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Litaker's Fan Blog: Week 10 - Hurricane Season Has Its Sights on Austin

This week is the final regular season home game for the Turfcats, but look for them to have a home playoff game. They were originally scheduled to play the Texas Pirates but the team has changed ownership.  Their new owner, Terry Williams, has decided to change the team's name to the Texas Hurricanes and move them out of Houston to College Station. The coaching staff and most of the players will be the same for the remainder of the season, but they have already added some new players.

This could help build a natural rivalry between the two teams, after all Austin is the home of the Longhorns while College Station is home to the Aggies.  Maybe next season they can hire Dennis Franchione and adopt that ugly burgundy color.

The last time these two teams met was on May 23rd which Austin won 38-20.  The TurfCats have improved since then and Texas has only played one other game, in a loss to the Houma Conquerors giving Houma their first win of the season.

Last week the TurfCats went toe to toe with the Swashbucklers on the road and were able to put lots of points on the board against the top ranked defense.  Points should come a lot easier this week.  Austin’s defense will take the field with a nasty attitude. Not only do they want to avenge last week’s lapse under an AFL type aerial attack, they also remember the taunts from the peanut gallery by Pirates players of being afraid to play them.  This should be an enjoyable game for the TurfCat faithful.

Let’s take a look at the current standings and the playoff picture:

Louisiana Swashbucklers (7-1)
Austin Turfcats (5-2)
Acadiana Mudbugs (4-3)
Texas Hurricanes (1-4)
Houma Conquerors (1-6)
North Texas Crunch (0-1)
PASM Florida Kings (0-1)

The Kings are history and the Crunch are ineligible for the playoffs, that means only one of the remaining teams will miss the post season. Unless there’s a total melt down in Lake Charles, the Swashbucklers look be the #1 seed with home field advantage throughout.   That leaves the #2 seed up for grabs between the Turfcats and the Mudbugs.  Austin will travel to Acadiana next week to settle this spot.  Players and coaches need to focus on one game at a time while us, the fans, are free to speculate down the road.  While I predict the TurfCats to avenge their loss to the Mudbugs and secure the #2 seed, don’t let their 3 losses fool you.  All 3 were to the Swashbucklers and Acadiana  beat the Turfcats in Austin’s first game of the season.

Once again let me repeat, Austin has improved vastly from their opening game and I don’t see the Mudbugs repeating their defensive dominance with another four interception game against us.  No matter the outcome, the top 3 seeds will be claimed by the Swashbucklers, TurfCats, and the Mudbugs leaving the battle for the final spot between Houma and Texas.  The bad news for the Hurricanes is, counting this weeks game, Texas has to play the Turfcats  3 more times.  The bad news for Houma is they’ve got to play the Swashbucklers twice and close out the season against the Mudbugs. Texas and Houma will be battling for their lives over the last month of the season.

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