Season preview: Clash of titans in openers highlights revamped format

With a revamped format that pits the top teams against each other more times — including to open the season — a buzz of excitement is rippling throughout the X-League as kickoff for the 2016 campaign approaches.

Gone in principle are the blowouts common among the first several weeks, when the question wasn’t who would win, but by how much. No longer can teams game plan for a powerful rival weeks ahead, not needing to spend time on the immediate and overmatched opponent.

“The players probably enjoy it more than the coaches, because the coaches had a couple of weeks to game-plan it, when they weren’t playing the strongest opponent,” Fujitsu Frontiers quarterback Colby Cameron said. “I think the coaches might be more stressed than the players.”

The Frontiers, looking to regain the X-League title they won in 2014, get started with the marquee matchup of the opening weekend by taking on the IBM BigBlue, who captured their first-ever major title by winning the Pearl Bowl in the spring.

In the other big games, the Obic Seagulls face the Nojima Sagamihara Rise, who made the biggest splash in the offseason with the addition of several big-name imports, and the defending league champion Panasonic Impulse and Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers clash in a game that had previously capped the West Division schedule and inevitably decided the champion.

The league, in an effort to eliminate mismatches and raise the quality of the regular season, adopted a format in which teams, instead of playing five games against divisional opponents leading up to a second stage, have six games against teams of relatively equal strength, with an eight-team playoff used to decide the champion.

“I like it,” Obic defensive end B.J. Beatty said. “You get right at it, you got to come out with your best right away. I’m excited about the way the season goes. You have to bring your best every game.”

Fujitsu and IBM will be facing each other for the first time since the 2014 Japan X Bowl, which the Frontiers won 44-10. A lot has transpired since then, with IBM’s Pearl Bowl title at least confirming it is on the right path—although head coach Shinzo Yamada wants the team to put that victory in the past.

“I think that helped us [with confidence],” Yamada said. “The fact that we were able to play in Tokyo Dome, and everybody saw what it would be like if we become national champions. I told the team…you guys should remember all of these memories right now, but at the same time, you have to forget. But it was good for our team.”

One major change to the IBM lineup is the replacement of defensive lineman Demetrius Eaton with Rykeem Yates, out of the University of Nevada.

“He’s very good,” Yamada said of Yates. “He has speed, he’s fast, he’s an inside guy. He can play outside, too. He’s just athletic, a really good athlete. I’m just looking forward to see how he plays with [defensive end] James [Brooks]. He’s just been here for one month, but he’s adapted to the team and everybody likes him, and he can make a really good impact on the defense.”

The BigBlue also has several promising rookies in Waseda University linebacker Kevin Coghlan and quarterback Yuki Masamoto, along with Kwansei Gakuin linebacker Keigo Sakudo, all of whom Yamada expects to see action.

Yamada said Masamoto will come in to give a break to starting QB Kevin Craft, who also calls the IBM plays, allowing him to get a better perspective on the opposing defense.

“He’s a real good player,” Yamada said of Masamoto. “And it’s really good for our team to have Kevin be on the sideline and look at the defense and make some calls. We see sometimes when he’s out on the field every down and he gets tired, and he doesn’t get the call right. I understand it’s very hard for him. So we want to mix it up.”

Fujitsu, which lost its crown to Panasonic in last year’s Japan X Bowl, stood pat with its foreign contingent, but will have running back Gino Gordon back from a severe leg injury suffered during last year’s semifinals.

“I was even shocked, he’s done a real good job at rehabbing,” Cameron said. “He stayed here in Japan during the break. He’s looking pretty much full strength.”

In the Pearl Bowl, the Frontiers failed to make the semifinals after being stunned 32-28 by the Lixil Deers on a touchdown pass with 24 seconds left in the game. But for Cameron, the spring tournament only served as preparation for the fall, in which the new format means the team has to hit the ground running.

“I think we got a lot of good work in with our rookies, which I think was more beneficial for us,” Cameron said. “Our goal was to get better during the spring as a team, which I think we accomplished. But the main goal is to win the X Bowl and compete, which I think we’ve given ourselves a chance to do.”

For Obic, under new coach and former star linebacker Naoki Kosho, the game against Nojima presents a chance to avenge a bitter loss from 2015 and show the team can regain the glory of its dynasty days, when the Seagulls won an unprecedented four straight titles from 2010-13.

Last year, the Rise defeated the Seagulls for the first time ever, winning 20-17 in overtime, and the Seagulls went on to finish 3-2 in divisional play for just the second time since the X-League was formed in 1996.

But the Rise team they will face on Sunday at Fujitsu Kawasaki Stadium will not be the same one from last season. Nojima replaced three of their four American players (only linebacker Art Laurel remained), and on paper it looks like an improvement.

Nojima not only landed quarterback Devin Gardner from Big 10 powerhouse Michigan, but one of his former teammates in wide receiver Jeremy Gallon. The defense was boosted with the addition of defensive back Earnest Thomas III, out of another Big 10 school, Illinois.

“It’s kind of hard to prepare for them,” Beatty acknowledged. “We just kind of go based on what we’ve seen before from the Rise.”

As for defending against Gardner — who will wear the unusual No. 98 — and Gallon, Beatty commented, “I know they played together, so they have a connection. Both two great athletes. Seen film on both of them, what they did in college. We’ll just have to do our best and adjust as the game goes.”

Like Fujitsu, Obic also was dealt a shocking loss in the Pearl Bowl at the hands of Lixil, when Naoki Maeda returned a punt for a TD with 38 seconds left for a 21-16 win in the semifinals.

“After that loss, it kind of lit a fire,” Beatty said. “We have a lot of motivation coming into the fall.”

The Seagulls will have a more settled quarterback in former UCLA backup Jerry Neuheisel, who continues to make the adjustment after a lukewarm spring, in which he shared duties with veteran Shun Sugawara.

“He’s doing good,” Beatty said. “He’s working on cutting through the language barrier. That’s the hardest thing for him right now.”

The biggest question is whether Lixil and their all-Japanese roster can translate their Pearl Bowl  success —the Deers lost 21-20 to IBM in the final when a last-minute 2-point conversion attempt failed—into victories in the fall.

“It gave us confidence that even against teams with foreign players, we always have a chance,” Lixil head coach Kiyoyuki Mori said.

The Deers, who finished second in the Central Division last year, open the season against the Bullseyes Tokyo on Sept. 3 at Amino Vital Field, but then have successive games against Nojima and Obic.

“It’s the first time for all of us, so nobody knows how it will turn out,” Mori said of the revamped format. “We just have to take care of the things that we can control, and concentrate on the opponent in front of us.”

Another question to be answered is how the Asahi Beer Silver Star will be able to cope with the loss of wide receiver Roman Wilson, the Princeton grad who left Japan to take a job with a New York bank. The Silver Star are slated to face Fujitsu, IBM, Nojima and Asahi Soft Drinks in succession from the second week.

In the West, the Elecom Kobe Finies, who followed their first-ever 5-0 season in 2014 by dropping to 3-2 last year, made several eye-catching additions.

The Finies also went to the Big 10 well and came up with defensive back Sean Draper and running back Jordan Canzeri, both out Iowa. They also landed offensive lineman Gavin Farr, out of Southern Utah, as well as quarterback Masato Kinoshita, who transferred from the Rise.

The Challengers added tight end Darwin Rogers, out of Arizona State, and defensive back Paul Porras, out of Rice.

—Ken Marantz for the X-League