Team Feature: Yukon Yeti 3-14

I'm starting a new section here for team feature. Now obviously I've covered Yukon more than enough, but I want to focus on how what they've done in the past has got them here today to one of the most potent offences in the NFA and the number 1 run stopping defense. In 2004 the NFA started and Yukon faired alright in the preseason with nothing really special about them. Something very risky and huge they did during only the third week of 2004 preseason was trade their starting QB; Charlie Joyce. Don't get me wrong, Joyce is a very good QB; he took Carson City to the 2004 Super Bowl, but Yukon coaches wanted a prospect that they could mold to the purpose of the Yeti offensive capability. Thus the former backup for Joyce; Torry Mathis was set to be the starter. Mathis performed quite effectively for the first six weeks of the regular season untill he was injured. Mathis was out for at least 4 to 6 weeks and now we have a rookie QB; Kenny Mansfield starting. I'm not going to sugar coat this; Mansfield was not what the coaches at Yukon wanted. He was slow and had major issues with keeping is head in pressure. He fumbled an average of one time per game, something that Yukon coaches were not very happy about. Yukon was still doing alright though, starting HB Tim Peterson carried more of a load during Mathis' injury and Yukon got by as an average team for that time. Once Mathis returned and played a few more games Yukon was slated for a wild card spot against division rival Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor played a very good close game against the Yeti, yet Torry Mathis and the Yeti offence prevailed and Yukon was set for divisionals. The divisional title game set Yukon on the road against the powerful Atlantic Tide. The Tide under the leadership of Thomas Logan destroyed Yukon's defense. Yukon's offense was not able to reach it's full capability thanks to the tough Atlantic defense that hardly allowed any rushing and forced mutiple turnovers. Atlantic won that game and advanced to the AFC conference championship against the Carson City Comets. The Comets under the leadership of Charlie Joyce won and advanced to the super bowl only to be crushed by the insanely powerful Boston Liberty. The 2004-2005 offseason was huge for Yukon. Without a doubt if Yukon did not get the players they did that offseason they never would've made it to the super bowl. Yukon's first round draft pick was 5 foot 11 QB Ben Harris. Yukon coaches extensively scouted Harris before hand and they very much liked what they saw. Harris was a talented QB who was very fast and had a cannon for and arm. His one weakness was has passing accuracy, which Yukon coaches started working on right away. Other key accusitions included WR Wade Thomas, SS Marc Bever, and of course Mack Pleasant. With their new accusitions Yukon went through an undefeated preseason, but Yukon coaches didn't have what they wanted yet. The receiving core struggled. First string WR Chris Anderson and third string WR Jason Williams both left Yukon. This left the 2004 5 foot 6 rookie TJ Oliver in charge. Oliver and Mathis had a hard time connecting during the first few games, it may've had something to do with the fact that Mathis was exactly a foot taller than Oliver. Despite this Yukon still won their games in the beginning, but the coaches knew that they would never be able to beat the Boston Liberty and Atlantic Tide with what they had then (both the Liberty and the Tide were huge games in Yukon's schedule that year). Upon making this conclusion the coaches and manager orchestrated one of the biggest trades that year with division rival Bar Harbor Captains. During Week 3 Yukon traded 1st string 3 year pro CB Jimmy Wayne, 3rd string 1 year pro WR Rob Gray (an offseason accusition), and 1st string 1 year pro SS Ralph Waller (who at the time was competing with Marc Bever for starter at the Strong Safty position) for Bar Harbor Captains 2nd string 1 year pro WR Richard Cummings, 1st string 3 year pro SS Antwaan Mason, and 5th string 2 year pro CB Devin Rogers. The trade was huge as Yukon's offense made major adjustments. Lamaar Craig (Yukon's 2nd string WR) was moved to 3rd string as Richard Cummings became the 2nd string wideout. Antwaan Mason became the starting Strong Safty with Marc Bever under his tutalege. However, Yukon wasn't put together yet. Yukon coaches realized they still needed something special to jump start their receiving core (now consisting of TJ Oliver, Richard Cummings, Lamaar Craig, Wade Thomas, and Mack Pleasant), but it wasn't untill Wade Thomas was traded that they finally realized the way to form one of the most potent passing attacks in the NFA to date. Wade Thomas was soon traded a few weeks after the huge trade ironiclly to the same team as before; the Bar Harbor Captains. The