June 14, 2023
By Daniel Cohen
“Player Chatter” is a new series consisting entirely of player quotes, thoughts, and feelings from around the league. All current AUDL players were sent a handful of prompts earlier this week designed to be as open-ended as possible. Additionally, players were asked to vote in a single-question, multiple choice survey.
Week 8 Survey Results
Who's winning Colorado vs. Salt Lake Round 2 this Friday night?
Colorado Summit: 47.6 percent of votes
Salt Lake Shred: 52.4 percent of votes
Week 7 Reactions
“New York’s crowd and atmosphere on Saturday night were great; it sucked to lose the game but at least it was a fun environment.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“New York's trash talk had the Atlanta coach so enthralled he completely forgot about the game for a few mins. One of his players had to pull him away and remind him.” Anonymous AUDL Player (verified)
“Having a drum line at your home games is badass.” Jacob Blackman, Atlanta Hustle
“My main goal when guarding [Jeff] Babbitt is to force him to beat me with an insane highlight play rather than a routine one. If you wanna play good D you can't be scared of ending up on a poster.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“If I were tall, fast, strong, and better at ultimate I’d be competing with Babbitt for the MVP.” Jacob Blackman, Atlanta Hustle
“Shoutout to Matt Weis (Pittsburgh’s commentator) this weekend! He was at the Mechanix sideline while we were warming up introducing himself to us and taking the extra time to ensure that his pronunciation of our last names were correct. He was even practicing his commentating while we were scrimmaging to get the annunciations ingrained in his brain! He also asked a few of us some general questions about ourselves, and he is overall friendly. Love the guy!” Aaron Shwieterman, Detroit Mechanix
“It's inspiring watching Salt Lake play team offense, they move the ball so quickly and hit everything in flow. Big fan!” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“This was the first game out west to give me any pause about New York absolutely walking over Salt Lake and Colorado. They seem to have finally found the off switch for Terrible Deep Ball Decision-making.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
Not Getting Talked About Enough
“I know I was sleeping on Salt Lake, the transit infrastructure is a disaster, but the fact that away teams can stay walking distance from the field makes the road experience among the best in the league. When combined with a stunning view of the mountains I think we should have seen their win vs Colorado coming. If there wasn't a giant strip mine nearby they would probably be favorites to beat NY in the finals.” Ray Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
“The AlleyCats. Barely get any coverage even though we have the best rookie defender in the league in William Wettengel.” Nick Hutton, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“I did not have Chicago looking this shaky; it feels like they still have the firepower to figure it out but are struggling to do so at the moment.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“The Radicals sitting at 1-4 with a 0 goal diff. is weirdly one of the most impressive stats of the season.” Colin Ringwood, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“Brett Hulsmeyer is making a very strong case for an All-AUDL team this year; big impact on both sides of the disc.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“Oscar Stonehouse has the best hair in the league.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“He was a beast last year, but I've really enjoyed watching Chris Lung develop into even more of an impact player this year.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“Evan [Swiatek] is the man.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
On to Week 8
“Detroit could lose by 20 goals in Indianapolis this weekend.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“What's the line for this Dallas away weekend in total?” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“Colorado at Salt Lake prediction: Both teams combined turnovers greater than 33.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“[Prediction:] Another ref forgets his whistle and has to use a toy one.” Raymond Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
“It'll be really interesting to see how this Boston-Philadelphia playoff race shakes out.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
Water Cooler
“In the most important games, I think teams need to start playing their crossover All-Stars (Rowan/Boxley/Williams/White/Babbitt/etc.) both ways more consistently. Not as an O guy who crosses over to D, but just playing at least 2/3s of total points.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“I don't know how many Yorgasons there are and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.” Colin Ringwood, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“The only recap podcast I listen to end to end is @RingerTheUlti. Sorry Daniel and Adam.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“It feels like rookie of the year is kind of a strange award in the AUDL, since half the time it goes to some legendary player who just never played in the AUDL before, not an actual up and comer.” Ray Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
“The new pulling rules are very fun. Puts more pressure on offenses, adds some strategy to pulling, makes good pullers more valuable.” Colin Ringwood, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“Players who post anonymous opinions should get a PMF.” Ray Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
Player Chatter Stats Corner
Images and data analysis provided by Mike Kobyra.
Lowest Combined Unforced Errors:
Highest Combined Unforced Errors:
"I started looking at 'unforced turnovers' (turnovers where the other team wasn't awarded a block) across this season so far. There are only four games with less than 10 combined unforced turns. Indy played in three of them and Atlanta played in two. Worst in the league so far was a Canadian game at 39, and an Austin vs. Dallas game at 33.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
Follow Daniel Cohen on Twitter
