Wild Things

Based on his first start, QB Shane Mascarenas needs time to develop.

Before Saturday’s loss to Green Bay, Wild coach Ken Matous said the injury to starting QB Alex Rouse wouldn’t cause him to look for another quarterback. Back-up Shane Mascarenas could do the job, Matous said.

But after Mascarenas threw four interceptions, including three on consecutive possessions, in the 55-41 home loss to Green Bay, Matous made it clear he’s on the lookout now. Wild fans better hope he finds one. Mascarenas may develop into a quality starter in the IFL, but he doesn’t appear to be ready yet. The Wild is 0-2, staring at 0-3 with Sioux Falls up after an off week. The Wild doesn’t have the luxury of Mascarenas learning on the job. And the QB problems are deeper than that. Is Rouse the answer? He is an indoor rookie too and threw three picks before he got hurt in the season-opening loss at Nebraska.  The Wild needs an experienced QB; I have no idea if any are available at this point, like they would have been in the off-season. Matous has plenty of contacts, though. Dixie Wooten becoming a free agent saved the season in 2009. Adding to the Wild’s misery, Wooten is in Nebraska now and beat the Wild in the season opener.

The good news for the Wild is that, even with Mascarenas throwing four interceptions, the Wild was within six points with six minutes left. Even wth an average QB performance — heck, slightly below average, just not awful — the Wild wins the game. If you know any average to slightly below average experienced QBs, call the Wild office.

A few more thoughts: 

Jake Sharp brought his talents to Wichita. The Wild needs to use them better.

1. I figured former KU star Jake Sharp would be an immediate impact player, but he hasn’t been much of a factor in two games. Sharp signed with the Wild to showcase his receiving talents for the NFL. In two games, has five catches for 30 yards. I’m confident Sharp expected much more when he signed on to play fo 225 bucks a week. I realize Sharp wants to prove he can catch the ball, but I think Matous should give him more time at running back. Matous talks about Sharp’s speed all the time, but it’s not being used much. Give him some carries, let him catch a few swing passes (like Green Bay did with their back). Sharp gets more comfortable and the Wild adds some explosiveness to their offense. Win, win.

2. If I’m Matous, I’m a little worried about the team’s attitude and toughness. The toughest, hardest working player on the field on Saturday night was Green Bay’s bowling ball of a running back, Andrew Verboncouer. He kept catching passes out of the backfield (9 catches, 67 yards) — a play the Wild never figued out how to stop. (Probably didn’t help that LB Chris Patterson was out.) He scored the game’s final TD on a 5-yard run, and it certainly seemed like the Wid players wanted no part of trying to tackle him.

4. It’s embarrassing when a pro team hs problems with the snap, as the Wild did several times on Saturday.

5. The Wild fell short of its own expectations and predictions when the game didn’t sell out. Attendance was 4,116. There may be a lesson here for rookie GM John Blazek. When you say the game is going to sell out, and it doesn’t, it looks bad.

6. Two of the Wild’s dynamic players, return man Randy Kelly and RB Darius Fudge, were bottled up on Saturday. The holes weren’t there for Fudge. I kept expecting Kelly to break one, but he never did. The Wild needs that duo to produce to win.

They say defense wins championships; that might be the Wild’s only route to going deep into the playoffs. The Wild is allowing 192 yards per game, fifth best in the 26-team Indoor Football League. Offensively, however, the Wild is far below average – an unexpected result from an offense expected to produce big numbers behind stars Dixie Wooten, Clinton Solomon and Darius Fudge. The Wild is averaging just 37.56 points a game, 17^th in the league, and 144 yards, 18^th. Stats, by the way, are courtesy of assistant general manager James Bain. He ran the numbers since the league doesn’t provide basic stats in a readable format.

• Ziya Gunay’s latest stint as the Wild’s kicker didn’t last long. He missed two extra points in the Wild’s close victory at winless Colorado and has been replaced by Nathan Stokes, who kicked at Missouri State.

