It's a great CFL Friday night showdown. In one corner, we have the 7-5 Saskatchewan Roughriders, tied for first place in the West Division; in the other one, the 5-7 B.C. Lions, in the division cellar. The playoff race is so close at the moment that this could be a huge game. I'll be live-blogging it here and at Out of Left Field starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern/7:30 p.m. Pacific. Come join me then!
Showing posts with label Out Of Left Field. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Out Of Left Field. Show all posts
Friday, October 02, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
A few links and some scheduling
Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm taking off for a few days to go camping, so things have been somewhat light around here due to preparations for that. I do have a lengthy essay on sportswriting and Malcolm Gladwell scheduled to go up tomorrow morning, though, and I should be back with fresh content Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Until then, here's a few links to tide you over:
My work:
- A post on the Canucks' acquisition of Mikael Samuelsson [Canuck Puck
- A piece on the death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair [The Phoenix Pub]
- A piece on the Sedins returning and a few other signings [Canuck Puck]
Other good pieces:
- James Mirtle sees the Canucks as a team with cash still to spend
[From The Rink]
- Joe Posnanski on the Royals' lack of speed
- Neate on the Raptors picking up Turkoglu [Out of Left Field]
My work:
- A post on the Canucks' acquisition of Mikael Samuelsson [Canuck Puck
- A piece on the death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair [The Phoenix Pub]
- A piece on the Sedins returning and a few other signings [Canuck Puck]
Other good pieces:
- James Mirtle sees the Canucks as a team with cash still to spend
[From The Rink]
- Joe Posnanski on the Royals' lack of speed
- Neate on the Raptors picking up Turkoglu [Out of Left Field]
Thursday, July 02, 2009
I'm back!
Apologies for the horribly long absence; I had to spend most of the past week preparing for a move and then flew across the country yesterday. I'm back in the blogging saddle now, though, and have plenty of stuff planned here for the next few days. Until then, here's a link to two of the pieces I've managed to write in the meantime and some other pieces I've enjoyed reading recently.
- A piece I wrote Monday at Canuck Puck on the Canucks' involvement in free agent rumours and laying out my blueprint for Vancouver's free-agency moves.
- A piece analyzing the top 10 picks of the NHL draft I co-wrote over at The Rookies.
- An interesting piece by First Derivative over at The Phoenix Pub on why the acquisition of Marian Hossa may hurt the Blackhawks thanks to the length of his deal.
- Neate has a breakdown of the CFL players from the CIS ranks over at Out of Left Field.
- A great piece from Joe Posnanski on the Royals' problems handling injuries.
Thanks for putting up with me during this absence! We now return you to your regularly scheduled Sporting Madness programming.
- A piece I wrote Monday at Canuck Puck on the Canucks' involvement in free agent rumours and laying out my blueprint for Vancouver's free-agency moves.
- A piece analyzing the top 10 picks of the NHL draft I co-wrote over at The Rookies.
- An interesting piece by First Derivative over at The Phoenix Pub on why the acquisition of Marian Hossa may hurt the Blackhawks thanks to the length of his deal.
- Neate has a breakdown of the CFL players from the CIS ranks over at Out of Left Field.
- A great piece from Joe Posnanski on the Royals' problems handling injuries.
Thanks for putting up with me during this absence! We now return you to your regularly scheduled Sporting Madness programming.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Turn and face the strange ch..ch..changes
Hello, readers! As you might have noticed, there have been a few changes around here. I'm now part of the excellent TheScore.com Sports Federation, which will be a lot of fun, and have a real domain name to boot (sportingmadness.ca)! Check out some of the other sites in the network if you get the chance; they're all listed by category in the black bar at the top of the page, but I figured I'd spotlight a few of my personal favourites. For you baseball fans, there's a lot of great sites in the network,including Drunk Jays Fans and Ghostrunner on First. For hockey nuts, check out the likes of Down Goes Brown and the Canucks Hockey Blog. In basketball, RaptorBlog and DinoNation are both excellent, and for soccer, there's some terrific stuff over at TFC Connected and Arsenalist. In general sports, Sports and the City is the best comprehensive Toronto sports blog out there and there's some excellent insight into the world of sports at The Tony Ambrogio Experience. If you don't mind sites sullied by my presence as a contributor, there's The 24th Minute, where I live-blog TFC and Vancouver Whitecaps games and chime in with other posts from time to time, and The CIS Blog, your comprehensive source for all things related to Canadian university athletics. Check out the other network sites as well and the great blogs on The Score's homepage.
Anyway, back to this site. The old Blogspot link should redirect, so there shouldn't be any need to change your bookmarks. The roster of sites I'm writing for has also expanded recently; you can find them all in the blogroll at the right, but I'll list them for the fun of it. In addition to my previous gigs at The CIS Blog (Canadian university sports), Out Of Left Field (Canadian perspectives on sports), The Good Point (a multi-sport webmagazine site where I cover the NFL) and The 24th Minute (Canadian soccer), I'm now writing for the sports humour site The Rookies and will soon be making my debut at the excellent Women's Soccer Weekly and the soon-to-be-launched Phoenix Pub. Given that most of my work for these sites is an every-once-in-a-while thing, I'll post links to it here from time to time, but you should definitely check out all of those destinations for the other excellent writers there.
It's an exciting time here, and it's great to be taking this site to another level. The focus is going to be pretty much exactly as it was before, with coverage from a wide variety of sports but an emphasis on going beyond just the surface and developing detailed, nuanced opinions on the big issues in sports, rather than just trying to shout the loudest about why I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If you haven't read it yet, this post on the shades of grey that should be involved in sports analysis is pretty much my mission statement in that area. I'm also a big fan of doing new and interesting things with the site and going beyond the conventional ideas of what a blog can be. To those ends, I'll have plenty of live blogs, Twitter updates (follow me here), interviews and other content here as well. I'm also always open to suggestions on what you'd like to see covered; the readers are what make this site, so I'm always happy to talk about what you like and dislike about it. Leave comments below or e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz [at] hotmail.com. Hope to hear from you! Until then, I leave you in good hands with Mr. David Bowie:
Anyway, back to this site. The old Blogspot link should redirect, so there shouldn't be any need to change your bookmarks. The roster of sites I'm writing for has also expanded recently; you can find them all in the blogroll at the right, but I'll list them for the fun of it. In addition to my previous gigs at The CIS Blog (Canadian university sports), Out Of Left Field (Canadian perspectives on sports), The Good Point (a multi-sport webmagazine site where I cover the NFL) and The 24th Minute (Canadian soccer), I'm now writing for the sports humour site The Rookies and will soon be making my debut at the excellent Women's Soccer Weekly and the soon-to-be-launched Phoenix Pub. Given that most of my work for these sites is an every-once-in-a-while thing, I'll post links to it here from time to time, but you should definitely check out all of those destinations for the other excellent writers there.
It's an exciting time here, and it's great to be taking this site to another level. The focus is going to be pretty much exactly as it was before, with coverage from a wide variety of sports but an emphasis on going beyond just the surface and developing detailed, nuanced opinions on the big issues in sports, rather than just trying to shout the loudest about why I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If you haven't read it yet, this post on the shades of grey that should be involved in sports analysis is pretty much my mission statement in that area. I'm also a big fan of doing new and interesting things with the site and going beyond the conventional ideas of what a blog can be. To those ends, I'll have plenty of live blogs, Twitter updates (follow me here), interviews and other content here as well. I'm also always open to suggestions on what you'd like to see covered; the readers are what make this site, so I'm always happy to talk about what you like and dislike about it. Leave comments below or e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz [at] hotmail.com. Hope to hear from you! Until then, I leave you in good hands with Mr. David Bowie:
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Greg Sutton out, Ali Gerba and Nick Garcia in at TFC
It was a big day for Toronto FC, as general manager Mo Johnston released veteran goalkeeper Greg Sutton and traded a third-round draft pick to the San Jose Earthquakes for defender Nick Garcia and the rights to Canadian international striker Ali Gerba. I have some analysis on the move and a few links over at Out of Left Field.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Canada set to face American giants
Tomorrow's going to be a big day for Canadian women's soccer; it's new head coach Carolina Morace's first home match in charge of the team against the most feared side in the world, the top-ranked Americans. The U.S. is 37-3-4 against Canada all time, but recent results between the sides have been close, so it should be a good match. I have a full match preview posted over at Out of Left Field and will be live-blogging the match here and at The 24th Minute tomorrow night. The game is at BMO Field and will be broadcast live on Rogers Sportsnet. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Eastern time; come by for the live blog then!
Friday, February 27, 2009
The future of the news business
Neate has some interesting thoughts on the newspaper industry over at Out of Left Field, particularly with relation to an online subscription-based model either through cable companies or done as a standalone (as Newsday is trying [Steven Musil, CNET). I don't think this is the way to go, though. For one thing, subscriptions are untenable if free alternatives are offered, so you'd have to get all the papers on board (nigh to impossible) and others would certainly start free alternatives of their own to challenge this. Furthermore, bringing in subscriptions would generate some new revenue, but it would also lower your traffic numbers and thus either your online advertising rates or the number of ads you're able to sell. In my view, this would mean that going to subscriptions would either have a minimal effect or even a negative one on the bottom line.
For me, the solution is a traditional one with a couple of new elements. Make all the content free; this increases the reader base, both through your normal readers who navigate to the site on their own and through secondary readers (those who arrive there via links from other sites). Some normal readers will stick around in a subscription model, but most of your secondary readers will be gone: there's little to no point in linking to something behind a pay wall. Instead, if you maintain that high reader base and take it to your advertisers, perhaps in new and innovative ways (different kinds of ads, ads localized to individual stories, etc), you might be able to accomplish a lot more.
Internet advertising has the potential to be far more effective than any other form, and it's certainly more trackable; you can tell your advertisers exactly how many people saw their ad and how many clicked on it, something you can't do with print, radio or television ads. You can also tell what sites they're coming from and what stories they're reading; that gives a lot of valuable demographic information.
In my mind, advertisers will eventually realize the power of the web and will be willing to buy more ads there and pay higher prices for them, especially on sites that have high repeated traffic. It may take a while for this revolution to happen, but as young people familiar with the power of Internet marketing advance through the ranks, I see it as more and more likely.
You know what a good example of this is? Gawker Media. Forget for the moment the debate over if their content is journalistic or not (I'd argue that much of it is) and look at their business model. Nick Denton has proven that you can run a network of online-only sites with no pay locks and full access to archives, supported solely by high traffic numbers and advertising. That's something that could work very well for a lot of newspapers. The challenge is attracting that number of viewers, but that can be done by creating strong content and engaging with the Web population through such avenues as blogs and online discussions.
Also, newspapers need to get past their typical aversion to linking to outside sources. The Internet is a two-way street and a link-based economy. If you're willing to give out links to good content, that makes others more willing to link to your material and increases your secondary traffic numbers. It's more about collaboration than competition. Successful newspapers in the future will not only have websites; they'll think like natural web users and adjust their policies and content to take full advantage of the medium.
Thus, in my ideal endgame, we wind up with most papers surviving and drawing most of their revenue from web ads. They may or may not still run dead-tree editions, but if they do, those will likely be in very limited numbers and done as a loss-leader to give the online version credibility. The Internet is the present and the future, and it's where the business is going, but it's based around freedom and open access fueled by advertising; trying to bring a paid model to the web is a step backwards in my view.
[This post began life in a smaller form as a comment I left over at Out of Left Field]
For me, the solution is a traditional one with a couple of new elements. Make all the content free; this increases the reader base, both through your normal readers who navigate to the site on their own and through secondary readers (those who arrive there via links from other sites). Some normal readers will stick around in a subscription model, but most of your secondary readers will be gone: there's little to no point in linking to something behind a pay wall. Instead, if you maintain that high reader base and take it to your advertisers, perhaps in new and innovative ways (different kinds of ads, ads localized to individual stories, etc), you might be able to accomplish a lot more.
Internet advertising has the potential to be far more effective than any other form, and it's certainly more trackable; you can tell your advertisers exactly how many people saw their ad and how many clicked on it, something you can't do with print, radio or television ads. You can also tell what sites they're coming from and what stories they're reading; that gives a lot of valuable demographic information.
