Salina Liberty Playbook: Week 2

The Salina Liberty played their first Arena Football One game last week against the Corpus Christi Tritons. They are on a bye this week, but let’s check in with the team and see how they are preparing to play this same Tritons team again in Week 3.

A Tough Loss 

The Liberty fell to the Tritons in their Week 1 matchup by a score of 40-12. The Liberty struggled to convert on both third and fourth down and their execution wasn’t what it should be. Head Coach Heron O’Neal said, “There are some things we’ve got to make adjustments with.” “There are some scheme things, to see what we need to be.” 

Coach O’Neal has faith that one bad game doesn’t determine how their season will go and fully believes this is a talented team. “Matching our talent with our scheme is what we are trying to figure out.” “Offensively, defensively, as well as on special teams,” he remarked. His one big takeaway from Week 1 was that the team battled all the way to the end even though it was a lopsided affair. “My team never quit, they kept fighting, and that perseverance is going to carry us into the rest of our season.” 

Moving on

The Liberty are spending a lot of time this week and focusing on the mistakes. Coach O’Neal is less worried about what the Corpus Christi Tritons did right and more worried about what the Liberty were doing wrong. “There were a myriad of mistakes and we didn’t execute as well as we needed to.” Coach said some of the errors were forced by great play from the Tritons and some were unforced, but it doesn’t matter they need to make sure neither mistakes happen going forward. “We need to put them in position to make sure next time they’ll be ready to go.” 

The Liberty are on a bye here in Week 2, but head back to Corpus Christi in Week 3 where they’ll face the Tritons once again. When I asked Coach O’Neal how he was planning to prepare for facing the team that just beat them, he said he wasn’t worried about the schedule and its next team-up. “We’ll be ready to go against them and hopefully get a win this time.”