Arkansas Twisters game notes
May 31, 2007 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Arkansas Diamonds News Release
QUICK FACTS:
Lubbock Renegades (3-5)
Vs. Arkansas Twisters (6-2)
Date: Saturday, June 2
Kickoff: 7:05pm Central Time
Site: Alltel Arena
Radio: KABZ 103.7 The BUZZ
Pre-Game show starts @ 6:45pm
(Jake Hatley, Ray Tucker)
Internet: www.1037thebuzz.com
Series Record: Arkansas leads 1-0
Last Meeting: (4-15-07) Twisters Win 51-48
(Lubbock, TX) - The Arkansas Twisters spoiled the Lubbock Renegades inaugural home opener with a 51-48 win in front of a crowd of 2, 407 at City Bank Coliseum Sunday afternoon. Arkansas's Quarterback Brian Villanueva's three passing touchdowns and rush for a score led the way for the win.
Following Twister David Carlton's 19-yard field goal to open the game's scoring, the Renegades found the endzone three times with an Alvance Robinson touchdown reception and rushing scores from Victor Mann and Quarterback Justin Midget for the 20-3 lead through the opening quarter.
Arkansas came back with four scores of their own, including two Villanueva passing touchdowns and a 32-yard interception return from Pierre Thomas to close the first half with a 24-20 Arkansas advantage.
The Twisters picked up in the third quarter where they left off in the first half with Robert Kilow's 56-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the second half. Quarterbacks Midget and Villanueva would then each record 1-yard runs making it a 38-27 Twisters lead.
Robinson's second Renegade touchdown reception of the game cut the lead to five, but Arkansas came back with two scores for a 51-33 lead.
Lubbock wasn't done scoring as Joey Hawkins caught a 20-yard pass for a touchdown with 0:46 seconds remaining in regulation to cut the lead to 11.
A successful Renegades onside kick then led to Preston Hartfield's 33-yard touchdown reception as the lead was cut to three.
Another onside attempt was recovered by Lubbock, but the ball touched a member of the Renegades at the nine yard line, negating the possession and ending Lubbock's comeback hopes as Arkansas was able to run the remaining time off the clock.
Streaks: Arkansas enters the game having won six of their last seven games. Lubbock has won three of its last five games.
Coaches:
Twisters - John Gregory: 6-2 (21-16, 3rd Year)
Renegades - Rodney Blackshear: 3-5, 1st Year
PRACTICE, INTERVIEW & TRAVEL SCHEDULE:
Wednesdy - Thursday - 8am-10am Pulaski Academy
THE STAKES: Arkansas is chasing Tulsa for the Central Division league. The Twisters are sitting one game back of Tulsa and need a win to keep pace or pull even. Lubbock is trying to stay in the playoff chase. The Renegades have won three of their five after losing the first three games of the season.
THE IFs:
If Arkansas defeats Lubbock, it would...
- be the seventh win of the '07 season
- be the second straight win against Lubbock
- give Coach Gregory his 22st win as Twisters coach
2007 ARKANSAS TWISTERS SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Result Score Record
3-31 @ South Georgia L 31-47 0-1
4-15 @ Lubbock W 51-48 1-1
4-20 @ Amarillo W 63-55 2-1
4-28 CORPUS CHRISTI W 93-19 3-1
5-5 @ Laredo W 55-33 4-1
5-12 BOSSIER-SHREVEPORT W 64-50 5-1
5-20 SOUTH GEORGIA L 37-40 5-2
5-26 @ Tulsa W 36-19 6-2
Date Opponent Time Streak Series
6-2 LUBBOCK 7:05 W1 1-0
BYE
6-16 OKLAHOMA CITY 7:05 W1 1-4
6-23 @ Everett 7:05 --- ---
6-30 TULSA 7:05 W4 7-8
7-7 @ Bossier-Shreveport 7:05 W7 8-2
7-14 LAREDO 7:05 L1 0-1
7-21 @ Oklahoma City 7:05 W1 1-4
7-28 AMARILLO 7:05 L1 2-1
TWISTERS HEAD COACH:
John Gregory has seen just about everything a coach can see in one sport. His first job in football was back when Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States. Since then he has consistently taken over football programs that have struggled before his arrival and led them to success.
