Post by fwp on May 15, 2010 6:08:21 GMT -5
www.albanyherald.com/sports/headlines/93836249.html
ALBANY — Beat up, banged up and brand new.
That’s what the Panthers bring into tonight’s game against the Louisiana Swashbucklers, who won’t have to face some of the best players in this league.
That’s because the Panthers have been spending almost as much time on the training room table this week as they have on the field. They’ll show up at the Civic Center at 7:30 tonight, but their starting quarterback won’t.
Cecil Lester, who has thrown for 1,099 yards and 26 touchdowns in just four games, is out with an ankle injury. He was placed on the two-week injured reserve list Friday.
The Panthers hustled this week to sign Andrico Hines, a former South Georgia Wildcat who led that team to the Southern Division title in 2008.
Hines just joined the team on Friday, which means the Panthers will start backup quarterback Jeff Aaron, who has only played in a mop-up role this season.
In fact, Aaron hasn‘t started a game since he was the starter for the Montgomery Bears in 2007.
“I’m very excited,’’ Aaron said Friday. “I can’t wait to get out there. I really can’t wait to get that adrenaline going.”
ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. once had Aaron listed as one of the top QB prospects and several others had him among the Top 10-15 quarterbacks in the nation in 2004 when he left the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
But Aaron wasn’t drafted after five tryouts with NFL teams before going on to play in Germany. He returned home and was a two-year starter for the Montgomery Bears of the American Indoor Football League, but he hadn’t played since 2007 when the Panthers called him.
“I hadn’t played in three years, and I really wanted to get on a team,’’ Aaron said. “They said they would give me an opportunity and they have. I never went this long without playing football.’’
Aaron has been taking a lot of extra reps this week in practice, and Panthers coach Lucious Davis said he will build the gameplan to fit his new quarterback.
“This game is going to really be up to me,’’ Davis said. “It’s going to be up to me to put him in good situations so he doesn’t have to do a lot of (decision making). We need to get him some completions early in the game to build up his confidence.‘’
And Davis, for one, has confidence in his backup.
“Jeff can play,’’ he said. “He has been a starter in (arena football) before. He’s a good quarterback and veteran of arena football.’’
Davis said if he needed to, he could play Hines tonight, just 24 hours after joining the team.
“He’s a veteran quarterback who has been around four-five years,‘’ Davis said. “He’s pretty much what we need right now. It won’t be that hard for him (to adjust to the team). It’s really just a matter of verbiage, the different ways we call our plays. He knows what he’s doing.’’
The Panthers didn’t waste any time signing Hines.
“We’re very happy to sign Andrico,’’ said Panthers GM Will Carter, who must have every available former arena football player on speed-dial. This is the second time in two weeks Carter has seen a player go down, and jumped on the phone to replace him. Last week, receiver John Harris broke his finger, and Carter was calling former Westover and OU star Antwone Savage the next day to play for the Panthers.
Savage, who was a legend at Oklahoma, caught 93 passes for 954 yards from Hines when they were teammates with the Wildcats in 2008.
Hines knows where the end zone is. In 2007, he set a franchise record with Spokane in the af2, tossing 62 touchdowns. He threw 67 TDs in just 13 games for the Wildcats in 2008.
He left Middle Tennessee State in 2003 after accumulating an incredible 4,296 yards of offense and completing a whopping 153 passes that year. Those numbers are staggering — but so is the Panthers’ lineup, which is trying to keep its footing during this avalanche of injuries.
Enter Carter with a quick call to Atlanta to get Hines.
“I said at our very first press conference that we expect to win a championship,’’ Carter said. “And that hasn’t changed.’’
Maybe not, but the starting lineup sure has. Savage got hurt on his first reception last week against Lafayette when he somehow jammed all five toes on the play, and Harris is a week or two away from returning. Clenton Rafe, arguably the best receiver in this league, is still coming back from a knee injury that kept him out of the Greenville game three weeks ago. He played last week but is not 100 percent. Savage is still coming back from his def-toe jam experience and will play some, and so will offensive lineman Desmoine Ware, who is nursing a knee injury.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in the training room, and I think my guys have spent more time at (Albany’s) Orthopedic Associates than they have spent with me this week,’’ Davis said. “I’m feeling healthy, but my team isn’t. We’re banged up.’’
If that’s not enough to give a coach a headache, listen to this: Defensive back Demetrie McCrary, who is the quarterback of the Panthers’ defense, has a problem with a wisdom tooth. He wants to play, but Davis isn’t sure.
“He’s going to play, but he’s hurting. I don’t know what it’s going to be like for him when he hits somebody,’’ Davis said.
Is it worth mentioning that the Swashbucklers are coming in with a new coach, some fresh new players and two weeks to get healthy and familiar with the Panthers? They’re 2-3 and fired their coach two weeks ago, then replaced him with their defensive coordinator Michael Warren, who had a bye week to bring in new players and prepare for the Panthers, who sit atop the Southern Indoor Football League at 4-0.
Louisiana is the only team Albany hasn’t faced so far this year, but the Swashbucklers will see a different look because of all the injuries. Davis has tried only one field goal all season — in the first game — because he would rather go for it on fourth down.
But he is going to allow Juan Bongarra, a former Albany State kicker who joined the team three weeks ago, to boot them against Louisiana. Bongarra was been named the SIFL’s special teams player of the week after both games he has played.
“We will be kicking field goals this week,’’ Davis said. “I’m not going to be going for it on fourth down and take a chance to put us in a bad position. This is one of those games that the whole team is going to have to win — from the coaches to the defense to the offensive line to the kicker. Everybody has to do their part this week. We‘re banged up and it has to be a team effort.’’