In my mind, advertisers will eventually realize the power of the web and will be willing to buy more ads there and pay higher prices for them, especially on sites that have high repeated traffic. It may take a while for this revolution to happen, but as young people familiar with the power of Internet marketing advance through the ranks, I see it as more and more likely.
You know what a good example of this is? Gawker Media. Forget for the moment the debate over if their content is journalistic or not (I'd argue that much of it is) and look at their business model. Nick Denton has proven that you can run a network of online-only sites with no pay locks and full access to archives, supported solely by high traffic numbers and advertising. That's something that could work very well for a lot of newspapers. The challenge is attracting that number of viewers, but that can be done by creating strong content and engaging with the Web population through such avenues as blogs and online discussions.
Also, newspapers need to get past their typical aversion to linking to outside sources. The Internet is a two-way street and a link-based economy. If you're willing to give out links to good content, that makes others more willing to link to your material and increases your secondary traffic numbers. It's more about collaboration than competition. Successful newspapers in the future will not only have websites; they'll think like natural web users and adjust their policies and content to take full advantage of the medium.
Thus, in my ideal endgame, we wind up with most papers surviving and drawing most of their revenue from web ads. They may or may not still run dead-tree editions, but if they do, those will likely be in very limited numbers and done as a loss-leader to give the online version credibility. The Internet is the present and the future, and it's where the business is going, but it's based around freedom and open access fueled by advertising; trying to bring a paid model to the web is a step backwards in my view.
[This post began life in a smaller form as a comment I left over at Out of Left Field]
Friday, January 30, 2009
Upcoming live blog: Queen's and Ryerson bring Slap Shot back!
A quick note that I'll be live-blogging tonight's Queen's-Ryerson men's hockey game, which is at 7:30 p.m. at the Memorial Centre. It's Slap Shot night, so people in attendance are encouraged to dress up (and they apparently will have beer gardens, which is a huge step for men's hockey; we haven't seen those since the glory days of Jock Harty Arena). The game itself will be big too, as the 7-13-2 Gaels desperately need a win. They're four games behind the 11-9-2 University of Toronto Varsity Blues for the division lead and three games behind the 9-9-4 Ottawa Gee-Gees for the final playoff spot.
Here's a few links to pique your interest for the game:
- Neate unleashes an excellent Top 5 Slap Shot clips. [Out of Left Field].
- Amrit wrote a great story on last week's Queen's-RMC game with a bit of a preview for tonight. [Queen's Journal].
- Scott Turcotte has a solid profile of Queen's goalie Brady Morrison in today's paper. [Queen's Journal].
- Chris Thompson of Queen's Athletics has a good preview up on their site [gogaelsgo.com].
- And I have a piece on Queen's assistant coach Alyn McCauley in today's paper (as seen on the excellent Pension Plan Puppets!)
Here's a few links to pique your interest for the game:
- Neate unleashes an excellent Top 5 Slap Shot clips. [Out of Left Field].
- Amrit wrote a great story on last week's Queen's-RMC game with a bit of a preview for tonight. [Queen's Journal].
- Scott Turcotte has a solid profile of Queen's goalie Brady Morrison in today's paper. [Queen's Journal].
- Chris Thompson of Queen's Athletics has a good preview up on their site [gogaelsgo.com].
- And I have a piece on Queen's assistant coach Alyn McCauley in today's paper (as seen on the excellent Pension Plan Puppets!)
Friday, December 12, 2008
Arena football and DeRo coverage
Apologies for the shortage of posts here; I've been busy writing for Out of Left Field for the last couple of days. There hasn't been a shortage of interesting stuff, though. Here's my post on the Arena Football League's potentially impending demise and what that could mean for the CFL; I've also written a follow-up post on the Prime Time Sports segment discussing it and one today on the newest member of Toronto FC, Dwayne De Rosario. Should be back to regular posting here shortly.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Welcoming Ben Knight to the blogosphere
Now would be a great time to extend good wishes to soccer writer extraordinaire Ben Knight, who has just launched his own site after the Globe decided to move in a different direction [Duane Rollins, Out of Left Field] with their On Soccer blog. Ben is a terrific writer and a great guy, and I'm sure he'll find a lot of success with this. What I value most about his work is his ability to see the shades of grey I referenced earlier. Even on the topics he's most passionate about, such as the bungling of the CSA and some of the mistakes made by Toronto FC, he has avoided the pitfalls of absolutism and put forth balanced, reasoned and rational arguments to improve matters, rather than just the constant vitriol and criticism without solutions found in other quarters. He can balance being a journalist and being a fan, which is a difficult line to walk, but he does it very well in my mind and appeals to a broad range of people as a result. All soccer fans should definitely give him a look if they haven't already. I've been following his stuff passionately since the Sportsnet.ca days, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Was Montreal pushed?
Ben Knight has dug up a really interesting press release from the Montreal Impact on Montreal dropping its MLS bid, which I covered over at Out of Left Field a couple of days ago. Here's the release:
"RECTIFICATION REGARDING MONTREAL'S BID FOR MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Following MLS Commissioner Don Garber's statements regarding Montreal's bid, the Montreal partnership group would like to bring one important rectification:
Montreal did not withdrew its bid from Major League Soccer but was informed that the league did not retain its bid. Out of respect for the Grey Cup festivities, the partnership group will not make any additional statements over the weekend. However, the President of the Montreal Impact [and] Saputo Stadium, Mr. Joey Saputo, who is spearheading Montreal's MLS bid, will meet the media: Monday, November 24, 2008, 10:30 am, Saputo Stadium, 4750 Sherbrooke Street, Montreal."
That's fascinating. According to this release, it wasn't that Montreal backed out; MLS decided not to consider their application. It's hard to imagine why at first, especially considering that most observers thought Montreal had the strongest bid of any city and was pretty much a lock. However, there could be concerns with the financial health of George Gillett's sporting empire, especially considering Liverpool's troubles [Ian Herbert and Andrew Warshaw, The Independent]. Joey Saputo, the owner of the Impact and Gillett's partner in the MLS bid, has also brought up the notion of staying in the USL, so perhaps Garber was concerned about Montreal's commitment to MLS.
We have conflicting statements, though. From the AP story with Garber's comments:
"Garber said that Montreal's delegation — led by Joey Saputo and George Gillett, who owns Liverpool FC in England's Premier League and the NHL's Montreal Canadiens — had informed him within the past week of possible trouble.
'Montreal has had to evaluate what kinds of private capital they needed to refinance their stadium to fund the expansion fee, and what kind of public support would be available,' Garber said. 'I'm not sure they were able to come to terms in this economic environment.'"
Garber doesn't directly say that Montreal withdrew their bid on their own, but that's certainly the logical inference, and it's the one the unnamed AP writer drew; his lede reads "Montreal withdrew its bid for a Major League Soccer expansion team, commissioner Don Garber said Friday in his state-of-the-league address."
Garber and Saputo (or whoever wrote the Impact's press release) could both telling the truth, though. Garber never said that Montreal abandoned their bid, even though he implied it. It's possible Saputo and Gillett wanted to keep the bid alive despite financial trouble, but Garber canned it after seeing the numbers.
Still, kicking Montreal of the bid process seems rather unusual, especially given the strength of their bid. Even if the league had already decided to go with a different franchises, retaining Montreal as an option would force the other markets to up the ante of their bids in an attempt to compete. If the press release is accurate, this decision doesn't seem to make business sense for MLS on the surface; less markets under consideration means less competition for the limited expansion slots, and more complaining about and reluctance to pay the sky-high expansion fees sure to be required. You have to wonder if there's more going on here. Monday's press conference will surely be fascinating.
(Cross-posted to Out of Left Field.)
"RECTIFICATION REGARDING MONTREAL'S BID FOR MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Following MLS Commissioner Don Garber's statements regarding Montreal's bid, the Montreal partnership group would like to bring one important rectification:
Montreal did not withdrew its bid from Major League Soccer but was informed that the league did not retain its bid. Out of respect for the Grey Cup festivities, the partnership group will not make any additional statements over the weekend. However, the President of the Montreal Impact [and] Saputo Stadium, Mr. Joey Saputo, who is spearheading Montreal's MLS bid, will meet the media: Monday, November 24, 2008, 10:30 am, Saputo Stadium, 4750 Sherbrooke Street, Montreal."
That's fascinating. According to this release, it wasn't that Montreal backed out; MLS decided not to consider their application. It's hard to imagine why at first, especially considering that most observers thought Montreal had the strongest bid of any city and was pretty much a lock. However, there could be concerns with the financial health of George Gillett's sporting empire, especially considering Liverpool's troubles [Ian Herbert and Andrew Warshaw, The Independent]. Joey Saputo, the owner of the Impact and Gillett's partner in the MLS bid, has also brought up the notion of staying in the USL, so perhaps Garber was concerned about Montreal's commitment to MLS.
We have conflicting statements, though. From the AP story with Garber's comments:
"Garber said that Montreal's delegation — led by Joey Saputo and George Gillett, who owns Liverpool FC in England's Premier League and the NHL's Montreal Canadiens — had informed him within the past week of possible trouble.
'Montreal has had to evaluate what kinds of private capital they needed to refinance their stadium to fund the expansion fee, and what kind of public support would be available,' Garber said. 'I'm not sure they were able to come to terms in this economic environment.'"
Garber doesn't directly say that Montreal withdrew their bid on their own, but that's certainly the logical inference, and it's the one the unnamed AP writer drew; his lede reads "Montreal withdrew its bid for a Major League Soccer expansion team, commissioner Don Garber said Friday in his state-of-the-league address."
Garber and Saputo (or whoever wrote the Impact's press release) could both telling the truth, though. Garber never said that Montreal abandoned their bid, even though he implied it. It's possible Saputo and Gillett wanted to keep the bid alive despite financial trouble, but Garber canned it after seeing the numbers.
Still, kicking Montreal of the bid process seems rather unusual, especially given the strength of their bid. Even if the league had already decided to go with a different franchises, retaining Montreal as an option would force the other markets to up the ante of their bids in an attempt to compete. If the press release is accurate, this decision doesn't seem to make business sense for MLS on the surface; less markets under consideration means less competition for the limited expansion slots, and more complaining about and reluctance to pay the sky-high expansion fees sure to be required. You have to wonder if there's more going on here. Monday's press conference will surely be fascinating.
(Cross-posted to Out of Left Field.)
Saturday, November 15, 2008
CFL playoff coverage
Just thought I'd mention that I'm doing CFL coverage today over at Out of Left Field. East final preview is here, West final preview here and a East final recap is here; I'll put a West final recap up there later tonight, hopefully between periods of the Queen's-McGill game (which will be live-blogged here, as previously mentioned).
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Live blog: The Battle of the 613
And we're up and rolling! Kickoff should be in just a moment. My previews of the game are here [Sporting Madness] and here [Queen's Journal]. Neate also has a good one here. The game is also on the radio at CFRC and is being webcast at SSN Canada. Post comments here or send them to me at andrew_bucholtz (at) hotmail.com.
First quarter:
-Dan Village kicks off for Queen's: Ottawa returns it to around their own 20.
- Dave Mason runs off the left tackle for about five yards.
- Josh Sacobie completes a short pass, but his receiver is stopped less than a yard short. Gee-Gees are going for it.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33.
- Mason carries off right tackle, picks up 5. 2 and 5 on the Ottawa 38.
- Mason carries for two, stopped by Mike Botting. 3 and 3 Ottawa: they decide to punt.
- Awful snap and the punt's almost blocked by Tim Poffley. Ottawa gets it off, though, but the ball only travels about 35 yards. Jimmy Allin pulls off a nice return and Ottawa's called for no-yards as well. 1 and 10 Queen's on the Ottawa 53.
- Short pass to inside receiver Scott Stinson is good for about 4 yards. 2 and 6.
- Brannagan's pass is right to Ottawa linebacker Joe Barnes, who really should have made that pick. He drops it, though, and Queen's punts.
