Spokane Empire mixing in a game amongst numerous byes

The Spokane Empire didn’t catch an early flight for Billings. They caught an early bus.

“Five a.m.,” coach Adam Shackleford said of Friday’s departure time. “Pick up at 4:15. They thought I was kidding at first. I’m the most popular coach there is.”

While most of the Inland Northwest was asleep, the Empire (2-0) embarked on 8-plus hours on the road to arrive for Saturday’s date with the Billings Wolves (1-2) at Rimrock Auto Arena.

In an odd bit of Indoor Football League scheduling due to arena availability and the January termination of the Minnesota Havok, Spokane is coming off a Week 3 bye and will have consecutive bye weeks following Saturday’s game.

Billings is coming off a 47-41 loss to Tri-Cities. The Wolves rallied from 19 points down to take a one-point lead with 19 seconds left but a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties helped position Tri-Cities for the winning touchdown.

Wolves quarterback Dak Britt has tossed nine touchdowns and four interceptions. Empire counterpart Charles Dowdell has 11 touchdown passes and just one interception. Leading rusher Julian Laing didn’t play against Tri-Cities and the team signed Julian Haynes earlier this week. Top receiver/return specialist Troy Evans was released Thursday.

“They have good personnel, good defensive line, two IFL corners in (Michael) Green and (Norris) Wren, an offensive line that played together last year,” Shackleford said. “This is not a bad football team.”

Most Empire players remained in town during the bye week and held voluntary conditioning workouts. The team returned to practice Sunday. With just a two-week training camp, the timing of the bye week provided valuable practice time.

“The biggest thing I’ve seen is how much more comfortable Charles is with another week of practice,” Shackleford said. “He’s made it his huddle and that’s what I want.”

Spokane will be without receiver Sam Charles (thumb) and linebacker Pasquale Vacchio (hamstring) but, thanks to the upcoming byes, both should return by the next game April 1. Kicker Taylor Russolino, who has AFL experience, replaces Dan Kleckner. It figures to be a one-week appointment because Pat Clarke, who signed in November, expects to return from injury.

Shackleford likes what he’s seen in two narrow wins.

“We’re physical, we can run the ball,” he said. “Defensively we’ve had some miscommunication in the secondary but I think we’ve got that worked out. We’re giving up more points than I want but we’re also scoring at a good rate.

“Our big guys are very good on both sides of the line, the best I’ve had in a long time.”