Nagy finds an arena for success

The playing surface is only half as long and not nearly as wide as that at Tubby Raymond Field at Delaware Stadium. Still, former Fightin’ Blue Hens quarterback Matt Nagy manages to find room to run and open receivers to hit while starring in the Arena Football League.

This season, Nagy helped the Columbus Destroyers earn a trip to ArenaBowl XXI, the league championship game played July 29 at the New Orleans Arena. The Destroyers lost that game 55-33 to the San Jose SaberCats (16-3), the most successful AFL franchise this decade. The Arena League championship, the SaberCats’ third in six years, capped a three-month winning streak for the team.

Columbus (10-10), which was hoping to take its first league championship, won three consecutive road games to get
to ArenaBowl XXI.

For Nagy, it was his second ArenaBowl appearance in the last three years. In 2005, he led the Georgia Force to the title game, with the team falling 51-48 to the Colorado Crush.

Nagy, an All-America selection at UD in 2000, was traded from Georgia to Columbus following the 2006 season and led the Destroyers to a 66-56 win over his former team in the Arena Football League National Conference championship game on July 16 by tossing five touchdown passes and rushing
for two more scores.

On July 9, Nagy heaved four touchdown passes and ran for a pair of scores as the Destroyers upset the 15-1 Dallas Desperados 66-59 in the second round of the playoffs. The week before, Nagy was named the league’s offensive player of the week for the wild card round, after tossing five touchdown passes and rushing for the winning touchdown in a 56-55 victory at Tampa Bay.

These recent efforts, in a season where he has completed 341 of 544 passes for 3,557 yards with 75 touchdowns, prove that Nagy has successfully mastered the change from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision
to the indoor game.

“It’s a completely different game,” he says. “There is less room for error, and you are usually passing on every down. You have to
be very accurate.”

Home games at Nationwide Field in Columbus are a lot of fun, Nagy says, because the fans in the crowd, which averages around 15,000 per game, really like being right on top of the action.

“It’s great when you are home, because the crowd is loud and supportive. It’s like having an extra player on the field,” Nagy says. “They also love it when a ball gets tossed up in the stands and a fan gets to keep the ball. This might happen 25 or so times a game.”

Nagy began his career in the Arena Football League with the New York Dragons in 2002 and was with the team for part of the 2003 season before being sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury. After a season with the Carolina Cobras in 2004, he spent two seasons with the George Force before joining Columbus.

“Playing football is my job. It’s a career, and I try to prepare myself in the off-season,” Nagy says. “The more years that you play, the more confident you become.”

During his career at UD, the Manheim, Pa., native set more than 20 passing records, including completions (502), yards (8,314) and touchdowns (58). His honors include first team All-Atlantic 10 Conference, first team All-East and third team All-America as a senior in 2000, when he led the 12-2 Blue Hens to the conference championship and a berth in the NCAA playoff semifinals by passing for 3,436 yards and 29 touchdowns.

“Playing football at UD was a lot of fun,” Nagy says. “All the coaches were great. I have a lot of great memories of these years and
of my teammates.”

He says he still stays in touch with several of his teammates and occasionally runs into them at Arena games or social occasions.

“I have stayed close with a handful of these guys. We like to talk about how our families are doing and all those kinds of things,” Nagy says. “I do get to see some of my former teammates, including my UD receiver, Jamin Elliott, who is now with the Atlanta Falcons.” The two played together briefly on the Georgia Force before Elliott was signed by the Falcons.

For Nagy, who graduated from UD in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education, the Arena Football League has provided a great outlet for his quarterbacking talents.

“Arena football is getting bigger each year,” he says. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

—Jerry Rhodes, AS ’04