- Village gets a great punt off, punning Ottawa deep: they take it out to about the13 15.
- Mason runs for a gain of about 2. Queen's linebacker Thaine Carter is hurt on the play: he's still down.
- 2nd and 8 Ottawa on their own 17. Carter's limping off with help from Botting. That's a big loss for Queen's if he doesn't come back: Carter's the defensive captain and the key linebacker in stopping the run.
- Queen's linemen Osie Ukwuoma and Dee Sterling break through, flushing Sacobie from the pocket. He has to throw it away and Ottawa will punt. The punt goes out of bounds at the Ottawa 43, giving the Gaels some great field position.
- Realized I forgot to put an official prediction up in my preview. I think it's going to be close, but I see Queen's winning by 7.
- A short Brannagan pass to (I think) Chris Ioannides winds up going for a first down with a great run after the catch.
- Marty Gordon runs for two: 2 and 8 Queen's on the Ottawa 33. Gordon will have to carry most of the running load today: it's been confirmed that Mike Giffin isn't going to play. Looks like my doom and gloom on that front was justified.
- Brannagan hits Scott Valberg with a great pass over the middle: he's brought down around the Ottawa 12. First down, Queen's.
- Gordon runs for five off-tackle. Second and five.
- Brannagan's pass for Devan Sheahan falls incomplete. 3 and 5 Queen's.
- Queen's fakes a field goal, with Allin taking off and running. He isn't getting anywhere though, so he throws an end-zone pass, but it's picked off by an Ottawa DB. Ottawa ball on their own 20.
- I like that call, even though it didn't work. Queen's has been very successful on the fake field goals this year, particularly with Allin running. I think he might have been able to get the five yards they needed if he'd kept going instead of dropping and trying a pass.
- Mason runs for four or five yards, stopped by T.J. Leeper. 2 and 5 Ottawa.
- Mason runs for a first down off the left side. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 40.
- Mason runs for two: second and 8.
- It's surprisingly warm and nice here, which is probably good for Queen's: they're playing more of a finesse game, while Ottawa's going for the old smash-mouth power running game.
- Sacobie throws deep, and it's almost picked. Both David Rooney and Allin has a chance at that one. Ottawa will punt.
- It's not a great punt, and it soars out of bounds. Looks like Ottawa's trying to keep the ball away from Allin on the returns. Queen's ball on their own 42.
- Jimmy Therrien runs off right tackle for QUeen's and picks up about 4. 2 and 6 Gaels.
- Brannagan throws a beauty of a sideline pass to Valberg, who picks up a first down and more. 1 and 10 Queen's on the Ottawa 52.
- Brannagan has all day in the pocket, and finds Devan Sheahan at about the 10-yard line with a sideline bomb. Sheahan sidesteps a tackle and jumps in for the TD. That was fantastic protection from the O-line. Brannagan had about seven seconds without a defender getting anywhere near him, allowing him to make that deep play. It was a hell of a throw, too: right into Sheahan's arms 40 yards down the field. Village hits the EP: Queen's 7, Ottawa 0.
- Village kicks off right to the end zone and Ottawa's Chayce Elliott misfields it. He runs back to get it and is hit in the end zone for a single. Queen's 8, Ottawa 0.
- Ottawa ball on their 35.
- Sacobie throws a 8-yard pass or so, and the receiver picks up the first down.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 45.
- Mason runs up the middle for about eight.
- Ottawa tries another run, but Ukwuoma comes over the top and makes a great stop. 3 and 1 Ottawa: they're going for it.
- Sacobie sneaks up the middle for the first down. End of the first quarter.
- That's cool: the Kingston high-school football all-stars are being honoured on the field, and Saskatchewan Roughrider and former Gael Rob Bagg is in attendance to shake hands with all of them. Bagg had a fantastic game this Thursday against the Argonauts. Good to see him doing so well and making the trip back to his school. He gets a big round of applause, as he should.
Second quarter:
- Sacobie drops and throws deep for Justin Wood-Roy, but Botting makes a great play to break it up. 2 and 10.
- Sacobie drops and has plenty of time this time: good protection from the O-line. He fires it deep to about the 15 and backup quarterback Brad Sinopoli makes a nice catch. It takes two tacklers to drag Sinopoli down, and he gets to the 1.
- Mason punches it in from the 1: TD Ottawa. They hit the extra point, so it's Queen's 8, Ottawa 7.
- Ottawa kicks off and Allin busts a nice sideline return, getting up to about the Queen's 37. Ottawa was offside on the play, but Queen's declines the penalty. 1 and 10 Gaels.
- Gordon rushes up the middle and finds a hole, picking up about 6. A nice run, but he's brought down by one tackler: if that was Giffin, he'd have the first down. Gordon and Therrien are doing a decent job so far, though.
- Brannagan completes a short sideline pass to Blaise Morrison, good enough for a first down on Queen's 54.
- Gordon rushes out near the left sideline and picks up another 6. 2 and 4 Queen's.
- Gordon gets some fantastic blocking and rushes outside left again for the first down, then cuts back inside for more yards. He gets all the way to the Ottawa 28. First down, Queen's.
- Therrien runs up the middle for another six or so. Ottawa's having all kinds of trouble stopping the Gaels' run game, even without Giffin. Perhaps they underestimated his backups, who are both very capable themselves.
- Brannagan has to scramble and throws for Mark Surya, but the pass falls short. Surya almost reels it in with a diving grab, but can't hang on. Third down, Queen's.
- Village hits the 29-yard field goal, making the score Queen's 11, Ottawa 7.
- Ottawa takes the ball on their own 35.
- Mason runs outside left for about seven yards. 2 and just over 3 for the Gee-Gees.
- Mason goes up the middle and is hit at the line of scrimmage: he fights for an extra couple of yards, but it's going to be third and short after a measurement.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down.
- Sacobie hits Sinopoli with a short pass, and he fights through the middle for a gain of 9. It's going to be second and short on Queen's 54.
- Sacobie keeps and picks up the first down. 1 and 10 Ottawa on Queen's 52.
- Mason runs off left tackle and picks up a first down. He's down at Queen's 38.
- Good protection by Ottawa's line and Sacobie completes a pass to Ivan Birungi, who makes a nice sliding catch at around the 15. A penalty's tacked on, giving Ottawa the ball on the 5. 1 and goal Ottawa.
- Mason runs up the middle and gains about 4. 2 and goal from the 1. A Queen's defender is down on the play.
- It's defensive end Neil Puffer, who's limping off now. With him and Carter both gone, that's two big losses for the Gaels' defence.
- Mason punches it in for the TD. Matthew Falvo kicks the extra point, making it Ottawa 14, Queen's 11.
- Well, we knew this one wasn't going to be easy. There are two kinds of 4-4 teams: the mediocre ones who gut out a few wins, and the brilliantly talented but inconsistent ones. Ottawa was always the latter, and it looks like the good Gee-Gees showed up today, rather than the mediocre ones. Queen's has to find a way to shut down Mason on the run: he's opening up too much space for Ottawa's deep passing game.
- Great coverage on the kickoff by the Gee-Gees: Allin only gets to about the 25. Now, that makes much more sense than just kicking it out of bounds all the time.
- Brannagan's pass falls incomplete.
- Brannagan is flushed and has to throw away the ball. 3rd down, Queen's.
- The Gaels punt: Ottawa returns it to about their own 53.
- Mason runs for about 6.
- Mason runs again and gets close to a first down, but he's hurt on the play.
- Mason limps off. That's not good for Ottawa by any stretch of the imagination: he's been tremendous so far. 3 and short.
- Sacobie keeps and gets the first down.
- Craig Bearss is in the game for Mason, and he runs for about 6 up the middle.
- Bearss runs off the right tackle and gets the first down, plus more. 1 and 10 Ottawa on the Queen's 26.
- Looks like there's about 3:16 left in the half, but the scoreboard's tough to read from here. The Gaels could really use a stop at this point.
- Sacobie is flushed and almost sacked: he gets off an underhand toss to Bearss as he's falling down. Bearss made a good move to come back and help his QB. Loss of 2 on the play, but a sack would have been a loss of 7 or so at least.
- Sacobie tries a swing pass, but Ukwuoma gets a hand on it and knocks it down. 3 and 12 Ottawa on Queen's 28. Looks like they'll try for the field goal.
- Falvo hits the FG from about 35 yards out, making it Ottawa 17, Queen's 11. Less than three minutes left in the half.
- Gaels take the ball on their 35.
- Therrien takes it up the middle but gets only about 3 yards. 2 and 7 Queen's.
- Brannagan gets tons of time in the pocket and has Sheahan open up the middle, but the throw is behind him. Sheahan gets a hand on it but can't hang on, and Queen's will have to punt.
- 2:15 left in the half. Time out Ottawa.
- Village punts to around Ottawa's 30-yard line. Elliott gets nowhere on the return. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 31.
- Felix Dejardins-Potvin runs up the middle for a gain of about 2. 2 and 8 Ottawa.
- Sacobie has time in the pocket and completes a 15-yard pass up the middle to Cyril Adjeity. First down Ottawa on their own 48.
- Queen's finally gets some pressure. Ukwuoma almost brings Sacobie down. He escapes, but runs into T.J. Leeper, who records the sack.
- Sacobie completes a pass to Matthew Bolduc who makes a nice diving catch, but he's hit about 2 yards short of the first down. Ottawa will punt.
- A poor punt by Falvo loops off his foot and tumbles end over end out of bounds. Queen's ball on their own 46: they'll have less than 2 minutes to make a drive.
- Brannagan throws sideline for Valberg, who makes the catch but is called out of bounds. Doesn't matter: Gaels were offside on the play.
- A great play call by Queen's on second and 10: Ottawa's looking pass, and Gordon rumbles up the middle for the first down.
- Swing pass to Gordon gets the Gaels another first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33.
- Brannagan's pass to Blaise Morrison is incomplete and almost picked off. 2 and 10.
- Brannagan tries a short sideline pass to Valberg, who can't reel it in. 3 and 10 Queen's. Field goal attempt, or maybe a fake?
- Nope, it's a real field goal, but Village's attempt falls short and wide. That's the last play of the half. Ottawa leads 17-11.
Third quarter:
- Queen's kicks off, Ottawa returns it to around their own 30.
- A run from Bearss picks up a first down.
- Short pass gets Ottawa about 8: second and two.
- Bearss rumbles up the middle, stopped just short of the first down. Third and very short.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 54.
- Sacobie scrambles, throws a pass to Bolduc, but he can't reel it in in tight coverage from Botting.
- Sacobie throws deep, but his receiver slips and falls down.
- Ottawa punts: the snap flies over Falvo's head, but he does a great job to race back and recover. He gets a weak punt off just before it would have been blocked and it rolls out of bounds at the Queen's 46. Great field position for Queen's.
- Gordon rushes twice, but only gains a combined seven yards. Queen's will punt.
- Village gets off a good punt to the Ottawa 21, but Elliott returns it to about the Ottawa 40. It's coming back for holding, though. First and 10 Ottawa on their own 21.
- Bearss rushes up the middle, gets nowhere.
- Sacobie is rushed and almost sacked by Sterling, but he gets the pass off as he falls. Sacobie's down and hurt, receiving attention.
- Injury update here: Puffer is back in the game for the Gaels, but Carter's still out. Sacobie hobbles off. Ottawa will punt from their own 10 or so.
- Good snap this time and a good punt to Queen's 45. Allin doesn't have much room, but still picks up a 15-yard return or so. Queen's ball on the Ottawa 52. They need to get something going here.
- Gordon rushes, but he's stopped by Ottawa defensive end Ian Hazlett, a former Queen's linebacker.
- Brannagan is flushed and almost sacked, but he makes a great throw off the scramble to find Surya. Surya would have been well short of the first down, but he makes two tacklers miss and picks up about 7 yards after the catch.
- Therrien powers through a hole up the middle for about 12: another first down.
- Therrien goes off the right tackle for about 8. 2 and 2 Queen's on the Ottawa 19.
- Therrien runs, but is stopped for a loss of 2. 3 and 4 Queen's. Field goal team on: Allin to hold, might be a fake.
