Fratmen suffering ‘identity crisis’

The Windsor AKO Fratmen went in to a mid-season tilt Saturday afternoon with the London Beefeaters with the swagger of the biggest bully on the playground.

After sixty minutes of football, they had their lunch money stolen, their noses bloodied and their ego bruised.

“It wasn’t the result we were looking for, but it’s a product of what we’ve been,” Mike LaChance said. “I don’t want to say I saw it coming, but I saw it coming.”

LaChance said his team had been walking around with a false sense of bravado inspired by three lopsided wins over weaker opponents. They had been averaging well over 30 point and had given up an average of six points per game. After a humbling 37-11 loss at TD Waterhouse Stadium in London, the Fratmen are going back to the drawing board.

“We definitely have an identity crisis on offense,” LaChance said.

LaChance said while he was inclined to believe in the talent on his team, he needs to decide if the young men on his roster are good enough to meet the expectation he has set for this season. After a perfect 8-0 regular season and a trip to the Ontario Football Conference finals last year, it’s championship or bust for the Fratmen. LaChance said his team has championship-calibre personnel.

Murphy’s Law in effect

The Fratmen would have needed their best game of the season to pull out a win against a tough London opponent. Instead, everything that could have gone wrong did.

“Absolutely, that’s a good way to put it,” LaChance said. “If we could make a mistake and it was going to bounce against us, it happened, if the ball could bounce a goofy way on the field it happened, and if a call was going to go a certain way it happened. There’s those games at every level, every team faces them at some point. Hopefully we got all of the (bad breaks) out at one time, because we sure looked bad.”

Hurst a slump-buster

Wide receiver Derrick Hurst said his team has coasted through the first three contests, games they were expected to win. He called their week four loss the Beefeaters “an eye-opener.”

“I’m glad something finally let us know that there are other teams in the league that can play,” Hurst said.

Though the offense has sputtered through the first month of the season, Hurst said he is looking at the bigger picture.

“It’s just a slump,” Hurst said. “Every great team has them. It’s just a matter of us reaching down and pulling it out of ourselves. We have the best offense in the league, we just have to prove it.”

It was an odd experience for LaChance to hear Hurst talk about slumping, because he said in his opinion the talented wide receiver has never experienced one.

“Derrick’s a confident guy,” LaChance said. “He walks with a swagger. If I had 12 guys who were as confident as him, we’d never go through a slump. He doesn’t go through slumps. I’ve coached him for three years and he’s never had a slump. I don’t think he’s ever had a bad game. His bad game is somebody else’s highlight reel.”

LaChance standing behind Hackney

A week after calling out his quarterback for inefficiency and briefly benching him during a 25-11 home win over the Ottawa Sooners, LaChance was trying a different tack.

He said there were no guarantees on his roster and no player should feel secure in their position on the team. However, he added one caveat.

“Christian Hackney is our starting quarterback,” LaChance said.

Part of his reasoning for standing behind Hackney despite his early struggles is the lack of an experienced signal-caller behind him.

“We don’t have a four-year backup,” LaChance said. “(Backup quarterback) Aaron (Atwell) is a real young guy.”

With a win out of reach on Saturday and the Beefeaters “pinning their ears back” to take runs at Hackney, LaChance rescued his quarterback from more physical punishment and inserted slotback receiver James Drew in his place.

Drew, much smaller and fleet of foot than Hackney, might get a few more looks under center before the season is over.

“He might be in a wildcat type of look,” LaChance said. “We’d been planning on it all year, but he’d been banged up. He’s getting a little healthier now, so it’s something we could do.”

LaChance said Drew could give Hackney a breather and provide a change of pace for the AKO offense if the right situation arises.

Whether it’s Hackney or Drew calling the shots on Saturday in Hamilton, the Fratmen need more production out of their quarterback.