Captains agreed to trade a few draft picks for the rookie WR. Once this was completed Mack Pleasant was set to be the fourth string WR. Then a few days after the trade deadline Torry Mathis finally discovered the incredible talent that everyone had completely not seen coming. Pleasant was fast, really fast, very really fast. Combined with his towering height and improving catching ability Pleasant looked like everything the Yeti needed and more. Yukon's offensive coordinater then set about making formation subsitutions for individual receivers based on their strengths and the defence's weaknesses and thus one of the most potent passing attacks in the NFA was born. Mathis to Pleasant, Mathis to Oliver, Mathis to Cummings, Mathis to everybody, Yukon's passing attack spread the ball all over the place and had defences wondering if these guys were even stoppable. Yukon's defense also began to grow, however a huge setback rolled around when Antwaan Mason was injured for 12 weeks with a broken jawbone. Still Yukon's offense kept rolling as they beat both the Tide and Liberty. They finished the season with a perfect 16 and 0 closely followed by division rival Bar Harbor who only lost a few games. The Liberty also faired well that season as they only suffered 2 losses; one to Yukon, and their first loss came against the Dover Deer in a game where Boston simply screwed up. Then the playoffs rolled around with Atlantic and Yukon being the 2 teams in the AFC with home field advantage in the playoffs. Bar Harbor went to wild card and beat the Hawaii Warriors on the road. Captains at Tide was a good game, but the Tide were still a very powerful team under 2004's rookie QB; Cade Lewis. Yukon's offense easily swept aside their opponent and the AFC Confrence Championship game of the year was set. Yukon had beat the Tide earlier in the season, but they knew that this wasn't going to be an easy one despite home field advantage. The game quickly turned into a high scoring match up with the team that played mistake free football the leader. Yukon trailed most of the game untill with 1:30 remaining in the game Yukon tied it up with a Mathis to Pleasant combination. On the Tide's ensuing drive Yukon's defense held them to a 4 and out and the Atlantic Tide were forced to punt with a minute left to play and the game tied. Yukon started the next drive calling shotgun 4 wide. The first two plays were both incomplete with the second nearly being an interception, but on the thrid play Yukon struck gold on a Mack Pleasant bomb. Pleasant with reasons still unknown stalled at the Tide 4 yardline and was tackled. Yukon sent their field goal unit on to the field led by rookie draft pick; kicker Ronnie Johnson. The Tide then stopped the clock to prevent Yukon from running it down to a few seconds and then kicking the field goal. Yukon then ran the ball up the middle with FB Charles Burnett to run clock. Finally Yukon called a timeout with 1 second left in the game and the AFC Conference title on the line. They sent Ronnie Johnson out there and he was iced the first time through. With the Atlantic Tide depleted of timeouts and a second left to play Ronnie Johnson was sent out there again to determine wether the Yeti win or the game be sent into overtime. Johnson nailed it and the Yukon Yeti were super bowl bound with a team that had yet to lose a game that year. Mack Pleasant was named player of the game for 6 catches and 283 recieving yards; a phenominal total. Torry Mathis threw for a total of 504 yards. It was probably the turning point that proved to the NFA that the Yeti were a team to be worried about. Although the game was an offensive slug fest the final drive of the Tide showed some excellent defense, especially coverage wise. Antwaan Mason played most of the game with just minor hints of his broken jawbone from earlier in the season, he be 100% for the super bowl. The super bowl turned out to be a mismatch as Yukon defeated the Topeka Oilers 35 to 13. The 2005-2006 offseason wasn't as big as the previous one, but it still strengthened the Yeti as a whole. Roscoe Terrell was added at WR to bring the Yukon passing attack to an all time high. The rookies from 2005 also showed great improvement as they continue to get better. Yukon's defense also gained a lot of strength and now stands as the number one rushing defense in the NFA and 2nd for total defense (just behind Carson City). And here the Yukon Yeti stand; 13-0 with 3 more games to play. It looks like Yeti fans are in for another awesome season, but there's one possibility that I think may be likely. I predict that the Yeti will once again make the super bowl, but this time face the Boston Liberty in what is sure to be an epic game along the the lines of that Atlantic, Yukon conference championship game from 2005. Only time can tell and the Yeti keep on moving.