- No fake, but Village misses from about 30 yards: Elliott runs it out to the Ottawa 20. That's a bad one to miss.
- Sacobie is back in, so he can't have been hurt too badly.
- It's getting a bit chilly out here: the wind's picking up.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 20.
- Sacobie hits Wood-Roy on a play-action fake, picks up 15. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their 35.
- Bearss runs up the middle for 2: nice stop by Ukwuoma. It's a battle of the second-string backs now, with Mason and Giffin both out.
- Sacobie's pass is short: 3 and 8 Ottawa.
- Good snap, and Ottawa's Steve Fievet gets off a good punt. Looks like they've gone away from Falvo after some of his struggles earlier. Queen's ball on their 39.
- Brannagan is hit, but gets off a pass over the middle to Scott Stinson, who picks up the first down. 1 and 10 Queen's on their 54.
- Sheahan runs a great outside route and beats two defenders, but then drops the ball when he's wide open. He would likely have had a touchdown if he'd caught it. It's those hands that prevent Sheahan from being a great receiver, as opposed to a good one.
- Ottawa lineman Evan Prokipchuk breaks through and sacks Brannagan: he's been getting good protection most of the day, but not on that play.
- Queen's punts deep: good coverage means that Ottawa will start on their own 19.
- Swing pass from Sacobie's good for a first down: 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 35.
- Bearss runs up the middle for a gain of 1: 2 and 9.
- Pass over the middle to Adjeity: no one near him and he gets the first down. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their 54. That's where Carter's injury might hurt the Gaels: backup middle linebacker Matt Ritchie hasn't played much this year, and he's looking rusty.
- Great rush by Queen's sees Sacobie throw a pass that's almost picked by Sterling. 2 and 10.
- Sacobie throws into double coverage: incomplete. Ottawa will punt.
- Great punt by Fievet pins Queen's deep. Allin drops the ball and recovers just before he's hit. Queen's ball on their own 13. They have to get something going here.
- Therrien runs up the middle for about four or five, stopped by Hazlett. End of the third quarter.
Fourth quarter:
- Queen's is running out of time here: they've got to get the offence together. The defence is holding, but the offence isn't getting much done without the running threat posed by Giffin. Ottawa's defence is favouring the pass. Therrien and Gordon are doing okay, but not well enough to open up passing lanes for Brannagan.
- Therrien runs off the right tackle for a first down. 1 and 10 Queen's on their
own 25.
- Brannagan gets clocked by Prokipchuk but gets a deep pass off. Sheahan makes a great diving catch, but it's coming back: offensive holding by Queen's. I think it's a face mask: it's 15 yards. 1 and 25 Queen's on their own 13.
- Time out Queen's. This could be a crucial series here. They've got a long way to go, but Ottawa will have great field position if the Gaels fail to get the first down.
- Brannagan is flushed, short pass to Valberg incomplete, but flags on the play. Pass interference on Ottawa. It's now 1 and 12 on the Queen's 22.
- Queen's called offside: 1 and 17.
- Therrien runs up the middle, but gets nowhere.
- Gaels' left tackle Matt O'Donnell is hurt on the play and limping off. As anyone who's read The Blind Side knows, that's a big loss.
- Jordan Kirchberger is in to replace him. The inexperience is shown on the next play: Ottawa right end Tyler Dawe breaks through and hits Brannagan, but Ottawa's called for a face mask. First down Queen's on their own 35.
- Brannagan throws deep to Valberg, but he's in double coverage and can't pull it in. 2 and 10.
- Ottawa's defence breaks through, and Dawe and Sebastien Tetreault sack Brannagan, who drops the ball. Tetreault recovers the fumble. Ottawa ball on Queen's 34.
- That could be the decisive play if Ottawa can score here.
- Bearss runs for a couple.
- Bearss runs for about 6 more: 3rd and 1.
- Ottawa's going for the FG. Falvo hits it, making the score Ottawa 20, Queen's 11. That missed field goal by Village is looking bigger all the time.
- 10:30 left in the fourth quarter.
- Queen's offence is running out of time.
- Gordon carries up the middle but he's stopped by Hazlett for no gain.
- Interesting call on 2 and 10: Gordon rumbles up the middle again, and gets 9 this time. 3 and 1 Queen's: they're going for it.
- Brannagan sneaks for the first down. Queen's has to be careful, though: he's been stopped on a couple of those this year. Remember that he's still got a rookie left tackle protecting the blind side.
- Dawe breaks through again and should have had a sack. Brannagan breaks free and gets a deep pass off, but Blaise Morrison can't reel it in. 2 and 10.
- Brannagan over the middle for a wide-open Stinson, but he can't make the catch. Too many drops by the receivers today. Queen's will punt.
- Good punt by Village, down to the Ottawa 15. Excellent coverage means they'll start around their 18. The Gaels need to get a quick stop here: they're down by 9 with eight minutes to go.
- Different Gaels' players have looked good at times, but the whole hasn't come together. When Brannagan's on, his receivers aren't. When they're in form, his passes are off.
- Bearss rumbles outside for a first down, but a flag on the play. He's having a hell of a day as well. Looks like Ottawa doesn't miss much from Mason to him.
- Objectionable conduct is the call: Ottawa gets the first down, but they're back to their own 19. Lousy time for that kind of a penalty.
- Bearss carries off the right side, doesn't get too far. Offside against Ottawa is declined. It will be second and 9.
- Deep pass to Sinopoli, a tremendous play by Botting to knock it down. Ottawa will have to punt. Queen's should get good field position out of this.
- The punt's blocked! Great play by Queen's special teams. I couldn't tell who it was: maybe Alex Daprato? The ball rolls out of the end zone for a safety, so a huge two points for Queen's. It's now Ottawa 20, Queen's 13. They're within one TD.
- Kickoff to Queen's 30: Allin returns it to the 42.
- Therrien runs for four up the middle.
- Brannagan's pass is tipped and almost picked off, but the Ottawa DB can't make the catch. Queen's will punt.
- Village's punt is almost blocked, but he gets it to the Ottawa 20. Ottawa's Ezra Millington returns it to the 34.
- About five minutes left: Queen's still trails by a TD.
- Bearss runs up the middle for about two: nice stop by Sterling. Looks like maybe they're finally getting somewhere against the run.
- Sacobie flushed by an unblocked Ukwuoma, but hits Adjeity over the middle with a short pass. Adjeity gets the first down and more. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 51.
- Bearss runs up the middle for four. 2 and 6.
- 3:15 left. Bearss runs up the middle again for 4. 3 and 2 Ottawa; looks like they'll punt.
- This is turning into rather a defensive struggle. Queen's is running out of time to get something done, though: they need to get somewhere on this drive.
- 2:56 left. Fievet is in to punt. His punt's almost blocked by Stephen Laporte, who was lucky not to draw a roughing the kicker penalty. He pins Allin deep, though, and the Gaels can only get it back to about the 17. Rough play's called on Ottawa though, so 1 and 10 on the Queen's 32.
- Brannagan throws a deep sideline route to Valberg, who gets open, but can't hang on: he's stripped from behind, and the ball falls incomplete. 2 and 10.
- Another O-line injury for Queen's: right tackle Colin Boyle is out.
- Brannagan finds Sheahan wide open over the middle again, and again Sheahan drops the ball. That might have cost Queen's their season unless they do something quick here. 2:26 left.
- Village punts deep: Millington returns it to about the Ottawa 40. 1 and 10 Ottawa.
- 2:13 left: Queen's needs to make something happen.
- Bearss runs up the middle for 1: good stop by the defensive line.
- Pass over the middle to Wood-Roy, looks like he made a diving catch, but he couldn't pull it in: 3 and 9, and Ottawa will have to punt.
- Good punt: Allin makes the catch, but he gets stripped and Ottawa recovers. Ottawa ball on Queen's 29, and that might be it.
- 1:34 left, and the fans are starting to leave. A comeback now would be a miracle. Time out, Ottawa.
- Bearss up the middle for about 6. 2 and 4. Time out, Queen's.
- Bearss up the middle for about 2, but he's stopped. 1:26 left: Ottawa's going to try a 33-yard FG.
- Falvo hits the FG, and it's Ottawa 23, Queen's 13. 1:05 to go.
- Queen's takes it on their 35, and Brannagan throws up the middle for Stinson: incomplete, almost picked off.
- Brannagan throws deep for Morrison, incomplete, again almost picked. 3 and 10
- Brannagan deep for Valberg in double coverage. Incomplete. The curtains are starting to go down on this season.
- Sinopoli takes the snap and runs around for a bit to kill the clock, putting the ball back on Ottawa's 39. 2 and 45, 40 seconds left.
- Sinopoli takes a knee: 37 seconds left. 3 and 47: Ottawa runs the clock down to 16 seconds, then takes a time out. They'll punt, and that should do it: no way to score 10 points in that little time. It's another season of high expectations and great moments at times, but a failure in the playoffs for the second year in a row.
- Punt's out of bounds on the Ottawa 53: 10 seconds left. Queen's sends everyone deep this time, but pass to Valberg is incomplete: he only threw it to about the 30, so even a catch wouldn't have been enough. They should have gone end zone.
- Last play: Brannagan to Valberg, he punts it down field and Millington falls on it. That's the season, folks. A tough way for it to end for the Gaels. I'll have much more in a post-game writeup here later today.
First quarter:
-Dan Village kicks off for Queen's: Ottawa returns it to around their own 20.
- Dave Mason runs off the left tackle for about five yards.
- Josh Sacobie completes a short pass, but his receiver is stopped less than a yard short. Gee-Gees are going for it.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33.
- Mason carries off right tackle, picks up 5. 2 and 5 on the Ottawa 38.
- Mason carries for two, stopped by Mike Botting. 3 and 3 Ottawa: they decide to punt.
- Awful snap and the punt's almost blocked by Tim Poffley. Ottawa gets it off, though, but the ball only travels about 35 yards. Jimmy Allin pulls off a nice return and Ottawa's called for no-yards as well. 1 and 10 Queen's on the Ottawa 53.
- Short pass to inside receiver Scott Stinson is good for about 4 yards. 2 and 6.
- Brannagan's pass is right to Ottawa linebacker Joe Barnes, who really should have made that pick. He drops it, though, and Queen's punts.
- Village gets a great punt off, punning Ottawa deep: they take it out to about the
- Mason runs for a gain of about 2. Queen's linebacker Thaine Carter is hurt on the play: he's still down.
- 2nd and 8 Ottawa on their own 17. Carter's limping off with help from Botting. That's a big loss for Queen's if he doesn't come back: Carter's the defensive captain and the key linebacker in stopping the run.
- Queen's linemen Osie Ukwuoma and Dee Sterling break through, flushing Sacobie from the pocket. He has to throw it away and Ottawa will punt. The punt goes out of bounds at the Ottawa 43, giving the Gaels some great field position.
- Realized I forgot to put an official prediction up in my preview. I think it's going to be close, but I see Queen's winning by 7.
- A short Brannagan pass to (I think) Chris Ioannides winds up going for a first down with a great run after the catch.
- Marty Gordon runs for two: 2 and 8 Queen's on the Ottawa 33. Gordon will have to carry most of the running load today: it's been confirmed that Mike Giffin isn't going to play. Looks like my doom and gloom on that front was justified.
- Brannagan hits Scott Valberg with a great pass over the middle: he's brought down around the Ottawa 12. First down, Queen's.
- Gordon runs for five off-tackle. Second and five.
- Brannagan's pass for Devan Sheahan falls incomplete. 3 and 5 Queen's.
- Queen's fakes a field goal, with Allin taking off and running. He isn't getting anywhere though, so he throws an end-zone pass, but it's picked off by an Ottawa DB. Ottawa ball on their own 20.
- I like that call, even though it didn't work. Queen's has been very successful on the fake field goals this year, particularly with Allin running. I think he might have been able to get the five yards they needed if he'd kept going instead of dropping and trying a pass.
- Mason runs for four or five yards, stopped by T.J. Leeper. 2 and 5 Ottawa.
- Mason runs for a first down off the left side. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 40.
- Mason runs for two: second and 8.
