Ho-hum: Nothing special about this Firecats matchup

It sure feels like midseason.

When Tennessee Valley visits Germain Arena tonight, the storyline for its game with Florida will be that, well, there is no storyline.

No injuries to speak of. No playoff implications at hand — not yet, at least.

Just two teams in an arena with some fans to entertain. Just another day in the life of the af2 experience.

Florida trails Memphis by one-half game in the South Division standings of the American Conference, which has been the case for most of the past seven weeks. Nothing new there.

Quarterback Chris Wallace is on pace to reset the franchise record for single-season touchdown passes, but he isn’t going to get there this weekend. Neither is running back Clenton Crossley, who needs six touchdowns to break Florida’s single-season record for rushing scores.

Where is Ben Bennett when you need him? It was the former Florida coach who, days before the Firecats hosted Tennessee Valley in 2004, encouraged fans to pour beer on Vipers owner Art Clarkson in response to fans doing the same to the Firecats players at a Tennessee Valley game.

That was a story.

Tonight’s game offers little out of the ordinary. Tennessee Valley (2-6) is hardly even a rival anymore, what with its one-year absence from the af2. The Vipers, one of the league’s original members, took last year off, then re-emerged this season with new ownership.

The team is struggling, no doubt, as it gets readjusted. The Vipers, who entered the season with nine af2 home losses in five years, have lost in Huntsville, Ala., four times this year, including a 76-37 reconfiguration at the hands of the Firecats on May 6. It was the worst loss in franchise history.

“We jumped out on them early,” said Florida coach Kevin Bouis, whose Firecats (6-2) are halfway through their regular season, one week away from its second of two bye weeks. “We came out on fire.”

The Vipers sure didn’t. Their first four possessions resulted in turnovers, all of them leading to Florida scores, as they fell behind by 34 points in the first quarter. Crossley did the rest, rushing 12 times for 42 yards and four touchdowns.

A storyline?

Maybe it’s the emergence of Chris Gunn at quarterback. He came off the bench to lead the Vipers past Birmingham two weeks ago, then made his first start against Louisville a week later. T-Valley didn’t win the game, but Gunn passed for 322 yards and seven touchdowns. It was close right to the end.

“I don’t think our team is going to take them lightly,” said Florida kicker Brandon Kornblue, who made his first field goal of the season in last week’s 64-28 rout of South Georgia. “Their record doesn’t show how talented they are.”

But they’d better start winning. Since the league’s inception in 2000, only two teams have made the playoffs with a losing record. That was in 2002, when San Diego and Rochester benefited from a 16-team bracket.

Of course, Florida also needs to win. A loss tonight would surely haunt the Firecats, who intend on chasing Memphis to the finish line. They are in a position where, truly, every game they play is important.

That’s what Bouis has said all along. He was teased, in fact, when he threw out some coach speak Thursday on a local radio show, saying how the Firecats would simply take their season one week at a time.

He meant it, though.

“We’ve got to be ready to play our game,” Bouis said. “We’re focused on getting back to the basics. Not turning the ball over is our key offensively. On defense we’ve got to keep getting after ‘em and not make any mistakes.”

Other than that, it’s a typical day in arena football.