Liotta, Arsenal Starting To Look Like Team Nobody Wants To Face

DULUTH, Minn. -- Shawn Liotta spent Monday night doing the work of three coaches. The Michigan Arsenal head coach called an offense he believes is the best in Arena Football One. He managed a defense that delivered key second-half stops. And he oversaw an expansion franchise that walked into Amsoil Arena and left with a season-defining 41-34 victory over the Minnesota Monsters.

Most teams divide those responsibilities among multiple coordinators. Liotta has largely taken them on himself. The remarkable part isn't that he's doing it. The remarkable part is that it's working.

Michigan is still 4-6, which means nobody is throwing confetti around the Arsenal locker room yet. But anyone who has watched enough football knows the standings do not always tell the full story in late June. Michigan has beaten Albany and Minnesota in consecutive weeks, has won two straight games, and suddenly looks like the kind of team nobody wants to see when the AF1 playoffs begin.

Every year in arena football there is a team nobody wants to play in early August. In AF1, that team might be the Michigan Arsenal.

"If we get in the playoffs, whatever seed we are in the playoffs, teams are going to not want to play us," Liotta said. "We're going to be a difficult out for anybody in the playoffs."

That might have sounded like hopeful coach talk a month ago. It no longer sounds that way. Not after Michigan stunned Albany, then followed it by coming to Duluth and beating a Minnesota team that had already defeated the Arsenal twice this season. The Monsters are talented, physical and built for a playoff run, but Michigan was the sharper team when the game had to be won Monday night.

Liotta said the Arsenal were humbled by Minnesota earlier in the season. He did not hide from that. He also did not pretend this was just another game. Michigan had been beaten twice by the Monsters and had every reason to measure itself against a team sitting above it in the standings.

"I think we wanted it a little more than they did," Liotta said. "They had beaten us twice. They really humbled us the first time we played them early in the year at home and then we lost an overtime to them on a tough thing there where we fumbled going in to win it. And to come out here today and their place was just outstanding."

This is what happens when a young team starts to grow up.

Michigan opened the season with 17 rookies. That is not a roster problem. That is a calendar problem. Rookie-heavy teams need time. They need mistakes. They need ugly losses. They need road trips, blown assignments, missed chances and enough film-room discomfort to finally understand what professional football demands.

Liotta understood that before the season began.

"We were a young team with a lot of rookies," he said. "I said, we want to be playing our best football playoff time."

That is exactly what appears to be happening. Michigan is not perfect. The Arsenal still have defensive lapses. They still give opponents chances. They still have work to do just to secure their place in the postseason. But they have the one thing every dangerous late-season football team needs: belief backed by evidence.

Michigan's remaining schedule gives the Arsenal a path. They play Saturday at Washington, then close with two games against Oceanside, first on the road July 10 and then at home July 18. Washington is 5-4 and sitting directly in Michigan's playoff path. Minnesota is also 5-4. Beat Washington, and the Arsenal move from interesting story to legitimate problem.

That is why Monday mattered so much. This was not just a road win. It was a warning.

Liotta's offense has become one of the league's most difficult weekly assignments. Malik Henry gives Michigan the kind of quarterback presence that changes a game in a hurry, and the Arsenal have enough weapons to stress defenses across the full field. Liotta is not shy about what he believes his offense can be.

"Our offense is good," he said. "We can score with anybody. I personally think our offense is the best in the league. The defense is coming around. So if we get a couple stops, we're going to be dangerous."

That last line is the key.

Michigan is not built like a polished veteran operation. It is built like a team full of players who know exactly what it feels like to be doubted, released, overlooked or told to wait. Liotta has leaned into that identity rather than run from it.

"We got a lot of guys with chips on our shoulders," Liotta said. "We got a lot of underdog guys. We got a lot of guys on this team that have been cut by other teams in the league. We got other guys who've been out of football looking for an opportunity and they've got their opportunity here and I'm so proud of what they're doing with the opportunity."

That is the soul of AF1 right now.

The league has become the top level of arena and indoor football because it looks and feels like a true professional proving ground. The players are bigger, faster and more experienced than most casual fans realize. The coaching is serious. The quarterback play is strong. The weekly stakes are real. These are not weekend hobby games. These are professional football games being played by men still chasing something.

Minnesota receiver Carlos Thompson Jr. knows the difference. He has played in the IFL and has enough experience to compare the leagues honestly. Even after a difficult loss, he spoke highly of AF1 and of the Monsters organization.

"The AF1, I love it," Thompson said. "It's an amazing league. It's a little different than what I've grown in Arena because I was an IFL guy, but I'm making adjustments and I'm loving it."

AF1 has reached the point where the games feel meaningful, the talent is obvious, and the playoff race has enough tension to pull people back every week. Nashville and Albany sit at the top of the standings. Kentucky has established itself as a contender. Minnesota remains firmly in the playoff picture. Washington is still in the fight. Michigan is charging hard. Beaumont is not dead yet. Even the bottom of the league has enough offensive talent to make opponents work.

That is what a real league looks like. And in a real league, teams improve. Coaches matter. Late-season games carry weight. Expansion teams either fade or find themselves. Michigan is finding itself.

Liotta is the right coach for that kind of climb because he has lived in this football world long enough to know that indoor teams are not built on slogans. They are built on adjustments. They are built on quarterbacks who can handle chaos. They are built on defensive stops that come after three quarters of getting stretched. They are built on players who understand that another opportunity is not guaranteed.

"AF1's the league of opportunity," Liotta said. "I'm proud of what these guys are doing with the opportunity they were given."

That may be the best description of the Arsenal.

They are an opportunity team, coached by an opportunity coach, playing in a league that has become the best opportunity left in arena and indoor football. Monday night in Duluth, that opportunity turned into a 41-34 road victory over Minnesota.

Next comes Washington. Then two games with Oceanside. Then, perhaps, the playoffs. And if Michigan gets there, Liotta may be right. Nobody wants to play the Arsenal.