Austin Wranglers
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| Austin Wranglers | ||
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| Conference | National | |
| Division | Southern | |
| Year founded | 2004 | |
| Home arena | Frank Erwin Center | |
| City, State | Austin, Texas | |
| Wild card titles | 1: 2006 |
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| Division titles | none | |
| Conference titles | none | |
| ArenaBowl championships | none | |
The Austin Wranglers are an American football team from Austin, Texas in the Arena Football League. They began play as a 2004 expansion team.
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[edit] History
The Wranglers began play in February of 2004, and play home games at the Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus, playing in the Southern Division of the National Conference. The franchise is not to be confused with another Arena Football team called the Oklahoma Wranglers, who played the 2000 and 2001 seasons in Oklahoma City.
In 2004, the Wranglers accumulated an 8-8 record with former Arena Bowl champion John Kaleo leading the roster. However, the Wranglers were unable to qualify for the playoffs, after losing 3 games to close the season.
In the 2004 off-season, Wranglers recruiting was relatively quiet; signings included former All-Rookie teamer OL/DL Bryan Henderson, OS Ira Gooch, and QB John Fitzgerald. Departed was former starting quarterback John Kaleo, traded to the Los Avengers for cash and future considerations. The trade was highly controversial amongst the Wrangler's fanbase, considering Kaleo accumulated solid numbers for the expansion Wranglers. It is highly believed the move was in regards to Kaleo's locker room behaivor rather than on the field play. The training camp which ensued was headlined by the competition between free agent pick up John Fitzgerald, fresh off leading the expansion VooDoo to the playoffs, against 2004 back-up Bobby Pesavento. Pesavento would ultimately defeat Fitzgerald for the starting job, but Fitzgerald took over four games into the season when Pesavento was injured against the Tampa Bay Storm.
Throughout the season John Fitzgerald was one of a few bright spots on a depleted team. The Wranglers went down to a 6-10 record in 2005. Though many close games were played, 2 of which included a pair of 3 point losses to National Conference Champion, the Georgia Force.
Realizing the past failures in 2004 and 2005, the Wranglers management went out and had an explosive off-season. Team presidents Doug MacGregor and Glyn Milburn both made desicive re-signings and signings, in which included Sedrick Robinson, AFL all time leading tackler Damon Mason, Donvetis Franklin, Donovan Arp, Derrick Lewis, Chance Mock, and Marcus McKenzie.
On Wednesday, April 26, 2006, Deion Sanders, the multi-talented athlete who retired from playing in the NFL, became one of the franchise's owners[1].
On May 7th, 2006, the Wranglers clinched their first ever playoff birth with a win over the Grand Rapids Rampage. Unfortunately the Wranglers were eliminated from the playoffs after losing to the Philadelphia Soul in the first round of the wild card playoffs.
Shortly after the end of the Wrangler's season, team owner Doug MacGregor announced the firing of Skip Foster, after leading the Wranglers to a franchise best 10-6 season. This shocking move led to many to speculate what the Wrangler's intentions were for the future.
After a month full of searching for the future head coach of the Wranglers, Austin announced on June 29th, 2006, former offensive coordinator of the Colorado Crush, Brian Partlow, would lead the Wranglers in 2007. During his three seasons as offensive coordinator with the Crush, Partlow established a respected offense in the AFL, in which managed to win one Arena Bowl. Along with this success, Partlow coached offensive specialist Damian Harrell to two consecutive offensive player of the year seasons, while establishing John Dutton, cover boy of EA Sport's Arena Football, as one of the most feared quarterbacks in the league.
On September 15th, 2006, the Arena Football League sent shockwaves through its fanbase announcing the implentation of free-substitution, substantially eliminating any remains of the AFL's highly reguarded reputation of Ironman football. Previously teams were restricted one substitution per quarter, forcing wide receivers, defensive backs, offensive and defensive linemen to play both sides of the ball. It was highly believed teams would take advantage of this change, in increasing signings of former NFL and NFL Europe players rather than searching for existing talent already in the AFL. A month later in October, the Wranglers quickly proved this theory.
After a relatively quiet opening to the the free agency period with the signing of former Georgia Force defensive specialist Nate Coogins, the Wranglers took advantage of the AFL's free-substitution rule, signing of a rather large batch of rookies lacking expirence in the arena game including former Texas Longhorn Mike Williams. In addition, the Wranglers accomplished to make one of the largest splashes of the off-season in the signing of 2004 rookie of the year and former Florida Seminole, quarterback Adrian McPherson.
Following training camp 2007, the Wranglers roster was set as seven rookies made the cut (nearly a fourth of the team), while Adrian McPherson, Nate Coogins, Anthony Hines, and Chad Dukes were the lone AFL veteran free agent pick ups making the squad. The rest of the roster remained the core nuclues of the Wrangler's playoff run in 2006, including starting defensive specialist Damon Mason and stand out wide receiver Derrick Lewis.
[edit] Team Roster
| Uniform # | Player | Position | Height | Weight (lb) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adrian McPherson | QB | 6'3" | 218 |
| 2 | Damon Mason | DS | 5'9" | 185 |
| 3 | Mark Lewis | K | 5'11" | 200 |
| 7 | Deveron Harper | DB | 5'11" | 200 |
| 9 | Anthony Hines | WR | 5'11" | 185 |
| 11 | Toure Carter | WR/DB | 5'10" | 183 |
| 12 | Lang Campbell | QB | 6'1" | 210 |
| 18 | Otis Amey | WR | 5'10" | 192 |
| 24 | Nate Coggins | DS | 6'1" | 215 |
| 28 | Kevin Nickerson | WR/DB | 5'8" | 185 |
| 32 | Chad Dukes | FB/LB | 6'1" | 255 |
| 37 | Greg Brown | LB | 6'1" | 205 |
| 40 | Dane Krager | FB/LB/DL | 6'3" | 240 |
| 41 | Akarika Dawn | FB | 6'0" | 240 |
| 56 | Donny Klein | OL | 6'1" | 296 |
| 57 | Eric Thomas | OL | 6'3" | 300 |
| 73 | Donovan Arp | OL/DL | 6'3" | 285 |
| 75 | Craig Heimburger | OL/DL | 6'3" | 325 |
| 87 | Derrick Lewis | WR | 6'2" | 185 |
| 91 | Ramon Richardson | OL/DL | 6'2" | 295 |
| 95 | Mike Williams | DL | 6'3" | 245 |
| 98 | Rob Schroeder | OL/DL | 6'4" | 285 |
[edit] Season-by-season
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties
| Season | W | L | T | Finish | Playoff Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 4th NC Southern | -- |
| 2005 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 5th NC Southern | -- |
| 2006 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 2nd NC Southern | Lost Week 1 (Philadelphia) |
| *2007 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4th NC Southern | -- |
| Totals | 26 | 29 | 0 | (including playoffs) | |
* = Current Standing
[edit] Head coaches
- 2004-2006: Skip Foster, 24-25
- 2007: Brian Partlow, 2-4
[edit] Trivia
The original mascot for the Austin Wranglers was named Blaze, who was a horse, and in 2005 he was joined by a cowboy - Red Eye (whose eyes glowed red). Due to the expansion team in Utah, the Blaze, the Austin Wranglers changed the name of their mascot to avoid confusion, so the new mascot is now wilder than before and goes by the name Trigger.
[edit] External links
- Austin Wranglers Official Website
- Arena Football League's (AFL's) Official Website
- Austin Wranglers at ArenaFan.com
- ESPN's AFL Home Page
- Capital City Sports Report (covers the Austin Wranglers)
