Grinding It Out In The af2
Michael Vergane
Tuesday July 17, 2001
In all seriousness, the af2 has seen an increase in the running attack this season, especially by fullbacks who have been nothing more than glorified blockers throughout arena history.
The question is, why?
There are several reasons and it depends on which coach you speak with.
Steven Jerry is the 1st year head coach of the Roanoke Steam and believes that running is a necessity for his team because of a lack of depth. “ I believe we were effected by the influx of football leagues (XFL, CFL, NIFL, IPFL). They have stretched our resources and there aren’t enough talented players to go around. We all wish we had depth at every position, but sometimes you have to go with your strengths.”
For Steven Jerry that means running the football an average of 14 times a game – good for 6th in the league.
Jerry also feels that the new af2 coaches who have come in from the run oriented Indoor Football League are helping to set a trend. One such coach is Memphis Xplorer Head Coach Collins Sanders. The Xplorers lead the league in rushing.
“I’ve always believed in the run”, said Sanders. “If you look back at my teams you’ll see they have always been at the top of the league in rushing. I look at how a team defends you and a good rushing attack takes away a defense’s ability to blitz.”
Another former IFL head coach that is running the ball more often is Bruce Cowdrey of the Pensacola Barracudas. “I think that there are more teams running the ball because there are more teams with head coaches that have a run based history”, said Cowdrey of the trend towards the ground attack. “ My background happens to be in the IFL and the JUCO ranks. Skip Foster and Land Jacobsen (head coaches of Tulsa and Wichita respectively) also come from the JUCO ranks, so they came in going with what they know. Now, next year I can tell you that I will bring in a more conventional offense.”
So how much more rushing is there in the af2?
In the AFL, the running play accounts for 17.0% of all offensive plays league-wide this season. In the af2, the running play accounts for 21.8% of all offensive plays. A difference of 4.8% may not seem like much, but when you factor in the additional yards gained, the difference is significant.
Going into last weekend’s games, the leading rusher in the AFL was Tony Dozier of San Jose and Leroy Thompson of Indiana with 153 yards each.
By comparison, the af2 is being led by Memphis Xplorer fullbacks Quentin Cradle and Jeremy Scruggs with 317 and 314 yards respectively.
So not only is the af2 rushing the ball more, many teams are rushing with more success.
Pensacola’s Bruce Cowdrey thinks the lack of talented offensive linemen is one reason why the af2 is rushing more – a point that parallels Collins Sanders’ reasons.
“The big difference between the AFL and the af2 is the offensive line play. You don’t have the consistent pass protection in the af2. In the AFL, they work at it. But here, it is hard to get that much practice time when you are asking these young men to hold down a part time job as well.”
“Coming into this season my theory was to take my most athletic linemen on the defensive side and teach them how to play the offensive line. My thinking was that the temperament of offensive linemen are more passive, where defensive linemen are more action oriented.”
It is difficult to call anything a trend in a two-year old league, but it will be interesting to follow the play calling of the league’s coaches in 2002 to see if more af2 coaches follow suit.
Michael Vergane was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2002.
