Sioux City Journal, June 18, 2005, Jerry Giese (Jun. 18, 2005)
The Evansville Bluecats know how to run and how to stop the run.

Tonight's 7:05 United Indoor Football game at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena features the league's top two rushing offenses.

Sioux City (9-2), paced by league rushing leader Fred Jackson (917 yards), averages 113 yards per game. Evansville (5-5) rushes at a 109.5 clip, topped by the duo of Dale Jennings and Otis Shannon, who have rushed for 516 and 464 yards, respectively.


Evansville, which is 1.5 games behind the Lexington Horsemen (7-4) for first place in the UIF South, also relies on a rushing defense that's second (60.3 ypg). Linebacker Darrell Jack, a player who was formerly coached by Bandits' boss Jose Jefferson at Lincoln, is among the Bluecats' run stoppers.

Jack has 51 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss on a team which allows a paltry 2.7 yards per rush.

"That number (60.3) is deceiving and the reason I say that is because other than us, Omaha, Sioux Falls and Fort Wayne, not too many other teams they have played are prolific in the run," said Jefferson, whose team enters with a three-game winning streak.

"(Evansville) comes from a predominantly passing division. Lexington, which leads that division, doesn't run too much.

"They'll bring lots of pressure, which is going to be a true test for our offense against their defense. I feel our running game is strong enough to sustain it."

Jackson, a 6-1, 205-pounder from Coe College, averages 5.2 yards per carry and has topped that figure in each of his last three starts.

Jack will be among the Bluecats stopping Jackson. Evansville, which ranks second in UIF in total defense (181.8 ypg), also gets 13 tackles for loss from 6-4, 270-pound defensive lineman Richard Johnson.

"Jack's a hard-nosed ball player I tried to recruit to Sioux City," said Jefferson. "He's a downhill player who likes to blitz and provides good coverage. He has good lateral speed. Granted, everyone is fallible, but he doesn't make lots of mistakes."

Neither have Jennings or Shannon, who have scored 15 and 13 touchdowns, respectively, for a team that has dropped its last three games. The two have combined for 970 yards, a total that tops seven of the league's teams.

Both average 51.5 rushing yards per game.

"They're about as proficient as Fred is with the run," said Jefferson. "They're equally good which is the reason they're splitting time. They're smaller than Fred and they're very elusive, but they're not afraid of contact."

Quarterback Ramon Robinson, another player formerly coached by Jefferson at Lincoln, has passed for 1,386 yards and 21 touchdowns. However, he has completed only 51.4 percent of his passes and has been intercepted 13 times.

Robinson, a 6-2, 225-pounder, is also occasionally used on the run and has rushed for 100 yards.

Sioux City's defense is coming off its best performance of the season in last Friday's 43-20 win over the Peoria Rough Riders. Defensive end Jesse Wavrunek and cornerback Alex Ardley each recorded eight tackles for a squad which pitched a shutout in the second half.

Wavrunek, in fact, has three sacks and two interceptions in the winning streak.

The Bandits were particularly effective against the run, holding Peoria (3-8) to 68 yards and an average of 3.2 yards per carry.

"(Assistant coaches) Roger Jansen and Tom Luxford went back to basics with the defense, working on hitting, tackling, coverage schemes," said Jefferson. "It showed last week against Peoria. The defense shut them down and put the offense in good position."

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