New Orleans VooDoo game notes

March 24, 2004 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
New Orleans VooDoo News Release


QUICK FACTS
New Orleans VooDoo (6-1) vs. Carolina Cobras (3-4)
Site: New Orleans Arena (15,375)
Radio: WSMB (1350-AM) Chris Kenyon and Bob Palcic
TV: COX Sports Television (Ch. 37 in New Orleans) Todd Kalas, Charles Grant and Harry McCulla
Coaches: New Orleans: Mike Neu (1st Season in New Orleans, 2nd season overall, 12-9, regular season; 1-2 postseason); Carolina: John Gregory (1st season in Carolina, 10th season overall, 67-49 regular season; 6-6 postseason)

VooDoo To Face Carolina At Home In Neu's First Game Against Former Team

The VooDoo will host the Carolina Cobras, the team VooDoo coach Mike Neu spent two seasons with on Saturday night at the New Orleans Arena. The VooDoo used a strong combination of offense, defense and special teams to defeat the ArenaBowl finalist Arizona Rattlers on Thursday night 49-45, for their third consecutive win, upping their record to 6-1. OS Aaron Bailey tied a career-high with four TD receptions, adding a career-long 55-yard kickoff return for a TD to win Offensive Player of the Game honors. FB/LB Dan Curran enjoyed an outstanding game on both ends for New Orleans, rushing for two touchdowns and recording three tackles, one tackle for a loss and one sack. QB John Fitzgerald was 16-of-22 with four touchdown passes. DS Monty Montgomery led the VooDoo defense with seven tackles and one pass defense.

NEXT WEEK

The New Orleans VooDoo will have the week off as part of the league's bye week schedule before returning to action to travel to Orlando to face the Predators on April 9.

NEW ORLEANS VooDoo (6-1)
Date Opponent Time Result
Feb. 8 at Philadelphia 2 p.m. 42-34
Feb. 14 vs. INDIANA 2 p.m. 41-40
Feb. 22 at Georgia 2 p.m. 55-52
Feb. 29 at Las Vegas 2 p.m. 30-50
Mar. 7 TAMPA BAY 11a.m. 55-43
Mar. 12 DETROIT 7 p.m. 45-31
Mar. 18 at Arizona 8 p.m. 49-45
Mar. 27 CAROLINA 7 p.m.
Apr. 2-4 Bye Weekend
Apr. 9 at Orlando 6:30 p.m.
Apr. 18 COLUMBUS 2 p.m.
Apr. 25 at Austin 2 p.m.
May 1 at San Jose 9:30 p.m.
May 9 ORLANDO 2 p.m.
May 15 GEORGIA 7 p.m.
May 23 at Tampa Bay 2 p.m.
May 30 AUSTIN 3 p.m.

www.GoVooDoo.com

For updated news, press releases, statistics, rosters, players, coach and front office biographies, ticket information, merchandise, photo galleries and New Orleans VooDoo Dolls information, go to the official website of the New Orleans VooDoo, www.GoVooDoo.com. Updated daily, www.GoVooDoo.com has the most extensive information on the VooDoo and the Arena Football League.

The Coaches

Mike Neu: Neu is the first head coach of the New Orleans VooDoo. Neu is a six-year Arena Football coaching veteran, coming to the New Orleans after serving as head coach of the AFL Carolina Cobras in 2002. That season, Neu guided the Cobras to a 5-2 record on the road and their secondstraight postseason berth. Prior to coming to Carolina, Neu served as Head Coach and Director of Football Operations for the Augusta Stallions of af2 in 2000. In his only season, Neu led Augusta to a 14-4 record, the American Conference title and was named the league's Coach of the Year. Neu began his coaching career in 1994 as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Ball State. His pro playing career started with a stint with the CFL Calgary Stampeders in 1995 before joining the AFL's Orlando Predators in 1996 and moving on to the Nashville Kats in 1997. He started his coaching career with the Kats in 1998.

Neu played four seasons at Ball State, where he was named the MAC Most Valuable Player of the Year as a senior in 1993. A four-year starter, Neu guided Ball State to the conference championship his final year and holds school career passing records in yards, attempts, completions and touchdown passes.

Neu and his wife, Charmin, have a daughter, Graycen and a son, Carson.

John Gregory: Gregory was named head coach of the Cobras on Monday, March 15, replacing Eddie Khayat, after serving as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator for the first five games of season. A two-time Arena Football League Coach of the Year, Gregory guided the Iowa Barnstormers/New York Dragons franchise to two ArenaBowl berths and four central division titles in his nine seasons from 1995-2003. He ranks among the all-time coaching leaders in AFL history with 72 career wins (6th), 126 games coached (5th) and six postseason victories (5th). His teams have qualified for the playoffs six times and advanced to ArenaBowl twice (1996,1997). Gregory was named AFL Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1996. Gregory has tutored two of the most prolific passers in league history (two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner and AFL all-time passer Aaron Garcia). His 2001 club in New York set an AFL scoring record with 64.1 points per outing, including a leaguerecord 99 points on July 7, 2001 against the Cobras.