- It's surprisingly warm and nice here, which is probably good for Queen's: they're playing more of a finesse game, while Ottawa's going for the old smash-mouth power running game.
- Sacobie throws deep, and it's almost picked. Both David Rooney and Allin has a chance at that one. Ottawa will punt.
- It's not a great punt, and it soars out of bounds. Looks like Ottawa's trying to keep the ball away from Allin on the returns. Queen's ball on their own 42.
- Jimmy Therrien runs off right tackle for QUeen's and picks up about 4. 2 and 6 Gaels.
- Brannagan throws a beauty of a sideline pass to Valberg, who picks up a first down and more. 1 and 10 Queen's on the Ottawa 52.
- Brannagan has all day in the pocket, and finds Devan Sheahan at about the 10-yard line with a sideline bomb. Sheahan sidesteps a tackle and jumps in for the TD. That was fantastic protection from the O-line. Brannagan had about seven seconds without a defender getting anywhere near him, allowing him to make that deep play. It was a hell of a throw, too: right into Sheahan's arms 40 yards down the field. Village hits the EP: Queen's 7, Ottawa 0.
- Village kicks off right to the end zone and Ottawa's Chayce Elliott misfields it. He runs back to get it and is hit in the end zone for a single. Queen's 8, Ottawa 0.
- Ottawa ball on their 35.
- Sacobie throws a 8-yard pass or so, and the receiver picks up the first down.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 45.
- Mason runs up the middle for about eight.
- Ottawa tries another run, but Ukwuoma comes over the top and makes a great stop. 3 and 1 Ottawa: they're going for it.
- Sacobie sneaks up the middle for the first down. End of the first quarter.
- That's cool: the Kingston high-school football all-stars are being honoured on the field, and Saskatchewan Roughrider and former Gael Rob Bagg is in attendance to shake hands with all of them. Bagg had a fantastic game this Thursday against the Argonauts. Good to see him doing so well and making the trip back to his school. He gets a big round of applause, as he should.
Second quarter:
- Sacobie drops and throws deep for Justin Wood-Roy, but Botting makes a great play to break it up. 2 and 10.
- Sacobie drops and has plenty of time this time: good protection from the O-line. He fires it deep to about the 15 and backup quarterback Brad Sinopoli makes a nice catch. It takes two tacklers to drag Sinopoli down, and he gets to the 1.
- Mason punches it in from the 1: TD Ottawa. They hit the extra point, so it's Queen's 8, Ottawa 7.
- Ottawa kicks off and Allin busts a nice sideline return, getting up to about the Queen's 37. Ottawa was offside on the play, but Queen's declines the penalty. 1 and 10 Gaels.
- Gordon rushes up the middle and finds a hole, picking up about 6. A nice run, but he's brought down by one tackler: if that was Giffin, he'd have the first down. Gordon and Therrien are doing a decent job so far, though.
- Brannagan completes a short sideline pass to Blaise Morrison, good enough for a first down on Queen's 54.
- Gordon rushes out near the left sideline and picks up another 6. 2 and 4 Queen's.
- Gordon gets some fantastic blocking and rushes outside left again for the first down, then cuts back inside for more yards. He gets all the way to the Ottawa 28. First down, Queen's.
- Therrien runs up the middle for another six or so. Ottawa's having all kinds of trouble stopping the Gaels' run game, even without Giffin. Perhaps they underestimated his backups, who are both very capable themselves.
- Brannagan has to scramble and throws for Mark Surya, but the pass falls short. Surya almost reels it in with a diving grab, but can't hang on. Third down, Queen's.
- Village hits the 29-yard field goal, making the score Queen's 11, Ottawa 7.
- Ottawa takes the ball on their own 35.
- Mason runs outside left for about seven yards. 2 and just over 3 for the Gee-Gees.
- Mason goes up the middle and is hit at the line of scrimmage: he fights for an extra couple of yards, but it's going to be third and short after a measurement.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down.
- Sacobie hits Sinopoli with a short pass, and he fights through the middle for a gain of 9. It's going to be second and short on Queen's 54.
- Sacobie keeps and picks up the first down. 1 and 10 Ottawa on Queen's 52.
- Mason runs off left tackle and picks up a first down. He's down at Queen's 38.
- Good protection by Ottawa's line and Sacobie completes a pass to Ivan Birungi, who makes a nice sliding catch at around the 15. A penalty's tacked on, giving Ottawa the ball on the 5. 1 and goal Ottawa.
- Mason runs up the middle and gains about 4. 2 and goal from the 1. A Queen's defender is down on the play.
- It's defensive end Neil Puffer, who's limping off now. With him and Carter both gone, that's two big losses for the Gaels' defence.
- Mason punches it in for the TD. Matthew Falvo kicks the extra point, making it Ottawa 14, Queen's 11.
- Well, we knew this one wasn't going to be easy. There are two kinds of 4-4 teams: the mediocre ones who gut out a few wins, and the brilliantly talented but inconsistent ones. Ottawa was always the latter, and it looks like the good Gee-Gees showed up today, rather than the mediocre ones. Queen's has to find a way to shut down Mason on the run: he's opening up too much space for Ottawa's deep passing game.
- Great coverage on the kickoff by the Gee-Gees: Allin only gets to about the 25. Now, that makes much more sense than just kicking it out of bounds all the time.
- Brannagan's pass falls incomplete.
- Brannagan is flushed and has to throw away the ball. 3rd down, Queen's.
- The Gaels punt: Ottawa returns it to about their own 53.
- Mason runs for about 6.
- Mason runs again and gets close to a first down, but he's hurt on the play.
- Mason limps off. That's not good for Ottawa by any stretch of the imagination: he's been tremendous so far. 3 and short.
- Sacobie keeps and gets the first down.
- Craig Bearss is in the game for Mason, and he runs for about 6 up the middle.
- Bearss runs off the right tackle and gets the first down, plus more. 1 and 10 Ottawa on the Queen's 26.
- Looks like there's about 3:16 left in the half, but the scoreboard's tough to read from here. The Gaels could really use a stop at this point.
- Sacobie is flushed and almost sacked: he gets off an underhand toss to Bearss as he's falling down. Bearss made a good move to come back and help his QB. Loss of 2 on the play, but a sack would have been a loss of 7 or so at least.
- Sacobie tries a swing pass, but Ukwuoma gets a hand on it and knocks it down. 3 and 12 Ottawa on Queen's 28. Looks like they'll try for the field goal.
- Falvo hits the FG from about 35 yards out, making it Ottawa 17, Queen's 11. Less than three minutes left in the half.
- Gaels take the ball on their 35.
- Therrien takes it up the middle but gets only about 3 yards. 2 and 7 Queen's.
- Brannagan gets tons of time in the pocket and has Sheahan open up the middle, but the throw is behind him. Sheahan gets a hand on it but can't hang on, and Queen's will have to punt.
- 2:15 left in the half. Time out Ottawa.
- Village punts to around Ottawa's 30-yard line. Elliott gets nowhere on the return. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 31.
- Felix Dejardins-Potvin runs up the middle for a gain of about 2. 2 and 8 Ottawa.
- Sacobie has time in the pocket and completes a 15-yard pass up the middle to Cyril Adjeity. First down Ottawa on their own 48.
- Queen's finally gets some pressure. Ukwuoma almost brings Sacobie down. He escapes, but runs into T.J. Leeper, who records the sack.
- Sacobie completes a pass to Matthew Bolduc who makes a nice diving catch, but he's hit about 2 yards short of the first down. Ottawa will punt.
- A poor punt by Falvo loops off his foot and tumbles end over end out of bounds. Queen's ball on their own 46: they'll have less than 2 minutes to make a drive.
- Brannagan throws sideline for Valberg, who makes the catch but is called out of bounds. Doesn't matter: Gaels were offside on the play.
- A great play call by Queen's on second and 10: Ottawa's looking pass, and Gordon rumbles up the middle for the first down.
- Swing pass to Gordon gets the Gaels another first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33.
- Brannagan's pass to Blaise Morrison is incomplete and almost picked off. 2 and 10.
- Brannagan tries a short sideline pass to Valberg, who can't reel it in. 3 and 10 Queen's. Field goal attempt, or maybe a fake?
- Nope, it's a real field goal, but Village's attempt falls short and wide. That's the last play of the half. Ottawa leads 17-11.
Third quarter:
- Queen's kicks off, Ottawa returns it to around their own 30.
- A run from Bearss picks up a first down.
- Short pass gets Ottawa about 8: second and two.
- Bearss rumbles up the middle, stopped just short of the first down. Third and very short.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 54.
- Sacobie scrambles, throws a pass to Bolduc, but he can't reel it in in tight coverage from Botting.
- Sacobie throws deep, but his receiver slips and falls down.
- Ottawa punts: the snap flies over Falvo's head, but he does a great job to race back and recover. He gets a weak punt off just before it would have been blocked and it rolls out of bounds at the Queen's 46. Great field position for Queen's.
- Gordon rushes twice, but only gains a combined seven yards. Queen's will punt.
- Village gets off a good punt to the Ottawa 21, but Elliott returns it to about the Ottawa 40. It's coming back for holding, though. First and 10 Ottawa on their own 21.
- Bearss rushes up the middle, gets nowhere.
- Sacobie is rushed and almost sacked by Sterling, but he gets the pass off as he falls. Sacobie's down and hurt, receiving attention.
- Injury update here: Puffer is back in the game for the Gaels, but Carter's still out. Sacobie hobbles off. Ottawa will punt from their own 10 or so.
- Good snap this time and a good punt to Queen's 45. Allin doesn't have much room, but still picks up a 15-yard return or so. Queen's ball on the Ottawa 52. They need to get something going here.
- Gordon rushes, but he's stopped by Ottawa defensive end Ian Hazlett, a former Queen's linebacker.
- Brannagan is flushed and almost sacked, but he makes a great throw off the scramble to find Surya. Surya would have been well short of the first down, but he makes two tacklers miss and picks up about 7 yards after the catch.
- Therrien powers through a hole up the middle for about 12: another first down.
- Therrien goes off the right tackle for about 8. 2 and 2 Queen's on the Ottawa 19.
- Therrien runs, but is stopped for a loss of 2. 3 and 4 Queen's. Field goal team on: Allin to hold, might be a fake.
- No fake, but Village misses from about 30 yards: Elliott runs it out to the Ottawa 20. That's a bad one to miss.
- Sacobie is back in, so he can't have been hurt too badly.
- It's getting a bit chilly out here: the wind's picking up.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 20.
- Sacobie hits Wood-Roy on a play-action fake, picks up 15. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their 35.
- Bearss runs up the middle for 2: nice stop by Ukwuoma. It's a battle of the second-string backs now, with Mason and Giffin both out.
- Sacobie's pass is short: 3 and 8 Ottawa.
- Good snap, and Ottawa's Steve Fievet gets off a good punt. Looks like they've gone away from Falvo after some of his struggles earlier. Queen's ball on their 39.
- Brannagan is hit, but gets off a pass over the middle to Scott Stinson, who picks up the first down. 1 and 10 Queen's on their 54.
- Sheahan runs a great outside route and beats two defenders, but then drops the ball when he's wide open. He would likely have had a touchdown if he'd caught it. It's those hands that prevent Sheahan from being a great receiver, as opposed to a good one.
- Ottawa lineman Evan Prokipchuk breaks through and sacks Brannagan: he's been getting good protection most of the day, but not on that play.
- Queen's punts deep: good coverage means that Ottawa will start on their own 19.
- Swing pass from Sacobie's good for a first down: 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 35.
- Bearss runs up the middle for a gain of 1: 2 and 9.
- Pass over the middle to Adjeity: no one near him and he gets the first down. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their 54. That's where Carter's injury might hurt the Gaels: backup middle linebacker Matt Ritchie hasn't played much this year, and he's looking rusty.
- Great rush by Queen's sees Sacobie throw a pass that's almost picked by Sterling. 2 and 10.
- Sacobie throws into double coverage: incomplete. Ottawa will punt.
- Great punt by Fievet pins Queen's deep. Allin drops the ball and recovers just before he's hit. Queen's ball on their own 13. They have to get something going here.
