This article covers the history of the
Donelson Warriors since owner/coach
Tony Cox took over the franchise in 2002. DTC gives a huge chest bump thank you to Chad Weyenberg for providing such an excellent website that assisted my research for this article. The TTFBA archives, especially the team histories page (click
here to see it) saved me a lot of time. Also, thanks to Tony Cox. Some information from this article is from a March 2009 interview of Mr. Cox by
Colossus the SuperComputer. Mr. Cox was a good sport with his reponses which helped me put together one of my more humorous pieces. Click
here to see it.
Tony Cox, known as the "Old Man" to his son, Brandon, owner of the Nashville team, joined the league in 2002, our 3rd season, talking over the 3-2 Arizona Apaches in game 6. Commish Chad Weyenberg put this in the blast to the league on September 17th introducing Mr. Cox:
Tony Cox is a friend of Wausau's Greg Smith and is an avid football fan. Greg Smith comment's "Tony knows his football, he'll be a great addition to the league!"
Mr. Cox went 7-4 over the final games of the season, giving the Apaches a 10-6 record and the Barry Sanders division title. The Apaches advanced to the Simpson Conference championship game by crushing wild card Leon Lightning 35-13. Alas, the Apache playoff rampage was halted by the Rednecks of NW Missouri, 31-6
Cox renamed the team to the Donelson Warriors for the 2003 season and drafted DE Dwight Freeney and QB Marc Bulger, 10th and 17th overall. But the franchise would need much more help than those key players before being competitive. The Warriors would only win one game that year. They finished in the bottom 5 teams in almost every offensive and defensive statistical categories.
With the overall 1st pick in hand for the 2004 season, Cox put QB Byron Leftwich on his draft board and traded Bulger away for monster defensive lineman Richard Seymour. The Warriors were also the beneficaries of the legendary generous trading tactics of the Superior SkySnakes franchise and eventually amassed 4, count 'em 4, 2nd round draft picks. Three of the 4 were on defense (DB, DT and OLB) including DT DeWayne Robertson who would be traded for S Tank Williams in May. RB DeShaun Foster was the first pick in the 3rd round and he was traded to Muncie for, essentially, a 2nd round pick in the 2005 draft. From 2003 to 2004, the offensive line improved a few notches but the defense improved significantly, going from an overall rating of 62 to 77 - 23rd to 5th.
Donelson went 8-7-1 in 2004 and moved up to the middle of the pack offensively and defensively. The lack of a receiving corps for Leftwich and weakness against the run on defense were the main issues for the Warriors. Wins over Maryland, Mt. Pilot and division winner Kaukauna, 34-20 in week 12, provided ample evidence that Donelson was an up and coming franchise in the league. They lost to Mt. Pilot in round 1 to finish the season.
They returned to the playoffs for the next 3 seasons, posting 10-6, 12-4 and 12-4 records, winning the division title in 2006 and 2007. The Mt. Pilot Gamblers knocked them out of the playoffs in the first round again in 2005 but made it to the 2nd round before expiring in 2006 and 2007.
One of the keystones of the current Donelson team,
QB Philip Rivers, was acquired from Transylvania in March 2006 for Leftwich. The Warriors were investing in Rivers, who had only thrown 22 passes the year before. Jake Plummer would be the starter for the 2006 season. The Evil Dead even added a 1st round pick with Rivers. They are currently in the Jason Campbell era over in Transylvania.
Another key player on offense,
RB Steven Jackson (134 attempts, 673 yds in 2005) along with
DT Kelly Gregg (7 rating) was obtained from Nashville in 2005 in return for
OLB DJ Williams (7 rating) and
DE Robaire Smith (6 rating). Gregg, Williams and Smith would not be on a Donelson/Nashville roster for the following season. However, Jackson has gone on to rush for an additional 6,034 yds and 37 touchdowns.
2008 was a bleak season for Donelson. The reception count dropped from 528 to 231. The base defense rating dropped from 81 to 69. They started out the season 2-1 but injuries blew up their season and they were unable to win another game, finishing 2-14
This draft, they reloaded targets for Rivers with
WR Antonio Bryant (83 catches),
WR Donnie Avery (53 catches) and
TE John Carlson (55 catches) all in the first round. Interesting,
Byron Leftwich rejoined the team in round 4. With the defense rating returned to its former glory (86!), tops in every rating category except for pass defense where they were 1 point behind Real Charleston.
RB Derrick Ward and
OLB Joey Porter (9 rating) was acquired from buddy Greg Smith in return for
Steven Jackson, 7 rated LB
Manny Lawson and 7 rated safety
Chinedum Ndukwe.
This created a literally unstoppable team that averaged 36.3 pts a game, 9 more than the next team, SB runner-up Fresno and allowed only 12.4 pts a game. And as
predicted on August 7, 2009 by Colossus - the Donelson Warriors won the 2010 TTFBA Super Bowl.
While researching the method for the construction of the Donelson Warrior championship team, I checked the draft and transaction records. Since I kept seeing Donelson-Nashville transactions, I decided to actually check out the statistics on them. Along with the Jackson trade mentioned earlier I also found: From 2006 to 2009, Nashville traded to Donelson 6 picks in the first three rounds: Three 1st round draft picks, one 2nd round draft picks and two 3rd round draft picks. Donelson traded to Nashville two 2nd round draft picks.
Here are the number of picks each team had in the first three rounds for the past 4 seasons:
2009: DON 6, NAS 3
2008: DON 1, NAS 0
2007: DON 1, NAS 5
2006: DON 5, NAS 0
There's something to be said about amassing draft picks but acquiring players for draft picks can be just as successful. Both teams went 30-18 over the pass 3 seasons.
