Rattlers add a big piece as playoffs open
The Rattlers added former All-Arena Football League offensive lineman Michael Huey this week in preparations for their Intense Conference championship game Saturday against the Nebraska Danger.
Coach Kevin Guy said he didn’t know whether Huey would be ready to play in the 6 p.m. playoff game at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Huey, 6-foot-4, 317 pounds, made All-Arena each of his three seasons with the Rattlers (2012-14) when they won the ArenaBowl each year. He left the Rattlers in 2015 when he was signed by the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.
He joined the Atlanta Falcons in 2016 but was waived late in training camp.
If the Rattlers win, they would play at either Sioux Falls or Iowa on July 8 for the United Bowl championship.
Guy used practices this week to give quarterbacks Cody Sokol and Darren Thomas equal repetitions before deciding on who would start against a 9-7 Danger team that appears considerably better than the one the Rattlers beat twice in the regular season.
In the 43-33 loss at Arizona last month, Drew Powell came off the bench and threw for 142 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 81 yards and a score.
Guy wouldn’t indicate which quarterback he was leaning toward starting.
Sokol started the last 12 games for the Rattlers but struggled at times late in the season. Thomas, who started the first four games, played the second half last week in Colorado and ran for two scores and fumbled twice.
Sokol fumbled twice in the first half. Still, the Rattlers rallied with a 47-44 overtime win without a passing touchdown to give them an eight-game winning streak entering the conference title game.
“I’m willing to play both quarterbacks, whatever we’ve got to do to win the football game,” Guy said.
Last year, the Rattlers’ season ended at home, but it didn’t feel like home. They had the ArenaBowl moved from Phoenix to Glendale because of a scheduling conflict at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Things got ugly quickly in the loss to the Philadelphia Soul.
Guy is past that with a new team that has scored more touchdowns rushing (53) than passing (48).
“It’s over,” Guy said. “It’s yesterday’s news. Nothing I can do to bring that back. You learn from that and try to get better the next season. The first thing I do in a situation like that is evaluate myself. What could I do to get better as the head coach and general manager, and it’s on to the next game.”
Defensive end Chris McAllister and defensive backs Allen Chapman and Arkeith Brown have playoff experience in the AFL with the Rattlers.
McAllister hasn’t forgotten what it felt like to lose the last game last year.
“A lot of the guys weren’t here last year, but we try to let everybody know what it was like,” he said. “We do remember that game. We want to finish right this year.”