Knight Hawks bring ‘New Vegas’ swagger into IFL playoffs
It started with an offseason conversation between Quentin Randolph and coach Mike Davis.
The Vegas Knight Hawks’ leading receiver told Davis he wanted to take on a larger leadership role. He assured Davis the team’s 5-10 season in 2023 wouldn’t carry over to 2024. “New Vegas,” Randolph coined it.
“It feel like we’ve put that on display,” he said.
Next up for “New Vegas” is the Indoor Football League playoffs.
Randolph caught two touchdowns, with one coming on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half, to push the Knight Hawks to a 49-25 win over the Tucson Sugar Skulls at Lee’s Family Forum on Saturday in their regular-season finale.
The team finished 11-5 and earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. The Knight Hawks’ first playoff game in franchise history will be at 7:05 p.m. Saturday against the Arizona Rattlers at Lee’s Family Forum. The winner will face either the Bay Area Panthers, the defending IFL champion, or the San Diego Strike Force in the Western Conference title game.
“We’ve talked about it all year, trying to change the culture here,” Randolph said. “Now we’ve got a home playoff game. I can’t wait to do it in front of Henderson.”
Randolph did his part to ensure the Knight Hawks entered the playoffs with momentum Saturday. He had three receptions for 82 yards to go with his two touchdowns.
“We wanted to go in with swagger and confidence,” Randolph said. “We said this was pretty much a playoff game this week. That’s how we treated it.”
Quarterback Ja’Rome Johnson capped off his impressive regular season by throwing for five touchdowns and rushing for two more. Defensive back Malik Hausman had a team-high eight tackles and an interception as the Knight Hawks closed their campaign with as many wins as they had their first two seasons combined.
Their reward is a third matchup with the Rattlers. The Knight Hawks won both the regular-season meetings, beating Arizona 45-43 on the road March 24 and 55-50 at home June 22.
Davis is looking forward to a tough battle. His counterpart, Rattlers coach Kevin Guy, won his 261st game Saturday to tie the all-time record in arena/indoor football history.
“It’s going to be a dog fight,” Davis said. “It’s what we’ve been building for. I’ve said it would take three years to build a championship-caliber team.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.