Blaze burn bright with optimism

Sure, the Arena Football League plays a 16-game regular season to eliminate just one-third of its teams from the playoffs.

And it's true that the Utah Blaze were the lowest seed of the 12 teams to make it to the AFL's postseason.

And once there, the Blaze completely fell apart in the fourth quarter to get blown out in the first round by the Arizona Rattlers, 57-34, in Phoenix a week ago.

Still, it was a successful season for the expansion franchise. Just getting to the playoffs — by winning four of its final five regular season games — was a major accomplishment.

And the future looks bright.

"We're going to bring the playoffs to our place next year," predicted Blaze coach/general manager Danny White.

"Looking back on it, you can see that we accomplished a lot of great things," said Blaze lineman Hans Olsen. "To build a team from the ground up and do what we did, it's an accomplishment. I'm excited to be back next year. I'll go right into my training now to get ready for next year."

Certainly Salt Lake City seemed ready for the Blaze. Aided by a curiosity factor, no doubt, Utah led the 18-team AFL in attendance, averaging 15,498 fans per game in the Delta Center. But the fact that a sellout crowd of 16,855 showed up to the regular-season finale — after some of the novelty had worn off — seems to indicate that there is a market for the AFL in Utah.

"I'm proud of everything that happened this year with the Utah Blaze — with the fans, the support that we had there," said White. "We've built a great foundation to build on and we're going to be better next year."

"They are going to be a very good team, no doubt about it," said Arizona Rattlers coach Gene Nudo, whose team handed the Blaze three of their 10 losses.

The Blaze's strength was on offense, which made sense because that is where White spent the team's money in the offseason — most notably landing free agent Siaha Burley, one of the top receivers in the AFL. Burley certainly didn't disappoint, catching 134 passes for 1,934 yards and 44 touchdowns. His yardage total set an all-time AFL record and he was one of five finalists for the league's offensive player of the year.

"I'm definitely proud of the organization, the players and everybody in the locker room," said Burley, who is signed with the Blaze through next season. "Our guys played their hearts out. It's tough because it's a team game and we'd just come together."