But Olan Coleman’s two kick returns for touchdowns and quarterback Bart Gloyd’s late TD run led to a 54-50 win and made the Intense Football League take notice of the Barracudas.
When the Barracudas take the field for their home opener at 7 tonight against the winless San Angelo Stampede-Express at Bell County Expo Center, they could be on cloud nine.
But first-year coach Chris Duliban says they won’t be.
“It’s gone. It’s over with,” Duliban said of last week’s win. “We just have to realize that that’s just one-fourteenth of our season. It’s a small smidgen of the season. We can’t get too high or too low because you are going to have your highs and lows and you just have to keep moving on and work hard.”
And that’s truer now that the rest of the league is taking note of the Barracudas.
Coleman was recognized as the IFL’s special teams player of the week after returning six kicks for 178 yards and the two scores, which tied a league record.
The performance was even impressive to Duliban.
“I thought I’d seen everything in training camp of Olan,” he said. “I didn’t see anything in training camp of Olan. When the lights come on he becomes a different player. He was just electric. What I was really impressed with was his toughness. He got slammed in the boards several times and just popped back up and went back to the huddle.”
Gloyd’s 195 passing yards led the league last week, but it was his performance on the final drive that stood out as he scored the game-winning touchdown with 5.6 seconds left from 3 yards out.
“We are real proud of Gloyd,” Duliban said. “He got hit early and often because Frisco had a really good rush. But he just kept bouncing up and basically put it on his shoulders at the end. On third-and-9 he was flushed out of the pocket and dove for the first down, then at the end he puts it in on basically a mirror of that third-down play.”
Now the focus turns to the Stampede-Express (0-3), which has lost its three games by an average of 38 points.
“We are treating them like a caged dog. They are hungry and are going to throw everything at us,” Duliban said. “They have a different offense than what we’ve seen. It’s a very unique, deep shotgun.”
The Stampede-Express still is struggling to find the right personnel on offense.
Hunter Sims likely will start at quarterback. He has completed 45 of 93 passes for 404 yards, with seven interceptions. He averages 4.3 yards rushing per game.
When Sims is not in, E.J. Nemeth has been getting the call. He has completed 10 of 32 passes for 141 yards.
The top receiver is Kareem Thompson, who has 15 catches for 128 yards and three touchdowns.
But the unique shotgun style allows a little more running opportunities than most teams, and Duliban said that will be a key.
“That’s going to be a factor for the defensive line,” he said. “We will have to chase them all night long. Their quarterback has had some success buying time and getting it to the open guy.”
Duliban added that San Angelo will be trying to do the same thing, so the key to the Barracudas’ offense will be patience.
“We have to take what they give us,” he said. “They don’t want to give up the big play, so if the short pass is there we have to take it.”
mhood@temple-telegram.com
