2008 Utah Blaze season

The 2008 Utah Blaze season was the third season for this Arena Football League franchise. Despite losing their first nine games, the Blaze were able to finish the regular season with six wins in their last seven games, earning them a playoff berth as the fourth seed in the American Conference. In their wild card round game, however, they were defeated by the Colorado Crush, 44–49.

2008 Utah Blaze season
General managerJeff Russell
Head coachDanny White
Home fieldEnergySolutions Arena
Results
Record6–10
Division place3rd
Playoff finishLost Wild Card Playoffs
(Crush) 44–49

Standings

edit
Western Division
Team W L PCT PF PA DIV CONF Home Away
San Jose SaberCats(2) 11 5 .688 945 875 6–0 9–1 6–2 5–3
Arizona Rattlers(3) 8 8 .500 842 907 1–5 3–7 3–5 5–3
Utah Blaze(4) 6 10 .375 941 959 2–4 6–4 4–4 2–6
Los Angeles Avengers 5 11 .313 847 1004 3–3 4–6 4–4 1–7

Regular season schedule

edit
Week Date Opponent Result Record Location Attendance Recap
1 March 1 Arizona Rattlers L 62–63 0–1 EnergySolutions Arena 15,106 Recap
2 March 9 at Cleveland Gladiators L 63–66 0–2 Quicken Loans Arena 14,765 Recap
3 March 14 at Orlando Predators L 61–69 0–3 Amway Arena 11,861 Recap
4 March 21 Columbus Destroyers L 49–52 0–4 EnergySolutions Arena 13,717 Recap
5 March 29 Georgia Force L 49–70 0–5 EnergySolutions Arena 15,240 Recap
6 April 5 at Philadelphia Soul L 56–64 0–6 Wachovia Spectrum 16,390 Recap
7 April 12 at Los Angeles Avengers L 62–79 0–7 Staples Center 14,861 Recap
8 April 18 San Jose SaberCats L 40–61 0–8 EnergySolutions Arena 14,701 Recap
9 April 25 at New Orleans VooDoo L 56–70 0–9 New Orleans Arena 15,041 Recap
10 May 3 Kansas City Brigade W 67–50 1–9 EnergySolutions Arena 12,208 Recap
11 May 10 Colorado Crush W 71–36 2–9 EnergySolutions Arena 13,787 Recap
12 May 17 at San Jose SaberCats L 64–74 2–10 HP Pavilion 13,252 Recap
13 May 24 Chicago Rush W 51–48 3–10 EnergySolutions Arena 15,295 Recap
14 June 1 at Grand Rapids Rampage W 63–56 4–10 Van Andel Arena 5,252 Recap
15 June 9 Los Angeles Avengers W 65–56 5–10 EnergySolutions Arena 16,054 Recap
16 Bye Week
17 June 21 at Arizona Rattlers W 62–45 6–10 US Airways Center 13,542 Recap

Playoff schedule

edit
Round Date Opponent (seed) Result Location Attendance Recap
AC Wild Card June 28 Colorado Crush (5) L 44–49 EnergySolutions Arena 10,073 Recap

Staff

edit
2008 Utah Blaze staff
Head coach

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches

  • Defensive coordinator – Jeff Russell
  • Special teams coordinator – Scott Lieber

[1]

Final roster

edit
2008 Utah Blaze roster
Quarterbacks


Fullbacks

  • 43 Kautai Olevao


Wide receivers

  • 23 Tom Pace


Offensive linemen
  • 98 Rob Gatrell


Defensive linemen

  • 95 John Culp
  • 52 Chris Janek


Linebackers
  • 19 Corey Dodds


Defensive backs

  •  9 Eddie Canonico
  • 42 J'Sharlon Jones


Kickers


Injury reserve
  • 59 Eddie Keele OL   (IR)


Refused to report

  • currently vacant

Other league exempt

  • currently vacant

Suspension

  • currently vacant

Practice squad

  • -- Kyle Gunther OL


rookies in italics
Roster updated October 7, 2008
24 Active, 3 Inactive, 2 PS

More rosters

Stats

edit

Regular season

edit

Week 1: at Utah Blaze

edit
Quarter 1 2 34Total
ARZ 14 21 141463
UTA 21 21 71362

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: March 1
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 15,106
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 14 15 72763
CLE 9 23 132166

at Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio

  • Date: March 9
  • Game time: 12:30 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 14,765
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 7 28 141261
ORL 14 21 211369

at Amway Arena, Orlando, Florida

  • Date: March 14
  • Game time: 7:30 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 9,722
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
CLB 13 7 141852
UTA 14 21 01449

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: March 21
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 13,717
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
GA 14 21 142170
UTA 7 21 02149

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: March 29
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 15,240
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 14 14 141456
PHI 16 20 141464

at Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  • Date: April 5
  • Game time: 7:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 16,390
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 21 13 72162
LA 23 21 28779

at Staples Center, Los Angeles, California

  • Date: April 12
  • Game time: 10:30 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 14,861
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
SJ 7 27 32461
UTA 10 17 6740

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: April 18
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 14,701
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 7 7 142856
NO 7 21 281470

at New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana

  • Date: April 25
  • Game time: 8:30 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 15,041
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
KC 7 14 92050
UTA 13 20 132167

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: May 3
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 12,208
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
COL 7 7 15736
UTA 10 20 63571

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: May 10
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 13,787
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 14 28 71564
SJ 14 28 151774

at HP Pavilion at San Jose, San Jose, California

  • Date: May 17
  • Game time: 10:30 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 13,252
Game information

Week 13: vs. Chicago Rush

edit
Quarter 1 2 34Total
CHI 6 18 101448
UTA 21 13 71051

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: May 24
  • Game time: 9:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 15,295
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 21 21 14763
GR 7 7 212156

at Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • Date: June 1
  • Game time: 2:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 5,252
Game information
Quarter 1 2 34Total
LA 14 16 141256
UTA 14 14 172065

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: June 9
  • Game time: 10:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 16,054
Game information

Week 16

edit

Bye Week

Quarter 1 2 34Total
UTA 14 24 0038
ARZ 0 13 19032

at US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona

  • Date: June 21
  • Game time: 10:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 13,542
Game information

Playoffs

edit

American Conference Wild Card: vs. (5) Colorado Crush

edit
Quarter 1 2 34Total
(5) COL 7 14 72149
(4) UTA 14 10 71344

at EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

  • Date: June 28
  • Game time: 4:00 PM EST
  • Game attendance: 10,073
Game information

References

edit
  1. ^ "Coaching Staff". www.utahblaze.com. Utah Blaze. Archived from the original on October 7, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
edit