• The team has also brought back Kevin McAlmont, a lineman who has arenafootball2, AFL and Wild experience.

• New quarterback Dixie Wooten worked out with the Wild for the first time on Monday. I plan to go to practice tonight to get a look at him. Coach Ken Matous usually deliberates much of the week before naming a starter; obviously, it would be a shock if Wooten isn’t the guy.

• Assistant general manager James Bain has crunched the numbers and come up with some interesting stats involving workhorse running back Darius Fudge. Bain’s work follows:

In the world of indoor football gaining over 900 rushing yards in a season is a mark that very few have ever reached.  Rushing for 30 touchdowns in a season is also very rare territory.  Wichita Wild running back Darius Fudge could accomplish both of those feats this season.  Fudge currently has 774 yards and 23 rushing touchdowns with two games to play.

In the history of indoor football only seven players have rushed for over 900 yards in a season.  The last player to accomplish the feat was current Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson who ran for 1,388 yards for Sioux City in 2007.  The highest rushing total on record is held by Birdie Dockery who ran for 1,603 yards for the Ohio Valley Greyhounds in 2002.

Rushing for 30 touchdowns has only happened eight times.  Birdie Dockery holds this record as he ran for 48 touchdowns in 2002.  Marques Smith of the Sioux Falls Storm was the last player to rush for more than 30 TD?s.  He ran for 32 in 2007.  Also in 2007, Dan Alexander of the Nashville Kats ran for 41 TD?s.

Five players have run for 900 yards and 30 TD?s in the same season.  They include Dockery, Jon Hall (2003- Lincoln 1,108 yards and 31 TD?s), Wes Cates (2004- Tri-Cities1,016 and 33), Rayshawn Askew (2004- Ohio Valley 1,047 and 31), and Fred Jackson (2007- Sioux City 1,388 and 36).

Fans can vote for Fudge for IFL MVP by logging onto www.goifl.com and clicking on the PLAYERS tab.

James Bain is the assistant general manager for the Wichita Wild, which makes him the guy behind guy. He likes to go by James “You’re So” Bain, but we prefer “Jammin’ James.” While he is a little preoccupied with his hair, James is one of the reasons the organization is much more professional this season. He even produced a media guide, and I can’t remember a Wichita indoor team having one of those since the Af2 days. A Q and A with James follows:

KL: Give us a little information about you, Jammin’ James. Where are you from?

James: Besides about 5 1/2 years in Minnesota (college and jobs), I have lived in South Dakota. I moved to Wichita last August and I feel like I haven’t got a good haircut since I moved here. It can’t be that difficult to get a stylish do. By the way, I like the nickname JB way better than Jammin’ James.

KL: OK, keeping the topic centered on you, what do you think is the best story I have written this season?

James: I think the story about our victory over Abilene. Up to that point you had not seen us win……EVER. I was beginning to investigate how I could take the newspaper industry down even further, just to get rid of you. You missed our first victory this season and both wins last year were on the road. It was a monumental occasion for you. Things went really well that night. Quincy Carter got dominated by our defense, big crowd, AC in the Arena worked, the Wild won. I think that was the happiest I have seen our fans this season. They had a great time that night.

KL: There is another Wild in the IFL – the Alaska Wild. Do you ever get confused, hop in your car in the morning and drive to Anchorage for work?

James: The only time that the Alaska Wild (0-9 record) thing bothers me is when I read headlines of Anchorage newspaper articles that read something like “Wild remain winless” or “Hapless Wild Lose Again.” I want people to know that we are the furthest thing from hapless.

KL: OK, moving on to football matters. A big game for the Wild this week. I would guess Vegas, if it listed IFL odds, would have the Wild as 7.5 underdogs in this one. What do you think?