The former 2-time AFL Coach of the Year built the Twisters into a playoff contender in 2006. Gregory led Arkansas to its best start ever by winning his first three games. The Twisters won 10 regular season games for just the second time in franchise history and advanced to the National Conference Championship game. He coached the team to its first victories over Oklahoma City and Macon while beating rival Tulsa three times, the final time coming in the playoffs. The team set a franchise record for most total wins in a season with 12 and the 10 regular wins was the second most in franchise history.
The '06 Twisters also featured one of the best defenses in af2, tying a league record for sacks in a season with two Twisters players being named to the All-af2 first team for the first time ever.
Gregory started his coaching career as an assistant head coach and athletic director at Iowa Central Community College where he was charged with building a football program from the ground up. In just three years, the program had a 24-3-1 record and won the Wool Bowl in '69. Gregory's success at Iowa Central CC went on after he left. John Matusak was a Gregory recruit, and he went on to become the number one pick in the 1974 NFL Draft.
Gregory got his first college head coaching job at South Dakota State in 1971 and stayed for 10 years. To this day, Gregory is still second in school history in coaching victories and he led the team to a single season best of 9-2 in '79. SDSU didn't have a winning record the previous 11 seasons before Gregory's arrival.
After a one year stop as offensive coordinator at his alma mater of Northern Iowa, Gregory went further north to Canada and the Canadian Football League.
While in the CFL, Gregory won a CFL championship in '84 as the offensive line coach for Winnipeg. Gregory's offensive line helped the team set a CFL rushing record in '84 and Gregory was named CFL Outstanding Offensive Line Coach.
Saskatchewan noticed what Winnipeg had, and gave Gregory his first professional head coaching job and he didn't disappoint. Saskatchewan didn't have a winning season in the 11 years prior to Gregory's arrival, and they didn't win a Grey Cup (CFL Title) in 22 years. In 1989, Gregory led a Saskatchewan team that no one gave much of a chance of winning, and won the Grey Cup championship. In the process, Gregory was named CFL Coach of the Year, and he was elected to the Saskatchewan Hall of Fame in 1996.
Gregory went on to coach for Hamilton of the CFL in '91, making the postseason four of the five years he was with the team before the founder of a new football league came calling.
Jim Foster invented Arena Football and needed a coach for a team he was starting in Des Moines, IA. Foster interviewed and hired Gregory to build the Iowa team from scratch. Gregory looked high and low for players; even recruiting a little known quarterback he heard was working at a local grocery store. Gregory gave Kurt Warner a tryout, and the rest is, as they say, history. Gregory coached the Barnstormers to five division titles in six years, led the team to two Arena Bowl title games, and the offense was the one of the most innovative offenses the sport had ever seen. Warner and his processor, Aaron Garcia were recently named as two of the greatest AFL players ever. Gregory earned AFL Coach of the Year honors in '95 and '96, the only coach in AFL history to do so, and nearly made it three in a row when he finished second '97.
The Barnstormers relocated to New York in 2000 and Gregory left the team in '03. After a brief stop at Carolina, Gregory decided to call it a career in coaching.
Then Gregory got another call from Jim Foster.
Foster told Gregory of a team that is the "Jewel of the af2" and needed his help. The team was successful early on, but had won just 4 of its last 20 games. Along with af2 President Jerry Kurz, and Jack Lankford, Gregory was convinced staying in retirement was the thing to do.
Gregory took over the Arkansas Twisters four games into the 2005 season, going 5-7. The final four losses were by a combined score of 19 points, with two games being decided in the last minute of play.
WEEK EIGHT RE-CAP: 5-20-07
Twisters Holds Tulsa to Franchise Low Point Total
(Tulsa, OK) - The longest running rivalry in af2 lived up to billing as Arkansas and Tulsa faced off in a low scoring affair that saw the Twisters win their fifth straight game over their arch rivals in front of 5200 fans at the Tulsa Convention Center. The win snapped Tulsa's seven game win streak.
The Twisters defense played its best game of the season by limiting Tulsa to a franchise low 19 points and forced seven turnovers, six coming by way of interceptions.
Arkansas' defense intercepted Tulsa quarterback Josh Blankenship on the Talon's opening drive. The Twisters converted it into points when David Carlton booted a team record 55 yard field goal to put Arkansas up 3-0. Arkansas intercepted Blankenship again on the next drive and that led to Davon Vinson connecting with Robert Kilow on a 15 yard score to give the Twisters a 9-0 lead at the end of one.
