York Lions head coach Warren Craney made two interesting hires today, picking Michael Faulds as the team's new offensive coordinator and Eric Laflamme as their new defensive coordinator. Although it's his first coaching job at the CIS level, Faulds needs no introduction to CIS football fans; he finished up a stellar quarterbacking career at Western last year and holds the CIS all-time passing record with 10,811 career yards. He led the Mustangs to back-to-back Yates Cups in 2007 and 2008, took them to the 2008 Vanier Cup, where they fell to Laval, and brought them back to the Yates this past year, where they lost to Queen's. He also played for Team Canada at the Global Junior Championships. There was some talk that a CFL team might consider giving him a shot, but nothing seemed to materialize. This move would suggest that Faulds' playing career is at an end.
His CIS coaching career may just be beginning, but Faulds already has some experience in the field. He has a master's degree in coaching from Western and has served as the offensive coordinator at the London-based First Round Football Skills Camp for top Canadian players. Still, going from executing the plays to controlling an entire offence can be a significant jump. Faulds certainly brings some name recognition to York, and all indications suggest he has the mindset to be a successful coach. Other quarterbacks have also been able to make the transition to offensive coordinator, including Laurier's Ryan Pyear and Benoit Groulx, who went from playing at Laval to the OC job at Bishop's.
Curiously enough, Faulds is following in the footsteps of the man whose CIS passing record he broke, former Queen's quarterback Tommy Denison. Neate pointed out that Denison was York's offensive coordinator in 2006. I'm not sure if Denison is still in the coaching ranks somewhere; the last mention of him as a coach I was able to find was this 2008 story about him joining the Victoria Rebels junior team after his tenure at York, but the current coaching roster doesn't include him.
Laflamme is a hire from a different mould. He has 14 years of coaching experience, eight of which are at the CIS level. He also has experience working with Craney, both last year at Concordia (where Craney was the defensive coordinator and Laflamme was an assistant) and for three years at Vanier College in the late 90s. Seven of his eight season of CIS experience came with the Montreal Carabins before he headed to Concordia last season. His speciality has been working with the defensive front, so he should be able to help boost the Lions' pass rush. Like Faulds, he's new to being a coordinator at the CIS level, but his previous coaching experience and Craney's own defensive background should help alleviate some of the concerns there.
As the Toronto Star's David Grossman pointed out in his May article on the Lions' hiring of Craney, York has a long path back to football respectability. That's perhaps made even more difficult by U of T making strides of their own across town. The addition of Faulds might help with that, as he's certainly a big name for recruiting purposes, but it's hard to tell if his lack of CIS coaching experience might hurt them. Still, no one's expecting miracles from York right away, so hopefully this staff will be given time to develop. We'll see how it pans out.
Update (June 30): It seems my assumption that taking this coaching position would end Faulds' playing career may have been premature. I've received information that Faulds didn't get a CFL shot this year because he was recovering from a knee injury, and that he may yet wind up at a CFL training camp in 2011. I'd imagine that would depend on how things go with York and what the state of CFL interest in Canadian quarterbacks is at that time, though. It will be an interesting situation to follow.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Showing posts with label CIS football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CIS football. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
CIS: Waterloo cancels 2010 football season over doping concerns
In a few short months, the Waterloo doping scandal has gone from an investigation of one player to a team-wide investigation to league-wide concerns over drug testing. Today saw the first tangible impact on a league-wide scale, though; as Sean Fitz-Gerald of The Canadian Press reports, Waterloo has suspended its football program for the coming year. The coaching staff has been placed on paid administrative leave.
I'll get into analysis on this later, and I believe Rob Pettapiece has a post coming at The CIS Blog as well, but for now, let's focus on the facts. As Mark Masters reports, Canadian Centre for Ethics In Sport (the organization that oversees CIS drug testing) president Paul Melia announced that nine anti-doping violations were found after tests of Waterloo's 62 football players.
As Masters writes, CIS CEO Marg McGregor called it "the biggest doping situation in CIS history. "The results announced today illustrate that the CIS core value of drug-free sport has been compromised and more needs to be done to protect the integrity of university sport and the rights of clean athletes to a level playing field," she said. That would suggest that we're going to see some drug policy changes from a league-wide perspective.
For now, though, the tangible impact comes from the Warriors' disappearance from OUA football for 2010. That's going to alter the schedule, and the OUA football institutions will be holding a conference call today to discuss how that will work. Dropping from a 10-team league to a nine-team league isn't normally easy, but it might not be that difficult in this case. Under the current system, each OUA team plays eight conference games and misses one opponent; with nine teams, each team should be able to play every other team. There are still complications around scheduling (for example, most schools use the same field for football and soccer, so dates have to be carefully planned to avoid conflicts), but they should be able to work it out.
I'll keep you updated as things progress.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog. Make sure to go there this evening for Rob's thoughts.]
I'll get into analysis on this later, and I believe Rob Pettapiece has a post coming at The CIS Blog as well, but for now, let's focus on the facts. As Mark Masters reports, Canadian Centre for Ethics In Sport (the organization that oversees CIS drug testing) president Paul Melia announced that nine anti-doping violations were found after tests of Waterloo's 62 football players.
As Masters writes, CIS CEO Marg McGregor called it "the biggest doping situation in CIS history. "The results announced today illustrate that the CIS core value of drug-free sport has been compromised and more needs to be done to protect the integrity of university sport and the rights of clean athletes to a level playing field," she said. That would suggest that we're going to see some drug policy changes from a league-wide perspective.
For now, though, the tangible impact comes from the Warriors' disappearance from OUA football for 2010. That's going to alter the schedule, and the OUA football institutions will be holding a conference call today to discuss how that will work. Dropping from a 10-team league to a nine-team league isn't normally easy, but it might not be that difficult in this case. Under the current system, each OUA team plays eight conference games and misses one opponent; with nine teams, each team should be able to play every other team. There are still complications around scheduling (for example, most schools use the same field for football and soccer, so dates have to be carefully planned to avoid conflicts), but they should be able to work it out.
I'll keep you updated as things progress.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog. Make sure to go there this evening for Rob's thoughts.]
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
CIS prospects finding NFL homes
It's been a good couple of weeks for CIS football. After a strong showing by CIS prospects in the CFL draft, including first-overall pick Shomari Williams (who I interviewed before the draft), six CIS players appear in good shape to catch on with NFL teams. The Detroit Lions signed [Sean Yuille, Pride Of Detroit] Laurier defensive end Chima Ihekwoaba after their rookie minicamp [Tom Kowalski, Mlive.com, via Ron Balaskovitz], and Concordia linebacker Cory Greenwood signed with [Mark Masters, National Post] the Kansas City Chiefs today. Waterloo offensive lineman Joel Reinders has signed with Cleveland [David Naylor, The Globe and Mail, Concordia offensive lineman Kristian Matte has inked a deal with Houston [Herb Zurkowsky, The Gazette], Bishop's wide receiver Shawn Gore reached an agreement with Green Bay [Dave Heller, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel] and Regina wide receiver Jordan Sisco signed with the Indianapolis Colts [Ian Hamilton, Regina Leader-Post].
This does seem to represent a significant change. CIS players like Israel Idonije and Dan Federkeil have headed straight to the NFL out of CIS schools before, but most of the Canadians in the NFL have come from American schools, like Nate Burleson. Having so many players from CIS schools sign with NFL clubs is certainly surprising, especially when several of those players weren't even ranked among the top CFL prospects [Kirk Penton, Toronto Sun].
Christine Rivet of the Waterloo Record had an interesting piece on this, interviewing New York Jets' scout Brock Sunderland, a former director of scouting for the Montreal Alouettes. Sunderland said the gap between CIS-trained and NCAA-trained players is closing, and the fourth-round selection of Western defensive end Vaughn Martin by San Diego last year has convinced more NFL teams to take CIS football seriously.
"I think the Vaughn Martin thing really opened up the eyes to the CIS athlete – that maybe this might be a real opportunity more than just a (fantasy)," Sunderland said. "It opens up the belief it can happen."
What's also interesting about this is that NFL teams are looking at CIS wide receivers and linebackers. Previously, many of the CIS guys taken have been offensive linemen, and some have made the argument that those guys have been seen as projects, chosen based on physical attributes and in spite of the quality of their competition, rather than because of it. Physical attributes are obviously important at receiver and linebacker too, but the amount of guys heading south and the diversity in their positions suggests to me that NFL teams are developing more of a respect for the quality of play in CIS.
The loser in all of this may be the CFL, though. The CFL draft has always been difficult because you have to balance a player's talent against the likelihood that they'll suit up for you; as Masters pointed out in this piece, the more talented players obviously have a higher risk of sticking around in the NFL. Sometimes, top talents will bounce around the NFL for a year or two before heading back north, like Jamall Lee; in other cases, they'll make their reputation up north and then head to the NFL, like Ricky Foley. In other cases, high CFL draft picks like Samuel Giguere, Federkeil and Idonije stick in the NFL and never see the field up north.