VooDoo - Cobras Connections

Coach Mike Neu spent two seasons with Carolina, when the franchise was located in Raleigh, serving the 2001 season as offensive coordinator, before taking the reins as head coach for Carolina's first round playoff game. In his first full season as coach in 2002, Neu guided the Cobras into the playoffs, recording the franchise's first and only playoff victory, while nearly knocking off higher-seeded Arizona in a quarterfinal playoff game. OS Aaron Bailey, FB/LB Jason Bratton, QB John Fitzgerald, WR/DB Kerry Hayes and K Brian Schmitz all played for Neu in Carolina. Bailey was named the team's most valuable player in 2002. Bratton set a franchise rushing record in 2001 with 10 Tds. Fitzgerald became the team's starter in the middle of the 2002 season after being acquired from the Indiana Firebirds and engineered the team into the second round of the playoffs. Schmitz was named the team's most improved player in 2002, when he enjoyed his most accurate season. Hayes is a native of Camden, SC and starred at Western Carolina. Hayes and Carolina QB Ricky Foggie were teammates with the Florida Bobcats in 2001. Fullbacks/Linebackers Coach Franklin Thomas and Foggie were teammates with the Minnesota Fighting Pike in 1996...DS Chris Pointer went to training camp with the Carolina Panthers in 2003. ... WR/LB Lamont Moore and Carolina DS Glenn Davis were teammates with the Orlando Predators in 2003...FB/LB Dan Curran and OL/DL Bruce McClure played with Carolina WR/DB Jarrick Hillery and FB/LB Travis Reece with the Nashville Kats and later the Georgia Force, upon the franchises relocation...Carolina DS Damon Mason prepped at Destrehan High School and played at Southwest Louisiana from 1994-96, where he led the Ragin Cajuns in tackles his junior and senior seasons and was named an All-Independent his final year in Lafayette. Mason serves as an assistant coach at Destrehan in the offs-eason...Carolina OL/DL Bryan Ray was in New Orleans Saints training camp in 2001.

VooDoo on the Airwaves

New Orleans VooDoo and AFL fans will enjoy plenty of chances to watch the newest team in New Orleans both live and on various on radio and television programs throughout the 2004 season.

Every game will be heard on WWL-AM 870 or WSMB-AM 1350. Chris Kenyon will handle play-by-play. Selected media personalities, New Orleans Saints coaches, players and front office personnel will serve as analysts. Saints tight ends coach Bob Palcic will handle color for this week's game for the second time this season, which can be heard on WSMB. WWL will also broadcast a weekly coaches show with coach Mike Neu on Tuesdays from 9 - 10p.m., with Kenyon and Kenny Wilkerson as co-hosts.

10 of the VooDoo's regular season games are scheduled to be broadcast by NBC and will be seen locally on WDSU Channel 6. Cox Sports Television will broadcast the VooDoo's remaining six games regionally. Cox second broadcast of the season on Thursday night will feature Todd Kalas doing play by play, Saints defensive end Charles Grant as guest analyst and Harry McCulla as sideline reporter. They will also broadcast a 30-minute pre-game show before each game broadcast. Cox Sports TV will air "Inside VooDoo with Mike Neu" on a weekly basis. The halfhour show will show on Thursday, March 25 from 5-5:30 p.m and will be rebroadcast on Saturday, March 27 at 6 p.m. The pregame show "VooDoo" tonight will air on Saturday at 6:30 p.m., prior to the Carolina game kickoff at 8 p.m.

Last Week

New Orleans continued their surprising romp through the AFL, this time knocking off the Rattlers 49-45. QB John Fitzgerald threw all four of his TD passes to Aaron Bailey, and the VooDoo defense held the Rattlers on the game's final play to get the win.

It was a slow and sloppy game from the beginning, and the two teams combined for 22 penalties, with each team being flagged 11 times. Bailey had nine catches for 103 yards and four scores, tying a career-high for touchdown receptions. Bailey also had a career-long 55-yard kickoff return for a touchdown as he won Offensive Player of the Game honors, marking the first time in his career that he scored five touchdowns in a game. Dan Curran added two TD rushes for New Orleans and added three tackles, as he captured Ironman of the Game honors for the second straight week.

New Orleans now moves to 6-1, marking the best record in the Arena Football League. A quick look at how New Orleans and Arizona match up based on 2004 regular season stats.

