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Familiarity Breeds Contempt: UFL's First Rivalry Born

September 28, 2010 - United Football League (UFL 1)
Florida Tuskers News Release


ORLANDO, FL - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2010-It is nearly impossible to go undefeated as a football team. In a game of inches, too many things can happen to prevent the better team from winning every contest.

So last Saturday when the Sacramento Mountain Lions scored a last-second victory on the Florida Tuskers it was merely a case of the inevitable happening. In regular season games, the Tuskers are now 7-1 all-time in United Football League regular season action. Now they must quickly recover from any hangover that first loss may have inflicted on the minds of the players and coaches.

Heading into Thursday's rematch with the Las Vegas Locomotives; head coach Jay Gruden has the challenge of getting his team ready on a short week for the home opener.

"Obviously as a player and a coach you'd like to get out there as soon as possible to get that bad taste from a loss out of our mouths," Gruden says. "If we were healthier, I'd be a lot more excited about it. But we have to find a way to get 45 to 50 guys ready to play and get a win on Thursday."

The rivalry with the Locos is well documented as the Tuskers hold a 3-1 advantage in the series. Las Vegas' lone victory came in the UFL Championship of 2009 making the story of the opening weekend rematch all about the Tuskers seeking revenge.

They grabbed a small measure of that with a 27-20 victory at Sam Boyd Stadium back on September 18th. The Tuskers were paced by quarterback Brooks Bollinger's 308 passing yards and running back Dominic Rhodes two touchdowns.

Linebacker Odell Thurman had the sealing interception in that game to go along with a hit on Loco's wide receiver Andrae Thurman that appeared to turn the momentum of the game around in the third quarter.

"They had an offensive player wearing my last name on his jersey and I had told him to take it off," says Odell Thurman as he smirked. "I definitely got my first kiss of the year in that game and it was a big win for us."

There is no doubt that the UFL's first rivalry is in the midst of being born with these two teams. The Locos had a young girl cut a promo where she says, "Watch out Tuskers, we're going to shove it down your throat," before the team's first meeting of the season.

Fortunately for the Tuskers, the Locos failed to keep the promise of a little girl. So with all this said we asked the players, is this the UFL's first rivalry?

"There's no question this is developing into a big rivalry. There are several reasons for it, including the fact that we are going to be playing them for a fifth time and the league has only been in operation for a little over a year," quarterback Brooks Bollinger said. "I also think that when they won the championship, it was sort of like they forgot that we won the two regular season games and then we won again a week ago. But what can you do? They won the one that counted the most, so we have to just sit back and take it. Obviously we have a strong sense of needing to finish the job this year."

"I would say it is a rivalry because we will have seen them 5 times in our last 10 games," tight end Jermaine Wiggins says. "They've all been close games no matter where we've played them so I would definitely categorize it as a rivalry."

After traveling in the neighborhood of 10,000 miles over the last two weeks, the Tuskers finally make their return to the Florida Citrus Bowl on Thursday night.

It is by an overwhelming majority that the team is glad to be playing at home in front of their fans instead of making yet another long road trip.

Gruden's displeasure with the Tuskers schedule is well documented and though it comes on a short week he is happy to be playing at home.

"We're happy to be back home," says Gruden. "This is a huge game for a lot of reasons one because I think tiebreakers are going to be huge this season and sweeping Vegas could go a long way for us. We'll need all the support we can get from the community in the Citrus Bowl for sure."

Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. between the Tuskers and Locos. Tickets start at $15 and may be purchased at the gate or by calling 407-545-8123.

TUSKERS NOTEBOOK: The Tuskers will be holding a "FanFest" inside the Citrus Bowl gates beginning at 4:30 p.m...the Orlando-based A Cappella group "4 2 Five" is slated to appear at halftime...Not only is Florida working on a short practice week but they are banged up as well...RB Maurice Hicks (hamstring), LB Tim McGarigle (head), and DE Patrick Chukwurah (hip) are all listed as doubtful; while LB Weston Dacus (hamstring) and DB David Irons (hamstring) are listed as questionable...Representatives from the Orlando Police and Firefighters will deliver the game ball and perform the coin toss at Thursday night's game...VERSUS network will broadcast the game, with former Boston College and NFL standout DOUG FLUTIE providing color commentary for the game...It's a Small World: After a Friday night dinner during the Sacramento road trip, Tuskers radio color analyst GARY PARRIS and Tuskers Head Trainer HUNTER SMITH had a reunion of sorts, as both were students at Florida State University at the same time and Smith served as a student trainer for the freshman team that Parris played on.



United Football League Stories from September 28, 2010


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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