Knights Look to Remain in Playoff Hunt Against Charleston
Keith Murphy
Thursday June 19, 2003
Knights’ Offensive Coordinator, Tres Sullivan, says that the Knights’ recent struggles have added a bit of pressure to the mix. “Maybe a little more pressure. Other than that I don’t think it changes the way we prepare that much. We just have to find a way to get some confidence back in what we are doing. I think that we just have to find a good, level, even-keel spot of playing where we don’t have too many ups or downs through the course of a game. Where just maintain what we are doing offensively and defensively. I think we are going through a phase right now where we are just too inconsistent. I think we just have to try to continue what we are doing and hopefully we’ll get some bounces and get things going our way. But it doesn’t change things that much other than a little pressure that we haven’t felt before around here.”
The Knights, who have dropped two of their last three, are tied with Birmingham for second place in the American South conference. The Swamp foxes, meanwhile, have a two game win streak going as they chase Cape Fear in the American Atlantic Conference.
Statistically, Macon is in the middle of the pack of most categories, although with the emergence of Jermaine Alfred at quarterback, the Knights’ passing offense has climbed to fourth in the league, averaging 240 yards per outing. Sullivan says that Alfred is the main reason for the improvement, “I think he’s getting more comfortable. I don’t think he can do anything but get more comfortable with where he’s at. You’ve seen the strides he’s made in the last couple of weeks. I think he’s done a great job and I think he’ll continue to get better. Hopefully now we’ll be in a position where if we do get into a shoot-out we’ll be able to out score teams.”
The Foxes bring a strong defensive presence to the game as they are ranked second in total defense in the league allowing an average of only 204 yards and 40 points per game.
“They do something a little different than most teams do,” Sullivan said. “They don’t generally carry two defensive specialists as defensive backs. They rotate five or six guys back there so you are really seeing a number of different guys rotating through the secondary so it’s a little different to what we’re accustomed to. Generally you’ll see two defensive specialists that will be defensive backs the whole time. And they’ve got some guys up front who are pretty good rushing the passer. They do the same thing as Florida in that they do a good job of ball control and limiting your possessions.”
The ‘Foxes unique style puts added pressure on offenses and coordinators, “You’re going to see a number of different guys in the secondary and you don’t get a real good bead on mis-matches and things to take advantage of in terms of throwing the ball against a certain guy. I think we’ll approach them the same way. We won’t change anything. We’ll just try to take care of what we do.”
Last week, against Florida, the Knights’ secondary blew a number of coverages which led to big plays for the Firecats. Sullivan says that this week’s practice has focused on correcting those mistakes, “The biggest thing last week was that we blew coverages. You just can’t do that in Arena Football. Kevin [Porter]’s gone back to simplifying things and we’ve had to re-evaluate our situation in the secondary. I think, whether he decides to upgrade, he’s going to do whatever he can to help improve that side of the team. He’s done a couple of things as far as changing schemes and getting back to simpler things. I think there will be a few changes.”
Kickoff is set for Saturday at 6:00 pm at the North Charleston Coliseum.
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