Coach Neu Says

Excerpts from VooDoo head coach Mike Neu's postgame comments about Thursday's win over Arizona and next Saturday's opponent, the Carolina Cobras

(on his evaluation of his team's performance on Thursday's night) "Arizona has a great program year in and year out. They have a great coach (Danny White), a legend who is in the Hall of Fame. They got Hall of Fame players to be in Sherdrick Bonner, Hunkie Cooper and Randy Gatewood. Arizona's arena is tough to win in. We're proud of our guys of what they overcame, the situations we were dealt during the game, Monty (Montgomery) going out, Calvin Spears going out. We had to move some guys around. Defensively we lost a lot."

(on how much it means to beat Arizona in their in the America West Arena) "It's a credit to our players. We got to stick together through thick and thin. There's never a doubt in their mind. They're always fighting. I think it helps to have our guys be around the B.J. Cohen's, the Tim Martin's, the Dan Curran's, the guys that have been around for ages and have done a great job of bringing new guys around."

(on the flow of last Thursday's game against Arizona) "To probably put it lightly it was a bizarre game. For us to lose the time of possession battle almost double. They had it 39 minutes and change to almost 19 minutes. We ran 26 offensive plays to their 52. Just a different game. We had two turnovers to their none. We both had a significant amount of penalties, which is not good, but somehow, someway, we found a way to come out on top and that's a credit to our team and battling on through adversity and finding a way to win. There were a lot of good things in that game. We lost Monty Montgomery early in the game. Calvin Coleman played in the middle for the rest of the game and battled. That was his first time being there which was new to him. I thought our guys offensively, Aaron Bailey really stepped up and played well and made some big plays, Dan (Curran) again obviously did some good things and I thought John's (Fitzgerald) decision making was very good with the exception of the interception on the second series of the game. Other than that, we made enough plays to win the game and defensively, they had the ball for a long time, but the drive that really stands out is the long drive where they had it almost nine minutes and we don't give them a point, they miss a field goal and we take over, so there was a lot of good things that happened, even though to put it politely it was an ugly game."

(on if the return of Anthony Collins from an abdominal injury has helped his team) "I think what Anthony helps us so much with is that his effort is so contagious to everybody, like I said with Monty on defense, Anthony on special teams, he's always down there on the kickoff. He's busting up the wedge and helping another guy make a tackle. Defensively he flies around all over. Offensively, even though he doesn't catch a ton of balls, he's always making a block after a catch or he's always doing something in the running game to spring Dan (Curran) or Calvin Spears is, so it certainly helps out to have a guy like that back."

(on what was attributed to Monty Montgomery's shortness of breath that forced him to temporarily leave the game) "Monty had a doctor's appointment today. I don't know the outcome of that. Hopefully everything is okay with him. He had been sick the last couple weeks and taking medication and I just thought that caused some of the shortness of breath that he was having. Hopefully he's okay. Calvin Spears went down with the ankle injury and he's going to be later in the week before we know if he'll be ready to go against Carolina."

(on Carolina's improved play after dealling with four straight losses and a sudden coaching change)"Yes they did. We just got the film in about an hour ago. Tampa had played pretty much a flawless first half. The quarterback (Pat O'Hara) was 13-of-14, very very productive. They were winning 29-21, but then in the second half, they have up two kickoff returns for touchdowns. They had an interception and Carolina kicked off and got the ball off the net, where Tampa's return man misjudged it. Dallas took it them pretty good a week ago. Carolina, even though they had a coaching change, their offensive coordinator was promoted to the head coach and they got good players. They got Damon Mason in their secondary that's been around for a while. They got some good skill guys in Todd Doxzon, who's been around for a while, Jack Walker. They got some experience. Hopefully we catch the Carolina team that showed up against Dallas."

(on if he is worried that an overconfident VooDoo squad will show up against a struggling Carolina team) "They're sitting there at 3-4 right now and obviously any team it's been proven already. Carolina beats Dallas in week one. Dallas goes on to win five straight the next five weeks and Dallas comes back and loses to LA, so I think it's been proven this year. Philadelphia beat Chicago two weeks ago and Chicago was on top at that time and then San Jose goes into New York and gets beat. There's so much parity in this league now that anybody given the right situation and if they show up on game day, can beat anybody."

(on what he attributes to the 6-1 start)"I look at our guys up front. I really do and I always say that, but we got some guys up front that have been in the biggest games that there is in this league in the ArenaBowl, but there is no situation in this league that they can surprise them with. When the game's on the line in the fourth quarter and there's one minute left, they've been there before, so there's no reason to panic or no reason to get worked up about the situation and I think it shows their leadership or those guys handling adversity or any kind of situation that comes up, that trickles down to the other guys. I always say that, but our big guys, what they're doing for us right now is invaluable."



Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from March 24, 2004


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