Two 8-2 Teams to Battle in Birmingham
Keith Murphy
Friday June 21, 2002
—Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
The Macon Knights and the Birmingham Steeldogs must feel that they are peering across at each other through a looking-glass as they prepare for Saturday night’s showdown. Both teams are 8-2 and are in second place in their division. The Knights boast a powerful offense, ranked sixth in the league, the Steeldogs an intimidating defense, ranked second in AF2. Macon Offensive Coordinator Tres Sullivan says that Birmingham is, “kind of a mirror image of what we are. I expect them to play hard. They are so good on defense because of how well they play up front. That’s kind of how we go. We go as far as our guys up front. If our guys up front play well, then we tend to have some success. If their guys up front pressure the quarterback then they cause havoc for offenses. At the same time, if they don’t protect their quarterback, they have problems as well. They’re pretty much a mirror image of us and it’s all going to depend upon who plays best up front.”
There is one issue that distinguishes the two, Macon has already sewn up a playoff berth and even know who their first round opponent will be; while the Steeldogs are still not assured of a post-season appearance. Sullivan doesn’t expect the Knights to be complacent, “Our motivation at this point is trying to get home field advantage and the players understand that we have to win out and get some help from somebody else in beating Augusta. So, I think our motivation is that we want to play for home field. If we can end up with the best record, then we can have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.”
Knights’ head coach Kevin Porter sees this game as quite a test for his squad, “They’re obviously one of the best teams in the league. They’re very well coached. Bobby [Humphrey] does a great job. I don’t know of any other AF2 program that’s had the same coach for three years. That kind of continuity has helped them develop some success. They’ve got a pretty successful formula going. We just have to go over and be ready to play.”
Sullivan says that the Steeldog defense will pose some challenges for his offensive unit, “The thing that they do well is that they mix their coverages up pretty well. They play quite a bit of zone, which we haven’t seen much at all this year. Obviously it’s a lot easier playing against teams which play man-to-man because you pretty much know what they’re going to run. Birmingham is going to do some things we haven’t seen this year.”
Porter says that the game will turn on red zone efficiency. “ We feel like we can move the ball. It’s all about putting the ball in the end zone. That’s one of the things about Birmingham. People move the ball on them but they haven’t been able to put in into the end zone consistently against them. We just have to be able to take advantage of our possessions and score when we’ve got the chance. Hopefully we can get some stops on defense.”
Norman Mason has added a bit more punch to an already potent Knights’ defense. In his first two games, he has seven receptions, one for a touchdown, and two interceptions. Sullivan says that Mason “adds another dimension. We now have five true threats at wide receiver. I thought that before we had four, four and a half threats. Denario Smalls was a defensive back playing wide receiver. He did well when he was playing on offense but Norman is a true wide receiver who just adds another threat for us on offense.”
A win would give Macon head coach Kevin Porter his 20th career victory as the Knights’ head coach and would keep the Knights in the hunt for the divisional crown. Kickoff is set for 8:30 eastern time at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex.
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