It's a delicate balancing act, and we won't be able to properly evaluate it for a few years, but it's important to keep in mind that most of these players went pretty high in this year's CFL draft. The big loser could be the Montreal Alouettes, who used their first two picks on Matte (seventh overall) and Ihekwoaba (14th overall). However, the reigning Grey Cup champions have less immediate needs than other teams and may be able to afford to wait a few years in hopes that those guys will come up north. The Toronto Argonauts have more immediate problems; they traded down from first overall to third, passing on Williams and picking Greenwood, who now seems unlikely to suit up for them next year. They also chose Reinders 26th overall, which seems like reasonable value given that he was rated as the 11th-best prospect by the CFL's scouting bureau, but that could hurt them if he sticks in the NFL. Sisco went eighth overall to Saskatchewan, and the Riders can probably afford to wait for him, given the depth of their Canadian receiving corps. Gore went 10th overall to B.C., and that may hurt more, as the Lions could use some more Canadian pass-catching talent. The eventual effects of this trend on the CFL can't be fully analyzed until we see where these players wind up in a few years, though.
In the end, this seems to me to be a bit of a reflection on how CIS football is changing. I wrote about the effects of increased athletic scholarships and national recruiting a while back, and this may tie into that. There's more competition than ever to attract recruits, and many schools have looked to do that by improving their athletic facilities, adding full-time coaches and offering more advanced strength and conditioning programs. We've also seen a rise in out-of-conference exhibition games among the bigger programs, which has helped to increase their national profiles. More CIS schools seem to be taking football seriously, and high-school recruits, CFL scouts and NFL scouts are all noticing that. To me, that's a good thing.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
This does seem to represent a significant change. CIS players like Israel Idonije and Dan Federkeil have headed straight to the NFL out of CIS schools before, but most of the Canadians in the NFL have come from American schools, like Nate Burleson. Having so many players from CIS schools sign with NFL clubs is certainly surprising, especially when several of those players weren't even ranked among the top CFL prospects [Kirk Penton, Toronto Sun].
Christine Rivet of the Waterloo Record had an interesting piece on this, interviewing New York Jets' scout Brock Sunderland, a former director of scouting for the Montreal Alouettes. Sunderland said the gap between CIS-trained and NCAA-trained players is closing, and the fourth-round selection of Western defensive end Vaughn Martin by San Diego last year has convinced more NFL teams to take CIS football seriously.
"I think the Vaughn Martin thing really opened up the eyes to the CIS athlete – that maybe this might be a real opportunity more than just a (fantasy)," Sunderland said. "It opens up the belief it can happen."
What's also interesting about this is that NFL teams are looking at CIS wide receivers and linebackers. Previously, many of the CIS guys taken have been offensive linemen, and some have made the argument that those guys have been seen as projects, chosen based on physical attributes and in spite of the quality of their competition, rather than because of it. Physical attributes are obviously important at receiver and linebacker too, but the amount of guys heading south and the diversity in their positions suggests to me that NFL teams are developing more of a respect for the quality of play in CIS.
The loser in all of this may be the CFL, though. The CFL draft has always been difficult because you have to balance a player's talent against the likelihood that they'll suit up for you; as Masters pointed out in this piece, the more talented players obviously have a higher risk of sticking around in the NFL. Sometimes, top talents will bounce around the NFL for a year or two before heading back north, like Jamall Lee; in other cases, they'll make their reputation up north and then head to the NFL, like Ricky Foley. In other cases, high CFL draft picks like Samuel Giguere, Federkeil and Idonije stick in the NFL and never see the field up north.
It's a delicate balancing act, and we won't be able to properly evaluate it for a few years, but it's important to keep in mind that most of these players went pretty high in this year's CFL draft. The big loser could be the Montreal Alouettes, who used their first two picks on Matte (seventh overall) and Ihekwoaba (14th overall). However, the reigning Grey Cup champions have less immediate needs than other teams and may be able to afford to wait a few years in hopes that those guys will come up north. The Toronto Argonauts have more immediate problems; they traded down from first overall to third, passing on Williams and picking Greenwood, who now seems unlikely to suit up for them next year. They also chose Reinders 26th overall, which seems like reasonable value given that he was rated as the 11th-best prospect by the CFL's scouting bureau, but that could hurt them if he sticks in the NFL. Sisco went eighth overall to Saskatchewan, and the Riders can probably afford to wait for him, given the depth of their Canadian receiving corps. Gore went 10th overall to B.C., and that may hurt more, as the Lions could use some more Canadian pass-catching talent. The eventual effects of this trend on the CFL can't be fully analyzed until we see where these players wind up in a few years, though.
In the end, this seems to me to be a bit of a reflection on how CIS football is changing. I wrote about the effects of increased athletic scholarships and national recruiting a while back, and this may tie into that. There's more competition than ever to attract recruits, and many schools have looked to do that by improving their athletic facilities, adding full-time coaches and offering more advanced strength and conditioning programs. We've also seen a rise in out-of-conference exhibition games among the bigger programs, which has helped to increase their national profiles. More CIS schools seem to be taking football seriously, and high-school recruits, CFL scouts and NFL scouts are all noticing that. To me, that's a good thing.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Friday, April 30, 2010
On The Ground: Talking to top CFL prospect Shomari Williams
The CFL draft is coming up [Jaime Stein, CFL.ca] this Sunday (noon Eastern, TSN). It's always an exciting time of the year, particularly from the perspective of watching CIS stars making the jump to the pros. To get you excited for it, here's an e-mail interview I just conducted with Shomari Williams, the Queen's defensive end who led the Gaels to the Vanier Cup this year and is ranked first overall by the CFL's scouting bureau. We talked about the CFL, CIS, the NCAA and his up-and-coming business helping recruits. My questions and his responses are below (slight edits for clarity).
Andrew Bucholtz: You've made a pretty meteoric rise up the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, from #15 at the start of last season to #4 in December to #1 earlier this year. Do you pay any attention to the rankings, and if so, what did it feel like to take over the top spot?
Shomari Williams: It felt great being named the top prospect in Canada. I worked real hard all season and it was a great feeling to know that all my hard work paid off.
A.B.: With the draft coming up this weekend, there's a chance you could be selected first overall. Do you see the top spot as something special, the way it's usually viewed in the NFL, or does it not make as much of a difference in the CFL's smaller draft?
S.W.: I think this is a big deal. Even though the CFL is smaller than the NFL, only a select few people can ever say they were drafted and even fewer can say they were taken first overall. If I am picked first, it will be something special for me and my family to have my name in the record books as the number-one pick in the 2010 CFL draft.
A.B.: How do you feel about getting the chance to play in the CFL? Has it been something you've always been interested in, or a more recent goal?
S.W.: I feel truly blessed to have an opportunity to play in the CFL. When I first started college, I never had plans to play pro. My first goal was to get on the field and contribute to my team and go from there. As time went on in college, I started thinking about playing pro and coming back and going to Queen's really helped me in getting ready for a professional career.
A.B.: I understand you grew up in Brampton and then played in the NCAA at the University of Houston before coming to Queen's last year. Why did you choose that career path (high school to NCAA to CIS), and would you change anything if you had the chance to go back and do it again?
S.W.: Growing up, I just dreamed of playing in the NCAA. Watching it on TV made me fall in love with football in the States. Getting a scholarship and attending the University of Houston was a great experience for me. I graduated from Houston and I really wanted to play pro football, and I thought the best way to position myself for that was to come back and play for Queen's. I really don't like what-if scenarios, so I don't regret any of the choices I've made and I think all the experiences I've had has made me a better person.
A.B.: What did it mean to you to win the Vanier Cup in your only year of CIS football?
S.W.: Winning the Vanier made me feel like Carmelo Anthony! To come to a team for one year and have such a great season individually and team-wise, you couldn't ask for anything more. The 2010 Queen's Golden Gaels will go down in history as a championship team, and to be a part of that is something that I will never forget.
A.B.: How do NCAA and CIS football compare (calibre, coaching, atmosphere, practices, etc)? What did you like and dislike about each?
S.W.: Some things in the NCAA you can't compare to the CIS. It's just because the NCAA has so much money. The two things I think any football player is looking for when deciding on a program is the experience and the coaching. I had a wonderful experience and excellent coaching in my short time in the CIS and the playoff atmosphere was ridiculous too.
A.B.: Did you find it difficult to adapt to Canadian rules after your years in the NCAA? Which set of rules do you like better?
S.W.: To be honest, I barely noticed the rules. A few times, I lined up offside, but other than that, I really didn't notice the different rules.
A.B.: If you could change CIS however you wanted (at an organization-wide level, a football-wide level or just a Queen's level), what changes would you make?
S.W.: There are so many changes I think the CIS should implement to make the league better. To me, it has a great product, but we hear so little about it. I wish the CIS was run more like a business. To me, if the people involved had a greater stake in the success of the league, they would be more creative in how to expand and market the league.
A.B.: I understand you started Student Blitz (his recruiting business) in 2007. What gave you the idea, and how did you put it into practice? How many athletes have you worked with?
S.W.: Going through the recruiting process myself and seeing how much time and money it cost to send film to college coaches. I thought about ways to make the process more efficient for other players with time and money, so I created a database that allows you to send your film and athletic information to any NCAA coach. I've worked with about 15 athletes now and 70% of those athletes have received full scholarships, so I am happy with that.
A.B.: What are your future plans for the site?
S.W.: Right now, I am trying to get an investor and partner for the business so that he can run the day-to-day operations of the site. I am also excited about my new venture, TopProspects.ca, which should launch in May. This service will help high school athletes get recruited by CIS coaches.
Thanks to Shomari for taking the time to talk with me! Best of luck to him this Sunday. If you want to follow the draft, it will be televised on TSN starting at 12 p.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific. I'll also be following the B.C. Lions' Den's crew's live blog; it should be an excellent source of draft coverage too. I'll hopefully have a post-draft summary up Sunday afternoon at both Sporting Madness and The CIS Blog.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Andrew Bucholtz: You've made a pretty meteoric rise up the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, from #15 at the start of last season to #4 in December to #1 earlier this year. Do you pay any attention to the rankings, and if so, what did it feel like to take over the top spot?
