December 19, 2025
By Evan Lepler and Adam Ruffner

Sometimes you just gotta go for it all immediately. Sure, we appreciate careful consideration and nuance, but every once in a while, you have to huck and hope. Welcome to “The Quick Huck", a new back-and-forth column where Evan Lepler and Adam Ruffner of the "Swing Pass" podcast will ask questions, offer perspective, and debate what the future holds in the Ultimate Frisbee Association. (CLICK FOR PREVIOUS EDITION)

Today’s prompt: Given the recent additions by the Indianapolis AlleyCats, what would it take for them to be a contender in the Central Division? What is the path to success for them given their personnel upgrades?

Ruffner's response:

Let’s quickly run through the ‘Cats recent list of free agency acquisitions, with their most recent teams identified in parentheses:

• Re-signed UFA all-time leading goal scorer Cameron Brock (Atlanta). Over 158 career starts with the AlleyCats, Brock is averaging an astounding 4.1 goals per game. 

• Re-signed 2025 All Defense selection Xavier Payne (Chicago). In his last full season in Indy, Payne finished with 32 assists, 387 completions (96.5%), and 2374 passing yards in nine games. 

• Added another 2025 All Defense member in Nate Little (Philadelphia). The 25-year-old notched career highs in virtually every category last season, and emerged as a premier big defender in the UFA’s toughest division. 

• Added a third 2025 All Defense selection with the re-signing of William Wettengel (Chicago). The 21-year-old already has two All Defense nominations in his first three years at the professional level, and is averaging 1.5 takeaways per game over 29 career starts.

• Signed seven-year pro vet and pulling specialist James Pollard (Minnesota). The winner of the 2022 “Most Improved” award, Pollard has 14 or more blocks in three of the past four seasons, and helped the Wind Chill to a championship game appearance in 2025. 

• Recovered thrower Jake Felton (Detroit) from the Mechanix contraction. No player has more assists (158), huck completions (88), or throwaways (147!) over the past two seasons than Felton, who had to single handedly generate much of the backfield action for his previous team. 

That’s a ton of talent and height added to an AlleyCats defensive rotation that was sorely in need of both, and the additions of Brock and Felton give the Indy offense an immediate one-two scoring threat. Three of Indy’s four wins last season came against a now defunct franchise, so Indy is properly addressing the talent gap that plagued them against the Central Division contenders with this ambitious set of signings. There’s a clear “win now” mandate, a returned veteran presence, and bridge into the future for the AlleyCats with prospects like Felton, Wettengel, Little, as well as 2026 rookie and U24 Team USA selection Isaiah Mason. 

As I said at the beginning of the month, I think Indy is certainly in the hunt for a home playoff game in the Central, especially with an expected decline in Chicago’s win total—plenty of rumors floating around about the Union losing most of their starting lineups on offense and defense. But even with a new level of skill and competitiveness, I still think the AlleyCats face one of the steepest challenges ahead if their goal is a division crown (and more) in 2026.  

And that has much less to do with Indy’s talent, and more so the fact that Minnesota’s advantages are institutional, systemic. The three-time reigning Central champions displayed it thoroughly in the divisional title bout back in August, when they unseated a heavily favored and at-the-time undefeated Union team in Chicago, and then again at 2025 Championship Weekend, where Minnesota valiantly attempted to defend their 2024 UFA title. It’s the defense, it’s the depth, it’s the coaching, it’s the fans. It’s Will Brandt walking the offense down the field for clutch scores, or Bryan Vohnoutka dunking on defenders with two-hand grabs, or the newly re-signed Justin Burnett hunting down another layout block in a big spot. Minnesota simply has an identity and continuity to their organizational success that Indy cannot catch up to between now and April, or even next August when the 2026 playoffs roll around. 

So to answer the question: I think it would take at least another year of development for Indy to challenge Minnesota for the top spot in the Central. But hey, Chicago looked indomitable right up until they didn’t in 2025, and hierarchies have a way of shifting quickly in the UFA.

Lepler’s response: 

I’m not going to pretend like I was an expert on the 2025 AlleyCats. After so many core players retired or signed elsewhere, the biggest question about last year’s team was basically, ‘Could they avoid an ignominious result against the lowly Mechanix?’ And to their credit, indeed they could! (Pittsburgh, on the other hand…)

But in the grander competitive scheme, last year’s AlleyCats lacked both efficiency and explosiveness, ranking in the bottom five in each of these categories: completion percentage, hucks, and O-line hold rate. With all due respect to rising star Seth Gudeman, Indy completely lacked any sort of O-line anchor. It’s hard to be competitive when you don’t have a steady rock to build around, and the 4-8 AlleyCats and 0-12 Bighorns were the only teams in the league that did not have a single player register at least 300 completions during the 2025 season. 

So with that as the pretext, certainly their offseason has been super encouraging. The offense could absolutely be built around handlers like Payne and Felton, and I would not be at all surprised to see Pollard embrace more stat-stuffing opportunities teaming up with Brock as an O-line cutter. If ‘Big Game James’ can just become two or three percent more efficient when he has the disc, he could be a borderline All-UFA player. Furthermore, Wettengel is arguably the best young defender in the entire league, and Little, who led the Phoenix in blocks last year, is about to enter his prime, turning 26 next May 1. 

So can they contend in the Central? Absolutely, they can contend.

Part of this conversation definitely revolves around how we define that word ‘contend,’ but there’s no doubt with all these additions that the AlleyCats should compete for a playoff spot. And I wouldn’t be stunned if they recorded wins against any of their divisional opponents next season. They’ll be a tough team to beat at home, and if they travel well, they can also challenge anyone on the road. Let’s remember: as thrilling as Minnesota’s run back to the championship game was last summer, the Wind Chill were far from a regular season juggernaut. 

Frankly, the two biggest question marks for Indianapolis heading into 2026 are their overall depth of talent and the team’s new head coach. There’s been a ton of enthusiasm around Nathan Bussberg, who the ‘Cats hired to replace Drew Shepherd this fall. The team has hyped his coaching acumen, detailing his success leading teams in both track and field and basketball, believing that his multi-sport coaching experience has set him on a path toward serious success in the UFA.

There’s also the reality that reputations are earned rather than given, and the coaching track records in Minnesota and Madison are especially stout. Ben Feldman and his staff have been pushing the right buttons for several years, and Jacob Spiro and Tim DeByl continue to have more combined UFA coaching experience than any other crew in the league. Time will tell whether Bussberg has his team ready and we’ll see how he manages the moment when the score is tight late in the fourth. This is not meant to be seen as skepticism, but he still needs to earn that trust. 

And to be clear, I’d slam the brakes on any chatter that they are true title contenders from a league-wide perspective. That claim would simply be premature. But in terms of joining the Central contenders, in my mind the AlleyCats can definitely consider themselves part of that group.

A little more than four months from opening day, no team in the league has had a more interesting offseason. For the first time in years, the AlleyCats appear ready to contend. Now, they have to prove it between the lines.