Pearl Bowl Preview: Gardner aims to Rise to occasion after trying first season

Rise quarterback Devin Gardner has high hopes that the team can bounce back from its disappointing 2016 fall season with a strong showing in the Pearl Bowl. (photo by MI Planning)

Following a hard-luck season last fall that at times reached a level of frustration that seemed to defy imagination, the Nojima Sagimihara Rise head into the spring Pearl Bowl tournament with something very big to prove.

Widely regarded as one of the elite teams of the X-League, the Rise managed to find a way to lose five of its six regular-season games in 2016 by a combined total of 21 points. In every one of those losses, they were either leading or tied in the fourth quarter. It left them as the lone Super 9 team to fail to make the playoffs.

“We kind of got complacent a little,” quarterback Devin Gardner said in a recent telephone interview. “We got up on a couple of teams and kind of cashed in, thought it was over, and the other team continued to play. But I don’t think this year that will be an issue. Once we get the lead, or we got the gas going, we’re going to keep pushing and punching as hard as we can.”

The Rise’s ability to finish off a victory will be put to the test in the group stage of the Pearl Bowl, in which they will face the defending league champion Fujitsu Frontiers, as well as the Keishicho Eagles.

The 39th edition of the tournament, in which the 12 Kanto region teams are divided into four groups of three, starts Saturday at Fujitsu Kawasaki Stadium. After a round-robin group stage, the top team in each pool advances to the semifinals. The competition concludes with the championship game June 19 at Tokyo Dome.

With a season under his belt, as trying as it was, Gardner said he feels better prepared for the year ahead.

“I kind of know what to expect and how things are run in Japan and in the league,” the former Michigan starter said. “I’m kind of familiar with the talent and different skills of different guys on our team this year, much more than last year. And what can I expect from certain guys, what guys are limited and things like that.”

Gardner said he is looking forward to the clash with the mighty Frontiers on May 21. It will give the Rise a chance to avenge one of those close defeats from last fall, when the Frontiers rallied to a 17-10 win on Gino Gordon’s 13-yard touchdown run with 22 seconds left and a 2-point conversion. That loss officially knocked the Rise out of the postseason.

“It’s always nice to get a chance to play the defending champions,” Gardner said. “Especially the way we lost last year, it kind of left a little to be desired. We lost in the last second, they ran a touchdown in to beat us. That’s pretty frustrating. And they won the championship last year, so it would be nice to get a chance to try to knock them off.”

Fujitsu defensive back Al-Rilwan Adeyami expects the Rise to offer formidable competition.

“They are on the verge of becoming a top perennial contender, so we again look forward to the challenge and opportunity to compete,” Adeyami said in a text message. “This spring is also very important for them as well, as they look to clean up a few of the errors that cost them those close games. But there’s no doubt that they don’t repeat the mistakes of last year, so we look forward to playing a team that’s ready to win.”

In last year’s Pearl Bowl, Fujitsu suffered a shocking, last-minute loss to Lixil and failed to make the semifinals. Adeyami said it remains to be seen how much action quarterback Colby Cameron and running back Gordon see, as the team approaches the tournament as a means for getting a look at new players and giving back-ups a chance to gain game experience.

“The spring season is an important season for the development of our team,” he said. “It’s important to see how rookies respond to a different environment and playbook. Also, it’s important to develop the skills of our backups because you’re bound to have injuries throughout the fall season and you’d hate to have a let down when the backup comes in.”

On the Rise, Gardner will have to adjust to the absence of his favorite target, wide receiver Jeremy Gallon, who was also a teammate at Michigan. Gardner said Gallon will not be playing in the spring, and is unsure about his status for the fall.

But there has been a silver lining, too, as it presents an opportunity for more players to get involved in the offense. “It’s been good, everybody getting a shot,” Gardner said. “I kind of feel they might have relied on just Jeremy last year. Just because of how developed his skill set was. It’s been good for them.”

Last year, Gardner was in Japan during the Pearl Bowl, but had not yet joined the Rise. While U.S. colleges have spring practices, he said he welcomes playing competitive games at this time of the year.

“It’s cool to play in the spring and kind of prepare for a game,” he said. “It’s kind of a precursor to the actual season in the fall.”

In the regular season last fall, Gardner threw for eight touchdowns and 1,429 yards, while also rushing for more than 349 yards and six touchdowns. But he also had nine interceptions, often at key moments.

“A lot of it was everybody not knowing where everybody is going to be,” Gardner said. “Learning different guys skills sets and everybody knowing the offense as well as he should. That should definitely not be a problem this year.”

Gardner’s first season was a lesson in futility. The Rise started with a 14-13 loss to Obic, followed by a 24-21 overtime defeat by Lixil. In both games, the opponent scored fourth-quarter touchdowns to either win or tie the game. After a 34-14 win over Tokyo Gas, the Rise then fell 29-26 to Asahi Beer on a field goal with 1:07 left. The Panasonic Impulse followed and scored 18 points in the second half of a 24-17 win, after which Fujitsu finished an unbeaten regular season with their comeback victory.

Asked his objective for the Pearl Bowl, Gardner showed his confidence by replying, “I look at it as an opportunity to be undefeated going into the [fall] season, get a chance to play in front of a big crowd at the [final] in Tokyo Dome. And get a chance to basically start the season off the correct way.”

In the other groups, the IBM BigBlue, who won last year’s tournament for their first-ever major title, kick off the tournament by facing the Bulls Football Club in the first of two games on Saturday. The other team in the group, the Tokyo Gas Creators, feature a new head coach in Masato Itai, a former star tight end for the Kajima Deers who had been coaching at Kansai University.

The Lixil Deers are matched with the Fuji Xerox Minerva AFC and All Mitsubishi Lions, while the Obic Seagulls will face the Meiji Yasuda PentaOcean Pirates and Asahi Beer Silver Star. Lixil also has a new man at the helm, as legendary head coach Kiyoyuki Mori stepped down after 16 years and was replaced by Hajime Tominaga.

—Ken Marantz for the X-League