Showing posts with label Mitch Allner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mitch Allner. Show all posts

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Headlines - May 21, 2011

Tulsa World recapping the VooDoo game: "Tulsa (4-5) has won four of its last six games after an 0-3 start. With last week's 64-45 win over Chicago, the Talons have now won two in a row for the first time this season. The Talons return home to play the Kansas City Command, a Central Division rival, next Saturday night."

Monday Philly.com broke news of the Allgood trade: "The Soul pulled the plug on quarterback Justin Allgood yesterday, sending him back to the Tulsa Talons in a three-team deal that netted Philadelphia an offensive lineman and future considerations. Allgood was one of the first players signed in the offseason by the Soul, who were rebuilding from scratch following two seasons off. Injuries and inconsistency stunted Allgood's transition here. His departure leaves Ryan Vena as the only quarterback on the roster."

Mitch Allner has assured that Bassuener will start: A trade sending former Tulsa Talons quarterback Justin Allgood back to his old team won't affect the status of current starter Matt Bassuener, at least not for now. "Matt is our starter. He's done a great job and definitely earned that spot," head coach Mitch Allner said.

Allgood is happy to be back in Tulsa: "It takes leaving something to miss it," said Allgood, who signed with the Soul after quarterbacking the Talons for the past four seasons. Allgood took part in Wednesday's practice at the Convention Center and started getting acquainted with teammates old and new. He played alongside current Talons receiver Al Hunt at Oklahoma City in 2006 as Craig Strickland's backup, before coming to Tulsa the following season.

Physical practices have improved the defense: "We have very active, very physical practices, and you're seeing that reflected on the weekends," Allner said. Tulsa's defense went from not stopping anyone six weeks ago to playing like one of the Arena Football League's best units.

AFL Midseason Report: "Looking ahead, the team will play just four playoff contenders over the next ten weeks. To help matters, they’ll play three of those games at home and will have one more shot at division leaders Chicago and Dallas. The chips could fall in Tulsa’s favor."

More talk of Bassuener in the Allgood trade: “We are pretty happy with where we are at with our quarterback right now. Matt is our starting quarterback and has done a great job so far,” Talons Head Coach Mitch Allner said. “It was great to get Allgood back home and to the team he has played with for the past few years. We are going to feel out how things go as far as his playing time. Bassuener has been here from the start of the season and our team is in a pretty good place right now where we are playing good ball.”

Football Gameplan's Preview for tonight

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Headlines - March 19, 2011

Bobby Reid set a new franchise record last week: "Reid set a franchise record by racing 39 yards for a score in the second quarter and had a 34-yard scoring run in the third quarter. The previous long run from scrimmage by a Talon was a 37-yarder by Odie Armstrong last year. Unofficially, Reid totaled 91 rushing yards on six carries and 209 passing yards. But he also had a costly turnover, fumbling after a 12-yard run to snuff out a scoring threat."

AFL Insider's Week 1 Losers: "Talon fans hoping to get a glimpse of the new look offense: Tulsa had the ball on offense for just 19 minutes at Georgia, in other words: they scored 47 points in 19 minutes! That’s like scoring 47 points with 11 minutes to go in the second quarter, to be fair, with 7:00 minutes to go in the third quarter (averaging in another team’s 19 minutes). It’s too bad Cokinos is a child that likes to play keep away and maybe Tulsa fans will get to see more of Bobby Reid on the field next week."

Talons lead the league in Rushing

Someone is impressed with Bobby Reid: "The most notable performance of the night came from Talon QB Bobby Reid. Not only did he lead a furious comeback that eventually came up short, but the speedster also racked up a crazy amount of damage on the ground with 93 yards rushing and four TDs. If you’re looking for a sleeper fantasy QB in 2011, look no further. His WRs are a little shaky and unproven, but could post some downright silly numbers on the ground this year."

Mitch Allner on the team's progression: "as the game went on I saw a lot of guys starting to understand the speed and angles of the game. That is just something that you cannot simulate in practice no matter how hard you try. For young players in Arena Football, they need to be on the field and getting a lot of that experience during the game. We learned a lot from watching and studying our game film from this past week and I was able to really point out some of the small mistakes we made at certain times this past weekend. We will correct those mistakes this week and be a much better team for it heading down to Dallas this weekend."

Some love for the Tulsa market: "With Bossier City, Alabama and Milwaukee all re-branded as former AFL franchises; and if you consider Iowa an old AFL team because of its roots back in the mid-to-late 90s, then only two af2 teams remain in the AFL (Spokane and Tulsa). I consider these two franchises as the legacy of the af2 and both should have been considered as AFL markets long ago.'

Friday, October 15, 2010

Coach Allner's Letter to Fans

Yesterday Coach Mitch Allner posted a letter to the Talons faithful on Talonsnews.com

Here is the text of the letter in its entirety:

"I just wanted to write a quick hello to all of you out there. I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the season starting up here in just a few short months. As always, I along with everyone else in our office appreciate the support you have all given us in the past and continuing on in the future.

We're obviously still a few months out from training camp starting, but it will be here before you know it. I look forward to seeing all of you great fans filling up the BOK Center once again. We're going to have some familiar faces from previous teams and obviously some new new young talent as well. The coaching staff has been working our tails off, as always, to put together another championship quality team that you will all be proud to cheer for. I promise, you're going to love some of the new Talons players that we're bringing in for this 2011 season.

Last year was a great season both on and off the field for our team, but we obviously fell short of our goal of winning the championship and that is what is expected every single year. Our organization expects it, the coaching staff expects it and you as fans should expect that too. So Talons fans, it's time to retool, put on our hard hats and get back to work, which is exactly what we as a coaching staff are going to do. 2011 is going to be our best season yet, just wait and see. See you all very soon and as always, Go Talons!

Coach Allner"

The portion that concerns me is "We're going to have some familiar faces from previous teams" which sounds like he does not expect any familiar faces from last season. The player I am most concerned with at this point is Jamar Ransom. Ransom has been a favorite in Tulsa for a few years. His loss would be a deep cut for many fans. We will have to wait and see though.

Also, yesterday the Talons picked up another player:

OL Joe Blanks 6’4 330 10/24/86 Winston Salem State