Utah Blaze coach Danny White — moments after his team had clinched an AFL playoff berth with a dramatic one-point win over Kansas City in the Delta Center on Friday night — said that he had no preference as to which opponent his team would play in the first round of the postseason. Depending on the results of Saturday's games, the Blaze could have faced Chicago, Nashville or Arizona.
But when it was all sorted out, the Blaze drew perhaps the most intriguing matchup.
White — and nearly half of the Blaze players — are heading "home."
The first-year Blaze will face the Arizona Rattlers, the team White successfully coached for 13 seasons, Saturday afternoon in Phoenix. Numerous Blaze players — including mainstays like offensive specialist Siaha Burley, quarterback Joe Germaine, WR/DB Orshawante Bryant, WR/DB Tom Pace and defensive specialist Kelvin Hunter — are former Rattlers.
Game time is set for 3 p.m. (MDT). It will be broadcast nationally on OLN.
Arizona finished the season with an 8-8 record — one game better than the Blaze — to earn the No. 3 seed in the AFL's American Conference. The Blaze are the No. 6 seed. Arizona won both head-to-head games this season, but that was before Utah won four of five games to finish the season.
White led the Rattlers to two AFL titles and five ArenaBowl appearances, but he said Friday that leading the Blaze to the playoffs in their first year ranks right up there in his career as a coach.
"This is one of the most gratifying years I have ever had already — and we are not done yet," said White, who also serves as Utah's general manager. "When I think about the last 12 months and everything that has gone into what you saw (Friday), I am pretty proud of what we have done — not just the coaches, but the players, the front office, everybody involved."
Veteran quarterback Andy Kelly started over Germaine in the regular season finale — in part, White said, because he knew the opponent so well, having started the season with the Kansas City Brigade. Kelly hit Pace with 5.7 left in the game to give the Blaze the one-point victory.
"We made enough plays down the stretch," said Kelly. "We are in the playoffs and that is the main thing."
Germaine, after missing eight weeks due to injury, is fully healthy and should be ready to go, if called upon, against his former employers in Arizona. While Kelly has started the past five games during the Blaze's 4-1 run, Germaine is still being called "the future" of the franchise at quarterback by White. The Blaze showed they mean it, too, as Germaine was signed to a two-year contract extension prior to Friday's game.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com