- Therrien runs up the middle for about four or five, stopped by Hazlett. End of the third quarter.
Fourth quarter:
- Queen's is running out of time here: they've got to get the offence together. The defence is holding, but the offence isn't getting much done without the running threat posed by Giffin. Ottawa's defence is favouring the pass. Therrien and Gordon are doing okay, but not well enough to open up passing lanes for Brannagan.
- Therrien runs off the right tackle for a first down. 1 and 10 Queen's on their
own 25.
- Brannagan gets clocked by Prokipchuk but gets a deep pass off. Sheahan makes a great diving catch, but it's coming back: offensive holding by Queen's. I think it's a face mask: it's 15 yards. 1 and 25 Queen's on their own 13.
- Time out Queen's. This could be a crucial series here. They've got a long way to go, but Ottawa will have great field position if the Gaels fail to get the first down.
- Brannagan is flushed, short pass to Valberg incomplete, but flags on the play. Pass interference on Ottawa. It's now 1 and 12 on the Queen's 22.
- Queen's called offside: 1 and 17.
- Therrien runs up the middle, but gets nowhere.
- Gaels' left tackle Matt O'Donnell is hurt on the play and limping off. As anyone who's read The Blind Side knows, that's a big loss.
- Jordan Kirchberger is in to replace him. The inexperience is shown on the next play: Ottawa right end Tyler Dawe breaks through and hits Brannagan, but Ottawa's called for a face mask. First down Queen's on their own 35.
- Brannagan throws deep to Valberg, but he's in double coverage and can't pull it in. 2 and 10.
- Ottawa's defence breaks through, and Dawe and Sebastien Tetreault sack Brannagan, who drops the ball. Tetreault recovers the fumble. Ottawa ball on Queen's 34.
- That could be the decisive play if Ottawa can score here.
- Bearss runs for a couple.
- Bearss runs for about 6 more: 3rd and 1.
- Ottawa's going for the FG. Falvo hits it, making the score Ottawa 20, Queen's 11. That missed field goal by Village is looking bigger all the time.
- 10:30 left in the fourth quarter.
- Queen's offence is running out of time.
- Gordon carries up the middle but he's stopped by Hazlett for no gain.
- Interesting call on 2 and 10: Gordon rumbles up the middle again, and gets 9 this time. 3 and 1 Queen's: they're going for it.
- Brannagan sneaks for the first down. Queen's has to be careful, though: he's been stopped on a couple of those this year. Remember that he's still got a rookie left tackle protecting the blind side.
- Dawe breaks through again and should have had a sack. Brannagan breaks free and gets a deep pass off, but Blaise Morrison can't reel it in. 2 and 10.
- Brannagan over the middle for a wide-open Stinson, but he can't make the catch. Too many drops by the receivers today. Queen's will punt.
- Good punt by Village, down to the Ottawa 15. Excellent coverage means they'll start around their 18. The Gaels need to get a quick stop here: they're down by 9 with eight minutes to go.
- Different Gaels' players have looked good at times, but the whole hasn't come together. When Brannagan's on, his receivers aren't. When they're in form, his passes are off.
- Bearss rumbles outside for a first down, but a flag on the play. He's having a hell of a day as well. Looks like Ottawa doesn't miss much from Mason to him.
- Objectionable conduct is the call: Ottawa gets the first down, but they're back to their own 19. Lousy time for that kind of a penalty.
- Bearss carries off the right side, doesn't get too far. Offside against Ottawa is declined. It will be second and 9.
- Deep pass to Sinopoli, a tremendous play by Botting to knock it down. Ottawa will have to punt. Queen's should get good field position out of this.
- The punt's blocked! Great play by Queen's special teams. I couldn't tell who it was: maybe Alex Daprato? The ball rolls out of the end zone for a safety, so a huge two points for Queen's. It's now Ottawa 20, Queen's 13. They're within one TD.
- Kickoff to Queen's 30: Allin returns it to the 42.
- Therrien runs for four up the middle.
- Brannagan's pass is tipped and almost picked off, but the Ottawa DB can't make the catch. Queen's will punt.
- Village's punt is almost blocked, but he gets it to the Ottawa 20. Ottawa's Ezra Millington returns it to the 34.
- About five minutes left: Queen's still trails by a TD.
- Bearss runs up the middle for about two: nice stop by Sterling. Looks like maybe they're finally getting somewhere against the run.
- Sacobie flushed by an unblocked Ukwuoma, but hits Adjeity over the middle with a short pass. Adjeity gets the first down and more. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 51.
- Bearss runs up the middle for four. 2 and 6.
- 3:15 left. Bearss runs up the middle again for 4. 3 and 2 Ottawa; looks like they'll punt.
- This is turning into rather a defensive struggle. Queen's is running out of time to get something done, though: they need to get somewhere on this drive.
- 2:56 left. Fievet is in to punt. His punt's almost blocked by Stephen Laporte, who was lucky not to draw a roughing the kicker penalty. He pins Allin deep, though, and the Gaels can only get it back to about the 17. Rough play's called on Ottawa though, so 1 and 10 on the Queen's 32.
- Brannagan throws a deep sideline route to Valberg, who gets open, but can't hang on: he's stripped from behind, and the ball falls incomplete. 2 and 10.
- Another O-line injury for Queen's: right tackle Colin Boyle is out.
- Brannagan finds Sheahan wide open over the middle again, and again Sheahan drops the ball. That might have cost Queen's their season unless they do something quick here. 2:26 left.
- Village punts deep: Millington returns it to about the Ottawa 40. 1 and 10 Ottawa.
- 2:13 left: Queen's needs to make something happen.
- Bearss runs up the middle for 1: good stop by the defensive line.
- Pass over the middle to Wood-Roy, looks like he made a diving catch, but he couldn't pull it in: 3 and 9, and Ottawa will have to punt.
- Good punt: Allin makes the catch, but he gets stripped and Ottawa recovers. Ottawa ball on Queen's 29, and that might be it.
- 1:34 left, and the fans are starting to leave. A comeback now would be a miracle. Time out, Ottawa.
- Bearss up the middle for about 6. 2 and 4. Time out, Queen's.
- Bearss up the middle for about 2, but he's stopped. 1:26 left: Ottawa's going to try a 33-yard FG.
- Falvo hits the FG, and it's Ottawa 23, Queen's 13. 1:05 to go.
- Queen's takes it on their 35, and Brannagan throws up the middle for Stinson: incomplete, almost picked off.
- Brannagan throws deep for Morrison, incomplete, again almost picked. 3 and 10
- Brannagan deep for Valberg in double coverage. Incomplete. The curtains are starting to go down on this season.
- Sinopoli takes the snap and runs around for a bit to kill the clock, putting the ball back on Ottawa's 39. 2 and 45, 40 seconds left.
- Sinopoli takes a knee: 37 seconds left. 3 and 47: Ottawa runs the clock down to 16 seconds, then takes a time out. They'll punt, and that should do it: no way to score 10 points in that little time. It's another season of high expectations and great moments at times, but a failure in the playoffs for the second year in a row.
- Punt's out of bounds on the Ottawa 53: 10 seconds left. Queen's sends everyone deep this time, but pass to Valberg is incomplete: he only threw it to about the 30, so even a catch wouldn't have been enough. They should have gone end zone.
- Last play: Brannagan to Valberg, he punts it down field and Millington falls on it. That's the season, folks. A tough way for it to end for the Gaels. I'll have much more in a post-game writeup here later today.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Forthcoming live blog of Queen's - Ottawa football
A quick note that I'll be live-blogging Saturday's CIS football game between Queen's and the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees right here: Queen's Athletics has told me that I should be able to get the power hookup I need, so barring technical difficulties, we should be good to go. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m., but I'll try to have the first post up by 12:45 p.m. or so. You can also check out CFRC for streaming radio coverage. Neate already has a good preview up at Out of Left Field and my Journal preview's been filed: it should hit the web later this morning. Clint Walper and Mike Koreen from the Kingston Whig-Standard will probably have pregame pieces up today as well, and I'll have more pregame posts here throughout the day. This should be one hell of a game, so it can use all the coverage it can get.
Monday, October 13, 2008
White is the colour
It was tremendous to hear that the Vancouver Whitecaps claimed the United Soccer League Division I championship [Marc Weber, The Vancouver Province] Sunday with a 2-1 win over the Puerto Rico Islanders [Jim Morris, The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail]*. It's the Whitecaps' second championship in three years (their last one came in 2006), and their first championship clinched at home since they won the 1991 Canadian Soccer League title. That's some great news for Vancouver soccer fans. Yes, the Lions are still doing well and the Canucks are off to a 2-0 start, but for at least a little while, the Caps claimed top spot in the Vancouver spotlight.
*Morris has some great tidbits in the notes at the bottom of his story, including that this is the first time the USL men's final has ever been between two teams from outside the U.S. and that the Vancouver-Puerto Rico trip is the second-longest in any world soccer league (bested only by Vladivostok and Kaliningrad in Russia).
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch this one thanks to being in Florida for the weekend (in fact, I'm writing this in the airport), but it sounds like a terrific game from all accounts. It's fantastic to hear about the Caps players jumping into the stands to celebrate with the fans afterwards [in Morris' piece]: that shows the level of interest in their community this team has. Toronto FC is legendary for their support of their fans and their player-fan interaction, but they aren't the only ones. Vancouverites love their team as well, which was reflected in the over-capacity attendance of 5,288 [Weber].
It was also nice to see Charles Gbeke get both goals for the 'Caps. Gbeke was born in the Ivory Coast, but grew up in Montreal and played for the Impact. He was also on the 2006 Rochester Rhinos squad that lost the USL final to the Whitecaps. He's a great Canadian story and a talented player, and it's terrific to see him playing for Vancouver instead of their rivals: I expect much more from him in the years to come.
This victory couldn't come at a better time. With the race for MLS heating up, this is a terrific opportunity to play up soccer in Vancouver and get the community even further behind the team than they are already. As Duane wrote over at Out of Left Field, "It's moments like this that it becomes clear that the Whitecaps deserve to be awarded a MLS franchise (deserve and "are gonna get" are two very different things). The team, which has survived the folding of two leagues, is as close as you can get to a football institution in this country. An argument can be made that the Whitecaps are the only club left that can trace itself directly back to the NASL -- that's something to be proud of. Who knows whether the 'Caps will get the MLS nod for 2011. But, if they don't it won't be Vancouver that is losing out."
This is also a ray of hope for Canadian soccer fans, given the dismal failure [Ben Knight, On Soccer] of the national team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Yes, that exit begs question, and the whole structure of Canadian soccer needs to be looked at and considered: I'll have more on that shortly. For now, though, as Duane pointed out [Out of Left Field, there's plenty for Canadian soccer fans to be excited about at the club level, with Vancouver's championship, Montreal's success in the CONCACAF Champions League and the strength of the MLS bids in both cities (and Ottawa as well). TFC is also moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. Our clubs seem to be getting things right both on and off the field, with their play, their marketing, their fan support and their youth development systems. Let's take some comfort in that during the struggles of our national teams: things may not always be this bad.
*Morris has some great tidbits in the notes at the bottom of his story, including that this is the first time the USL men's final has ever been between two teams from outside the U.S. and that the Vancouver-Puerto Rico trip is the second-longest in any world soccer league (bested only by Vladivostok and Kaliningrad in Russia).
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch this one thanks to being in Florida for the weekend (in fact, I'm writing this in the airport), but it sounds like a terrific game from all accounts. It's fantastic to hear about the Caps players jumping into the stands to celebrate with the fans afterwards [in Morris' piece]: that shows the level of interest in their community this team has. Toronto FC is legendary for their support of their fans and their player-fan interaction, but they aren't the only ones. Vancouverites love their team as well, which was reflected in the over-capacity attendance of 5,288 [Weber].
It was also nice to see Charles Gbeke get both goals for the 'Caps. Gbeke was born in the Ivory Coast, but grew up in Montreal and played for the Impact. He was also on the 2006 Rochester Rhinos squad that lost the USL final to the Whitecaps. He's a great Canadian story and a talented player, and it's terrific to see him playing for Vancouver instead of their rivals: I expect much more from him in the years to come.