Shomari Williams: It felt great being named the top prospect in Canada. I worked real hard all season and it was a great feeling to know that all my hard work paid off.
A.B.: With the draft coming up this weekend, there's a chance you could be selected first overall. Do you see the top spot as something special, the way it's usually viewed in the NFL, or does it not make as much of a difference in the CFL's smaller draft?
S.W.: I think this is a big deal. Even though the CFL is smaller than the NFL, only a select few people can ever say they were drafted and even fewer can say they were taken first overall. If I am picked first, it will be something special for me and my family to have my name in the record books as the number-one pick in the 2010 CFL draft.
A.B.: How do you feel about getting the chance to play in the CFL? Has it been something you've always been interested in, or a more recent goal?
S.W.: I feel truly blessed to have an opportunity to play in the CFL. When I first started college, I never had plans to play pro. My first goal was to get on the field and contribute to my team and go from there. As time went on in college, I started thinking about playing pro and coming back and going to Queen's really helped me in getting ready for a professional career.
A.B.: I understand you grew up in Brampton and then played in the NCAA at the University of Houston before coming to Queen's last year. Why did you choose that career path (high school to NCAA to CIS), and would you change anything if you had the chance to go back and do it again?
S.W.: Growing up, I just dreamed of playing in the NCAA. Watching it on TV made me fall in love with football in the States. Getting a scholarship and attending the University of Houston was a great experience for me. I graduated from Houston and I really wanted to play pro football, and I thought the best way to position myself for that was to come back and play for Queen's. I really don't like what-if scenarios, so I don't regret any of the choices I've made and I think all the experiences I've had has made me a better person.
A.B.: What did it mean to you to win the Vanier Cup in your only year of CIS football?
S.W.: Winning the Vanier made me feel like Carmelo Anthony! To come to a team for one year and have such a great season individually and team-wise, you couldn't ask for anything more. The 2010 Queen's Golden Gaels will go down in history as a championship team, and to be a part of that is something that I will never forget.
A.B.: How do NCAA and CIS football compare (calibre, coaching, atmosphere, practices, etc)? What did you like and dislike about each?
S.W.: Some things in the NCAA you can't compare to the CIS. It's just because the NCAA has so much money. The two things I think any football player is looking for when deciding on a program is the experience and the coaching. I had a wonderful experience and excellent coaching in my short time in the CIS and the playoff atmosphere was ridiculous too.
A.B.: Did you find it difficult to adapt to Canadian rules after your years in the NCAA? Which set of rules do you like better?
S.W.: To be honest, I barely noticed the rules. A few times, I lined up offside, but other than that, I really didn't notice the different rules.
A.B.: If you could change CIS however you wanted (at an organization-wide level, a football-wide level or just a Queen's level), what changes would you make?
S.W.: There are so many changes I think the CIS should implement to make the league better. To me, it has a great product, but we hear so little about it. I wish the CIS was run more like a business. To me, if the people involved had a greater stake in the success of the league, they would be more creative in how to expand and market the league.
A.B.: I understand you started Student Blitz (his recruiting business) in 2007. What gave you the idea, and how did you put it into practice? How many athletes have you worked with?
S.W.: Going through the recruiting process myself and seeing how much time and money it cost to send film to college coaches. I thought about ways to make the process more efficient for other players with time and money, so I created a database that allows you to send your film and athletic information to any NCAA coach. I've worked with about 15 athletes now and 70% of those athletes have received full scholarships, so I am happy with that.
A.B.: What are your future plans for the site?
S.W.: Right now, I am trying to get an investor and partner for the business so that he can run the day-to-day operations of the site. I am also excited about my new venture, TopProspects.ca, which should launch in May. This service will help high school athletes get recruited by CIS coaches.
Thanks to Shomari for taking the time to talk with me! Best of luck to him this Sunday. If you want to follow the draft, it will be televised on TSN starting at 12 p.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific. I'll also be following the B.C. Lions' Den's crew's live blog; it should be an excellent source of draft coverage too. I'll hopefully have a post-draft summary up Sunday afternoon at both Sporting Madness and The CIS Blog.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Friday, April 23, 2010
CIS: Looking at the Canada West schedule and the chances the Gaels head west
There's an interesting piece from Ian Hamilton in the Regina Leader-Post today. Hamilton talks to Regina Rams head coach Frank McCrystal and comes away with a couple of valuable notes. First, he addresses the new Canada West schedule. In the wake of SFU's departure, the conference is down to six teams, which could provide an opportunity to balance the schedule for everyone. That's something McCrystal would like to see.
"We put all this time and money and effort into the football program, so let's play more games," he told Hamilton. "We should be playing 10 games. We should be playing everybody twice."
This might be worth looking at. Currently, the conference plays eight regular-season games, and that hasn't changed thanks to SFU's departure. At the moment, the Rams get Saskatchewan, Calgary and Manitoba twice each, face UBC on the road and host Alberta. I'm not sure if that's "easily the toughest schedule in the CIS" as McCrystal calls it, but it is reasonably difficult; Saskatchewan and Calgary should both be strong, and a road game against UBC isn't easy thanks to the travel involved. Meanwhile, for example, UBC only plays Calgary once and Manitoba faces Saskatchewan once.
That's not saying the schedule is especially unfair; from this viewpoint, it looks like the schedulemakers did a pretty good job given the constraints of each team playing eight games in a six-team league. It's just that a eight-game schedule with five opponents is obviously going to give some teams an easier path. In a league where it looks like the competition for the third and fourth playoff spots might be particularly tough, that could make a difference.
The question is if a solution can be found, though. Eliminating the conference bye weekend (Oct 8-10) and scheduling a game there would provide one of the two extra games, but that would also kill the Shrum Bowl, which would be unfortunate. Even if the conference went that way, however, they'd still have to find a spot for an extra game. The playoffs are scheduled to start on November 6, and that can't be bumped any later without altering the entire CIS playoff schedule.
At the other end, the Canada West season is set to start September 3, which is alreay one of the earliest starts nationally. Last year, Canada West did play one regular-season game on August 29 (UBC-SFU) before starting up fully on September 4, so adding the last game on the last weekend in August might not be completely out of the question. Keep in mind that few students are around then, though, which would hurt attendance and game atmosphere. That weekend also traditionally sees out-of-conference exhibition games, which I would argue can help teams across CIS sports by exposing them to high levels of competition and different styles of play. If Canada West wanted to play 10 games but still keep those exhibitions going, they'd have to be bumped up to the second-to-last week in August, and that might be a difficult sell for university officials (more required of student-athletes, summer practices would probably have to start even earlier) and out-of-conference coaches (an exhibition game two weeks before your season starts might not be as helpful as the current practice of having one the week before, and it might also force you to start your own practices earlier).
On that note, the piece also mentions that "the Rams have been in touch with the Queen's Golden Gaels about a possible pre-season game." This would be interesting to see, as Queen's hasn't played a Canada West team in preseason competition in a while (they faced McGill in 2008 and U of T in 2009). However, the reigning Vanier Cup champions might be looking for a little more in an opponent than a Regina team that went 3-5 in the regular season last year and got knocked out in the first round of the Canada West playoffs. We'll see what happens there. On the schedule front, though, it would be nice to see balance, but it doesn't seem likely to happen without a radical consensus from Canada West coaches and administrators and possibly national changes as well.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
"We put all this time and money and effort into the football program, so let's play more games," he told Hamilton. "We should be playing 10 games. We should be playing everybody twice."
This might be worth looking at. Currently, the conference plays eight regular-season games, and that hasn't changed thanks to SFU's departure. At the moment, the Rams get Saskatchewan, Calgary and Manitoba twice each, face UBC on the road and host Alberta. I'm not sure if that's "easily the toughest schedule in the CIS" as McCrystal calls it, but it is reasonably difficult; Saskatchewan and Calgary should both be strong, and a road game against UBC isn't easy thanks to the travel involved. Meanwhile, for example, UBC only plays Calgary once and Manitoba faces Saskatchewan once.
That's not saying the schedule is especially unfair; from this viewpoint, it looks like the schedulemakers did a pretty good job given the constraints of each team playing eight games in a six-team league. It's just that a eight-game schedule with five opponents is obviously going to give some teams an easier path. In a league where it looks like the competition for the third and fourth playoff spots might be particularly tough, that could make a difference.
The question is if a solution can be found, though. Eliminating the conference bye weekend (Oct 8-10) and scheduling a game there would provide one of the two extra games, but that would also kill the Shrum Bowl, which would be unfortunate. Even if the conference went that way, however, they'd still have to find a spot for an extra game. The playoffs are scheduled to start on November 6, and that can't be bumped any later without altering the entire CIS playoff schedule.
At the other end, the Canada West season is set to start September 3, which is alreay one of the earliest starts nationally. Last year, Canada West did play one regular-season game on August 29 (UBC-SFU) before starting up fully on September 4, so adding the last game on the last weekend in August might not be completely out of the question. Keep in mind that few students are around then, though, which would hurt attendance and game atmosphere. That weekend also traditionally sees out-of-conference exhibition games, which I would argue can help teams across CIS sports by exposing them to high levels of competition and different styles of play. If Canada West wanted to play 10 games but still keep those exhibitions going, they'd have to be bumped up to the second-to-last week in August, and that might be a difficult sell for university officials (more required of student-athletes, summer practices would probably have to start even earlier) and out-of-conference coaches (an exhibition game two weeks before your season starts might not be as helpful as the current practice of having one the week before, and it might also force you to start your own practices earlier).
