Rampage Replace Head Coach Bob Cortese
Randy Snow
Saturday May 1, 2004
Rick Frazier, the team’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, takes over as interim coach and director of player personnel for the remainder of the season.
“It was bittersweet for the organization,” said Rampage Chief Operations Officer Scott Gorsline, who spoke at the annual gathering of season ticket holders on April 28. “Coach Cortese is a wonderful man and a wonderful coach, but given where we are and the expectations of our fans, especially our season ticket holders, we felt like a change was necessary.
“We’re very confident in (coach Frazier’s) ability to step into a difficult situation, make the tough decisions and put some wins on the board in our last five games.”
Cortese was hired just last fall after Michael Trigg, who had coached the Rampage since they came into the league in 1998, took the head coaching position with the expansion Philadelphia Soul. The Rampage have struggled all season long, compiling a record of 1-10, the worst in the league, and will miss the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history. In trying to rebuild a team that lost several key players in the off season due to free agency and salary cap reasons, Cortese went through four different quarterbacks, four different kickers and made numerous personnel changes trying to find the right combination of players. The team played well at times and were in a couple of games right to the end, but their only victory was a 49-45 win at Detroit on April 10th.
Frazier spent four years as the head coach of the Milwaukee Mustangs from 1998 to 2001, and was also the head coach of the Norfolk (Virginia) Nighthawks of the af2 in 2003. His record as a head coach is 32-40 in the regular season and 0-2 in the playoffs.
Frazier has already made one announcement concerning the team’s quarterback controversy that has developed over the past few weeks.
“I’ve decided that Anthony Buich gives us our best opportunity to win,” said Frazier. “It’s cut and dried that Michael Bishop’s athletic skills are ahead of Buich, but Buich has a couple of seasons under him as an af2 quarterback. I just feel like he’s going to make fewer mistakes and he gives our team the best opportunity to win some of these last five games.”
Frazier has also changed the way the team practices, pointing out that their only win of the season came after the bye week when the players were well rested.
“We’ve been practicing too long,” said Frazier. “We’ve had the pads on too long. We need to rest our guys, give them their legs back and maybe we won’t fall apart in the second half.”
It remains to be seen if anything coach Frazier does in the last five games will translate into wins, but judging from the enthusiastic reception he received from the assembled season ticket holders, there is a new air of excitement and optimism in Grand Rapids.
Randy Snow covered the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Arena Football League for ArenaFan from 2003-2008. He also covered the Fort Wayne Fusion of arenafootball2 in 2007. From 2004-2008 and in 2010, he was a member of the Arena Football League Writer’s Association and, since 2011, has been a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association. Randy lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan but will travel just about anywhere for a football game or a great football story. He runs the web site www.theworldoffootball.com and hosts a podcast with his son, Adam, called “This Week in The World of Football.”
