AFL I Arena Football League (1987-2008)

The Deuce Scoop

Published on April 16, 2003 under Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) News Release


AND THE AWARDS GO TO: Week 3 af2 award winners are: Quad City's JEFF HEWITT (Offensive Player of the Week), Columbus' JAMES DICKERSON (Ironman of the Week) and Birmingham's JULIUS GRIFFITH (ADT Defensive Player).

HOME SWEET HOME: Home teams dominated again in Week 3, going 8-2 for a .800 winning percentage. So far this season, home teams are 20-6 for a .769 win percentage. In 2002 home teams went 157-113 throughout the regular season for a .585 win percentage. The table below shows the best all-time home winning percentages among current af2 teams.

Regular Season at Home Home Record Pct. Streak
Tulsa 22-3 .880 Won 19*
Quad City 22-3 .880 Lost 1
Norfolk 21-4 .840 Won 8
Tennessee Valley 20-5 .800 Won 1
Cape Fear 7-2 .777 Won 1
Macon 14-4 .777 Won 2
Albany 7-2 .777 Won 3
Birmingham 19-7 .730 Won 2
Richmond 18-7 .720 Lost 1
Wichita 12-5 .705 Won 1

*Tulsa's 19-game home winning streak is tied for the longest in af2 history. If they win their next home game (vs. Memphis 4/19/03) they will hold the all-time record with 20 straight regular home wins.

POTEETE GOING FOR 1000: Bossier City QB SHERARD POTEETE rushed for 74 yards and four touchdowns in his teams 72-58 win over Peoria in Week 2. Last week against Birmingham, he was held to 15 yards. For his career, Poteete is the af2's all-time leader in rushing attempts (226), yards gained (770) and touchdowns (51). Poteete can become the af2's first 1,000-yard rusher if he gets 230 more yards.

Game Rushing Yards Career Total Yards to 1,000
WK2 vs. Peoria 74 755 245
WK3 at Birmingham 15 770 230

ALLOW US TO INTRODUCE OURSELVES: The Green Bay Blizzard and Cincinnati Swarm both play their first home games in team history this weekend. With home teams winning at a .769 clip so far this season, it may be what both the Blizzard and Swarm need. Both teams are 0-2 thus far in 2003.

WOLVES ON TV: The Mohegan Wolves broke into the New England television market with the debut of "The Wolves Locker Room Show," on Pax-26 in Connecticut and on Pax-69 in Rhode Island, on Sunday, April 13, at 10:00 a.m. The show airs each Sunday during the season and during each episode, popular local radio host LEE ELCI and Wolves Coach MARK STOUTE will analyze and show highlights of the best plays of the most recent home game of the Mohegan Wolves. They will also preview the Wolves upcoming home game and the show will feature Stoute, based on actual plays, demonstrating how the different rules of Arena Football make for much faster and more exciting game play.

THE BIG '5-0': In the high-scoring sport of Arena Football, reaching the 50-point mark typically serves as a good indicator of team success. In 2002, teams went 156-39 (80 percent) when they scored 50 or more points in a game. Whereas, they went 116-233 (33 percent) when they didn't get 50 points. In Week 3, four teams broke the 50-point barrier, going 3-1. Teams under 50 points went 7-9 in Week 2. For the season, teams that score better than 50 are 10-3, while teams under 50 have gone 16-23. Below is a breakdown:

2003 W-L Pct. All-time W-L Pct.
0-19 0-2 .000 0-19 2-69 .028
20-29 1-10 .090 20-29 14-147 .087
30-39 4-9 .308 30-39 78-183 .299
40-49 11-2 .846 40-49 179-162 .525
50-59 5-3 .625 50-59 171-71 .707
60-69 2-0 1.000 60-69 135-20 .871
70-79 1-0 1.000 70-79 53-2 .964
80+ 0-0 .000 80+ 23-0 1.000

THE CHASE FOR 500 POINTS: Former Birmingham Steeldog WAYNE THOMAS (606 career points) is the only player in af2 history to reach 500 points scored for his career. This season a few more players may join that list. Tulsa's MITCH ALLNER should be the first to do it, as he is just 10 points away after scoring 12 points in the season opener at Peoria. Below is a breakdown of the active players looking to join the 500 club.