On that note, the piece also mentions that "the Rams have been in touch with the Queen's Golden Gaels about a possible pre-season game." This would be interesting to see, as Queen's hasn't played a Canada West team in preseason competition in a while (they faced McGill in 2008 and U of T in 2009). However, the reigning Vanier Cup champions might be looking for a little more in an opponent than a Regina team that went 3-5 in the regular season last year and got knocked out in the first round of the Canada West playoffs. We'll see what happens there. On the schedule front, though, it would be nice to see balance, but it doesn't seem likely to happen without a radical consensus from Canada West coaches and administrators and possibly national changes as well.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Thursday, April 22, 2010
CIS: Shrum Bowl back on
One of the side effects of SFU's decision to jump to NCAA Division II and UBC's subsequent decision to remain in CIS for the time being was the potential loss of CIS football's most storied games, the annual Shrum Bowl between the two teams. The Shrum Bowl has been contested 32 times over the years and always gets a fair bit of attention; everyone in the Lower Mainland knows about the UBC-SFU rivalry, and the annual football game has been one of its best expressions. Fortunately, as Howard Tsumura of The Province reports, that's going to continue for at least this year.
Oddly enough, SFU's switch to the NCAA both threatened and preserved this year's game. The two teams will no longer meet in Canada West competition, but the Clan's departure left Canada West with only six football teams and forced a conference-wide bye on the Oct. 8-10 weekend. During that bye, the game will be played under the Friday night lights at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium on Oct. 8.
The other interesting element of this is the changes in the rules. They go back to the days when UBC was in CIS and SFU was in the NAIA. The two schools would alternate hosting the game, and it would be played by Canadian rules at UBC and by American rules when SFU was hosting, giving it a unique atmosphere and feel. When SFU joined CIS, the Shrum Bowl was still important, but it was also just a league game (and one of the two the teams would play each year). Now, it's set to go back to a once-a-year event with alternating hosts and rules, and it will become much more unique again.
Of course, the scheduling issues might make this just a one-off. We don't know if Canada West will add more football teams or alter the schedule after this year, and the Division II Great Northern Athletic Conference might do the same thing. Either of those changes could kill the game for good. UBC might wind up jumping to the NCAA as well, which could let the game continue but turn it back into a regular league game. For now, though, the Shrum Bowl is alive and well, and back to the clash of countries it used to be. Let's hope it's able to continue in some form; it's a unique showcase for CIS football.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Oddly enough, SFU's switch to the NCAA both threatened and preserved this year's game. The two teams will no longer meet in Canada West competition, but the Clan's departure left Canada West with only six football teams and forced a conference-wide bye on the Oct. 8-10 weekend. During that bye, the game will be played under the Friday night lights at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium on Oct. 8.
The other interesting element of this is the changes in the rules. They go back to the days when UBC was in CIS and SFU was in the NAIA. The two schools would alternate hosting the game, and it would be played by Canadian rules at UBC and by American rules when SFU was hosting, giving it a unique atmosphere and feel. When SFU joined CIS, the Shrum Bowl was still important, but it was also just a league game (and one of the two the teams would play each year). Now, it's set to go back to a once-a-year event with alternating hosts and rules, and it will become much more unique again.
Of course, the scheduling issues might make this just a one-off. We don't know if Canada West will add more football teams or alter the schedule after this year, and the Division II Great Northern Athletic Conference might do the same thing. Either of those changes could kill the game for good. UBC might wind up jumping to the NCAA as well, which could let the game continue but turn it back into a regular league game. For now, though, the Shrum Bowl is alive and well, and back to the clash of countries it used to be. Let's hope it's able to continue in some form; it's a unique showcase for CIS football.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Monday, March 15, 2010
CFL: Argos sign Brannagan
It's nice to see CFL teams actually giving Canadian (and CIS!) quarterbacks a look for once. Shortly after the Hamilton Tiger-Cats added Erik Glavic (of Saint Mary's Huskies and Calgary Dinos fame) to their negotiating list, the Toronto Argonauts announced that they'd signed Queen's Vanier Cup-winning quarterback Danny Brannagan. There's a good piece from Chris Zelkovich in today's Toronto Star on the matter, talking to both Brannagan and Glavic about their invites to the CFL's evaluation camp this past weekend and the proposal that would allow teams to bring a Canadian QB to camp without taking up a roster spot. Of course, this is very early, and there's no guarantee that any of these Canadian quarterbacks will actually get a shot to prove that they belong. Still, progress is always good, and you have to start somewhere. Maybe this can be one of the first steps towards a real evaluation of quarterbacks based on their skills, rather than nationality, combine measurements or college.
[Thanks to Arden Zwelling for the heads-up].
[Thanks to Arden Zwelling for the heads-up].
Friday, February 26, 2010
CIS: Walters leaves Guelph
The University of Guelph announced this morning that Kyle Walters will be stepping down as their head football coach [thanks to Jaime Stein for the tip]. The press release says Walters "will be parting ways with the Gryphons to focus on pursuing coaching ventures elsewhere at the professional level."
Mike Treadgold, the sports and health editor of The Ontarion (Guelph's student newspaper), tweeted this morning that a source informed him Walters is off to Winnipeg to become the special teams coordinator with the CFL's Blue Bombers, and also mentioned that rumour on his blog. It isn't completely confirmed yet, but that certainly sounds plausible given both the Bombers' coaching turnover and Walters' apparent desire to seek opportunities at the professional level.
Guelph may miss Walters. He was only the head coach for four years and only put up a 13-18-1 record overall, but the team certainly seemed to be on the rise recently. They've made the OUA playoffs for the last three seasons and went all the way to the final in 2007. Guelph slumped to a 3-5 record this year, but still clinched the last playoff spot and gave the Yates Cup finalist Western Mustangs a tough game in the first round. Walters might have had a difficult time replacing some of his star veterans, including the five players attending the CFL's evaluation camp and quarterback Justin Dunk. Still, at least from this perspective, Guelph seemed to be an up-and-coming program. It will be interesting to see if they can continue that momentum with a new head coach.
The larger issue here, as I covered with Paul James' departure from York and Neate discussed with Denis Piché leaving Ottawa, is if CIS programs are doing enough to retain elite coaches. There's certainly been some encouraging progress on that front recently, with more schools establishing full-time coaching positions, but many CIS coaches still have to split their coaching duties with another job (whether internal or external to their university). Even the full-time coaches generally aren't paid a lot, considering the massive amounts of work they have to do.
Football in particular is a huge challenge for coaches, given the amount of athletes involved and the massive amounts of work required. I don't know the details of Walters' contract with Guelph, but having a successful program is not just about the head coach, it's also about putting a committed group of coordinators and assistants together to support him. That takes money, but investing in the coaching positions is one of the smartest moves a university can make in my mind, as coaching continuity is key to many successful programs. It will be interesting to see who the Gryphons tab as their new coach. In any case, with both Walters and Piche gone, the OUA football landscape may be quite different next season.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Mike Treadgold, the sports and health editor of The Ontarion (Guelph's student newspaper), tweeted this morning that a source informed him Walters is off to Winnipeg to become the special teams coordinator with the CFL's Blue Bombers, and also mentioned that rumour on his blog. It isn't completely confirmed yet, but that certainly sounds plausible given both the Bombers' coaching turnover and Walters' apparent desire to seek opportunities at the professional level.
Guelph may miss Walters. He was only the head coach for four years and only put up a 13-18-1 record overall, but the team certainly seemed to be on the rise recently. They've made the OUA playoffs for the last three seasons and went all the way to the final in 2007. Guelph slumped to a 3-5 record this year, but still clinched the last playoff spot and gave the Yates Cup finalist Western Mustangs a tough game in the first round. Walters might have had a difficult time replacing some of his star veterans, including the five players attending the CFL's evaluation camp and quarterback Justin Dunk. Still, at least from this perspective, Guelph seemed to be an up-and-coming program. It will be interesting to see if they can continue that momentum with a new head coach.
The larger issue here, as I covered with Paul James' departure from York and Neate discussed with Denis Piché leaving Ottawa, is if CIS programs are doing enough to retain elite coaches. There's certainly been some encouraging progress on that front recently, with more schools establishing full-time coaching positions, but many CIS coaches still have to split their coaching duties with another job (whether internal or external to their university). Even the full-time coaches generally aren't paid a lot, considering the massive amounts of work they have to do.
Football in particular is a huge challenge for coaches, given the amount of athletes involved and the massive amounts of work required. I don't know the details of Walters' contract with Guelph, but having a successful program is not just about the head coach, it's also about putting a committed group of coordinators and assistants together to support him. That takes money, but investing in the coaching positions is one of the smartest moves a university can make in my mind, as coaching continuity is key to many successful programs. It will be interesting to see who the Gryphons tab as their new coach. In any case, with both Walters and Piche gone, the OUA football landscape may be quite different next season.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Vanier Cup live blog!