Blankenship was intercepted again on Tulsa's next drive and Arkansas turned it into points when Carlton broke his own team record by netting a 58 field goal to give the Twisters a 12-0 lead. Blankenship threw two more interceptions in the half and Arkansas led 19-7 at half.
The Twisters opened the second half with a long drive that took up over half the third quarert and capped it with Carlton's third field goal of the night, a 24 yarder that extended Arkansas' lead to 23-7.
Tulsa closed to within 29-19 when Blankenship found Jermaine Landrum for a two yard score. The Talons recovered the ensuing on-side kick with :45 seconds left in the game. Blankenship's pass off the net was tipped by Jason Simpson and intercepted by Tanner Varner and returned 53 yards for the final score of the game.
Arkansas improves to 6-2 on the season while Tulsa had their seven game win streak snapped with their first loss of the season.
Vinson finished the game by completing 11 of his 27 pass attempts for 125 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran for 53 yards on eight carries. Jon Schoonover led the team with five catches for 68 yards and two scores while Kilow finished with 4 catches for 35 yards and one touchdown.
Arkansas' trio of defensive backs known as "The Land Sharks" led the way for the Twisters. Varner finished with a game high 10.0 tackles, four pass breakups, two interceptions
and a touchdown. Simpson added eight tackles, a pass breakup and one inteception and Pierre Thomas had 4.5 tackles and an interception.
Blankenship finished the game by completing 22 of 50 passes for 203 yards, three touchdowns and a career high six interceptions. Landrum led the team with eight catches for 68 yards and one touchdown.
The Twisters are back in action on Saturday, June 2nd at Allstate Field at Alltel Arena against Lubbock.
Box Score
Arkansas Twisters vs Tulsa Talons
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Arkansas Twisters... 9 10 3 14 - 36 Record: (6-2)
Tulsa Talons........ 0 7 6 6 - 19 Record: (7-1)
Schutt Offensive Player of the Game: Davon Vinson, Ark.
US Army Ironman Player of the Game:
Jon Schoonover, Ark.
ADT Defensive Player of the Game: Tanner Varner, Ark.
Cutters Catch of the Game:
Jeff Hughley, Tulsa
Scoring Summary:
1st 05:53 ARK - CARLTON, David 55 yd field goal, 4-4 2:43, ARK 3 - TUL 0
03:50 ARK - KILOW, Robert 15 yd pass from VINSON, Davon (CARLTON, David kick failed), 2-10 1:24, ARK 9 - TUL 0
2nd 12:28 ARK - CARLTON, David 58 yd field goal, 4--1 0:00, ARK 12 - TUL 0
10:26 TUL - HUGHLEY, Jeff 32 yd pass from BLANKENSHIP, Jo (PHILLIPS, Luke kick), 3-43 1:55, ARK 12 - TUL 7
07:28 ARK - SCHOONOVER, Jon 11 yd pass from VINSON, Davon (CARLTON, David kick), 4-30 2:36, ARK 19 - TUL 7
3rd 06:58 ARK - CARLTON, David 24 yd field goal, 11-36 7:57, ARK 22 - TUL 7
01:59 TUL - HUGHLEY, Jeff 2 yd pass from BLANKENSHIP, Jo (PHILLIPS, Luke kick failed), 7-32 4:46, ARK 22 - TUL 13
4th 06:11 ARK - SCHOONOVER, Jon 9 yd pass from VINSON, Davon (CARLTON, David kick), 7-32 4:45, ARK 29 - TUL 13
00:46 TUL - LANDRUM, Jermai 2 yd pass from BLANKENSHIP, Jo (BLANKENSHIP, Jo pass failed), 10-31 4:29, ARK 29 - TUL 19
00:09 ARK - VARNER, Tanner 52 yd interception return (CARLTON, David kick), , ARK 36 - TUL 19
SGW ARK
FIRST DOWNS................... 20 15
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 6-10 5-6
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 386 191
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 43-28-2 35-15-2
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 49-396 40-197
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 1-25
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 5-62 7-152
Interception Returns-Yards.... 2-16 2-6
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-2 0-0
Penalties-Yards............... 7-39 6-35
Possession Time............... 30:45 29:15
Third-Down Conversions........ 2 of 5 3 of 6
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 3 0 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-4 1-1
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 1-9 0-0
RUSHING: Arkansas Twisters-VINSON, Davon 8-57; KILOW, Robert 1-5;
FREENEY, Terran 3-minus 8. Tulsa Talons-SHACK, Michael 2-6; LANDRUM, Jermai 1-3.
