Hannah gives Twisters an unexpected boost
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
Arkansas Coach Chris Siegfried said he didn’t think there was any way he could sign defensive lineman Tito Hannah.
Hannah, 31, had played three seasons in the Canadian Football League, and three in Arena Football 2. He had been invited to two NFL camps since his professional football career began in 1999 after he graduated from South Carolina State.
Siegfried was an assistant with the parent Arena Football League’s Kansas City Brigade last season. He said Hannah should have made Kansas City’s roster after a brief tryout. Instead, Hannah spent most of the 2007 season with the United Indoor Football League’s Omaha Beef. He had 10 sacks.
“I didn’t think he’d be available,” Siegfried said. “I said, ‘I’m going to send you a contract,’ but I wasn’t counting on him because I didn’t think he’d be available. Of course, you’re going to send a guy like that a contract, but until he sent it back, and until camp, I was really thinking, ‘Someone’s going to call him.’ Even in camp. I was thinking, ‘If we’re going to lose anybody, it’s Tito.’ I didn’t put a lot of stock in his being here. ‘Somebody’s going to pick him up. It’s Tito Hannah.’ When we made it past the cut date, we thought, ‘Wow, we’re going to have a good pass rush.’” Through five games, the 6-3, 260-pound Hannah leads the Twisters with three sacks for a total loss of 18 yards. He has caused two safeties. His third-quarter, 36-yard interception return for a touchdown helped Arkansas erase a 20-0 deficit at Corpus Christi. Siegfried said it was the turning point in Arkansas’ 39-27 victory.
Game 6 comes today. Arkansas will host the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz at North Little Rock’s Alltel Arena at 7: 05 p.m. Central.
Arkansas quarterback Kyle Rowley said Hannah is “the type of player you want out there.” “Tito always seems to make the right play at the right moment,” Rowley said. “He had that [touchdown against Corpus Christi ]. Things like that. He’s had a couple of safeties. Those kinds of things are hard to replace.” Siegfried said he knows he will have to replace Hannah next season.
“This is his last shot,” Siegfried said. “He’s not going to be back in [AF 2 ]. This is it for him. He should’ve been on somebody’s roster this year. And he still has plenty of years left in him. He’s in phenomenal shape. He’s as quick as I’ve ever seen him. He deserves to have a shot in [the AFL ]. He’s just a guy who deserves it.” Hannah graduated from South Carolina State with a degree in civil engineering. He said he plans to get married in November, and that the $ 200-250 weekly AF 2 salary won’t finance his marriage or his house in South Carolina.
“This is my last year playing [AF 2 ],” Hannah said. “I have to make a decision, and this is my turning point. A wife to worry about, and a house, and get paid by [AF 2 ]? No. It ain’t happening, so I have to draw that line.
“ Here I am now. My dream is to play in the NFL, but I have to face reality. I’m 31.” Still, Hannah said the dream persists.
“There are guys in the NFL today I played with, and I dogged them out,” Hannah said. “But here I am. It doesn’t mean that this league doesn’t have quality players. It does. It has a lot of players out here playing just to keep their skills up. That’s what I’m doing, trying to keep my strength up, my speed, my skills, so that hopefully someone will say, ‘Tito, come help us.’”
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