Southwest Kansas Storm Playbook: No Pressure

The Southwest Kansas Storm have already punched their ticket to the postseason, and are in the driver's seat for the second and final home game for the first round. They’ll host the Salina Liberty Saturday, June 7th, live on EvergreenNOW in select regions. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. ET. You can also catch the game again on Sunday on VICETV at 3:00 p.m. ET. 

Playing Spoiler 

The Storm had a very front-loaded schedule playing in Week 0, for four straight weeks, and then in seven of the first eight weeks of the AF1 season. That’s rewarded them with late bye weeks, including last week. It was a great chance for the team to rest up and heal up as they get prepared for these final two weeks of the regular season and into the playoffs. 

I asked Coach Thomas how he felt about things with two games left in the regular season. He chuckled and said, “Well, I feel pretty good. I don’t know about everyone else, but we’re already in.” “It’s two things, we’re trying to hang on to the number two seed.” “The beauty of it is, we don’t need any help, we control that.” “You are always looking for that dangling carrot, something to chase. We get the opportunity to protect our home playoff game, and also play the spoiler role. That’s a cool opportunity.” “We’re just going to go out there and do what we’ve been doing, stay in our routine, control the things we can control.” “Effort, attitude, alignment, assignment, execution, all that kind of stuff, just be the best version of ourselves.” 

Liberty Round One 

Turning the attention to Salina, even though the teams played in Week 5, Salina’s personnel has changed quite a bit, including at quarterback. How will the Storm approach preparing for them in Week 13? “They are drastically different to an extent. They are still running the same stuff.” “Coach O’Neal didn’t get to where he’s gotten to by reinventing the wheel.” “It’s the same offense and same defense, just expanded a little bit.” “They’ve got some things figured ou,t especially on offense, most importantly, they’ve gotten a quarterback who knows where to go with the football.” 

Coach Thomas also pointed out the missteps his team had in their first meeting. “We were behind the sticks the entire game.” “Just sloppy football on our side.” “We were in the red zone like five times and scored like two.” “We played outstanding on defense.” “But for us, we’ve come as long way as well, we just haven’t drastically changed our personnel."