Conference Final Team Profile: Birmingham Lions

The Lion's program didn't skip a beat last year with the transition from Head Coach Wayne Hill to Tony Athersmith, recording a perfect regular season. They've looked even better this year with Hill back in the fold, completing another flawless regular season and remain many peoples pick for the National Title.

The Lions offensive has been defined by the meteoric rise of rookie QB Tristan Varney. After just a couple of seasons of youth football Varney has set the league alight leading Brum to the top of the BUAFL offensive rankings. He has prototypical size for a pocket QB and looks poised and capable of making all the throws. The rookie quarterbacks technique is solid with perhaps the only knock being a long wind up on deeper routes. He picked apart the Bullets defence last time around and I expect the Lions to look to do it again.

Although Varney likes to spread the ball around his top target remains veteran, Allstar WR John Zinkus. Back for one final year Zinkus is a possession type receiver with dependable hands and crisp route running. He is complemented well by deep threat Tunde Ogunlesi. Brum like to split Ogunlesi out wide where his significant height and speed advantage almost always creates a mismatch. Both these guys also act as returners on kick-off and punts. James Hancox is the third receiver in this group and has racked up 6 TDs so far this season.

Birminghams offence is balanced by Mark Smith, a power back in the mould of many previous Lions rushers. Smith does however display a burst and a second gear capable of taking him away from would be tacklers. He has scored a league leading 11 touchdowns this season and paving the way for his success is an imposing offensive line lead by OT Simon Arinze. In a league were finding stand-out Offensive Linemen is hard the Lions break from convention with five solid performers that often overwhelm smaller defences.

Brums brutish defence is solidified by mauling middle linebacker Tim Mobbs. Mobbs is a punishing run stuffer who made the seamless transition from rugby and is in and around almost every stop. Birmingham have a tendency to churn out huge line man and this year is more of the same. They have no less than 3 D-linemen who made the Southern Allstar team this season: Bessala Nyada de Besbeck, Kyle Burrows and Matthew Strong. This defensive front 8 will be focused on containing Mike Adams and must be wary not to over-pursue, especially around the fringes.

The Lions mean streak continues into the secondary where defensive Captain Greg Freeman roams alongside Safety Emir Battaloglu. Veteran GB Lion Battaloglu remains one of the best in the country, an intimidating force equally adept in coverage as he is supporting the run.

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(Photos courtesy of Mike Hinton)