This victory couldn't come at a better time. With the race for MLS heating up, this is a terrific opportunity to play up soccer in Vancouver and get the community even further behind the team than they are already. As Duane wrote over at Out of Left Field, "It's moments like this that it becomes clear that the Whitecaps deserve to be awarded a MLS franchise (deserve and "are gonna get" are two very different things). The team, which has survived the folding of two leagues, is as close as you can get to a football institution in this country. An argument can be made that the Whitecaps are the only club left that can trace itself directly back to the NASL -- that's something to be proud of. Who knows whether the 'Caps will get the MLS nod for 2011. But, if they don't it won't be Vancouver that is losing out."
This is also a ray of hope for Canadian soccer fans, given the dismal failure [Ben Knight, On Soccer] of the national team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Yes, that exit begs question, and the whole structure of Canadian soccer needs to be looked at and considered: I'll have more on that shortly. For now, though, as Duane pointed out [Out of Left Field, there's plenty for Canadian soccer fans to be excited about at the club level, with Vancouver's championship, Montreal's success in the CONCACAF Champions League and the strength of the MLS bids in both cities (and Ottawa as well). TFC is also moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. Our clubs seem to be getting things right both on and off the field, with their play, their marketing, their fan support and their youth development systems. Let's take some comfort in that during the struggles of our national teams: things may not always be this bad.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Campus Corner: A big win for Queen's
Today's 38-16 win over Ottawa [Mike Grobe,gogaelsgo.com] was very impressive (go here for Neate's excellent live-blog of the action). The score doesn't really reflect how absolutely dominant the Gaels were: they led 31-0 at halftime, and didn't seem to be trying particularly hard to pad their stats in the second half. That's a great result against an talented Ottawa team. Sure, the Gee-Gees have struggled on the gridiron this year (today's loss drops them to 3-4), but their talent is immense. All five entrants in our CIS Blog prediction pool had Ottawa finishing first in Ontario before the season began, and three out of the four sets of playoff predictions had them winning the Yates Cup as well. Yes, the Gee-Gees haven't lived up to their potential, but this was still a squad that could have posed a lot of problems for Queen's (as partially demonstrated by their third-quarter resurgence). It's not just the win that's important: the way it happened, with the game all-but-decided shortly after the opening kickoff, speaks volumes for the quality of this Gaels' side.
Another impressive element of this match was how the Gaels won without a huge contribution from Mike Giffin. Giffin ran for a respectable-but-not-dominant 72 yards on 21 carries [OUA box score], but the real offence came through the air. Quarterback Dan Brannagan completed 21 of his 33 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns, and moved past Tom Dennison for the most passing yards in school history in the process. Brannagan was picked twice as well, but according to Neate, it looks like one of those interceptions may have come from Giffin bobbling a pass. He spread the ball around as well, as both Scott Valberg and Devan Sheahan finished with over 100 yards receiving (131 and 114 yards on six and five catches respectively). It was great to see Sheahan make some big plays: as I've mentioned earlier this year, he's been doing everything right but reeling the ball in, so it's good to see him put up the numbers. All in all, a very impressive day for the passing offence.
The defence was also tremendous, holding Ottawa to 273 total yards on the day (and just 71 in the first half). A lot of the media coverage of Queen's so far has focused on the offence, which can be easy to do: the stats are more readily available, easier to interpret and easier to explain to an audience. Still, in my mind at least, it's really the defence that's been the biggest factor to this point. Queen's has a tremendous offence, but the field position they gain from defensive stops and special-teams returns has given the Gaels a sizeable edge when they have the ball, and that's partly the cause of the increased offensive production we've seen this year.
Another nice thing to see was the quick start. Last year, Queen's would often play poorly in the first couple of quarters and win games with come-from-behind, last-minute drives. This year, they have been scoring early and often, which bodes well for the playoffs. Points are just as valuable whenever you score them, but there's a decided momentum advantage from a big halftime lead: you force the opponent into gambling for big plays, which is a high-risk, high-reward strategy.
One remaining concern is the third quarter, which was pretty similar to what happened against Western earlier this year. In both cases, Queen's went into halftime with a huge lead, but came out flat after the break and the opponent took advantage. This was less frightening than the Western game, given the larger lead Queen's had in the first place, but it might still be a problem that could hurt the Gaels down the road. Thus far, they've done a great job of coming out of the gate with focus and refusing to underestimate or overestimate their opponent. They need to work on maintaining that momentum and focus after halftime, though, and that's something that could be crucial in the playoffs. Strange things happen in football, particularly at the CIS level, and these leads may not be safe in the future if the Gaels choose to take the third quarter off.
It's tough to tell what to take from this one. Yes, it's a very impressive win over a highly-touted Gee-Gees team, and it's probably the most competitive game the Gaels have played other than the match against Western (which was a bit wider in score, but was much closer than this one in reality). Still, Ottawa's in a bit of a tailspin: they've now lost three in a row, and may not even crack the playoffs. If they get in, there will be plenty of OUA teams that won't want to run against them, but a win over them in Week Seven doesn't mean as much as it would have in Week One, given their recent performance.
The Gaels will really have to keep that focus and intensity over the next couple of weeks. They're still ranked second in the country, which could go to their heads. Moreover, they have what's almost a walkover game against Waterloo next week and then a first-round playoff bye. They'll be huge favorites in the second round, but they'll have to be careful: I've got a sneaking suspicion that teams like Laurier and McMaster are better than the way they played against Queen's, and the "Nobody believes in us" factor (trademark of Bill Simmons) may give them an extra edge. Optimism and credit are both deserved from the Gaels' performance thus far, but there's still a long way to go before Queen's can claim the Yates Cup, and no one should even consider the Vanier until that milestone is reached.
Another impressive element of this match was how the Gaels won without a huge contribution from Mike Giffin. Giffin ran for a respectable-but-not-dominant 72 yards on 21 carries [OUA box score], but the real offence came through the air. Quarterback Dan Brannagan completed 21 of his 33 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns, and moved past Tom Dennison for the most passing yards in school history in the process. Brannagan was picked twice as well, but according to Neate, it looks like one of those interceptions may have come from Giffin bobbling a pass. He spread the ball around as well, as both Scott Valberg and Devan Sheahan finished with over 100 yards receiving (131 and 114 yards on six and five catches respectively). It was great to see Sheahan make some big plays: as I've mentioned earlier this year, he's been doing everything right but reeling the ball in, so it's good to see him put up the numbers. All in all, a very impressive day for the passing offence.
The defence was also tremendous, holding Ottawa to 273 total yards on the day (and just 71 in the first half). A lot of the media coverage of Queen's so far has focused on the offence, which can be easy to do: the stats are more readily available, easier to interpret and easier to explain to an audience. Still, in my mind at least, it's really the defence that's been the biggest factor to this point. Queen's has a tremendous offence, but the field position they gain from defensive stops and special-teams returns has given the Gaels a sizeable edge when they have the ball, and that's partly the cause of the increased offensive production we've seen this year.
Another nice thing to see was the quick start. Last year, Queen's would often play poorly in the first couple of quarters and win games with come-from-behind, last-minute drives. This year, they have been scoring early and often, which bodes well for the playoffs. Points are just as valuable whenever you score them, but there's a decided momentum advantage from a big halftime lead: you force the opponent into gambling for big plays, which is a high-risk, high-reward strategy.
One remaining concern is the third quarter, which was pretty similar to what happened against Western earlier this year. In both cases, Queen's went into halftime with a huge lead, but came out flat after the break and the opponent took advantage. This was less frightening than the Western game, given the larger lead Queen's had in the first place, but it might still be a problem that could hurt the Gaels down the road. Thus far, they've done a great job of coming out of the gate with focus and refusing to underestimate or overestimate their opponent. They need to work on maintaining that momentum and focus after halftime, though, and that's something that could be crucial in the playoffs. Strange things happen in football, particularly at the CIS level, and these leads may not be safe in the future if the Gaels choose to take the third quarter off.
It's tough to tell what to take from this one. Yes, it's a very impressive win over a highly-touted Gee-Gees team, and it's probably the most competitive game the Gaels have played other than the match against Western (which was a bit wider in score, but was much closer than this one in reality). Still, Ottawa's in a bit of a tailspin: they've now lost three in a row, and may not even crack the playoffs. If they get in, there will be plenty of OUA teams that won't want to run against them, but a win over them in Week Seven doesn't mean as much as it would have in Week One, given their recent performance.
The Gaels will really have to keep that focus and intensity over the next couple of weeks. They're still ranked second in the country, which could go to their heads. Moreover, they have what's almost a walkover game against Waterloo next week and then a first-round playoff bye. They'll be huge favorites in the second round, but they'll have to be careful: I've got a sneaking suspicion that teams like Laurier and McMaster are better than the way they played against Queen's, and the "Nobody believes in us" factor (trademark of Bill Simmons) may give them an extra edge. Optimism and credit are both deserved from the Gaels' performance thus far, but there's still a long way to go before Queen's can claim the Yates Cup, and no one should even consider the Vanier until that milestone is reached.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Campus Corner: Congrats to Sterling and Byers...
It was an impressive week for Queen's sports, which resulted in two Gaels taking OUA Athlete of the Week honours. I've already covered defensive tackle Dee Sterling's superlative performance in Saturday's football game against Laurier both here and at Out of Left Field, and will have more on his win in tomorrow's Journal, but his stats deserve repeating again: five solo sacks, one assisted sack, six solo tackles, four assisted tackles and six tackles for a loss, leading to a net loss of 37 yards. He broke the all-time Queen's record of four sacks, jointly held by Jim Aru and Marc Mitchell, and there's a good chance he'll earn CIS Defensive Player of the Week.
I didn't write about Jackie Byers yet, though, so she deserves some play here as well. The first-year lacrosse player turned in an incredible nine-goal, two-assist performance in Queen's three games over the weekend, leading the Gaels to a 3-0 record with wins over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, the McMaster Marauders and the McGill Martlets. Very impressive: we should see great things from her this year.
This is a pretty rare accomplishment as well. The last time a university swept the OUA male and female athletes of the week was in November 2007, when Nick FitzGibbon and Jaclyn Butterworth of the Guelph Gryphons both took home the honours. It's nice to see some Gaels get recognized for their superb efforts, especially when those individual performances also translated into team success.
I didn't write about Jackie Byers yet, though, so she deserves some play here as well. The first-year lacrosse player turned in an incredible nine-goal, two-assist performance in Queen's three games over the weekend, leading the Gaels to a 3-0 record with wins over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, the McMaster Marauders and the McGill Martlets. Very impressive: we should see great things from her this year.
This is a pretty rare accomplishment as well. The last time a university swept the OUA male and female athletes of the week was in November 2007, when Nick FitzGibbon and Jaclyn Butterworth of the Guelph Gryphons both took home the honours. It's nice to see some Gaels get recognized for their superb efforts, especially when those individual performances also translated into team success.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
The GBU: Queen's football vs. Laurier
Breaking down Queen's win over Laurier this afternoon (which you may have missed while pondering that the U of T Varsity Blues are now 2-1 [Varsity Blues Sports Information]...)
The score: 41-7, Queen's.
The recap: Here [My recap, Out of Left Field].
How I saw it: In person.
The Good:
- Dee Sterling: Defensive tackle Sterling had a monster game for the Gaels, recording five solo sacks (a Queen's record) and adding a shared sack with Osie Ukwuoma. He also led Queen's with six solo tackles, four assisted tackles and six tackles for a loss (which added to a total loss of 37 yards). As a result, Sterling was named the Boston Pizza Player of the Game.*
*I don't normally use corporate names for awards, but I make an exception in this case because I worked at Boston Pizza for two years (as a delivery driver) and loved it. Very, very good pizza. Also, they gave plenty of pizza to the press box at halftime, which was awesome.