Join me and the rest of the cast from The CIS Blog for a live blog of the Vanier Cup contest between Queen's and the University of Calgary. Kickoff is set for 12 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Mountain/9 a.m. Pacific.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Queen's win shows the need for an NCAA playoff
This year in CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) football has seen some crazy games. The Ontario playoffs in particular have been excellent, and the Queen's Golden Gaels emerged as Yates Cup champions with wins over the McMaster Marauders and the Western Mustangs. Today, they knocked off the Laval Rouge et Or 33-30 (see my friend and former Queen's Journal colleague Mike Woods' CP story here) to advance to the Vanier Cup, the Canadian university championship. There, they'll take on the University of Calgary Dinos, who demolished the Saint Mary's Huskies 38-14 in the Uteck Bowl earlier today.
In the wake of the Queen's game, Canwest News Service's Peter James made an interesting remark that served as the inspiration for this post. Tongue-in-cheek, he tweeted, "BCS supporters can point to the #CIS to show why their system works. Queen's upset prevented at No. 1 vs. No 2 Vanier Cup."
That's true, as Laval ranked first and Calgary ranked second in the final UFRC-CIS poll of the season. Queen's was fourth. Personally, I had Queen's as the top team in every week after Laval's surprising loss to Montreal, as the Gaels never lost a meaningful game (their sole loss came in the regular-season finale after they'd already locked up the top playoff berth), and I predicted last night on Norman James' radio show that I saw them winning by a field goal thanks to their ability to dominate the trench fights. However, I was very much in the minority; most saw this as an easy Laval win, and figured it would be a victory for Queen's just to keep it close. There's no way Queen's would have been selected for the title game if the CIS used any sort of BCS ranking system.
To me, what this shows is how desperately the NCAA needs a playoff system. Last week's Yates Cup against Western and this week's Queen's-Laval game have been two of the better football games I've seen at any level. Things are so close at the top of the CIS that any team can win on any given Saturday. To me, it makes zero sense to rely on a system of polls, no matter how elaborate. It's the results on the field that matter, and the unpredictability of football means anything can happen; last year, for example, 8-0 Queen's was upset in their first playoff game by the 4-4 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. We see that south of the border as well, especially in the Pac-10 this year, where the top teams are all tightly bunched and the bottom teams aren't far beneath them.
Most of the time in North American culture, successful developments come from the U.S. and are transmitted north to Canada, often much later. As Robin Scherbatsky remarked in How I Met Your Mother's "Slap Bet" episode (one of my favourites), "The 80's didn't come to Canada till, like '93". That explains this video:
However, in football, it's often been a different story. The CFL proved to be the spawning ground for passing-oriented offences, which have since taken over the NCAA and the NFL to a degree. Guys like Warren Moon and Doug Flutie weren't intially given chances in the NFL thanks to being too black or too short to play quarterback; they came to the CFL, excelled, and forced the NFL to innovate. I suggest that the NCAA should follow this trend and take a page from the CIS playbook. It wouldn't even be that hard to use a somewhat similar system, as most of the major conferences already have championship games; take the winners of those games, figure out a good way to add a couple of at-large berths and run a three-week, eight-team playoff. There would still be issues around which teams were selected for the playoffs, but you wouldn't likely have the status quo where teams can win every game and still come up short. Championships should be decided on the field, not by voters or computers, and the NCAA should take a page from the CIS playbook on this one.
In the wake of the Queen's game, Canwest News Service's Peter James made an interesting remark that served as the inspiration for this post. Tongue-in-cheek, he tweeted, "BCS supporters can point to the #CIS to show why their system works. Queen's upset prevented at No. 1 vs. No 2 Vanier Cup."
That's true, as Laval ranked first and Calgary ranked second in the final UFRC-CIS poll of the season. Queen's was fourth. Personally, I had Queen's as the top team in every week after Laval's surprising loss to Montreal, as the Gaels never lost a meaningful game (their sole loss came in the regular-season finale after they'd already locked up the top playoff berth), and I predicted last night on Norman James' radio show that I saw them winning by a field goal thanks to their ability to dominate the trench fights. However, I was very much in the minority; most saw this as an easy Laval win, and figured it would be a victory for Queen's just to keep it close. There's no way Queen's would have been selected for the title game if the CIS used any sort of BCS ranking system.
To me, what this shows is how desperately the NCAA needs a playoff system. Last week's Yates Cup against Western and this week's Queen's-Laval game have been two of the better football games I've seen at any level. Things are so close at the top of the CIS that any team can win on any given Saturday. To me, it makes zero sense to rely on a system of polls, no matter how elaborate. It's the results on the field that matter, and the unpredictability of football means anything can happen; last year, for example, 8-0 Queen's was upset in their first playoff game by the 4-4 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. We see that south of the border as well, especially in the Pac-10 this year, where the top teams are all tightly bunched and the bottom teams aren't far beneath them.
Most of the time in North American culture, successful developments come from the U.S. and are transmitted north to Canada, often much later. As Robin Scherbatsky remarked in How I Met Your Mother's "Slap Bet" episode (one of my favourites), "The 80's didn't come to Canada till, like '93". That explains this video:
However, in football, it's often been a different story. The CFL proved to be the spawning ground for passing-oriented offences, which have since taken over the NCAA and the NFL to a degree. Guys like Warren Moon and Doug Flutie weren't intially given chances in the NFL thanks to being too black or too short to play quarterback; they came to the CFL, excelled, and forced the NFL to innovate. I suggest that the NCAA should follow this trend and take a page from the CIS playbook. It wouldn't even be that hard to use a somewhat similar system, as most of the major conferences already have championship games; take the winners of those games, figure out a good way to add a couple of at-large berths and run a three-week, eight-team playoff. There would still be issues around which teams were selected for the playoffs, but you wouldn't likely have the status quo where teams can win every game and still come up short. Championships should be decided on the field, not by voters or computers, and the NCAA should take a page from the CIS playbook on this one.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Queen's - Laval Mitchell Bowl live blog
I'll be live-blogging the Queen's - Laval CIS football showdown in the Mitchell Bowl tomorrow (Saturday) at 1 p.m. Eastern with the rest of the crew from The CIS Blog. Laval's heavily favoured, but as I said on Norman James' radio show this evening, Queen's may be able to hang with them. Laval's taken a bit of a step back this year and the Gaels have really come on. In my mind, the key is winning the trench fights, and Queen's offensive linemen (particularly centre Dan Bederman and guards Vince DeCivita and Jonathan Koidis) and defensive linemen (especially ends Osie Ukwuoma and Shomari Williams) did just that last week against Western. If they can pull that off again, my prediction of Queen's by a field goal may yet come true. Come join in the fun at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific.
Monday, November 16, 2009
A Yates to remember
(Cell phone pics may not be impressive, but they're all I could get.)
Last week, I bemoaned how many of us in the media often transform quarterbacks from a story into the story of a game. Yet, if you were to pick a game where quarterbacks were the story, Saturday’s Yates Cup clash between the Western Mustangs and the Queen’s Golden Gaels would be a pretty good one. With the head-to-head matchup of Michael Faulds and Danny Brannagan, two 10,000 yard passers and the top two guys on the CIS career passing list, many expected a passing shootout, and they were not disappointed. Faulds completed 25 of 38 passes for 509 yards and one touchdown in a losing cause, while Brannagan completed 27 of 47 for 515 yards and five touchdowns in Queen’s 43-39 victory and was named Yates Cup MVP.
Both passers threw for over 500 yards, which is an incredible feat. There are only nine 500-yard passing games in the history of the NFL, and perhaps a few more in the CFL; I wasn’t able to find those records. The NFL has never seen two 500+ yard performances in the same game, though, and even the USFL’s greatest quarterback duel didn’t meet the criteria; Jim Kelly threw for 574 yards and five touchdowns to lead an improbable comeback by the Houston Gamblers, but Los Angeles Express quarterback Steve Young put up less than 300 yards in that game. 500-yard-plus duels have happened a couple times in the NCAA, including the clash of Houston’s David Klingler and Texas Christian’s Matt Vogler on November 3, 1990, but they’re very rare.
Saturday’s game still does illustrate my point about the game being about more than just quarterbacks, though. Faulds and Brannagan both turned in great performances, but Brannagan got much more help from his team. His experienced offensive line, led by the interior core of fifth-year veterans Dan Bederman, Jon Koidis and Vince DeCivita, gave Brannagan all day to pick apart the Western defence. In the stands, myself and Arden Zwelling of the Western Gazette were discussing how Brannagan barely had to move in the pocket thanks to the superior protection provided by his line. The linemen also helped establish Marty Gordon as a threat in the running game; he recorded 81 yards on 11 carries, which took pressure off Brannagan and kept the Mustangs honest. It helped that Western was missing several key figures on their defensive line, but Queen’s victory in the offensive trenches was a crucial part of their success yesterday.
The Gaels also dominated in the defensive trenches. In the earlier regular-season clash between these teams, Western focused their efforts on slowing down Queen’s star defensive ends Shomari Williams and Osie Ukwuoma, often double-teaming them. This left holes for interior linemen like Kyle MacDonald, who often made them pay. Western went with a more conventional scheme yesterday, and Ukwuoma and Williams took full advantage, getting into the backfield on many plays and pressuring Faulds. Gaels’ defensive coordinator Pat Tracey also dialed up plenty of successful blitzes by linebackers Chris Smith and T.J. Leeper, as well as cornerback Jimmy Allin. The combination of the defensive line winning key battles up front and the backfield penetration achieved on blitzes hurried Faulds into bad throws on several occasions, but he was able to overcome that and turn in an outstanding performance despite an injured knee and a lack of mobility. More importantly, though, Queen’s backfield penetration contained Western’s running game; Nathan Riva is an outstanding running back, but it took him 29 carries to pick up 100 yards because he was getting no blocking and was often hit before getting to the line of scrimmage.
