Blizzard honors Frazier in victory

Originally published on ArenaFan.com

The Green Bay Blizzard honored former Quad City Steamwheeler’s coach Rick Frazier, who passed away last November at the age of 53, before Friday night’s game at the Resch Center.

One of his former players did the same by his play on the field in the Blizzard’s 52-35 win over the ‘Wheelers.

Wide receiver Coco Blalock, 32, played his rookie season in the Arena Football League in 2000 under Frazier with the Milwaukee Mustangs.

After a seven year AFL career Blalock was told he couldn’t play anymore because of a back injury in 2006 when he was with the Las Vegas Gladiators.

But the injury got better, and he was able to continue playing, but no AFL team wanted him. He did get to play, however, in 2007 with arenafootball2’s Rio Grande Valley Dorados.

He started this season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, but things didn’t work out there, so as faith would have it, he found himself in Green Bay on a night his former coach was honored.

After only a few practices with the Blizzard, Blalock would get the start because of injuries to the team’s top two receivers, Steve Gonzalez (sprained ankle) and Scott Burnoski (deep thigh bruise).

Blalock didn’t disappoint, as he had 13 catches for 124 yards and one touchdown, and ignited the Blizzard offense.

“I go to practice every day and go a 100 miles an hour because you never know when it’s going to be your last down,” Blalock said. “I want to leave on my own terms, but I left it in God’s hands.

I just said I’ll do what he wants me to do, if he wants me to be done, I’ll be done...he blessed me and gave it back to me, I’m just so happy to be out there with those young guys, because they’re hungry.”

One of those young guys that Blalock is referring to is wide receiver Anthony Crissinger-Hill, who also saw more action because of the injuries to Gonzalez and Burnoski.

Crissinger-Hill had four catches for 72 yards and two acrobatic touchdown catches over ‘Wheeler defenders.

“He was Randy Moss out there,” Blalock said. “I was happy for that man. I didn’t know him, but he became my friend real quick.”

Both Blalock and Crissinger-Hill are Wisconsin natives, but neither knew that about the other till after the game in the post-game press conference. Crissinger-Hill also nearly played his last down three years ago.

After a successful collegiate career at Florida Atlantic, Crissinger-Hill got a few looks from NFL scouts, but didn’t get any offers and stopped playing football for three years.

His best friend owns a pizza parlor in Madison, and it’s also where Blizzard head coach Bob Landsee goes every Friday during the off-season, and how Crissinger-Hill got another shot at playing.

“You never know when it’s going to be your last play,” Crissinger-Hill said. “A lot of people say that, but when you really go through it, not playing for a little while, you can’t take this game for granted.”

While Crissinger-Hill and Blalock stole the show in this game, the Blizzard defense, which coming into the week was ranked number one in the af2, again played outstanding.

Defensive end Joe Sykes had two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Most of that came against ‘Wheeler guard Albert Stinson, who was in an AFL training camp earlier this year.

Edward Kwaku, who moved to Jack linebacker last week when defensive back Donnie Amadi returned to the team, had two interceptions.

Quad City’s offense did make plays, however, and wide receiver Jesse Schmidt found himself beating Blizzard defenders for most of the night on deep post and corner routes.

He collected 10 catches for 156 yard and three touchdowns.

But four turnovers by the ‘Wheelers was just too much for the team to overcome.

Quarterback Ryan Porter got the start for Green Bay and saw his first significant game action since the second game of the season against the Tennessee Valley Vipers. He is the third quarterback that has started a game for the Blizzard this season.

At times he over threw his receivers, but did a good job of escaping pressure, which mostly came from ‘Wheeler defensive end Adam Vogel, and didn’t make the mistake of turning over the ball, and it allowed him to throw for 270 yards and five touchdowns.

Landsee said the quarterback situation is still an issue for the team, however, and will continued to be evaluated in practice. Shane Adler started the last three games, and the team also has Collin Drafts, who is on the refused to report list and could be brought in.

One problem that appeared to get solved in the game was the snaps and holds on extra points, which have been a problem all season for the Blizzard.

The only special team miscue came in the second quarter when there was confusion with the protection and Quad City defenders came free on a field goal attempt and holder Nate Green scrambled and threw an interception. That could have swung momentum greatly in Quad City’s favor, but the Blizzard overcame the mistake and took over in the third quarter to create a lead and get the win.

Overall Landsee said he was happy to get the win over a division-rival and start off 1-0 within the Midwest division, but isn’t happy with the team’s execution. 

Execution will probably be addressed in the Blizzard’s AFL-like practices this week.

“This af2 team goes at it just like an arena one team,” Blalock said. “A lot of af2 teams will watch a little bit of film and they’re done for the day. Here, they get on it. It’s like an arena one team.”

The Blizzard is in the af2, but have that strong connection from coach Frazier and the AFL.

Frazier was responsible for not only bringing Blalock to the arena game, but also three of the Blizzard’s coaches, which include Landsee, offensive coordinator Mark Stoute and defensive coordinator Doug Lytle.

All three were part of the Mustangs in 2000. Landsee and Stoute were assistants and Lytle was a defensive tackle. The Mustangs didn’t have a great season record wise, but the lessons taught by Frazier during that season are still helping the Blizzard today.

Frazier's coaching career, which spanned 30 years at the pro, college and high school levels, included four and half seasons as a head coach in the AFL (Milwaukee 1998-2001, Grand Rapids 2004) and three years at the af2 level (Norfolk 2003, Quad City 2005-06).