Familiar Faces

This week we've got the formidable task of taking on a traditional power in the Swarco Raiders Tirol. I coached with the Raiders (Innsbruck) back in '05 and the organization really has a grasp on how to win in Europe. They've developed a strong youth program, advertise and promote themselves well with the local community, have secured a year-round coaching staff with imports who stay multiple years. On top of that, the coaching staff that they have is a very good one. Geoff Buffum, the HeadCoach & offensive coordinator, knows the game as well as anyone I've ever coached with.

It should be an emotional game all around, for me at least; I developed a strong connection with their players while coaching the DLine in '05. Many of those guys have retired, but some, like #8 Viktor Skradski, #50 Mario Rinner, and many others, it will be truly a pleasure to coach against them.

As far as X's & O's, they are a very strong team all-around on offense. #13 QB Marko Glavic isn't as good as he's hyped up to be, but he's a very solid quarterback with a strong arm, decent feet, and a good head on his shoulders. The players I'll need to contain include Innsbruck native running back #4 Florian Grein, Flo is a solid running back who, once in the second level, can slice and dice a defense to open space. The others who concern me are #1 Jakob Dieplinger, who is their equivalent to our Christian Steffani, an explosive WR who can stretch defenses. They've got a good set of imports, #34 James Ellingston plays some fullback and is a handful, along with #9 Ryan Voss who is a tall, but not very physical, receiver.

I am concerned most about the effectiveness of their playcalling, Coach Buffum is very good at luring a backside cover guy to sleep or enticing an end to pinch down then jumping all over it the next play.

Should be a fun experience, to play in front of a few thousand people, in Football's best European stadium (Tivoli Neu) against good friends.

--The picture above is from our game in Barcelona in '05 when I was coaching DL for the Raiders (from left to right, top to bottom): *Jakob Dieplinger, Chris Rosier, Daniel Dieplinger, Manuel Urban, **Mark Falger, *Viktor Skradski (on ground), Me, Luke Ware.
*Will play against us on Saturday
**My Current DL Coach in Hohenems