What perhaps proved most crucial were the special teams. The wind made a huge difference, as both Queen’s Dan Village and Western’s Darryl Wheeler struggled kicking into it but excelled with it at their back. However, Wheeler was dealing with a hip injury, and he missed a short-range field goal (nullified thanks to a Queen’s penalty for rough play after a hit on holder Donnie Marshall, which gave Western a first down and let them drive in for a touchdown) and an extra point. The field goal didn’t matter in the end, but the extra point did. With little time on the clock, Faulds pulled off one last great drive and got Western near field goal range, but they needed four points to tie thanks to Wheeler’s missed convert and weren’t quite able to get into the end zone. A field goal would not have been a sure thing, as it would have been from at least 40 yards out and into the wind, but it might have proved a viable option at the end if not for that missed extra point; it also would have allowed Western to try short runs and passes late instead of long bombs. However, there are always ifs; Village also hit the upright on a long field goal earlier in the game, so if that had been a few inches to the left, Western would have needed a touchdown regardless of Wheeler’s missed convert.
Despite being on the losing end of this one, Faulds deserves a ton of credit, as good friend of the blog Norman James points out in this excellent piece. Faulds played the last few weeks with a damaged knee, and was obviously struggling with it as the game went on. On the final drive, he took a hit and had to leave the field, being replaced by backup Donnie Marshall. With the Mustangs facing third and 20 with only a few seconds left on the clock, Faulds begged head coach Greg Marshall to go back in, and hobbled back on to the field. That was one of the most inspiring sights I’ve seen in CIS football; he could barely walk, but you’d need an army to keep him off the field. Queen’s brought tons of pressure again, but Faulds somehow evaded it and launched a bomb downfield. Unfortunately for Western, it landed just inches away from the fingertips of a diving receiver, so the storybook ending didn’t come to pass. Faulds did everything he could, though, and he went out in an appropriate blaze of glory.
Faulds was sanguine in an interview afterwards, even though he could barely stand.
“It’s upsetting that that’s the end of my career, but I knew it was going to come this year anyway,” he said. “Whether it was two weeks ago against Guelph or last week against Laurier, or this week or two weeks down the road, I knew it was going to come to an end. It happened against a good team like Queen’s, and they fought hard.”
The Yates Cup victory was huge for Queen’s players like Leeper, a fifth-year linebacker who had been through the ups and downs of the program over his time.
“I can’t even find words to describe it,” he said after the game. “It’s like 23 years of birthdays, 23 Christmases and a couple of parties all rolled into one.”
Leeper said the team took new lessons and new motivation from their loss to 4-4 Ottawa in their first playoff game last year after a stellar 8-0 regular season.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Coming in, we knew what we had to do a little bit more. It’s a coming of age; there are a lot of fifth-years and fourth-years on this team, so when it came down to that experience, we knew what we had to do. We didn’t have to play perfect; we just had to play good enough.”
Leeper said he was concerned during the final drive, but it was a great way to end it.
“It was pretty scary,” he said. “But that’s the way I want to win, with the defence on the field making plays.”
In the end, this was one of the best football games I’ve seen at any level. It had a tremendous quarterback duel between Faulds and Brannagan, with both making many exceptional throws. It had some huge defensive plays and even a stellar trick play, where Faulds faked a handoff to Riva, gave the ball to Nick Pasic, received a lateral from him and found an open receiver downfield for a touchdown. It also had one of the oldest rivalries in the CIS and a great atmosphere. There are still two weeks of playoffs left, but this one’s going to be tough to top.
However, next week’s game could still be classic, as the Gaels face top-ranked Laval (1 p.m. Eastern, will be live-blogged here). The Rouge et Or have dominated CIS football for so long that many believe this may turn into a blowout, but Leeper thinks the Gaels have a shot. He even took a quote from Terrell Owens’ playbook to make his point.
“Get your popcorn ready.”
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saturday, November 07, 2009
CIS football live blogs
Just a quick note that I'll be live-blogging today's OUA playoff football games with a cast of characters from The CIS Blog, Always OUA and The Western Gazette, among others. Queen's takes on McMaster at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m Pacific, and Western takes on Laurier at 4:30 p.m. Eastern/1:30 p.m. Pacific. Both games are on The Score, and both live blogs will be posted here. Hope to see you then!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
CIS football live blog
I'll be live-blogging the McMaster-Guelph game today, which is on The Score's University Rush program at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific. I'll also have some thoughts on other CIS football games around the league, including the Queen's - Laurier clash, which I'll be listening to on CFRC. Come join in then for any and all CIS football talk! If the CFL is more your thing, I'll also be live-blogging the B.C. - Saskatchewan clash at 5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Schedule for today
Couple of things to let readers know about. I'll be appearing on Norman James' great show The Hook on London, Ontario's AM 980 later today around 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacific to discuss CIS football. Tune in via their listen live service if you're interested in catching the show! There are plenty of interesting matters to cover, especially the upcoming Western - Queen's game next weekend. Check out my Top 10 ballot from this past week for a general idea of my thoughts on where the various teams stand, and as always, look at The CIS Blog for all the recent CIS news and opinion pieces from Neate, the rest of the cast and myself.I'm also going to be live-blogging the first leg of the Vancouver Whitecaps - Montreal Impact USL-1 final live from Swangard Stadium later in the day. That will take place here and at The 24th Minute and Epic Footy. The game is at 9:30 p.m. Eastern/6:30 p.m. Pacific; it can be heard on The TEAM 1040 and seen on USL Live. I'm hoping to have a full preview of that match up here tomorrow afternoon. Feel free to turn in for either or both, whichever interests you!
Monday, October 05, 2009
CIS football: Top 10 ballot for Oct. 6
This weekend saw plenty of turmoil in CIS football, with No. 1 Laval, No. 2 Western, No.8 Laurier and co-No.10 Alberta all suffering losses, making the Top 10 perhaps more difficult to analyze than ever. With my natural sense of good timing, I figured it would be the perfect week to start revealing my ballot choices; they'll be easier to mock than ever!
I'm a firm believer that there isn't necessarily a right way to rank the Top 10. It's an opinion poll of people who know a lot about the game, which means that the overall rankings are very valuable in my mind. Each individual voter likely approaches their ballot differently, though, and that's a good thing; it would be an extremely boring universe if we all thought alike. Thus, there are probably plenty of good reasons for anyone to disagree with any individual ballot, but that doesn't diminish the validity of the ballot, the thought and effort that went into it or the importance of the overall rankings. I try to incorporate a best-of-all-worlds approach into my rankings, considering everything from record to previous ranking to strength of schedule to margin of victory to personnel. My Top 10 teams and the rationale for each choice follow below. Also check out Neate's ballot here and Jared's breakdown of the QUFL action here.
1. Queen's (5-0):
Yes, I did go to Queen's, but this isn't a homer pick (although you're welcome to ignore the following rationale and deride it as one if you like); I'm a reporter, not a fan, so I see it as my job to avoid both positive discrimination in favour of the Gaels and negative discrimination against them (being too hard on them in an attempt to prove impartiality). You can make a great argument for any of Laval, Calgary, Montreal or Queen's as the top team overall, but after looking at the Top 10 picture, I concluded that the Gaels fit the bill better than anyone else.
The rationale is simple. For one thing, they're undefeated, while all of those other contenders have at least one loss. A perfect record isn't everything, as St. Francis Xavier is also undefeated (4-0), but the X-Men have only beaten one team with a real case to be included in the Top 10 (No. 9 Saint Mary's, who they knocked off in the first week of the season). Their other wins are a 27-21 victory against Mount Allison (0-4), a narrow 19-17 squeaker over Concordia (1-4) and a 60-7 thumping of Acadia (1-3). By comparison, Queen's has put up a 52-49 win over No. 10 Guelph, a 8-7 victory over McMaster (3-2) where star quarterback Dan Brannagan exited in the second quarter after suffering a concussion and a 20-8 defeat of Ottawa (3-2) without Brannagan playing at all. They also put up blowout wins of 67-0 over York (0-5) and 42-13 over Windsor (2-3), but it's the three impressive victories over teams with legitimate top-10 cases that really convinced me to rank the Gaels here.
By comparison, Laval has two wins over Bishop's (1-4) and a win over Concordia (1-4). Their most impressive win is their 30-8 victory over a banged-up Montreal squad on Sept. 19, and that same team just gave them a 28-7 thumping. Montreal has yesterday's impressive win over Laval and a win over a decent McGill squad (3-2), but their other wins are over Acadia (1-3) and Concordia (1-4), and they have that 30-8 loss to Laval as well. Calgary's most impressive win was their 34-31 victory over Alberta, a team that has cracked the Top 10 but fell to 2-3 this week with a loss to Manitoba. Their other wins are over 2-3 SFU, 2-2 Regina and 1-4 UBC, and they have an overtime loss to Saskatchewan as well.