PASSING: Arkansas Twisters-VINSON, Davon 11-27-2-125. Tulsa
Talons-BLANKENSHIP, Jo 22-50-6-203.
RECEIVING: Arkansas Twisters-SCHOONOVER, Jon 5-68; KILOW, Robert 4-35;
MCCOWN, Errick 2-22. Tulsa Talons-LANDRUM, Jermai 8-68; FORDE, Andre 7-64;
HUGHLEY, Jeff 6-67; SHACK, Michael 1-4.
INTERCEPTIONS: Arkansas Twisters-WILLIAMS, Kevin 2-10; VARNER, Tanner
2-63; SIMPSON, Jason 1-18; THOMAS, Pierre 1-18. Tulsa Talons-REID, Delenell 1-4;
FLETCHER, O. 1-13.
FUMBLES: Arkansas Twisters-VINSON, Davon 1-1. Tulsa Talons-SHACK, Michael
1-1.
SACKS (UA-A): Arkansas Twisters-None. Tulsa Talons-None.
TACKLES (UA-A): Arkansas Twisters-VARNER, Tanner 9-2; SIMPSON, Jason 8-0;
THOMAS, Pierre 4-1; FREENEY, Terran 2-0; KILOW, Robert 2-0; CLARK, Colby 1-1;
MATTHES, M. 1-0; WILLIAMS, Kevin 1-0; SCHOONOVER, Jon 1-0; HORN, Scorpio 1-0.
Tulsa Talons-JONES, Zac 6-1; FLETCHER, O. 5-1; SHACK, Michael 3-0; RANSOM, Jamar
2-0; REID, Delenell 2-0; RUFFIN, Chad 1-1; MCGEE, Don 1-0; FORDE, Andre 1-0;
MCLAIN, C.J. 1-0; GREEN, Roderick 1-0; CARTER, Terranc 0-1.
FORWARD MOTION: Arkansas have the week off before returning to action the week of June 16th to play Oklahoma City at Alltel Arena.
TWISTERS' INJURY REPORT:
Pos. Name Injury Status
5-15 Brian Villanueva Broken Foot IR
IR- Injured Reserve, min 4 games missed
RECENT ROSTER MOVES:
Date Action Player
5-25 Retirement Reggie Swinton
5-25 Assigned Mike Matthes
2007 AWARDS
Cutters Catch of the Week:
Week Five: Kevin Williams, AR
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME AWARD
Week Opp. Player
1 SGA Brian Villanueva, QB
2 Bye
3 LUB Jon Schoonover, WR
4 AMR Jon Schoonover, WR
5 CC Brian Villanueva, QB
6 LAL Jon Schoonover, WR
7 BOS Brian Villanueva, QB
8 SGA Chavis McColister, South Georgia
9 TUL Davon Vinson, QB
IRONMAN OF THE GAME AWARD
Week Opp. Player
1 SGA Kevin Williams, LB/WR
2 Bye
3 LUB Kevin Williams, LB/WR
4 AMR Kevin Williams, LB/WR
5 CC Robert Kilow, WR/KR
6 LAL Michael Dansby, OL/DL
7 BOS Robert Kilow, WR/KR
8 SGA Kevin Williams, WR/LB
9 TUL Jon Schoonover, WR/KR
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME AWARD
Week Opp. Player
1 SGA Jason Simpson, DB
2 Bye
3 LUB Pierre Thomas, DB
4 AMR Tanner Varner, DB
5 CC Reggie Cooley, LB
6 LAL Colby Clark, DL
7 BOS Jason Simpson, DB
8 SGA Joe Woolridge, South Georgia
9 TUL Tanner Varner, DB
CUTTERS CATCH OF THE WEEK
Week Opp. Player
1 SGA Tavaris Capers, SGA
2 BYE
3 LUB Alvance Robinson, Lubbock
4 AMR Jonah Russell, Amarillo
5 CC Kevin Williams, WR
6 LAL Robert Kilow, WR
7 BOS Kevin Williams, WR
8 SGA Chavis McCollister, South Georgia
9 TUL Jeff Hughley, Tulsa
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