Macon Establishing Themselves as Elite
Keith Murphy
Saturday June 29, 2002
Knights’ head coach Kevin Porter feels that the game is evidence that his squad belongs among the league’s elite teams. “This year our group is playing as high a level as anybody else that we’ve seen play. We’ve played some good teams. Augusta is obviously very good, Tennessee Valley is obviously very good, we feel like Birmingham is a good team, we just jumped on them really fast. But we feel like we can play with any of those guys. Now we are just trying to keep getting better every week so that come playoff time we’ll see if we can go deep.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was the dominating performance by the Macon defense. Porter chalks that up to intensity, “We’re just playing harder. We felt that our pass rush in the first half was a little sporadic. During halftime we challenged our guys up front to see if we could get a hit on the quarterback every time. When we can get some hits on the quarterback and not let him be so comfortable then we’re going to have a chance to make some plays in the secondary.”
After the first two Tallahassee drives, the Macon pressure swarmed over new Thunder quarterback Vic Penn. Porter says that the goal was to make Penn as gun shy as possible, “We knew he’d only been there two and a half weeks. You can’t have the entire offense down in that time and we felt that if we got after him, threw some different coverages at him, and make him pull the ball down, that we’d have a chance to make some plays.” The pressure paid off as the usually sure Penn was only 27 of 48 with two interceptions.
Porter points to the mid-season additions of quarterback John Rayborn and WR/DB Norman Mason as critical to the team’s strength, “John, obviously, has changed our team. We felt that we needed to get a quarterback that wasn’t going to just make us competitive but give us the opportunity to win a championship. We feel like John does that. Adding Norman Mason to a deep group of receivers and a talented group of defensive backs gives us more weapons. Norman is a tremendous player and he’s just now getting to the point where he is comfortable. We’ve really just scratched the surface of what he’s going to be able to do.”
Knights quarterback and game MVP John Rayborn said that, with the exception of a few errant tosses early, this was one of his best performances this season. “I had a little trouble with a few of the balls getting a little slippery and a couple of them I threw short on routes where I had to get it out and away quickly, but other than that I think I made one bad read. Other than that we weren’t stopped all night.” Rayborn was 22 of 29 for 278 yards and nine touchdown passes in a bit more than three quarters of action.
Macon WR/DB Gabe Amey had high praise for his quarterback, “I think John is the top quarterback in the league by far. He’s experienced. His accuracy and poise are amazing. There’s not a better quarterback in Arena 2 and he’s better than a lot of Arena one quarterbacks.”
Among Macon wide receiver/defensive back Norman Mason’s contributions to the victory were a 24-yard touchdown reception and an interception of a Vic Penn pass, which he returned 45 yards. “I’m getting a lot more opportunity now and I’m trying to capitalize on it. To do what’s best for my team.” Mason says that this makes a statement to the rest of the league, “Word’s getting out. We’re getting better and better. Teams are going to bring their ‘A’ game every time they see us. Coach is drilling us every day, telling us we’ve got to give our all in practice so the games will turn out like this.”
Amey says that playing for a team that is as good as the Knights have been is a great deal of fun, “I’m having a blast right now. Everybody’s having fun. The camaraderie on the team is great. That’s what happens when you win. Hopefully we can keep on doing this.”
Next week, the Knights travel to Pensacola in search of their eighth win in a row. Tallahassee travels to division rival Jacksonville in an attempt to maintain a playoff spot.
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
