Nashville Kats Playbook: On The Road Again

The 2025 Arena Football One season is moving at warp speed. The Nashville Kats find themselves at a .500 record heading into Week 7 action. Two wins and two losses have the Kats within striking distance with the upper echelon of AF1 teams league wide. We sat down with Nashville’s General Manager / Head Coach Darren Arbet to discuss the Week 6 win, how practice has gone in Week 7, and the huge rematch this weekend with the Southwest Kansas Storm. Want to watch all the action AF1 has to offer? Be sure to head to EvergreenNOW! and ViceTV to get started!

week 6 win against washington

It was a total team effort in the Week 6 victory over the Washington Wolfpack. On offense, Quarterback Tyler Kulka accounted for six total touchdowns, including tossing five through the air in the win. Coach Arbet spoke on Kulka’s growth since signing with Nashville just a few weeks ago. “He’s a student of the game. Very coachable. He and Coach Payton are on the same page. He understands the offense.” Next, Arbet shifted to one of his electric receivers, Antwane Grant. Grant, who scored three touchdowns this past week, has come on strong for Nashville since his arrival. Arbet said “He is special. Rookie of the year back in 2019, I believe. [He] Spent some time in NFL camps. [He is a] professional [and he] comes to work every day. In our meetings, he’s on top of everything that the opponent's defenses are doing. I really like him. He’s very special to our team. He really puts it all on the line.”

Nashville fans have come to expect their defensive line to be discussed every week. The Kats’ defense starts in the trenches. Defensive Linemen Roderick Perry II, Justin Alexandre, and Ezrah Thibodeaux kick-start everything for Nashville on that side of the ball. Coach Arbet chuckled when asked about how they looked in the win and how they have looked so far this season. “They played great. They played hard. They took it amongst themselves to challenge each other. They played smart. They played great in my mind.” With the defensive line setting the tone, Nashville’s defensive backs played an excellent game as well. Shaun Lewis, Byron Edwards II, and Amos Coleman III were anchors in the Kats’ third level this past Thursday night. In total, Nashville piled up four interceptions and nine passes defensed against Washington. Arbet spoke on his DB’s following the win, saying “Every week they’re with Coach [Terrence] Foster. [They had] four interceptions and nine passes defended. The thing about it is, they hang out together. They all like each other. We played [DJ] Maxwell in the box, and he played a little bit back there. But, we have four good ones.”

rematch versus southwest kansas

The Kats will engage in a rematch with the 4-2 Southwest Kansas Storm on Saturday in Dodge City. These two teams faced off in a Week 0 contest which saw the Storm take the victory 40-22 over a much different Nashville team. With ample time to prepare, the Kats are ready to strike this time around. Coach Arbet spoke on that Week 0 matchup and how the team has been preparing now. “They beat us, you know? [It will be] a great opportunity for us. They showed up, we showed up, and they beat us. We have an opportunity. They are a good football team. We have a great, tough opponent. We have to play hard to be able to have an opportunity to beat them.” The conversation would end with Arbet giving praise to Storm Quarterback Jalen Morton. Coach said this about one of the MVP frontrunners early on this season. “He had a lot of good runs against us. [He is] one of the better QBs in the league. [He] can throw and he can run. We definitely have our hands full. We will try to contain him. I don’t think you can stop a guy like that. We hope to contain him as best we can.” 

Catch all the action this Saturday as the Nashville Kats head to Dodge City to take on the Southwest Kansas Storm. Full coverage of the game begins at 7:00 PM EST streaming exclusively on EvergreenNOW!