Colorado Crush coach Mike Dailey isn’t forgetting Danny White.
Dailey made that clear last week, saying White was considered the elite coach in the Arena Football League when he guided the Arizona Rattlers to five ArenaBowl games, winning two.
White and his Utah Blaze move front and center into the picture for the Crush tonight in Salt Lake City in a game with playoff implications for both teams.
For the Crush (8-5), a victory would clinch a playoff berth and move the team a half-game behind Chicago in the Central Division.
The Blaze (6-7) is trying to hang on to the sixth and final playoff spot in the American Conference.
After falling out of the AFL spotlight when he left the Rattlers three years ago, White is inching his way back with the Blaze, an expansion team last year.
“Being in the spotlight isn’t what drives me,” said White, whose NFL career lasted from 1976-88 as quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, after a stellar college career at Arizona State. “Winning games and winning championships, that’s what drives me.”
In his two seasons in Utah, White has found there are a lot of Cowboys fans in Salt Lake City.
“I live 30 miles out of town, but I’m not exactly anonymous here,” White said. “People talk to me about the Cowboys all the time.”
White got the Blaze into the playoffs in its first season, so expectations have risen.
“Anything less than getting to the second round of the playoffs would be disappointing for us,” White said Sunday. “We started the season 5-1, then lost five in a row, and I think we’re coming out of that slump right now. We’re getting some players healthy at the right time to put a little run together in the playoffs.
“We’ve got a little further to go than Colorado, but this is a big game for both teams.”
The matchup should be a show between two of the league’s best offenses.
Crush quarterback John Dutton, for example, has thrown for 72 touchdowns and ranks fourth in pass completions with 319.
Quarterback Joe Germaine and receiver Siaha Burley have Utah on the move. Burley needs 163 receiving yards to become the first player in AFL history to reach 2,000 yards in a season. The Blaze offense ranks first in the league in yards per game at 336.9 and in first downs at 22.5 per game heading into the final four weeks of the season.
Burley and Colorado’s Damian Harrell have posted two of the top three seasons in receiving yardage in the AFL record book. Burley had 1,934 yards and Harrell 1,920 last season.
Arizona receiver Calvin Schexnayder ranks first with 1,982 yards in 1998.
COLORADO CRUSH (8-5) AT UTAH BLAZE (6-7)
What: Arena Football League
When: Tonight, 8:30 p.m.
Where: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City
Game notes: includes backstory, quick facts, stats and much more (PDF).
TV/radio: ESPN2/KKZN 760 AM
