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From Scot to Griffin to Steeldog:
Tanney continues football career
Release Date: January 31, 2007
MONMOUTH, Ill. — The professional
football exploits of former Monmouth College great Mitch Tanney will
continue in 2007, and this time, he won’t have to travel across the
Atlantic to play.
Tanney is on the 35-man roster of the Birmingham Steeldogs, an arena
football team that plays in the same af2 league as the Quad City
Steamwheelers. He is one of three quarterbacks on the roster, which
gets almost half of its players from Alabama universities. Another
10 players are from Mississippi or Tennessee.
Other quarterbacks on the team are Robert Kent (Jackson State) and
Maurice Mullins (Jacksonville State). Kent, who has previously been
on the rosters of the Tennessee Titans and the CFL’s Montreal
Allouettes, threw for 1,361 yards and 24 touchdowns for the
Steeldogs last season.
Seventeen of the Steeldogs, like Tanney, have former professional
experience, while the other 18 are rookies. Tanney is a second-year
pro, as he played for the Limhamn Griffins in Sweden last summer. He
also had a workout for the Philadelphia Eagles last fall.
That Eagles workout came about in part because of a connection
between Monmouth assistant coach Dave Ragone and Scott Cohen, the
Eagles’ director of pro personnel. Ragone and Cohen attended high
school together and then competed at rival colleges in Pennsylvania.
Cohen, in turn, has connections with the Steeldogs’ head coach, Ron
Selesky.
“He knew the head coach down there and he knew I was looking for a
place to play,” said Tanney of Cohen.
It is not uncommon for talented Steeldog players to get a look from
the Eagles, and that possibility factored into Tanney’s decision.
“I’m hoping,” Tanney replied, when asked if the NFL was still a
possibility. “I had an opportunity to go overseas (France) again
this summer, but I decided not to go. I think the best way to keep
advancing is to stay in the States.”
Last year, the Steeldogs were 7-9 in the af2 and did not qualify for
the postseason. Although they are scheduled to play the
Steamwheelers this season, the game will be played in Birmingham.
The road trip that will bring them closest to Tanney’s alma mater is
a May 26 game against the Cincinnati Jungle Kats. Their 16-game
regular season schedule starts March 30 and ends July 28. Tanney is
scheduled to report on March 10, with practice beginning March 12.
Tanney’s head coach at Monmouth, Steve Bell, was asked what
challenges the arena game will present for the talented quarterback.
“The quickness of the game,” was Bell’s reply. “It’s a shorter field
and a more congested field. The ball’s got to come out of there
faster. Mitch is going to have to get used to throwing to a spot on
the field instead of a person. In arena ball, sometimes the play
doesn’t look like it’s going to be there, but it will be.”
“Without question, it’s the speed of the game,” said Tanney of the
major difference. “When you’ve got guys that big running around the
field in close quarters, everything speeds up.”
To help prepare for the new experience, Tanney expects to receive
some game films from the Steeldogs. He is also hoping that a
hometown connection will give him a head start.
“Their offensive coordinator is Billy Dicken, who used to play for
Purdue and for the Steamwheelers,” said Tanney. “He actually went to
high school in Bloomington, which is only 15 miles from my home in
Lexington, so I plan to get in contact with him and work with him
before I go down there.”
In his brilliant Monmouth career, which included a 10-0 regular
season in 2005 and the Scots’ first-ever appearance in the NCAA
playoffs, Tanney set national game and season records for accuracy,
going 21-of-23 for 405 yards against Knox and finishing the 2005
season 215-of-292 for 2,587 yards. His season completion percentage
of 73.6 broke a 12-year-old Division III record, and he threw just
three interceptions as a senior and just six in his two years with
the Scots. He was named the Midwest Conference’s Offensive Player of
the Year as a senior.
“This is a typical next step for him,” added Bell. “You don’t just
jump directly from Division III to where you want to go. This is a
chance for Mitch to see where he stacks up against other great
athletes. It’s a nice bonus for someone from our program to have a
shot at the professional level.”
Tanney’s former teammate, Ryan Bast, is also playing pro ball as a
defensive back with the Springfield (Ill.) Stallions in the
Continental Indoor Football League.
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