Wildcats Reload On Offense
Keith Murphy
Wednesday May 8, 2002
Gone are former starting quarterback Vic Penn (to Columbus) and offensive specialist Lavel Bailey (to the Canadian Football League).
Lost to injury is WR/DB Troy Esprit. Esprit’s ankle will be in a cast for at least two weeks.
New faces, since the ‘Cats last home game, include newly appointed starting quarterback Mike Gluski, former Columbus Wardog Matt Burstein and former East Carolina State star Mitch Galloway.
Wildcat head coach Chris Siegfried announced the end of the brief Wildcat quarterback controversy when he traded Vic Penn Monday. The decision to start Mike Gluski came down to Gluski’s experience. “Athletically, they’re both pretty equal. I didn’t base this decision on statistics. . . . I felt that Mike is doing the things on the field that I want him to do and I believe we can go a lot further with Mike Gluski as quarterback.” Siegfried says the team is reacting positively to the switch. “First couple of days there were some feelings hurt because Vic’s part of our family and I’m always preaching about the tightness of our team. I sat down with a couple of our team leaders and explained why I made the decision I did and that it was in the best interest of the team in the long run. I invited them to come in and watch film with me and, once I did that, they really understood where I’m coming from.”
The Wildcats also picked up quarterback Josh Rogers in the Penn trade. “He’s a good young quarterback with a big-time arm. He just needs to learn the Arena game and I think he came to a fantastic situation having Mike here. If he’s patient he can use these games as a learning experience. I fully expect to get him in every game. I expect that two to three weeks down the road he will be pushing Mike Gluski.”
Siegfried says that replacing offensive specialist Lavel Bailey will be impossible. “This kid’s got some of the best hands I’ve ever seen and he’s very fast.” Siegfried knew that Bailey had his sights set on advancing his professional career, “One of the conditions of him coming here was that if he got the offer he wanted from the Canadian Football League I’d let him go. I thought I was going to have him the whole month of May, but he got a great opportunity and I wish him the best of luck.”
In the Penn trade, Cape Fear picked up Matt Burstein who Siegfried feels can be a potent weapon. “He is a smart, seasoned player who knows the game of Arena Football very well. He catches almost as well as Lavel Bailey and runs about as fast. I think he’s going to make our team better. Lavel might be more of a pure receiver but Matt Burstein is an Arena receiver.”
The Wildcats also have a healthy Mitch Galloway for the first time. “He’s looked absolutely great this week. He’s going to get a good amount of playing time this week and I’m hoping that Mitch Galloway never sits on the bench for me again. A lot of people don’t know who Mitch Galloway is. If I didn’t know who he is and what he is capable of I would have had to let him go a long time ago. I knew he was nursing injuries and I couldn’t let him go until I had a chance to see him healthy.”
Lost in all the confusion is the importance of this week’s game against 2-2 Charleston. “It’s going to be interesting to see how our offense performs with all of these changes,” Siegfried said. The Wildcats find themselves in third place in the division facing a Charleston team who has also dropped two straight. “They’re a real up and down team. They’re a team that likes to stretch the field and they can score a lot of points. The way our offense has played that could pose some problems for us. Our offense is nowhere near where I thought it would be at this point in time. Averaging only 44 points a game is just completely unacceptable to me. Our defense has been keeping us in ballgames but that’s just not Arena Football to me.” The Wildcat defense is the top ranked defense in AF2 and they will be tested Friday night as the Swamp Foxes boast the sixth ranked offense.
Siegfried says that the formula for success for the Wildcats is simple: “We’ve got to start learning how to win football games. We’ve played everyone close. But, to me, the better team wins. We’ve got to find a way to win first and foremost.”
Kickoff is set for Friday night at 7:30 pm at the Cumberland County Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville.
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
