the first touchdown of last week’s game, FB/LB Rupert Grant gave coach Pat Sperduto the football. One by one each player who scored presented the ball to the coach, who had returned to Nashville just before the game after attending his mother’s funeral. Adding the game ball, which the team also presented to him, Sperduto had eight footballs to carry home.
“That was pretty fantastic,” said Sperduto. “We’ve got a good bunch of guys and I’m grateful for everything they’ve done. They’re unselfish, that just goes to show you how unselfish they are.”
There seems to be a special bond among the members of this team, a unity not often found. Adrian Lunsford and Dell McGee, veterans who have been around the league, haven’t seen this type of cohesiveness before. Sperduto has, though.
“I look back at our [Tampa Bay] championship team in ’91; that was a team that was very similar to this one. We didn’t have any all-league players, but the bottom line is look at what we produced -- we produced a championship. You go back to ’93 and it’s the same type of deal. Guys who would have probably done anything for each other. All we did was produce a championship. Not many first teamers or second teamers, but a bunch of victories. It seems to be the resounding cry amongst us is, victories are more important than yards or catches or touchdowns or passes and so on.”
The word that best sums up this team? “We’re a family. We’re going to stick together as a family, and I’m grateful for the attitude that our players take.”
Seed Change
The format for the AFL playoffs has changed this year. Last season the four divisional winners were the top seeds and earned a first round bye. As a result, a team could have the second best record in the league and still be the fifth seed. This season it’s all about the standings.
This means that the winner of Friday night’s game between the Nashville Kats and the visiting Grand Rapids Rampage gets sole possession of second place as the season moves into the second half. The Kats are anxious to continue their winning ways so they’ll have a shot at knocking Tampa Bay out of the number one slot in their final regular season game. The Rampage want revenge for the playoff blowout they suffered last year in Nashville.
In a weekend featuring some intriguing match-ups, this is one of the better ones. Both teams like to run the ball. Both teams defend well against the run. Both feature quarterbacks with similar stats, whose names can be found throughout the AFL record books. Nashville’s Andy Kelly and Grand Rapids’ Clint Dolezel are both completing just under 60% of their passes and giving up very few interceptions.
Dolezel has been a focus of the Kats’ preparation for this key game. “He doesn’t move around that much,” said OL/DL/LB C.J. Mclain. “He chooses not to. He has a quick release in the pocket.” The rookie lineman is confident that Nashville can pressure Dolezel. “I think that we should be able to get a lot of pressure on him because a lot of the [offensive] line are mainly defensive players and they’re struggling a little bit on offense.”
The Kats are a team that likes to hit the opposing quarterback. With Dolezel, this presents an unusual problem. “He’s the type of guy that the more you hit him sometimes he even gets better,” explained Sperduto. “We’re hoping that he doesn’t get better the more we hit him. We’re hoping we can force him into a couple mistakes and slow him down and slow that offense down.”
What about the strong Rampage run defense? “We’re going to approach this game as we do every week,” said Grant, “We think that we have perceived a couple guys that will try to attack us. We like to use that to our advantage. People who are really aggressive, we use their momentum. It probably will make our running game even more effective this week.”
Can You Hear Me Running?
Despite their record, you won’t find a lot of Nashville players on the season leader boards. One notable exception is kicker Steve McLaughlin, still with a comfortable lead over everyone else. Another has three Kats among the league’s top twelve ball carriers.
The balanced Kats’ ground attack has given them a nearly unstoppable red-zone offense. Powerful fullbacks Grant and Travis Reece have combined for 55 carries. Receivers Jarrick Hillery, Tyronne Jones, and Darryl Hammond take pride in their ability to block for the ball carriers, and when they run the ball on sweeps and screens, they know the linemen and fullbacks will clear a wide path for them.
“They’re starting to key on myself and Travis,” explained Grant. “So when J-Hill [Hillery] gets the ball, he has not only another blocker, but the field’s a little more open. That’s why he gets to do some of the great things he’s doing out there.”
With ten rushing touchdowns and 106 yards, Hillery is currently the league’s third leading rusher.
Roster Changes
Just before the Wednesday trading deadline the Kats traded rookie OL/DL Hunter Adams to the New Jersey Gladiators for future considerations.
DS Robert Davis, who left last week’s game with a hip injury, has been placed on Injured Reserve.
WR/DB Scott Thomas has been activated from Injured Reserve.
If you’re keeping score, you’ll realize that the Kats now have one open slot on their 24-man roster. In a week or two that slot could be filled by WR/LB Cory Fleming who has been medically cleared to play. (That scream you just heard was from defensive backs envisioning simultaneously covering 6’2” Fleming, 6’3” Darryl Hammond, and 6’4” L.C. Stevens on fade routes in the end zone.)
Charliy Nash has covered both incarnations of the Nashville Kats, and now has make the 2 hour drive to Huntsville for an Arena Football fix. He also covers the Tennessee Titans as a blogger for nfl.com and still hopes this will eventually lead to a paying gig.