ALBANY — Beat up, banged up and brand new.
That’s what the Panthers bring into tonight’s game against the Louisiana Swashbucklers, who won’t have to face some of the best players in this league.
That’s because the Panthers have been spending almost as much time on the training room table this week as they have on the field. They’ll show up at the Civic Center at 7:30 tonight, but their starting quarterback won’t.
Cecil Lester, who has thrown for 1,099 yards and 26 touchdowns in just four games, is out with an ankle injury. He was placed on the two-week injured reserve list Friday.
The Panthers hustled this week to sign Andrico Hines, a former South Georgia Wildcat who led that team to the Southern Division title in 2008.
Hines just joined the team on Friday, which means the Panthers will start backup quarterback Jeff Aaron, who has only played in a mop-up role this season.
In fact, Aaron hasn‘t started a game since he was the starter for the Montgomery Bears in 2007.
“I’m very excited,’’ Aaron said Friday. “I can’t wait to get out there. I really can’t wait to get that adrenaline going.”
ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. once had Aaron listed as one of the top QB prospects and several others had him among the Top 10-15 quarterbacks in the nation in 2004 when he left the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
But Aaron wasn’t drafted after five tryouts with NFL teams before going on to play in Germany. He returned home and was a two-year starter for the Montgomery Bears of the American Indoor Football League, but he hadn’t played since 2007 when the Panthers called him.
“I hadn’t played in three years, and I really wanted to get on a team,’’ Aaron said. “They said they would give me an opportunity and they have. I never went this long without playing football.’’
Aaron has been taking a lot of extra reps this week in practice, and Panthers coach Lucious Davis said he will build the gameplan to fit his new quarterback.
“This game is going to really be up to me,’’ Davis said. “It’s going to be up to me to put him in good situations so he doesn’t have to do a lot of (decision making). We need to get him some completions early in the game to build up his confidence.‘’
And Davis, for one, has confidence in his backup.
“Jeff can play,’’ he said. “He has been a starter in (arena football) before. He’s a good quarterback and veteran of arena football.’’
Davis said if he needed to, he could play Hines tonight, just 24 hours after joining the team.
“He’s a veteran quarterback who has been around four-five years,‘’ Davis said. “He’s pretty much what we need right now. It won’t be that hard for him (to adjust to the team). It’s really just a matter of verbiage, the different ways we call our plays. He knows what he’s doing.’’
The Panthers didn’t waste any time signing Hines.
“We’re very happy to sign Andrico,’’ said Panthers GM Will Carter, who must have every available former arena football player on speed-dial. This is the second time in two weeks Carter has seen a player go down, and jumped on the phone to replace him. Last week, receiver John Harris broke his finger, and Carter was calling former Westover and OU star Antwone Savage the next day to play for the Panthers.
Savage, who was a legend at Oklahoma, caught 93 passes for 954 yards from Hines when they were teammates with the Wildcats in 2008.
Hines knows where the end zone is. In 2007, he set a franchise record with Spokane in the af2, tossing 62 touchdowns. He threw 67 TDs in just 13 games for the Wildcats in 2008.
He left Middle Tennessee State in 2003 after accumulating an incredible 4,296 yards of offense and completing a whopping 153 passes that year. Those numbers are staggering — but so is the Panthers’ lineup, which is trying to keep its footing during this avalanche of injuries.
Enter Carter with a quick call to Atlanta to get Hines.
“I said at our very first press conference that we expect to win a championship,’’ Carter said. “And that hasn’t changed.’’
Maybe not, but the starting lineup sure has. Savage got hurt on his first reception last week against Lafayette when he somehow jammed all five toes on the play, and Harris is a week or two away from returning. Clenton Rafe, arguably the best receiver in this league, is still coming back from a knee injury that kept him out of the Greenville game three weeks ago. He played last week but is not 100 percent. Savage is still coming back from his def-toe jam experience and will play some, and so will offensive lineman Desmoine Ware, who is nursing a knee injury.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in the training room, and I think my guys have spent more time at (Albany’s) Orthopedic Associates than they have spent with me this week,’’ Davis said. “I’m feeling healthy, but my team isn’t. We’re banged up.’’
If that’s not enough to give a coach a headache, listen to this: Defensive back Demetrie McCrary, who is the quarterback of the Panthers’ defense, has a problem with a wisdom tooth. He wants to play, but Davis isn’t sure.
“He’s going to play, but he’s hurting. I don’t know what it’s going to be like for him when he hits somebody,’’ Davis said.
Is it worth mentioning that the Swashbucklers are coming in with a new coach, some fresh new players and two weeks to get healthy and familiar with the Panthers? They’re 2-3 and fired their coach two weeks ago, then replaced him with their defensive coordinator Michael Warren, who had a bye week to bring in new players and prepare for the Panthers, who sit atop the Southern Indoor Football League at 4-0.
Louisiana is the only team Albany hasn’t faced so far this year, but the Swashbucklers will see a different look because of all the injuries. Davis has tried only one field goal all season — in the first game — because he would rather go for it on fourth down.
But he is going to allow Juan Bongarra, a former Albany State kicker who joined the team three weeks ago, to boot them against Louisiana. Bongarra was been named the SIFL’s special teams player of the week after both games he has played.
“We will be kicking field goals this week,’’ Davis said. “I’m not going to be going for it on fourth down and take a chance to put us in a bad position. This is one of those games that the whole team is going to have to win — from the coaches to the defense to the offensive line to the kicker. Everybody has to do their part this week. We‘re banged up and it has to be a team effort.’’