Japan X Bowl Preview: Fujitsu-IBM clash features rivalries between coaches, QBs

Among his stops before taking over as head coach of the Fujitsu Frontiers in 2005, Satoshi Fujita had a short but successful stint with the Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers. In leading them to back-to-back X-League titles in 2000-01, one of his star players was a linebacker named Shinzo Yamada.

At this year’s Japan X Bowl on Dec. 15, one of the two will again walk off the field at Tokyo Dome as a champion.

Yamada returns as a head coach himself, having led the IBM BigBlue to their first-ever appearance in the championship game in his fifth season at the helm. Fujitsu), still in search of an elusive first title, will be making its fifth trip to the final in eight years under Fujita (and sixth overall).

“The past things are past,” Fujita said a pre-game press conference. “This is a new team, this is a new challenge for us.”

The game will be a rematch of their East Division clash on Oct. 4, won 41-13 by unbeaten Fujitsu but which both sides contend was closer than the score indicated. The Frontiers led by just eight points at halftime, and only by scoring a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the second quarter. The Fujitsu defense forced four turnovers, returning a fumble for a TD.

“Clearly, they’ve shown a lot of progress just as we have,” IBM tight end John Stanton said. “They’re looking like a powerhouse. But when you look back at that game, that’s a couple of plays, a couple of instances, where if we make the play or they don’t, or we even take the safe play rather than making a mistake, then it’s going to be a different game.

“We know they’re a talented team, we know they’re a smart team. But we feel like this is our time. We are happy to be here in the X Bowl, but without finishing it off the right way, I think that everyone can agree it’s not the same feeling.”

That was the BigBlue’s lone loss of the season, as they rolled past Yamada’s old team, the Challengers, and the Central Division champion Lixil Deers in the second stage. Then, playing in the semifinals for just the second time, they repeated the victory over the Deers by winning a 69-54 shootout.

Fujitsu advanced with a hard-fought 27-17 victory over Obic , ending the Seagulls’ four-year championship reign and avenging a loss in last year’s Japan X Bowl, as well as the Pearl Bowl final in the spring.

While Fujita and Yamada devise game plans and match wits on the sidelines, the action on the field will feature a number of intriguing match-ups, not least of which will be the first duel between American quarterbacks in Japan X Bowl history.

Fujitsu’s Colby Cameron has certainly lived up to expectations in his first season in Japan, providing the leadership and ability needed to get the Frontiers to the brink of a title. He’ll be looking to steal the show from IBM’s Kevin Craft, the former UCLA starter who has rewritten all of the league’s passing records in his three seasons.

In the eight games leading up to the Japan X Bowl, Cameron has completed 139 of 202 passes (68.8%) for 2,214 yards and 24 touchdowns. By comparison, Craft has gone 177 for 262 (67.6%) for 2,494 yards and 31 touchdowns. The big difference is in interceptions—Cameron, who set an NCAA record for consecutive passes without a pick at Louisiana Tech, has had just three; Craft has had 11, including three in the game against Fujitsu.

Both QBs had big games in the later stages. Cameron lit up the West Division champion Panasonic Impulse for 445 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-24 second-stage win, while Craft threw for an eye-popping 567 yards and nine TDs in the rematch with Lixil.

“They’re a good team, but everybody knows that,” Craft said of Fujitsu after the semifinal victory. “They had a great win over the Seagulls. They had a really good win over Panasonic. They’ve had a good season. And I think they’re meshing really well with Colby now. So it’s going to be tough.”

Cameron said he’s not concerned the team will suffer a letdown after its big win over Obic.

“That was the main thing after the game, let the guys celebrate, because it is a huge victory, and it’s awesome that we were able to do that,” he said at the press conference. “But today, as we went into meetings with all of the teammates, we watched film and we said, Hey, there’s a lot of corrections we can make, and we’re playing a good team in IBM.

“I’m glad we won, but it’s still not over. So I think our teammates and our coaches all have a good mindset coming into the game.”

With the two gunslingers on the field, the Japan X Bowl record for passing yards, 350 by the Seagulls’ Yoshiyuki Matsumoto in 1998 in a 45-24 win over the Impulse, would certainly seem at risk of being broken, although both defenses will have a say in the matter.

For Cameron, it’s a possibility, but in no way a priority.

“We’ll try our best,” he said. “But if I throw for 5 yards and we still win, I’ll be happy. My main goal is to win. So obviously by playing a great game, and say we do throw for 400 yards, it will be great. But if we lost, I don’t care about a record.”

The game also features a personal duel between star wide receivers who were high school teammates. Fujitsu’s Teruaki Clark Nakamura, the league’s leading receiver this season, was one year behind IBM’s Takashi Kurihara at Komaba Gakuen High School, and both joked that they have no intention of being beaten by the other.

“Both teams have American quarterbacks in the spotlight,” Kurihara said. “Supporting them are Japanese receivers. I want to show the skill and high level of the Japanese receivers and make the Japan X Bowl an exciting game. As for my younger high school teammate Clark who wears the same No. 81, I do what I can not to lose to him.”

Neither team can focus exclusively on containing the prolific passers, as both have solid running backs with the speed and power to break off big runs.

Fujitsu’s Gino Gordon, who scored two touchdowns in the Pearl Bowl loss to Obic, and Keita Takanohashi have combined to rush for 770 yards and 10 touchdowns on 119 carries, while counterparts Tomokazu Sueyoshi and rookie Ryo Takagi combined to rush 152 times for 993 yards and 11 TDs. It is interesting to note that both pairs averaged around 6.5 yards per carry.

The defenses will want to put pressure on the quarterbacks, and that task will fall on a pair of high-profile additions this season at defensive end—IBM’s James Brooks, who joined Tuika Tufaga on the BigBlue line, and Fujitsu’s Austin Flynn.

“We’re facing a great opponent, a team that we played already once,” Brooks said. “We know it’s hard to beat a team twice. We experienced that with the Lixil Deers. Our No. 1 goal is to win, but we know we have our work cut out for us.”

All indications would make the Frontiers the favorite, but that only adds to the pressure of finally coming away with a championship after falling short so many times (four of their five losses were by a touchdown).

“No matter how you look at it, it’s a game with pressure,” Fujita said. “We keep hearing, ‘first title, first title’. That puts the most pressure on us. At the same time, IBM is a rival [IT] company, so that’s pressure, too. But in reality, it’s football. You have to aggressively block, tackle, pass and run. We have to focus on these things.”

—Ken Marantz for the X-League