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Matt Sauk is back in Louisville this season, trying to leave his mark on the league records once again.

Well, sort of.

The former Fire quarterback is spending his summer as a volunteer coach for the team, showing new signal-caller Brett Dietz how to burn arenafootball2 secondaries the way he once did.

“My goal is to be a coach in arena football,” Sauk said. “I figure this will put something on my resume.”

He is, it would seem, well on his way. Dietz has picked up basically where his predecessor left off, a feat that would have seemed unreachable months ago.

The Florida Firecats, who play Louisville (9-5) this weekend at Germain Arena, got an up-close view of Sauk in last year’s American Conference championship game, with the Fire quarterback throwing 10 touchdown passes to spark a 70-40 upset.

It was the final chapter in a storybook season. Sauk earned the league’s Offensive Player of the Year honors, breaking league records for completions (408), passing yards (4,489) and touchdown passes (99).

Now it’s Dietz, an af2 rookie, who is having the fun. He has completed 327 of 459 passes for 3,777 yards, with 85 touchdowns and just nine interceptions.

“He’s definitely proven himself,” Sauk said.

Which is a credit to Sauk, too. The AFL quarterback still has plenty of time to build on his legacy as a player — he signed with the Grand Rapids Rampage recently, after spending the 2006 season as the backup for the Philadelphia Soul — but he figured this summer was the perfect time to get a head start on his coaching career.

Sauk, who lives in Louisville, showed up at his replacement’s side a couple of months ago. He has worked closely with the quarterbacks and receivers during practice and wears a headset on the Fire sideline during home games.

“A third eye is always good,” Sauk said. “Maybe I will see something they don’t.”

UNLIKELY RECEPTION: Comone Fisher had to stretch for this one, but he has his hands on a piece of history.

The Florida big man has hauled in Cutters Catch of the Week honors, making him the first lineman to receive the award.

He did it with a diving, 9-yard reception in Saturday’s victory over Albany, extending his 6-foot-2, 290-pound frame to register his third touchdown reception of the season.

None was any bigger than the latest. Fisher just wonders if the “hardware” — a commemorative T-shirt for the week’s honoree — will be too small for him.

“The largest they have is probably an XL,” he joked. “I’m sure they weren’t ready for a lineman to win it.”

Maybe they should have been. The element of surprise is no longer in effect, not with the way he catches passes. A defensive lineman by trade, Fisher has five receptions this year for 46 yards.

Like any good lineman, though, Fisher likes to share the credit. He said the Catch of the Week was set up by Florida’s ground game, which features af2 rushing leader Clenton Crossley.

“It was the same play I’ve scored on all year,” said Fisher, the franchise leader in sacks. “Teams can’t help but respect our running game.”

RECORD PLAYERS: Not that it’s anything new, but another franchise record is in danger.

Rookie defensive specialist Cory Bailey, a University of Florida product, sits on 98 tackles entering the weekend, three stops short of surpassing teammate Quincy Sorrell in Florida’s single-season record books.

Sound familiar?

As much a story as Florida’s climb to the top of the American Conference — the Firecats (11-3) need one win in their final two games to clinch homefield advantage throughout the playoffs — has been the chase for individual accolades, with records stacking up as fast as the wins.

At least a half dozen franchise benchmarks have been surpassed. Mainstays Magic Benton (receptions, receiving yards, touchdowns) and Sorrell (tackles) even went a step further; each player broke af2 career records earlier this season.

“The good thing is that it’s a mix,” Florida coach Kevin Bouis said. “We have different kinds of players accomplishing things. Some of them are veterans and some of them are rookies.”

Bailey is the next in line, but he’d better keep it up. Sorrell, who had 100.5 stops in 2004, isn’t far behind, with 90 tackles this season.

OF NOTE: Brandon Kornblue’s 38-yard field goal Saturday was his longest since the 2003 season. The long snapper on the play was rookie Brian Ross, who recently returned to Florida’s active roster. ... The Firecats have the best winning percentage (.870) in af2 since the start of the 2005 season. ... Two-way lineman T.J. Gholston, who suffered a knee injury in the Albany win, will miss the rest of the regular season.