Out of all the candidates, it seems to me that Queen's has the best resume at the moment, especially considering McMaster's 42-35 win over Western and Ottawa's 27-25 defeat of Laurier. Running back Jimmy Therrien is looking like the second coming of Mike Giffin, and the Gaels also have one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Brannagan and quite possibly the best special-teams threat in the CIS in cornerback/kick returner Jimmy Allin. The defence also hasn't declined appreciably from last year's heights despite the losses of Dee Sterling to the CFL and reigning CIS defensive player of the year Thaine Carter to injury (and Carter may even return down the road) [Mike Koreen, The Kingston Whig-Standard]; they've allowed an average of just 15.3 points per game so far this year against solid competition. If you remove that 52-49 shootout in Week One, which came against one of the most explosive offences in the country in Guelph and while the defence was still adjusting to its new faces, they've allowed just 28 points in their last four games (an average of seven points per game). They have a ways to go, still; they have what should be an easy win against Waterloo this coming week and then two difficult tests against Western and Laurier, but it seems that a second consecutive 8-0 season isn't out of the realm of possibility for the Gaels. Given the flaws in the other top teams, they may be in store for a great postseason as well.
2. Calgary
Apart from Queen's, I figure Calgary has the best case for the top spot based on their body of work.They've beaten good teams in Alberta and SFU and have won decisively against not-so-good teams like UBC and Regina. They have a great dual-threat quarterback in Erik Glavic and a superb running back in Matt Walter, and their defence has looked very solid as well, especially against the run [Lauren Balter, The Ubyssey].The main blemish on their resume is that overtime loss to Saskatchewan, a good team in their own right. I expect Calgary to continue their strong season and come out on top of the Canada West heap.
3. Laval
Some may quibble with ranking Laval above the Montreal Carabins, who just beat them, but these are the juggernaut Rouge et Or, after all. They've dominated CIS football for the last several years, and they lost on the road, without reigning Hec Creighton winner Benoit Groulx (although they did beat a banged-up Carabins squad without him at home earlier in the year). They've been tops on my ballot and in the overall rankings every week this season, and for good reason. It's still a bad loss for them, especially considering the margin of victory, but it's not enough for me to drop them any further than third. I think they're still likely to wind up as Quebec champions, so that's the biggest reason I have them ranked above Montreal.
4. Montreal
Sunday's win was a historic one for Montreal, and proved that Laval is no longer the unquestioned top dog in Quebec. However, the Carabins had a lot of breaks go their way in this one, including the absence of Groulx and home-field advantage. They can hang with Laval and even knock them off if things go their way, but I'm not sure they're likely to beat the Rouge et Or again in the playoffs. They do have a shot, though, which is why I have them at fourth.
5. Western
This is a significant drop for the Mustangs, but I still love the team they have. Michael Faulds is one of the top quarterbacks out there, and the two-pronged rushing attack of Da'Shawn Thomas and Nathan Riva is not to be trifled with. On defence, though, there are more questions after they gave up 42 points to McMaster in a Homecoming loss. The Marauders had hardly been dynamic on offence going into Saturday's game; they did have 49-8 and 52-21 victories against bottom-feeders York and Waterloo, but they only managed seven points against Queen's and 14 against Laurier. They had a field day against Western, though, and that raises questions about how good the Mustang defence is. Western did hold a good Laurier team to seven points earlier this year, but the Golden Hawks are stronger defensively than offensively. The Mustangs also conceded 39 points against Guelph and 17 against Ottawa before Saturday's loss. Don't write off Western yet, though. They face York next week, but the big game for them will be the Oct. 17 showdown with Queen's. At the start of the year, I predicted on Norman James' London radio show that the OUA final would be Queen's - Western, and I haven't seen anything yet to convince me otherwise. That clash could go either way, and the winner stands an excellent chance of making it to the Vanier Cup, so Western is still very much a national title contender in my mind.
6. St. Francis Xavier
Yes, the X-Men are 4-0, and they do have the one impressive win over St. Mary's. It is difficult to rank them in the bottom half of the top 10 when other teams above them have significant blemishes. However, as I mentioned earlier, their schedule hasn't been the most challenging to date. That's not their fault, but it does mean that I have questions about how well they'll do against the top teams, especially considering that they weren't even ranked in the first three Top 10 polls this year. They've been a good surprise so far, but it's a question of if they can keep it up into the AUS playoffs, and if they can match up with other conference champions.
7. Saskatchewan:
The Huskies also have an impressive record, particularly with their overtime win over Calgary. Their loss to a 2-3 Alberta team (but one better than that record might suggest) significantly hurts their standings here, though. They're still very much in the hunt for a Canada West title, but they'll have to take down Calgary to get there. Even if they do pull that off, I'm not sure they'll do as well as the Dinos might against other conference champions.
8. Saint Mary's:
Everyone was expecting the Huskies to come out of the AUS, and they made it as high as No.4 in the poll before their loss to the X-Men. That loss and the weakness of their schedule so far means I can't put them higher than this at the moment, but they're still contenders for the AUS title and they could make some noise in the playoffs.
9. Guelph:
I've been high on Guelph since the start of the season, and so far, they've justified my faith. They have one of the top offences in the CIS, led by quarterback Justin Dunk and running back Nick Fitzgibbon, and they're averaging an incredible 48.2 points per week. Those numbers haven't all been against creampuffs, either; they hung 49 points on Queen's in Week One and put up another 39 against Western on Sept. 26. They also pulled off a nice win over Waterloo this week despite the absence of Dunk for swearing into a TV camera (which my former Queen's Journal colleagues Amrit Ahluwalia and Jake Edmiston debated here) Their defence is cause for more concern, and so is a potential injury to Fitzgibbon [Mark Bryson, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, but Josh McCreight filled in nicely against Waterloo. They also have http://oua.ca/sports/football/results/">a tough next few weeks against Ottawa, Laurier and McMaster, but they look like the best of that close pack at the moment.
10. McMaster:
The Marauders surprised pretty much everyone this week with their win over Western, but their resume actually isn't bad. Yes, their other wins came over York and Waterloo, but they only lost to Queen's by one and they were in the game against Laurier. Moreover, the biggest question mark around them was their offence, and they proved that there's plenty of talent there by hanging 42 points on the Mustangs. They have two relatively easy games against Toronto and Windsor coming up, which should leave them in good shape for the season finale against Guelph.
Also considered: Ottawa, Manitoba, Laurier, McGill
Questions? Comments? Just want to yell at me? Leave your thoughts below, or send them to me by Twitter, Facebook or e-mail.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
I'm a firm believer that there isn't necessarily a right way to rank the Top 10. It's an opinion poll of people who know a lot about the game, which means that the overall rankings are very valuable in my mind. Each individual voter likely approaches their ballot differently, though, and that's a good thing; it would be an extremely boring universe if we all thought alike. Thus, there are probably plenty of good reasons for anyone to disagree with any individual ballot, but that doesn't diminish the validity of the ballot, the thought and effort that went into it or the importance of the overall rankings. I try to incorporate a best-of-all-worlds approach into my rankings, considering everything from record to previous ranking to strength of schedule to margin of victory to personnel. My Top 10 teams and the rationale for each choice follow below. Also check out Neate's ballot here and Jared's breakdown of the QUFL action here.
1. Queen's (5-0):
Yes, I did go to Queen's, but this isn't a homer pick (although you're welcome to ignore the following rationale and deride it as one if you like); I'm a reporter, not a fan, so I see it as my job to avoid both positive discrimination in favour of the Gaels and negative discrimination against them (being too hard on them in an attempt to prove impartiality). You can make a great argument for any of Laval, Calgary, Montreal or Queen's as the top team overall, but after looking at the Top 10 picture, I concluded that the Gaels fit the bill better than anyone else.
The rationale is simple. For one thing, they're undefeated, while all of those other contenders have at least one loss. A perfect record isn't everything, as St. Francis Xavier is also undefeated (4-0), but the X-Men have only beaten one team with a real case to be included in the Top 10 (No. 9 Saint Mary's, who they knocked off in the first week of the season). Their other wins are a 27-21 victory against Mount Allison (0-4), a narrow 19-17 squeaker over Concordia (1-4) and a 60-7 thumping of Acadia (1-3). By comparison, Queen's has put up a 52-49 win over No. 10 Guelph, a 8-7 victory over McMaster (3-2) where star quarterback Dan Brannagan exited in the second quarter after suffering a concussion and a 20-8 defeat of Ottawa (3-2) without Brannagan playing at all. They also put up blowout wins of 67-0 over York (0-5) and 42-13 over Windsor (2-3), but it's the three impressive victories over teams with legitimate top-10 cases that really convinced me to rank the Gaels here.
By comparison, Laval has two wins over Bishop's (1-4) and a win over Concordia (1-4). Their most impressive win is their 30-8 victory over a banged-up Montreal squad on Sept. 19, and that same team just gave them a 28-7 thumping. Montreal has yesterday's impressive win over Laval and a win over a decent McGill squad (3-2), but their other wins are over Acadia (1-3) and Concordia (1-4), and they have that 30-8 loss to Laval as well. Calgary's most impressive win was their 34-31 victory over Alberta, a team that has cracked the Top 10 but fell to 2-3 this week with a loss to Manitoba. Their other wins are over 2-3 SFU, 2-2 Regina and 1-4 UBC, and they have an overtime loss to Saskatchewan as well.
Out of all the candidates, it seems to me that Queen's has the best resume at the moment, especially considering McMaster's 42-35 win over Western and Ottawa's 27-25 defeat of Laurier. Running back Jimmy Therrien is looking like the second coming of Mike Giffin, and the Gaels also have one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Brannagan and quite possibly the best special-teams threat in the CIS in cornerback/kick returner Jimmy Allin. The defence also hasn't declined appreciably from last year's heights despite the losses of Dee Sterling to the CFL and reigning CIS defensive player of the year Thaine Carter to injury (and Carter may even return down the road) [Mike Koreen, The Kingston Whig-Standard]; they've allowed an average of just 15.3 points per game so far this year against solid competition. If you remove that 52-49 shootout in Week One, which came against one of the most explosive offences in the country in Guelph and while the defence was still adjusting to its new faces, they've allowed just 28 points in their last four games (an average of seven points per game). They have a ways to go, still; they have what should be an easy win against Waterloo this coming week and then two difficult tests against Western and Laurier, but it seems that a second consecutive 8-0 season isn't out of the realm of possibility for the Gaels. Given the flaws in the other top teams, they may be in store for a great postseason as well.
