Thursday, March 29, 2007

Feeling the heat.

AFL2’s season officially kicks off tonight and while 3 former Wildcat standouts are on AFL2 rosters only two will be seeing action this weekend.

Burn + Fire = Season Opener


The Boise Burn will opening up their 2007 season and their 1st game as a franchise on the road when they lock up with the Louisville Fire at 4:30 (PST) Friday. I had the chance to grab the ear of Brandon Hazenberg this morning while he was getting ready to go catch his team flight at noon.

As you would expect Brandon was pretty fired up to play tomorrow. He’ll be starting at safety for the Burn and has a huge responsibility in keeping all of the action in front of him. He’s expecting to see a number of double moves and post/post-corner routes during the season. The rules of Arena football really limit the types of coverage’s you can play so what starts as a zone will really wind up as man-to-man coverage’s most of the game. In asking him about the Fire, Brandon wasn’t so much worried about his opponents as much as he was focused on his and his teammates controlling their performance and execution on the field.

Casey Allen will be seeing all of his action at the X receiver for the Burn and should be a huge target in the Red Zone. For Wildcat fans this is no surprise as every one of us would just say “Throw up to number 8” when Linfield would creep into the Red Zone. Most times than not, that strategy would pay dividends for the ‘Cats and we should expect the same for the Burn.

We’ll check in on the Burn this weekend and hope they can put out the Fire.

Carter placed on I.R. for the Fever

Tri-Cities receiver and Linfield grad George Carter will start his 2007 season on the shelf as a high ankle sprain will keep the Wildcat on the sideline. AFL2 rules state that once you’re place on the I.R. you have to miss a minimum of 4 weeks.

This is too bad as the Fever also start on the road this Saturday as they open up play vs the Mahoning Valley Thunder (Youngstown, Ohio). George probably won’t be traveling with the team and will miss out in having a chance to meet “Animal” from WWE Legion of Doom/Road Warrior fame. What!? Couldn’t the Thunder have pony up the coin to bring in a real former WWE superstar like Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka or the Honkeytonk Man? In one word: disappointing



Wild opening camp today

The Alaska Wild of the Intense Football League will be opening up their camp today with former ‘Cat standout, Thomas Ford, on the roster. It sounds like T.Ford will be getting snaps at WR for the Wild and will be racking up the frequent flyer miles.

The Wild will be on the road for 5 straight weeks after their home opener. All of these roadies will be in the Louisiana and Texas area. I just hope T.Ford doesn’t have to go anywhere near Abliene, Tx. In two words: Hell Hole

Rhein Fire opens in two weeks.

Brett Elliott and his Rhein Fire will be opening play in two short weeks.

Training camp in Tampa is coming to a close for the Fire as they prepare for the season opener. In the most recent scrimmage vs the Hamburg Sea Devils, BE completed 4 of 5 passes for 28 yards. Still not sure if the opening day starter will be Pickett or the Butcher but my gut says that BE will be the man by the time the Fire’s season shakes out.

Mahoning Valley Thunder: Meet the Animal!
AFL2: Our Endzones comes in round and square

4 comments:

Downtown48 said...

Looks like Boise got the W. They need to get the Birdman on board so we can get some stats. They can't even add on their homepage...

Downtown48 said...

Brandon Hazenburg defensive player of the game and Casey Allen flew over the wall...that's what I got from a VERY hard to read postgame blurb...pretty sure that was the PR person's first ever press release...

Wildcat 11 said...

Thanks Downtown! I just read that release and that was pretty brutal. I felt like I was reading the Rhein Fire's German-to-English translation page.

However, I did find the stats of the game on the AFL2 home page:

http://www.thestatguys.com/HTML/LOU0330.HTM

Haze had two picks with returning one for a TD and Casey let the Burn with 8 catches for 80 yards. Sounds like they really started off the season right

Downtown48 said...

I'll have to get to the game when they play up in Everett. I haven't been to their new arena up there, so that'll be as good as time as any.