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UFL Team Coming To Omaha: Nighthawks


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Jeff Jagodzinski as the coach? Wow!

 

United Football League Brings Professional Football to Omaha and Invites Sports Fans to 'Name Your Team'

 

The City of Omaha, Nebraska, will become home to the United Football League when its second season kicks off in the fall of 2010.

 

The league’s first expansion franchise since four teams kicked off the 2009 ‘Premiere Season’ will become a future tenant at the new TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. For the 2010 season, the Omaha team will play its games at Rosenblatt Stadium.

 

Former Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski will coach the team and will select the first players for the Omaha roster in an expansion draft to take place on Friday, April 16.

 

Jagodzinski led the BC Eagles to a cumulative 20-8 record in two years from 2007-2008 as head coach having previously served as offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers and before that on the coaching staff of the Atlanta Falcons.

 

The UFL is also inviting football fans to suggest their favorite name for the Omaha team and announced a ‘Your Town, Your Team, Your Name – You Make The Call’ promotion being run in association with the Omaha World-Herald and 1620 The Zone, Omaha’s ESPN Radio. Fans can enter the naming contest via the newspaper’s www.Omaha.com website and can also visit the official league website www.UFL-Football.com.

 

United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue and Head Coach Jeff Jagodzinski were formally welcomed to Omaha by Mayor Jim Suttle, Greater Omaha Chamber President & CEO David Brown and MECA President & CEO Roger Dixon at a press conference at the Qwest Center Omaha on Thursday.

 

“Expansion is an exciting time for a sports league and we are excited to be here in a new UFL city that we believe will embrace an exciting and high-quality product on the field at an affordable price,” said UFL Commissioner Huyghue. “Omaha fits the ideal UFL model of having a passionate fan base that we believe deserves a professional football team.”

 

Coach Jagodzinski added: “I am delighted to have been charged with putting a winning team on the field and hope we can make the fans in Omaha proud of their expansion team. Our players and coaches will live in and become a part of the local community during the season and we cannot wait to get started.”

 

The Omaha team will face opposition home and away in the form of the Florida Tuskers, Hartford Colonials, Las Vegas Locos and Sacramento Mountain Lions and the 2010 season will run from early September to the week of Thanksgiving. The UFL will announce further expansion plans in the near future.

 

Football fans eager to learn about ticket information for UFL games in Omaha can visit the www.UFL-Football.com website.

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Looks like our choices are going to be:

Mustangs

Spirit

Navigators

Stags

 

Write ins will be allowed, so we really need to band together to get a good write-in. The other choices are just too generic. (and we don't need a 2nd Mustang team in town)

 

Agreed. Start the brain-storming because their suggestions suck. There was also an Omaha Mustangs in the Continental Football League.

 

Spirit? Really? I would say the Stags is the best they offered up, but we can do better. YES WE CAN! :lol:

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If the head coach of the new Omaha franchise in the United Football League needs a sideline pass to a Nebraska football game, he knows who to call.

 

Jeff Jagodzinski's 25 years as a college and pro coach includes a five-season stretch with the Green Bay Packers from 1999-2003.

 

One of his fellow assistants there was current Husker coach Bo Pelini.

 

The men worked together. Their wives socialized together. Their children played at each other's houses. And the first time Pelini moved to Nebraska — in 2003 to become defensive coordinator — the Jagodzinski's took a table the Pelini's didn't want to transport.

 

"We had a lot of fun together,'' Jagodzinski said. "And let me tell you something: That guy is a good football coach. I'm talking about good.

 

"I've got Bo's number, but I haven't called him yet. I don't think he knows I got this job. But I look forward to talking to him.''

 

Jagodzinski, a 46-year-old native of Milwaukee, also is looking forward to being back on the sidelines after a wild 2009 that saw him lose two jobs.

 

A year ago January, Boston College fired Jagodzinski after a two-year record of 20-8. Why? He interviewed for the New York Jets head coaching job after his athletic director warned him not to.

 

The Jets didn't hire Jagodzinski, but three weeks later he became the offensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

 

Then last September, about a week before the start of the regular season, the Bucs dismissed Jagodzinski. He was offered the quarterbacks coach job, but declined.

 

ESPN.com quoted an unnamed Tampa Bay team source as saying, "This guy was better suited to be a head coach than a coordinator.''

 

The fire to get back in the game shone in Jagodzinski's eyes during a World-Herald interview.

 

"This is what I do,'' he said, leaning across the table. "This is what I've been doing my whole life. Getting an opportunity to run a team again is great.''

 

Doing it in football-mad Nebraska adds to Jagodzinski's passion.

 

"I love that I'm going to be in a football community, state and part of the country where they 'get it,''' he said. "That's really, really important to me.

 

"I'm a Midwest guy. My dad was a cop. My mom was a teacher. I think I can really relate to Nebraska people. I grew up in a house just like the one that people who will come to our games live in.''

 

Jagodzinski said the Omaha team naturally will look at players with Nebraska and area connections in building a roster.

 

But there won't be any gift spots. Not with a caliber of play high enough that more than 30 of the UFL's 108 players moved up to the NFL last season.

 

"One thing about this league, these players will be hungry,'' Jagodzinski said. "The average age is 27. A lot times this is it for these guys, so you're going to get supreme effort and passion.''

 

The Omaha team's specific style of play will depend on the personnel acquired through an expansion draft and tryout camps.

 

"But we're going to be a tough, physical team,'' Jagodzinski said. "That's what you think of when you think of Nebraska people. We're going to be a downhill running football team, with heavy play-action.

 

"And it will be with high energy and high tempo. Or they won't be here.''

 

Coaching stops • 1985: Wisconsin-Whitewater (asst.)

• 1986: Northern Illinois (asst.)

• 1987-88: LSU (asst.)

• 1989-96: East Carolina (asst.)

• 1997-98: Boston College (off. coordinator)

• 1999-2003: Green Bay Packers (tight ends)

• 2004-05: Atlanta Falcons (tight ends, off. line)

• 2006: Green Bay Packers (off. coordinator)

• 2007-08: Boston College (head coach)

• 2009: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (off. coordinator)

LINK

 

 

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The GM Rick Mueller was just on 1620 and mentioned the 20 players already protected on the roster before the draft. He did say that a tie to the Huskers could be an important factor. He said that he has been in touch with Joe Ganz's agent and hopes he would be interested.

It would be awesome to see Joe Ganz play the QB position for the Omaha *insert here* UFL team.

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The GM Rick Mueller was just on 1620 and mentioned the 20 players already protected on the roster before the draft. He did say that a tie to the Huskers could be an important factor. He said that he has been in touch with Joe Ganz's agent and hopes he would be interested.

It would be awesome to see Joe Ganz play the QB position for the Omaha *insert here* UFL team.

THE OMAHA JOE GANZ'S!!!

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