Guy looks to improve roster for Rattlers
Kevin Guy never stops working. And, after another heartbreaking championship loss, he’ll be in overdrive this offseason to improve the Rattlers.
Guy, the team’s coach, general manager and president, mentioned even before watching his team fall to the Massachusetts Pirates 37-34 in Sunday’s overtime United Bowl, that he felt Massachusetts was the most talented team in the league.
“We’re going to have to take a look at that at the end of the season, because
as our organization continues to grow, we want to make sure we’re not getting passed up by anybody,” Guy said before the United Bowl. “But they’ve got a talented team. They’ve done a good job of bringing in guys who had two, three, four years of NFL experience.
“That’s amazing that those kind of guys want to play in this league. I can’t wait to have some conversations with them to see what they’re doing that’s different from us.”
Even their kicker, Garrett Hartley, who made three field goals, including the 31-yarder in overtime to beat the Rattlers, had not just NFL experience, but NFL heroics, kicking the New Orleans Saints into the Super Bowl in 2010 with his overtime field goal to beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game.
Guy will have his biggest offseason recruiting with two starting linemen, Lamar Mady and Steven Gurrola announcing their retirement on Sunday.
Quarterback Drew Powell for the second straight championship game had costly mishaps that the Pirates took advantage of. One of those was fumbling at the 1 while trying to gain extra yardage in overtime that the Pirates recovered in the end zone.
Defense played good enough for the Rattlers to win the championship.
“We wouldn’t have gotten here without Drew,” Guy said.
Guy is now 4-4 in championship games with all four of those losses coming in the Valley, two in Phoenix and two in Glendale.
Does that pressure continue to mount on Guy, who looked unstoppable from 2012-14 when the Rattler won three consecutive ArenaBowls?
“Unfortunately, I already played my last down in 1999,” Guy said. “I can’t play for them. Nobody is pointing fingers. We win and lose as a team. We’re not going out to lose on purpose. We didn’t get it done.
“You look at the last two times we played (championships) in this building, we lost on the last play of the game.”
In 2011, the Rattlers’ first trip to the ArenaBowl under Guy, they got to host the game in Phoenix, but lost to the Jacksonville Sharks 73-70 on the last play of the game, a 10-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Garcia.
“We had a chance to score a touchdown in overtime (Sunday) and two receivers collided (in the end zone) and the ball got dropped. It’s way the world turns.”
Guy lost top receiver and kick returner Jarrod Harrington. And he decided to go with rookie Nick LaSane over veteran Darrell Monroe in the championship game. LaSane had only one carry against Massachusetts.
In the semifinal win over Duke City, Monroe played over LaSane and had three rushing TDs, including the game winner with 18 seconds left, in a 58-55 decision.
“LaSane is the better blocker,” Guy said. “Both are good running backs. But LaSane is the better blocker, for sure. Looking back on it, we could have given him a few more touches. But they were playing a five-man box. We tried to run Drew and give him an extra blocker with our running back.”