Thursday, May. 01, 2008

Fever anxious for new QB to arrive

By Ben Reynolds, Herald staff writer

Phil Goodman was in for a sleepless night Wednesday. The Tri-Cities Fever wide receiver, along with his teammates, was planning to sit up waiting with anticipation for their new quarterback to arrive.

Arenafootball2 league veteran Josh Kellett was expected in town late Wednesday night and is will make his debut for the Fever (0-4) on Saturday night at Toyota Center against Central Valley (2-2).

"This is the guy we need," said Goodman, who is second on the Fever in receptions with 23 catches for a team-high 300 yards.

The Fever needs Kellett for a lot of reasons. The Fever needs him to stabilize a team that is winless and been blown out by 40-plus points the last two weeks. The Fever also needs Kellett because it doesn't have a quarterback. Tri-Cities has lost Jason Campbell and John Pierce, who have played in the Fever's first four games. Campbell left the team earlier this week, while Pierce has an injured vertebrae and is expected to miss at least four to six weeks.

Kellett, who is expected to be assigned to the Fever today, has played five seasons in the af2 and led Rio Grande Valley to a 15-1 regular season record last season.

The 28-year-old, who played for Samford University, ranked fourth in the league last season with 86 touchdown passes and sixth in passing yards (3,982), averaging 249 yards per game.

"We were looking for a general to control us," said Fever coach Cedric Walker "and he's is a proven player in this league."

Kellett played three seasons for the Dorados, and at home in Texas when he got the call from Walker. Walker, who has a career coaching record of 6-14, said he talked over 10 quarterbacks before tracking down Kellett, who was working for a retail store.

"We're happy to find a guy like that," Walker said.

Notes

Wide receiver/defensive back LaRue Burley was traded to Boise on Wednesday for future considerations.

Linebacker Michael Hodges, who injured his MCL, is expected to go on the injured reserved list, while defensive end Tali Ena (back) has been activated.

The Fever committed a season-high 15 penalties for 142 yards in Saturday's 76-32 loss to Peoria and is ranked 28th in the league in penalties, averaging more than 81.8 yards per game. That is five more yards per game than last season when Tri-Cities was the most penalized team in the league (186 for 1,228 yards).

The Fever committed five more turnovers Saturday and rank last in the league in turnover margin per game (2.25). For the season, the team is minus-9, second worst in the league.

J.R. Thomas moved into ninth on the af2's all-time scoring list with his two touchdowns Saturday night. Thomas, in his fifth season, has scored 756 points. Robert Garth, a former Fever star and Peoria wide receiver, had two touchdowns against the Fever and surpassed the 700-point mark in his af2 career, ranking him 11th all-time.

The Fever face Central Valley on Saturday at Toyota Center, trying to end an eight-game losing streak dating back to last season. More than 3,500 tickets have been sold for the game as of Wednesday.

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