The Rebel Yell season can be summed up with just two words… Toilet Bowl. The season looked promising after the auction when the starting lineup included Randy Moss, Isaac Bruce, Quadry Ismail, Tiki Barber, Vinny Testaverde, and Chad Lewis. With a rare slow start, led by Randy Moss, the Rebel Yell lost the first three games. The management knew it was time to make a change and initiated a trade that sent Isaac Bruce and Charlie Garner to the Kodiak Bears in Week 4 for Michael Bennett, J.J. Stokes, and Olandis Gary.

The trade didn’t have the positive affect on team chemistry that the ownership was expecting as the Rebel Yell continued their losing ways in Week 4. In Week 5, GM Saylor made one of the best moves of the year by signing free agent John Carney to a 1-year deal. Carney immediately made an impact on the desperate Rebels and led the team to its first win of the season.

Week 6 saw the Rebel Yell discarding waste from their team with the release of over-rated Michael Bennett. Kevan Barlow was signed to fill in the depth chart behind the ineffective running tandem of Barber/Dayne. Once again the personnel changes didn’t have the desired affect and the Rebel Yell went to 1-5 on the year.

A costly mistake by the Cereal Kilurz in releasing Martin Grammatica became the second positive of the 2002 season for the Rebels. Grammatica was the second kicker in 2002 to be signed to a 1-year contract that made the league scoring leader Carney expendable as trade bait. The Rebel Yell must have felt the impact of Grammatica because they proceeded to win their second game of the season in Week 7.

In Week 8, the Rebel Yell management made the last ditch effort to turn around their horrific season by signing free agent Dominic Rhodes to a 1-year minimum salary deal. Rhodes became a hot commodity when the Strawmakers’ starting RB, Edgerrin James, was lost for the season.

Unfortunately a very productive week for the newly acquired Rhodes couldn’t help the hapless Rebels as the lost again, this time to the Rambling Gophs.

With their record now at 2-6, Saylor decided it was time to start building for the 2002 season. The Rebel Yell team was trailing the leaders of the division by 4 games and the wild card leader by 3 games. Saylor went to the phones and made an early week trade with the Red Zone Assassins to send Randy Moss, Chad Lewis and Elvis Grbac to the Kodiak Bears for Charlie Garner, Joe Horn, Tyrone Wheatly, Wesley Walls, and Santana Moss. This trade immediately helped the Rebel Yell with much needed depth at WR and RB. But this was not enough for the Rebels as they quickly moved Wesley Walls to the Badville Chaunceys for Tom Brady, Terry Glenn, and Anthony Becht.

Unbeknownst to the management at the time, in those two trades, the Rebel Yell had a team to challenge for the division playoffs. But because nobody would have the insight to see the collapse of the division leaders in the last half of the season, the Rebel Yell team was further dismantled for potential 2002 weapons.

In the next two weeks, some major transactions totally changed the Rebel Yell roster. Tiki Barber was released to sign possible sleeper talent in Freddie Mitchell. John Carney was traded to the Rambling Gophs for Cam Cleeland. Mark Brunell and Joe Horn were traded for Derrick Alexander, Tim Couch, and David Terrell from the Red Zone Assassins. Quadry Ismail was traded to Pandora’s Box for Drew Brees and Hines Ward. Dominic Rhodes and the Packers were traded to the Kodiak Bears for Chad Lewis, Elvis Grbac, and the Bears.

But the best personnel change was undeniably Eric Moulds, who was signed as a free agent in Week 10. Moulds would become the most requested trade during the off-season.

With all of the trades, the Rebel Yell was posed for a very good off-season. Unfortunately the team was not ready to compete on the level needed for the 2001 season, which resulted in a 3-11 regular season. The Rebels finished in last place for the season and had the honor of participating in the franchise’s second Toilet Bowl. The good news, the Rebel Yell team beat Kong 56 – 33 to end the season on a winning note.

After further review of the personnel changes, the Rebel Yell had a great chance to win the Kokomos Division after making the first two trades in Week 9 if they would have just stopped their. With a starting roster of Brady, Rhodes, Barber, Horn, Ismail, Lewis, Carney, and the Packers, the Rebels would have won most of their remaining games and possibly have made the playoffs.

When asked about this possibility, GM Saylor had the following to say, “In Week 9, the season looked pretty bleak at 2-7. The Cereal Kilurz had just massacred us. We couldn’t imagine that the rest of the Kokomos Division would just deteriorate like it did. Who would have guessed? Looking back in hindsight, I guess we should have given it a few more weeks, but we can’t complain about the potential we have for the 2002 season. We will just have to make up for the mistakes of the 2001 season with the SuperBowl in 2002.”