2. Calgary
Apart from Queen's, I figure Calgary has the best case for the top spot based on their body of work.They've beaten good teams in Alberta and SFU and have won decisively against not-so-good teams like UBC and Regina. They have a great dual-threat quarterback in Erik Glavic and a superb running back in Matt Walter, and their defence has looked very solid as well, especially against the run [Lauren Balter, The Ubyssey].The main blemish on their resume is that overtime loss to Saskatchewan, a good team in their own right. I expect Calgary to continue their strong season and come out on top of the Canada West heap.
3. Laval
Some may quibble with ranking Laval above the Montreal Carabins, who just beat them, but these are the juggernaut Rouge et Or, after all. They've dominated CIS football for the last several years, and they lost on the road, without reigning Hec Creighton winner Benoit Groulx (although they did beat a banged-up Carabins squad without him at home earlier in the year). They've been tops on my ballot and in the overall rankings every week this season, and for good reason. It's still a bad loss for them, especially considering the margin of victory, but it's not enough for me to drop them any further than third. I think they're still likely to wind up as Quebec champions, so that's the biggest reason I have them ranked above Montreal.
4. Montreal
Sunday's win was a historic one for Montreal, and proved that Laval is no longer the unquestioned top dog in Quebec. However, the Carabins had a lot of breaks go their way in this one, including the absence of Groulx and home-field advantage. They can hang with Laval and even knock them off if things go their way, but I'm not sure they're likely to beat the Rouge et Or again in the playoffs. They do have a shot, though, which is why I have them at fourth.
5. Western
This is a significant drop for the Mustangs, but I still love the team they have. Michael Faulds is one of the top quarterbacks out there, and the two-pronged rushing attack of Da'Shawn Thomas and Nathan Riva is not to be trifled with. On defence, though, there are more questions after they gave up 42 points to McMaster in a Homecoming loss. The Marauders had hardly been dynamic on offence going into Saturday's game; they did have 49-8 and 52-21 victories against bottom-feeders York and Waterloo, but they only managed seven points against Queen's and 14 against Laurier. They had a field day against Western, though, and that raises questions about how good the Mustang defence is. Western did hold a good Laurier team to seven points earlier this year, but the Golden Hawks are stronger defensively than offensively. The Mustangs also conceded 39 points against Guelph and 17 against Ottawa before Saturday's loss. Don't write off Western yet, though. They face York next week, but the big game for them will be the Oct. 17 showdown with Queen's. At the start of the year, I predicted on Norman James' London radio show that the OUA final would be Queen's - Western, and I haven't seen anything yet to convince me otherwise. That clash could go either way, and the winner stands an excellent chance of making it to the Vanier Cup, so Western is still very much a national title contender in my mind.
6. St. Francis Xavier
Yes, the X-Men are 4-0, and they do have the one impressive win over St. Mary's. It is difficult to rank them in the bottom half of the top 10 when other teams above them have significant blemishes. However, as I mentioned earlier, their schedule hasn't been the most challenging to date. That's not their fault, but it does mean that I have questions about how well they'll do against the top teams, especially considering that they weren't even ranked in the first three Top 10 polls this year. They've been a good surprise so far, but it's a question of if they can keep it up into the AUS playoffs, and if they can match up with other conference champions.
7. Saskatchewan:
The Huskies also have an impressive record, particularly with their overtime win over Calgary. Their loss to a 2-3 Alberta team (but one better than that record might suggest) significantly hurts their standings here, though. They're still very much in the hunt for a Canada West title, but they'll have to take down Calgary to get there. Even if they do pull that off, I'm not sure they'll do as well as the Dinos might against other conference champions.
8. Saint Mary's:
Everyone was expecting the Huskies to come out of the AUS, and they made it as high as No.4 in the poll before their loss to the X-Men. That loss and the weakness of their schedule so far means I can't put them higher than this at the moment, but they're still contenders for the AUS title and they could make some noise in the playoffs.
9. Guelph:
I've been high on Guelph since the start of the season, and so far, they've justified my faith. They have one of the top offences in the CIS, led by quarterback Justin Dunk and running back Nick Fitzgibbon, and they're averaging an incredible 48.2 points per week. Those numbers haven't all been against creampuffs, either; they hung 49 points on Queen's in Week One and put up another 39 against Western on Sept. 26. They also pulled off a nice win over Waterloo this week despite the absence of Dunk for swearing into a TV camera (which my former Queen's Journal colleagues Amrit Ahluwalia and Jake Edmiston debated here) Their defence is cause for more concern, and so is a potential injury to Fitzgibbon [Mark Bryson, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, but Josh McCreight filled in nicely against Waterloo. They also have http://oua.ca/sports/football/results/">a tough next few weeks against Ottawa, Laurier and McMaster, but they look like the best of that close pack at the moment.
10. McMaster:
The Marauders surprised pretty much everyone this week with their win over Western, but their resume actually isn't bad. Yes, their other wins came over York and Waterloo, but they only lost to Queen's by one and they were in the game against Laurier. Moreover, the biggest question mark around them was their offence, and they proved that there's plenty of talent there by hanging 42 points on the Mustangs. They have two relatively easy games against Toronto and Windsor coming up, which should leave them in good shape for the season finale against Guelph.
Also considered: Ottawa, Manitoba, Laurier, McGill
Questions? Comments? Just want to yell at me? Leave your thoughts below, or send them to me by Twitter, Facebook or e-mail.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Western - Guelph live blog
It should be a great day in CIS football, as the No. 2 Western Mustangs take on the No. 10 Guelph Gryphons live on The Score's University Rush. I'll be live-blogging it here and at The CIS Blog with Neate Sager and Rob Pettapiece, plus anyone else who can make it out. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific. Come join us then!
Friday, July 03, 2009
CFL: CIS showdown in Regina tonight
The CFL's always a good option for CIS football diehards looking for offseason entertainment, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are one of the teams to watch. As Neate pointed out with his list of CIS players in the CFL the other day, Saskatchewan is well ahead of the rest of the league in terms of CIS content. The Roughriders, who start their season tonight against the B.C. Lions, have a league-high 21 CIS-trained players on their roster. I'll be live-blogging the game here tonight; kickoff is at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Saskatchewan's Canadian-trained talent is perhaps most evident in the receiving corps, where the Riders have two players who are already stars (slotback Jason Clermont from the University of Regina and wide receiver Andy Fantuz from Western) and three more with serious star potential (wide receiver Rob Bagg from Queen's, who I profiled here, slotback Chris Getzlaf from the University of Regina and wide receiver Adam Nicolson from the University of Ottawa) ; they also have wide receiver Dave McKoy from the University of Guelph, who's currently on the injured list. The Riders are also deep with Canadian talent on the lines and in the secondary.
Their opponents, the B.C. Lions, don't have quite the same number of CIS players, but they have some quality ones. Most of the Lions' CIS stars are on the defensive side of the ball, including linebacker Javy Glatt from Simon Fraser University (a 2008 CFL all-star), defensive end Ricky Foley from York, who will have to try and fill Cameron Wake's shoes, and their top draft pick from this year, James Yurichuk, a linebacker from Bishop's. On offence, SFU centre Angus Reid has been a consistent CFL starter for several years now and has performed well.
It should be an excellent game tonight. There's always a healthy rivalry between the teams, and both will be eager to start the season off on the right foot. One of the big storylines entering tonight's game is a former CIS player as well, Jason Clermont, who went from B.C. to his native Saskatchewan in the off-season. For those looking for a CIS football fix, it might be worth tuning in to see how yesterday's university stars are doing in the pros.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saskatchewan's Canadian-trained talent is perhaps most evident in the receiving corps, where the Riders have two players who are already stars (slotback Jason Clermont from the University of Regina and wide receiver Andy Fantuz from Western) and three more with serious star potential (wide receiver Rob Bagg from Queen's, who I profiled here, slotback Chris Getzlaf from the University of Regina and wide receiver Adam Nicolson from the University of Ottawa) ; they also have wide receiver Dave McKoy from the University of Guelph, who's currently on the injured list. The Riders are also deep with Canadian talent on the lines and in the secondary.
Their opponents, the B.C. Lions, don't have quite the same number of CIS players, but they have some quality ones. Most of the Lions' CIS stars are on the defensive side of the ball, including linebacker Javy Glatt from Simon Fraser University (a 2008 CFL all-star), defensive end Ricky Foley from York, who will have to try and fill Cameron Wake's shoes, and their top draft pick from this year, James Yurichuk, a linebacker from Bishop's. On offence, SFU centre Angus Reid has been a consistent CFL starter for several years now and has performed well.
It should be an excellent game tonight. There's always a healthy rivalry between the teams, and both will be eager to start the season off on the right foot. One of the big storylines entering tonight's game is a former CIS player as well, Jason Clermont, who went from B.C. to his native Saskatchewan in the off-season. For those looking for a CIS football fix, it might be worth tuning in to see how yesterday's university stars are doing in the pros.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
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