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Last year’s Indianapolis Colts are now a history lesson. They’re the team that started 13-0, clinched homefield advantage in early December ... and lost three of their last four, including a 21-18 defeat by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC playoffs.

Feel invincible?

Sure you’re going places?

Coaches can free themselves of all the boring clichés — the ones that involve staying focused week to week without looking ahead — by simply reminding their players of the Colts, the NFL juggernaut whose march toward a perfect season quickly melted into another failed Super Bowl run.

Not that Kevin Bouis, the Florida Firecats coach, even has to bring it up. His troops have been pounded by coachspeak throughout the season, as has anyone else who has asked the 30-year-old skipper to comment on the big picture.

It became a running joke on David Moulton’s radio show. The local sports-talk personality, who interviews Bouis every Thursday during the season, arranged to have a bell sound each time the coach answered questions with a run-of-the-mill quote.

The approach tonight will be the same. Bouis isn’t about to let himself — or anyone around him — look past South Georgia (3-12), even though Florida (12-3) has clinched homefield advantage throughout the American Conference playoffs.

“We want to go into South Georgia and play a good, crisp game,” Bouis said. “That’s what we’re shooting for. We want to carry some momentum into the bye week.”

The Firecats, who are South Division champions for the third straight year, have earned a break in the action. They will be one of four arenafootball2 teams — two in each conference — with two weeks to prepare for their first playoff game, which makes the path to ArenaCup VII in San Juan, P.R., one step simpler.

There is business left, however, as the Firecats wrap up the regular season. At hand in Albany, Ga., isn’t anything that will affect the big picture, but the Firecats want to be clicking as they enter the playoffs.

Even Chris Wallace is aiming for team goals. The veteran quarterback needs just seven touchdown passes to reach 100 for the season — the holy grail for arena signal-callers, like 2,000 rushing yards for outdoor running backs — and would love to get there by night’s end, but he’d rather see Florida cruise to a big lead and hand the ball to backup Justin Midgett in the fourth quarter.

“Winning the game is what’s important,” Wallace said. “My ultimate goal is getting to San Juan.”

The dilemma for Bouis: The coach wants to get there with an experienced backup. Midgett, the former Charlotte High star, has seen few significant minutes this season, entering games mostly as a handoff machine in the late stages of blowouts.

Tonight would seem the perfect time to put Midgett under fire. He could direct the offense without having to worry so much about the scoreboard. He could show off his arm, finally.

But Midgett’s role, to hear Bouis tell it, will continue to be the same. He wants Wallace to stay crisp — Florida will, after all, be off next week — and, more important, he wants to keep the Firecats pointed toward one more win.

“It’s a fine line,” Bouis said, “but we need the momentum.”

What the Firecats also need, thanks to recent injuries, is to stay in one piece. The Firecats have lost two valuable components in as many weeks — T.J. Gholston (knee) and Comone Fisher (foot) are out indefinitely — so leaving South Georgia without more casualties is a key.

But this is not the NFL, where teams dress 45 players every weekend. Af2 clubs seldom play backups because, well, there aren’t that many. Florida suits up 19 players, and each of them has a role.

At least one Firecat, though, will see his first action. South Florida product John Miller, who hasn’t donned a uniform in seven months, was picked up during the week as a replacement lineman.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Miller said Wednesday. “I’m just ready to get on the field and play. I might have some jitters, but I’m ready. It’s been awhile since I played. I’m ready to get back into it.”

Miller, an All-Big East center in 2005, makes his debut against a team with little to gain. South Georgia has stuck together down the stretch — thanks in part to quarterback Julian Reese, who is one of the league’s top rushing threats — but the Wildcats have been out of the playoff picture for a while, soon after Florida’s 64-28 rout at Germain Arena on May 27.

Not that it matters to Bouis. Never one to downplay the significance of any game — or the credentials of any opponent — he will demand that the Firecats show up with their predictable, businesslike approach.

“I’ve got to get these guys focused,” Bouis said. “We want to carry the momentum into the playoffs. The last thing you want to do is not play your starters and give them two weeks off. We can’t do that. You just try to fire on and have yourself ready for the playoffs.”

Tonight’s game

-- What: Florida Firecats (12-3) at South Georgia Wildcats (3-12)

-- When: 7:30 p.m.

-- Where: Albany, Ga.

-- Radio: WGUF/98.9 FM