Macon Looking to be Knight`s of Columbus
Keith Murphy
Wednesday May 22, 2002
The Knights take a 5 and 2 record on the road Saturday against the in-state and division rival Wardogs. However, this is a different Columbus team, it’s a team that has tasted victory…twice. However, the wins came against winless Louisville and 2 and 4 Jacksonville. Macon, on the other hand, has lost only to undefeated Tennessee Valley and undefeated Augusta. On paper, it would seem that the Knights should be heavy favorites; but, these two teams are too close personally and geographically for this not to be an intense, hard fought game.
Last weekend the Knights rolled up 80 points against Pensacola but Porter warns that Columbus may prove to be a tougher test of the Knights’ offense, “They’re ranked fourth in the league in pass defense. They’ve played pretty well on the defensive side. They rush the passer well. They’ve also got good cover guys, so our offense will have to be sharp and not make mistakes.”
Among Macon’s offensive leaders is offensive specialist Jaquez Rumph who has already racked up 51 receptions and 13 touchdowns in only seven games. Porter says that teams are changing their defense to try to stop Rumph, “They’re trying, but ‘quez can hurt you in a lot of ways. He can hurt you on special teams, running the football. He’s becoming a very complete offensive player. Teams are going to do some things to try to slow him down and when teams do that you see other guys have big games. I think that’s what happened last week with Gabe [Amey]. They spend a lot of time trying to stop ‘quez and Gabe comes up and he’s open behind the defense. ‘Quez has done some great things and the things that he has done has helped make the other players better.”
Even though Macon gave up 65 points in last week’s win, Porter still feels that his defense played well, “In the first half [against Pensacola] we just weren’t making plays. I thought that we played very well in the second half. When we needed to we stopped them or made them kick.. We played 29 plays on offense and played well over fifty on defense, that’s a lot of defensive snaps. I thought our guys played great in the second half. It was just one of those games.”
This weekend marks a critical stretch of division match ups where the Knights play Columbus twice sandwiched around a critical game against division leading Augusta. “It won’t be difficult for us to stay focused. I feel like every time we go out, pretty much every team we play has played their best game. When it comes to teams from the same state. . . that kind of familiarity breeds contempt. Even though the rivalry with them hasn’t been what the rivalry with Augusta has been there’s still a lot at stake. There are a lot of local guys on each roster and a lot of these guys have been playing against each other for a long time.”
Kickoff is set for 7:00 pm at the Columbus Civic Center.
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
