Coach Mike Dailey has a way of evaluating the value of the ArenaBowl trophy his Colorado Crush team won last year when analyzing the chances of winning another Arena Football League title.
It’s something like this: The trophy and enough money will get the Crush a cup of coffee.
“We’re very proud of the accomplishment, but it’s behind us,” Dailey said. “You really have to have that mentality. … It’s a new ballgame.”
The Crush begins a new season at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Chicago Rush at the Pepsi Center. And the Crush will do so with the burden of being the league’s defending champion.
Dailey knows the difficulties ahead. He coached the Albany Firebirds to the ArenaBowl title in 1999, but his team was eliminated the next year in the first round of the playoffs.
Dailey contends the arena league is much tougher now.
“We have a lot of parity in our league,” he said. “I expect another season where going in, you could put all of the team names in a hat and have a good chance of pulling out the winner. Everybody has a chance.”
Dailey will put a familiar team on the field against the Rush with a roster of most of the key players from a year ago. Quarterback John Dutton returns for his fourth season in Denver, along with offensive specialist Damian Harrell. Kicker Clay Rush, whose last-second field goal beat Georgia 51-48 in ArenaBowl XIX, also is back.
Team captain Willis Marshall, one of the Crush’s top two-way players, looks at last year’s title as just a start.
“Everybody realizes Colorado is the team to beat,” Marshall said. “I really think that this year we should be a dominant No. 1 team. If we can get the home-field advantage for the playoffs, our chances of repeating are 90 percent or better.”
But Marshall delivers a message of caution to teammates.
“You don’t let anybody else make their name off of you,” he said. “We can’t expect to go out and just match the other team’s intensity. We have to exceed their intensity. We can use the championship as a plus by remembering that champions don’t feel pressure. They make the other team feel pressure.”
Willis doesn’t mind that winning the title meant having less time off before playing again.
“The shorter offseason might be considered a drawback by some, but I prefer that to not being in the hunt,” Marshall said.
Chicago has been a nemesis for the Crush over the past three years, but quarterback Raymond Philyaw did not return.
Dailey doesn’t expect much of a drop-off in Chicago’s play.
“We all find out that one player doesn’t make a team,” Dailey said. “John Dutton went through a 2-14 season his first year here. He won the championship last year. The difference was the pieces around him. A change in quarterbacks doesn’t change very much for Chicago. It’s still a very good franchise.”
This year’s Crush schedule includes two new opponents. The expansion Utah Blaze comes to the Pepsi Center on April 21. The Crush travels April 16 to take on the Kansas City Brigade, a franchise that relocated from New Orleans.
Footnotes
Dailey is likely to open the season with Dutton as the only quarterback on the active roster.
“We’re still looking for a backup quarterback,” the coach said. “We’re prepared to play without one. I’d prefer to have a backup who I think is qualified enough to help us if he went into a game. I don’t want the comfort of having just someone there.” …
Jose Davis, last year’s backup for the Crush, is scheduled to be the starter for the Grand Rapids Rampage.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
