Knights Steel For Blizzard
Keith Murphy
Friday April 4, 2003
Macon is returning 16 players from last season’s 14 - 4 team and, as Head Coach Kevin Porter explains, that lends an unusual level of maturity to this season’s edition of the Knights. “You have to think that when you get a lot of guys back who have had a lot of success playing that it helps their understanding of what we’re trying to get done and to get that understanding across to the new guys. I think that maturity aspect is a big plus for us this year.”
DS Kenton Rickerson says that even though there isn’t much tape to watch to prepare for the Blizzard, “it doesn’t matter what they do. As Coach KP says, what really matters is what we do; what the Macon Knights do. It doesn’t matter what Green Bay plans to do to us. The system is really good. If we do what we have to do; we’re going to win.”
Porter feels that Rickerson has the potential to be an impact player for the Knights this season, “Kenton is a tremendous player who’s had a lot of experience in this league. He gives us two true cover guys in the secondary. A player like Rickerson and Denario Smalls back there as Defensive Specialists means we can really count on having two guys out there who can pretty much cover anybody. Which make us a lot better pass defending team.”
That defensive improvement will be important as the Knights groom new players at the key skill positions of Quarterback and Wide Receiver. “It’s definitely important that we go out and play well on the defensive and special team phases of the game as it is possible that, offensively, we might start off a bit slow as these guys continue to get acquainted with the offense and understand what we’re trying to do offensively. We’ve never been in a situation where we’ve asked our quarterback to go out and win games. We just want to make sure he understands that he doesn’t have to win the game but we don’t want him to lose the game.”
Knights’ Offensive Coordinator Tres Sullivan says that the “system” is, “more important this time because we’ve got new guys at key positions of wide receiver and quarterback. Last year it wasn’t so much what I did – we had exceptional players. This year, it’s the system until the new players can establish themselves.”
The most prominent of those new players is new starting quarterback Sean Peterson. Sullivan says that Peterson got the starting nod, primarily, because of his “experience in the league. He’s the one that has the most experience of the three.” Peterson, a former star at Georgetown, beat out former FVSU QB and three year Knight Renotto Solomon, and former University of Houston QB Jason McKinley.
The Blizzard come into the game 0-1 having dropped their first game 48 – 37 to the Hawaii Islanders. Sullivan says that Green Bay is “pretty big up front. They have two key guys in the secondary with good ability and experience.”
Porter says that Green Bay is “feeling their way around right now. They’re going to come here and try to improve upon some of the things they didn’t do well in Hawaii. They had some opportunities to win the game. I thought they played very well up front on offense. They just had some players open and couldn’t connect. We’re expecting them to cover here and play hard. I know Jose [Jefferson, Blizzard Head Coach] , he’s a good friend of mine, and I know that his team will come over here ready to play.”
One of the bright spots for the Blizzard last week was the debut of Quarterback Ryan Aulenbacher, who went 21-for-33 for 267 yards for four touchdowns and had no interceptions. Aulenbacher, who played collegiate ball at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has a one game quarterback rating of 119.1. After watching tape of Green Bay’s first game, Porter says that, “he’s a big kid with a solid arm. This is his first year in Arena Football so he’s kind of learning under fire. When you’ve got a guy with ability and a big arm that can sometimes make up for a lack of experience. I think that as the season goes on he’s going to be a much better player.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30pm at the Macon Coliseum. As with every Knights’ home game, the Camelot tail-gate party will precede the game, weather permitting.
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