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 | |
| 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 contoversial 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, Partow 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 substition 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 quite 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 with the signing of six AFL rookies including most notably former Texas Longhorn defensive end Mike Williams, former Virginia Tech offensive tackle Brian Dunn, former Central Arkansas guard Jason Russell, former defensive lineman Durrand Roundtree out of Maryland, and two offensive starters from Lousiana Tech and Rowan University in quarterback Matt Kubik and wide receiver Tariq Wright.
It remains to be seen what impact the signings will have on former starters and ironmen Aaron Humphery, Eric Thomas, Angel Rubio, Donnovan Arp, and Ramon Richardson.
The Wranglers official mascot is a horse named Trigger[2]. Formerly known as "Blaze," the name was changed when the Utah Blaze entered the league.
[edit] Notable players
- Donovan Arp - OL/DL
- Tom Briggs - OL/DL
- John Fitzgerald - QB
- Donvetis Franklin - DS
- David Hill - WR/LB
- John Kaleo - QB
- Dane Krager - FB/LB
- Marcus MacKenzie - C/DL
- Bobby Pesavento - QB
[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 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Totals | 24 | 25 | 0 | (including playoffs) | |
[edit] Head coaches
- 2004-2006: Skip Foster, 24-25
- 2007 Brian Partlow
[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 (who's 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
| Arena Football League | |||
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| American Conference | National Conference | ||
| Central Division Chicago Rush | Western Division Arizona Rattlers | Eastern Division Columbus Destroyers | Southern Division Austin Wranglers |
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