James: You know gambling is my only vice, right? I hit a big Daily Double on Preakness Stakes Day. I’m still pumped about that; 7 1/2 point underdogs? I would bet the farm on the Wild and take the points. Give me Wichita with the points and I will parlay that with the Royals losing and make some serious coin. We have lost four games by a combined 15 points this season and we are 3-1 at home.

KL: Omaha QB James McNear doesn’t make many mistakes. I think Justin Montgomery needs to get in his face a few times for the Wild to win. Agree?

James: Yeah, Justin has been a Manimal this season and leads the team with five sacks. It is going to take a team effort to beat Omaha. But our backs are against the wall and we are back home where we love playing in front of The Best Fans in the IFL at Hartman Arena.

KL: Finish the sentence. In order for Wichita to win, the Wild must …

James: In a lame John Madden impression, I would say we have to score more points than Omaha in order to win. BOOM! We have to have consistent play from the QB position. We have the league’s leading receiver and the league’s leading running back. QB play is critical in this league.

KL: Lamont Reid has been a stud all season. What do you like most about his game?

James: I like his versatility. He can play defensive end or the linebacker position with success at each. I think our defense has been the secret to our success this season. Even though we have a great offense, our defense has kept us in many games when we ran into offensive problems.

KL: Can you do me a personal favor and kick the AC on for Saturday’s game. It was so hot last home game I had a case of the back sweats.

James: Well I had face and head sweat. You can hide a wet back, but there is no way to hide a red face with sweat dripping down. I think we got the message about the AC and I am certain the issues have been taken care of.

KL: The Wild is using Myspace for a promotion. I am a Facebook guy myself.

James: My goal is to be the last person on earth without Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. I can’t understand this Twitter thing. Why is it so popular all of a sudden? I happen to think Twitter is a complete waste of time.

KL: Which do you prefer: The hilarious David Letterman or lame-as-can-be Conan O’Brien?

James: Is neither an option? I did see the first Tonight Show with Conan and I don’t think I laughed at all. If there was a channel that showed just American Idol, TMZ, and Big Brother, I would be in heaven. What about Real World/Road Rules Challenge? Love that show too.

Derek Rasmussen gets the start at QB for a big game at Bloomington on Saturday. Coach Ken Matous indicated that Alex Melugin still isn’t 100 percent healed from a sore shoulder. Rasmussen is 2-0 since taking over for Melugin.

Ball hawks: Bloomington leads the IFL in interceptions with 23. Matous said that Bloomington plays more man than most teams in the league. I haven’t seen Bloomington play, but I doubt any of their D backs can play man successfully agaisnt the Wild’s Clinton Solomon. Matous hinted that Bloomington hasn’t played the best competition the league has to offer.

Bringing the Payne back: Donald Payne finally returns this week, bringing more depth to an already solid WR corps. It will be interesting to see what the tall, athletic Payne can do against IFL competition.

At least the weather has been nice: I am apparently the only one who thinks this is an issue, but I find it extremely odd that the Wild is being forced to practice outdoors — because Hartman Arena, which was supposedly built for the Wild, isn’t available to the team. The Wild has arguably its biggest game on Saturday, and the team is conducting workouts at at Maize High School.

Honors: The Wild dominated weekly honors. A team release follows:

The Indoor Football League (IFL) has announced that Wild linebacker LaMont Reid has been named Defensive Player of the Week and Wild kicker Dylan Pohlman has been named league Special Teams Player of the Week.  Both players were honored for their performance in Wichita?s 39-29 victory over the Sioux City Bandits last Saturday.  To view video highlights of the players, visit www.goifl.com.

For the second week in a row the IFL recognized a Wild player as Special Teams Player of the Week. Randy Kelly won the award last week for his dazzling return ability and this week Dylan Pohlman won the award for clutch kicking.  Pohlman was a perfect 4 for 4 on extra points, hit on 3 of 4 field goal attempts, and had two Rouges on kickoffs.  In total, he was responsible for 15 of the 39 Wild points.