CFB: Reviewing Alliance Football
Standout Players: Opening weekend of the Alliance of American Football is in the books, and here’s some early thoughts on the league so far. Garrett Gilbert, who is most well known for his admirable efforts filling in for an injured Colt McCoy in the 2009 BCS national championship game, showed up for the Orlando Apollos in a big way on Saturday night. With 227 yards and two touchdowns, he looks like a stable signal caller that the Apollos can rely on this season. After leaving Texas for SMU, Gilbert was selected 214th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft. John Wolford, on the other hand, went undrafted out of Wake Forest and is probably a guy you hadn’t heard of before, but he lit up the Salt Lake Stallions defense to the tune of 275 yards and four scores, as well as taking home the player of the week award.
Notable Teams: The first team that comes to mind has to be the Orlando Apollos. What more can you say about them? They embarrassed the Atlanta Legends by 34 points, and certainly look like one the best teams in the league. The head coach for the Apollos is none of than former Heisman winning quarterback Steve Spurrier from Florida, and later coached the Gators and South Carolina. Running back Akeem Hunt, who played at Purdue, led Orlando in rushing with 73 yards on the ground. While De'Veon Smith, former Michigan running back, scored the first rushing touchdown in AFA history. The Memphis Express also made league history...by being the first team to get shut out. Christian Hackenberg from Penn State was a total disaster at QB, and it will be a long season if they can’t get their offense figured out.
Looking Ahead: The Game of the Week in the second weekend has to be the Arizona Hotshots (1-0) against the Express (0-1). You may be thinking, a battle between the second highest scoring and lowest scoring teams in Week 1 might be a dud right? This could very well be the case, but I think this game has the potential to be surprisingly good. The Express should come out motivated after getting shut out in their debut, while the Hotshots’ defense struggled a lot in their season opener, despite a 38-22 win. I’ll take the Hotshots to win, but it will be a close one. Arizona won their opening matchup against the Salt Lake Stallions, as Rashad Ross recorded 103 receiving yards. Ross went undrafted in 2013 out of Arizona State. Another game to look out for is Orlando at San Antonio on February 17th.
Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated.