Name/Team Points Pts. Needed
Wayne Thomas (BIR, 2000-02) 606 -

Mitch Allner, Tulsa 490 10
Lennie Johnson, Arkansas 472 28
James Dickerson, Columbus 470 30
Xavier Patterson, Ten. Valley 450 50
Kelly Fields, Ten. Valley 438 62
Jeff Townsley, Richmond 426 74
Brandon Burnside, Florida 424 76
Mesiah Porter, Columbus 410 90
Kevin Harvey, Richmond 394 106

TOP DOG: Last week's win over Greensboro gave Macon head coach KEVIN PORTER his 33rd regular season win as an af2 head coach. He is now one ahead of Richmond Speed head coach RICHARD DAVIS and Birmingham head coach BOBBY HUMPHREY who each has 32. TULSA'S SKIP FOSTER another active coach quickly climbing the chart. His regular season record of 28-5 (.848) makes him the coach with best all-time winning percentage among active af2 head coaches. Below is a breakdown of the all-time regular season wins leaders among af2 head coaches.

Head Coach Season Record PCT.
Kevin Porter, Macon Fourth 33-17 .666
Richard Davis, Richmond Fourth 32-13 .711
Bobby Humphrey, Birmingham Fourth 32-18 .640
Skip Foster, Tulsa Third 28-5 .848

HAPPY 50th: Last week Birmingham head coach BOBBY HUMPHREY and Macon head coach KEVIN PORTER coaches their 50th regular season af2 game and both coaches won. They are the only two head coaches in af2 history to coach as many games. WHO NEEDS PASSING? Evidentially not the Hawaiian Islanders. In the Islanders' short history, they are 6-2 when the team rushes for 50 or more yards. In Week 2's 53-52 win over Quad City, the team got 44 yards from NAI VOTOA, 22 from DARNELL ARCENEAUX and eight from CHRIS PAOGOFIE for a total of 74 yards. The Islanders were idle in Week 3.

A STRONG LEG TO STAND ON: Despite the 59-62 loss to Tennessee Valley in Week 3, Steamwheelers' QB TONY ZIMMERMAN had another strong outing. Zimmerman was 22-of-38 passing, throwing for 370 yards and eight touchdowns. He was not sacked once and also rushed two yards for a score. This was Zimmerman's second game back since breaking his leg last season, seven games into the year. He is the first af2 QB to throw for more than 350 yards in a game this season and for the year he is ranked first in passing yards (635) and touchdowns (13).

A NOTE-WORTHY ACHEIVEMENT: Tennessee Valley WR/DB REGGIE WORTHY caught one pass for 12 yards and rushed four times for three touchdowns in the 62-59 win over Quad City. He now has 197 yards rushing, 992 yards receiving. He needs just three yards rushing and eight receiving to become the third player in af2 history to have 200 yards rushing and 1,000 receiving for his career. Below is a chart of the exclusive 200/1,000 club:

Player Rushing Yards Receiving Yards
Kevin Harvey 432 2727
Mesiah Porter 371 1660

Reggie Worthy 197 992

HOW QUICKLY THINGS CHANGE: The Louisville Fire, Mohegan Wolves, Columbus Wardogs and Greensboro Prowlers all finished with four or less wins in 2002. Through two weeks of this early season, the teams are a combined 5-2 (Louisville 1-1, Mohegan 2-0, Columbus 2-0, Greensboro 1-1).

LOOK LONG: So far this season, the teams with the most passing touchdowns seem to have one thing that the teams with fewer passing touchdowns lack; the long ball. The top five teams in passing touchdowns average 8.18 yards per completion, whereas the bottom five average 5.36 yards per completion. The difference may not seem like much at first glance, but if a team completes 25 passes in a game averaging 8.18 yards per catch, they'll end up with around 205 yards for the game, whereas a team averaging 5.36 yards per catch would only total roughly 135 yards in the game. Overall, the top five average 260.9 passing yards per game, while the lower five throw for 157.8 yards per contest. Below is a chart:

Passing TD Rank/Team Passing TDs Avg. Yards Per Catch
1. Quad City 13 8.2
2. Birmingham 12 8.5
3. Peoria 11 9.5
4. Bossier City 10 7.2
5. Tennessee Valley 10 7.5

23. Cape Fear 4 5.8
24. Greensboro 4 6.4
25. Charleston 4 4.8
26. Louisville 3 6.0
27. Norfolk 3 3.8

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from April 16, 2003


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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central