GAMEDAY 9/18/2010 TUSKERS @ LOCOS

Today is the day we've been waiting for for 303 days. It is the start of the 2010 UFL Season. There are two great games to watch today. The Sacramento Mountain Lions will be in Hartford to take on the Colonials. That game airs on NESN at 11:30 Pacific time.

The second game features the UFL championship rematch between the Las Vegas Locomotives against the Florida Tuskers. This is the game that a lot of UFL fans have been waiting for. Will the Tuskers claim revenge for the Locos taking away their perfect season? Or will the Locos start their championship defense in dramatic fashion?



Both teams have made changes over the past 9 months. The Locos will be starting Tim Rattay at QB who has taken over the spot from JP Losman from last year. Some Locos players are returning, but there are a lot of new faces as well.

Florida's league MVP Brooks Bollinger will be returning as the Tuskers' starting QB. Their team has a few new faces as well, including new head coach Jay Gruden who was their offensive coordinator last year who has taken over for ex-head coach Jim Haslett. Haslett is now the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins.

Who are the favorites to win? I've heard that the Locos are 2.5 favorites on the betting lines, but on the UFLAccess.com forums, most fans are favoring the Tuskers.

Both teams have a lot of great players returning for this season, with many new more talented players to add to the skill level of each team. Head coach Jim Fassel is returning to coach the Locos, and has a lot of experience behind him. The official UFL site posted an article on how strong the Locos' defense should be here. The Florida Tuskers should have strengthened their already strong offense from last year through training camp. Both teams have talked about how they've had more time to prepare and come together this year over last year. The game at this point, seems like a toss-up. Hopefully Locos QB Tim Rattay can prove himself on the field as a leader and a strong passer against the Tuskers defense. Having coach Fassel return is great for the Locos' chances as well. Even though Jay Gruden is a proven successful head coach, most of his experience comes from coaching the Arena Football League. Yes he was a big factor last year for the Tuskers by being their offensive coordinator, but being an offensive coordinator and a head coach on the gridiron are two totally different things.

This should be an exciting, close, and a VERY competitive opening home game at Sam Boyd Stadium in a few hours. These two teams have the first real UFL rivalry, and both teams will be out for blood. It's going to be a great game, and one for other UFL teams to compare themselves to. If you can't make it out to the game tonight, please watch it on HDNet at 8:00 Pacific time. You don't have HDNet? Well that's okay, because you can stream the game for FREE on UFL-Football.com.

Follow http://twitter.com/locosstation on twitter for pre-game, game, and post-game updates all day.

GO LOCOS!