Fever not only Indoor Football League squad dealing with change

Just south of Ritzville on Highway 395, there stands a billboard with a picture of new Tri-Cities Fever coach Ryan Lingenfelder and the message “Welcome to Fever Country.”

Fever owner Teri Carr purchased the sign a few weeks ago to serve notice to the Spokane Empire and their coach, Adam Shackleford, that they’re entering hostile territory.

It’s just one new storyline for the 2016 Indoor Football League season, which begins Saturday with four contests around the country, including Spokane visiting Tri-Cities. That game kicks off at 7:05 p.m. at the Toyota Center.

The Empire are expecting to bring two rooter buses full of fans to the Tri-Cities for the game.

Shackleford spent six seasons (2010-15) as head coach of the Fever.

Lingenfelder was his defensive coordinator in the Tri-Cities until 2013, when he became the head coach for the now-defunct Wyoming Cavalry for two seasons. He was an assistant for the Arena Football League’s New Orleans VooDoo last season before Carr hired him to replace Shackleford.

There have been other changes for this season:

1. Number of teams.

The league was originally scheduled to have 12 teams in 2016, but then the IFL shut down the two Minnesota franchises — the Axemen in Bemidji and the Havok in Mankato. Because of that, the league schedule was revised twice.

2. More games.

The league raised the number of each team’s regular-season contests from 14 to 16 this season.

“When Iowa moved from the AFL last year to our league, the team went from nine home games to seven,” Carr said. “They asked us to consider an eighth home game for their sponsors. So we approved that.”

Carr said it could be a risk for some teams to add that eighth home game.

“But it also added another road game for us,” Carr said. “That’s tough.”

3. Different-looking rosters.

In what might be the biggest change this season, the IFL moved to limit team rosters to seven players with more than three seasons of indoor experience (not counting kickers).

Some have called it the Sioux Falls Rule.

The Storm have won five consecutive league titles with a large veteran presence on their roster.

But it just wasn’t the Storm that had a lot of veterans. Carr said IFL commissioner Mike Allshouse looked at last season’s rosters.

“Sioux Falls, Cedar Rapids and Nebraska, the majority of their rosters, they had 15 or more veterans,” Carr said. “We even had 11 veterans last season.”

Lingenfelder likes the rule.

“I believe the IFL is a developmental league,” he said. “I believe guys can come here and realize a few things. They can realize they’re not professional football players; that this may be their ceiling; or that they’re good enough to move on.

“If you’ve got a guy making $225 a week and he’s in his eighth season, you’ve got to start wondering what he’s doing.”

Also, the potential of a new outdoor league called Major League Football has some players not reporting. All 10 teams in the IFL have this problem. Yet the MLF website, which says the league will start this spring, has no cities listed or a schedule.

4. Playoffs.

The top three teams in each conference will make the postseason, with the conference champ earning a first-round bye.

Billings, Colorado, Nebraska, Spokane and Tri-Cities are in the Intense Conference.

The United Conference is Cedar Rapids, Green Bay, Iowa, Sioux Falls and Wichita Falls.

FEVER CAMP

Lingenfelder has his team working out at the Toyota Center through Thursday. Practice begins at 9 a.m. … Lingenfelder has made the majority of cuts in camp but won’t announce them until Thursday, 48 hours before the season opener. He did, however, named Hunter Wanket as the team’s starting quarterback for Saturday night. Wanket played in Trenton, N.J., in the Professional Indoor Football League, but he also saw action in 2014 for the Bemidji Axemen in the IFL. … Lingenfelder liked the intensity of Tuesday’s practice at the Toyota Center. “The key thing is it was our best professional practice,” he said. “It was a great practice.”

AROUND THE LEAGUE

BILLINGS: Chris Dixon returns as the head coach of this 2015 expansion franchise that just missed the playoffs. … The Wolves are loaded at the skill positions. Standout QB Dak Britt is back, as are RB Julian Laing, and DBs Michael Green and Norris Wrenn III. … Troy Evans, a star wide receiver, running back and kick returner, is now with the team. … The Wolves play the Fever three times this season: March 5 and May 14 at the Toyota Center, and June 18 in Billings, Mont.

CEDAR RAPIDS: The team’s strength should be at defensive line, as Xzavie Jackson and Jermiah Price return. … Dylan Favre, the nephew of Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre, is a quarterback on the Titans’ roster. … The Titans play a home-and-home series with the Fever: at the Toyota Center on March 11, and in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on May 7.

COLORADO: The Colorado Ice were renamed the Colorado Crush in the offseason. … Brandon Mitchell returns at quarterback. He’ll throw to standout receivers Kyle Kaiser and Rashard Smith. … Former Fever DB Quinton Richardson returns to play for coach Heron O’Neal. … The Crush and Fever meet twice: at the Toyota Center on April 1, and in Colorado on April 15.

GREEN BAY: Chris Williams, who used to coach the Odessa and West Texas Roughnecks and the New Mexico Stars, is the new coach at Green Bay. … The Fever play the Blizzard twice: at the Toyota Center on May 28, and at home June 10. … The team’s biggest strength looks to be its receiving corps. Andre London, Bryan Pray, Markeith Summers and Marquel Willis are IFL veterans.

IOWA: The Barnstormers beat Cedar Rapids 59-50 on Feb. 12 in an exhibition game. … Donovan Porterie, who starred at Green Bay last season, is the Barnstormers’ quarterback. … Other IFL vets back include WRs Lemans Casimier, Brady Roland and Johnny Thomas, RB Robbie Rouse and LB Javicz Jones. … Iowa and Tri-Cities are not scheduled to play each other this season.

NEBRASKA: Coach Mike Davis has turned over a lot of the veterans from last season. But he still has one of the league’s best quarterbacks in Jameel Sewell. DB Harcourt Farquharson anchors the defense. … The Danger host the Fever on Feb. 27, then visit the Toyota Center on June 25.

SIOUX FALLS: Until someone can knock off the Storm, Sioux Falls should be considered the favorite to repeat as IFL champion. … Coach Kurtiss Riggs has his entire offensive line back in Rashaud Mungro, Charlie Sanders and Myniya Smith. Now throw in new acquisition Mike Trice, who played for the Fever in 2014, and the Storm’s line is deep. … Lorenzo Brown and Martevious Young are back at QB, as is WR-KR Mike Tatum. … One of the league’s top defensive players, LB Tyler Knight, anchors the defense. … For the first time in years, the Storm and Fever do not meet during the regular season.

SPOKANE: The Shock franchise left the AFL after last season and has a new nickname, the Empire. ... New head coach Shackleford went out and got some IFL veterans, including LB Nick Haag and DB Demetruce McNeal, both of whom played last season for Cedar Rapids; and wideouts Jefferson Hayes, Justin Helwege and Carl Sims. … Charles Dowdell looks to be the starting quarterback. … Two players from last season’s Fever roster are listed: RB Andrew Pierce and DB Lorenzo White Jr. But Pierce has yet to report, so the Empire signed Washaun Ealey, who played last season with Cedar Rapids. … The Empire and Fever meet four times: at the Toyota Center on Saturday, again in Kennewick on April 23, then in Spokane on April 29 and May 20.

WICHITA FALLS: Billy Back is the new coach for the Nighthawks. He signed Charles McCullum to play quarterback. Longtime Fever fans might remember McCullum as the QB for the Kent Raptors and other Seattle-area teams that gave the Tri-Cities fits a few years back. … Terrance Lloyd and Jonathan Mathis anchor the defensive unit on the line. … The Nighthawks host the Fever on April 9.

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Fever not only Indoor Football League squad dealing with change."