- Queen's defensive line as a whole: Sterling had the best game, but defensive ends Ukwuoma and Neil Puffer also turned in tremendous performances, as did defensive tackle Kyle MacDonald. Together, they accounted for eight of Queen's nine quarterback sacks and held Laurier to just two yards rushing on 17 attempts (a 0.1 yards-per-carry average).
- Scott Valberg: Valberg had a career-high 193 yards on six catches, and also picked up two touchdowns. His longest play came off a 64-yard catch, and he was impressive all day.
- Mike Giffin: It wasn't a dominating performance from Giffin, but he rushed 25 times for a net gain of 115 yards, which is still a decent average of 4.6 yards-per-carry. He also picked up his 13th-straight game with over 100 rushing yards.
- The linebacking corps: T.J. Leeper (who went down with an injury partway through), Thaine Carter and Chris Smith all played vital roles today as well in pressuring Laurier quarterbacks Ian Noble and Luke Thompson and stopping Laurier running back Ryan Lynch, who ran for over 1,000 yards last year. They played a big part in holding Laurier to 123 net yards of offence and just six first downs.
The Bad:
- First-half Dan Brannagan: Brannagan doesn't fully deserve to be in this column, as he was only two yards away from a career-high passing yards mark, which he would have gotten if he hadn't been rested by head coach Pat Sheahan with five minutes to go. Still, he threw four interceptions on the day, including three in the first half. In the first half, he completed 14 of 25 passes for 234 yards, but had no touchdowns and the three picks. In the second, he was much better, and he finished the day 22 for 38 for 438 yards, with three touchdowns as well as the four picks. He also ran for 62 net yards over the course of the game, and delivered one very impressive 48-yard rush to set up the Gaels' first touchdown.
- The crowd: The official attendance was 4,127, which is good but not great for an opponent of this calibre (for comparison, last year's crowd at the Laurier game was 5,582). Part of the problem is some of the alumni stands are still roped off for repairs. On the bright side, there were about 250 students there, and few if any left at halftime, unlike the first week's game. I'd love to see more students come out to watch these games, but at least we got some committed fans this time around.
The Ugly:
- Laurier's rushing game: How is it possible to gain two net yards rushing on 17attempts over the course of a game, especially when you have a 1,000-yard rusher in your backfield? I'm thinking running back Ryan Lynch may either be injured or have lost a step, as so far this season he's picked up 50, 56 and 31 net rushing yards. The other explanation is a weaker offensive line, and they were certainly getting pushed around by Queen's four-man front.
- Revisionist history: Laurier's press package included some interesting stuff, such as "The Hawks have only played Queen's once in the past three years defeating them 45-0 in week one of the 2005 season." Well, if they want to forget last year's 23-4 shellacking [Mike Woods, Queen's Journal] that ruined the Gaels' undefeated season, that's fine with me. However, the package also included this doozy: "Last week Laurier defeated Western in front of 6,432 fans at University Stadium". Um, Western won that game 31-20 [Andy Watson, westernmustangs.ca.
(As an aside, this is not meant as an indictment of Laurier's communications manager, Ari Grossman (who I met today, by the way): the overall package was extremely helpful and included a lot of good information, and he's been doing a lot of good work on their website, including today's recap (which did use "Queen's Gales", though). I know sports information types have to do these packages and recaps quickly, and mistakes are inevitably made: I make them too, both here and in the Journal. The problem is that those mistakes can get picked up as gospel truth by people who don't know better, and that leads to a whole wave of inaccurate reporting, which is never good.)
Post-game reaction:
Queen's quarterback Dan Brannagan:
- On the importance of the win: "It was big for momentum."
- When I asked about the first-half offensive struggles: "We're still moving the ball in the first half, we're just not putting the points on the board." [Ed: A fair comment, by the way].
- On getting pulled before he could break his passing-yards record: "Records are a great thing, but wins are bigger." [Ed: He didn't seem too upset about it, and it makes some sense: he'd probably want to remember a record-breaking game without four interceptions. There's still a good chance he passes that 440 mark this year.]
Queen's head coach Pat Sheahan:
- On the interceptions: "I don't know how much longer I'm going to last in this business with games like this." [Ed: he jokingly mimed a heart attack while he said this].
- On if they can keep up the intensity for Toronto, given the Blues' poor history over the last several years: "The only history that matters is what they did last week."
- On if the team will get overconfident against the Blues: "They got a victory today. Everyone's happy about that, everyone understands that there's still more work to do."
Laurier head coach Gary Jeffries:
- On his team's play: "I think that our defence played an outstanding game today, regardless of the points on the board. [Ed: Also a valid point. See my argument about time of possession on Out of Left Field.]
- On the Hawks' offensive struggles: "We had no offence today whatsoever."
- On the Gaels' play: "Full credit to Queen's defence, they were outstanding."
- On his offensive line: "Our kids up front just got flat-out beaten."
- On his team's two losses in a row, the first time that's ever happened in his six years running the program (according to Laurier's press kit): "It's new ground for us. ... We're going to see the kind of character we're made of."
The score: 41-7, Queen's.
The recap: Here [My recap, Out of Left Field].
How I saw it: In person.
The Good:
- Dee Sterling: Defensive tackle Sterling had a monster game for the Gaels, recording five solo sacks (a Queen's record) and adding a shared sack with Osie Ukwuoma. He also led Queen's with six solo tackles, four assisted tackles and six tackles for a loss (which added to a total loss of 37 yards). As a result, Sterling was named the Boston Pizza Player of the Game.*
*I don't normally use corporate names for awards, but I make an exception in this case because I worked at Boston Pizza for two years (as a delivery driver) and loved it. Very, very good pizza. Also, they gave plenty of pizza to the press box at halftime, which was awesome.
- Queen's defensive line as a whole: Sterling had the best game, but defensive ends Ukwuoma and Neil Puffer also turned in tremendous performances, as did defensive tackle Kyle MacDonald. Together, they accounted for eight of Queen's nine quarterback sacks and held Laurier to just two yards rushing on 17 attempts (a 0.1 yards-per-carry average).
- Scott Valberg: Valberg had a career-high 193 yards on six catches, and also picked up two touchdowns. His longest play came off a 64-yard catch, and he was impressive all day.
- Mike Giffin: It wasn't a dominating performance from Giffin, but he rushed 25 times for a net gain of 115 yards, which is still a decent average of 4.6 yards-per-carry. He also picked up his 13th-straight game with over 100 rushing yards.
- The linebacking corps: T.J. Leeper (who went down with an injury partway through), Thaine Carter and Chris Smith all played vital roles today as well in pressuring Laurier quarterbacks Ian Noble and Luke Thompson and stopping Laurier running back Ryan Lynch, who ran for over 1,000 yards last year. They played a big part in holding Laurier to 123 net yards of offence and just six first downs.
The Bad:
- First-half Dan Brannagan: Brannagan doesn't fully deserve to be in this column, as he was only two yards away from a career-high passing yards mark, which he would have gotten if he hadn't been rested by head coach Pat Sheahan with five minutes to go. Still, he threw four interceptions on the day, including three in the first half. In the first half, he completed 14 of 25 passes for 234 yards, but had no touchdowns and the three picks. In the second, he was much better, and he finished the day 22 for 38 for 438 yards, with three touchdowns as well as the four picks. He also ran for 62 net yards over the course of the game, and delivered one very impressive 48-yard rush to set up the Gaels' first touchdown.
- The crowd: The official attendance was 4,127, which is good but not great for an opponent of this calibre (for comparison, last year's crowd at the Laurier game was 5,582). Part of the problem is some of the alumni stands are still roped off for repairs. On the bright side, there were about 250 students there, and few if any left at halftime, unlike the first week's game. I'd love to see more students come out to watch these games, but at least we got some committed fans this time around.
The Ugly:
- Laurier's rushing game: How is it possible to gain two net yards rushing on 17attempts over the course of a game, especially when you have a 1,000-yard rusher in your backfield? I'm thinking running back Ryan Lynch may either be injured or have lost a step, as so far this season he's picked up 50, 56 and 31 net rushing yards. The other explanation is a weaker offensive line, and they were certainly getting pushed around by Queen's four-man front.
- Revisionist history: Laurier's press package included some interesting stuff, such as "The Hawks have only played Queen's once in the past three years defeating them 45-0 in week one of the 2005 season." Well, if they want to forget last year's 23-4 shellacking [Mike Woods, Queen's Journal] that ruined the Gaels' undefeated season, that's fine with me. However, the package also included this doozy: "Last week Laurier defeated Western in front of 6,432 fans at University Stadium". Um, Western won that game 31-20 [Andy Watson, westernmustangs.ca.
(As an aside, this is not meant as an indictment of Laurier's communications manager, Ari Grossman (who I met today, by the way): the overall package was extremely helpful and included a lot of good information, and he's been doing a lot of good work on their website, including today's recap (which did use "Queen's Gales", though). I know sports information types have to do these packages and recaps quickly, and mistakes are inevitably made: I make them too, both here and in the Journal. The problem is that those mistakes can get picked up as gospel truth by people who don't know better, and that leads to a whole wave of inaccurate reporting, which is never good.)
Post-game reaction:
Queen's quarterback Dan Brannagan:
- On the importance of the win: "It was big for momentum."
- When I asked about the first-half offensive struggles: "We're still moving the ball in the first half, we're just not putting the points on the board." [Ed: A fair comment, by the way].
- On getting pulled before he could break his passing-yards record: "Records are a great thing, but wins are bigger." [Ed: He didn't seem too upset about it, and it makes some sense: he'd probably want to remember a record-breaking game without four interceptions. There's still a good chance he passes that 440 mark this year.]
Queen's head coach Pat Sheahan:
- On the interceptions: "I don't know how much longer I'm going to last in this business with games like this." [Ed: he jokingly mimed a heart attack while he said this].
- On if they can keep up the intensity for Toronto, given the Blues' poor history over the last several years: "The only history that matters is what they did last week."
- On if the team will get overconfident against the Blues: "They got a victory today. Everyone's happy about that, everyone understands that there's still more work to do."
Laurier head coach Gary Jeffries:
- On his team's play: "I think that our defence played an outstanding game today, regardless of the points on the board. [Ed: Also a valid point. See my argument about time of possession on Out of Left Field.]
- On the Hawks' offensive struggles: "We had no offence today whatsoever."
- On the Gaels' play: "Full credit to Queen's defence, they were outstanding."
- On his offensive line: "Our kids up front just got flat-out beaten."
- On his team's two losses in a row, the first time that's ever happened in his six years running the program (according to Laurier's press kit): "It's new ground for us. ... We're going to see the kind of character we're made of."
Intertubes Roundup: CIS media coverage expansion and more
Seeing as I'm spending so much time writing for other sites and publications these days, which means this blog doesn't get updated as often as I liked, I figured I'd bring in a new feature and rework an old one. I'll try to do a Bucholtz Roundup post every week with links to some of the pieces I've written (for any readers who want to see what else I'm doing and why I don't have much time to write here). To keep it from getting too self-promotional, I also plan to include a Best of the Intertubes section, where I highlight some of the most interesting pieces I've seen over the last week (it's pretty much the old Links of the Day, but that never turned out to be daily and I like this title better). Collectively, I'll call the combined post the Intertubes Roundup. Here's the first one.
Bucholtz Roundup:
Out of Left Field/The CIS Blog:
- "More coverage of CIS Sports on the way?": This is a piece based off of the feature I wrote for Friday's Journal about the potentially expanding media coverage of the CIS. It includes quotes from CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore, Score Media chairman and CEO John Levy and Streaming Sports Network Canada president Bengt Neathery. The Journal piece is written as a traditional news story, while the blog piece features more analysis, so feel free to look at whichever one suits your fancy.
Queen's Journal, Friday, September 12:
- "Football prepares to face Golden Hawks": This is a preview of today's football game between Queen's and Laurier, featuring quotes from quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan. It also includes the details of the last times Queen's played Laurier. The last Gaels' victory came on October 11, 2003 during the Tommy Denison era. Dan Pawliw was nice enough to link to this one in his excellent Queen's Football Newsletter.
- "An ugly mark on a beautiful game": This is a column I wrote about Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill's allegations of match-fixing during the 2006 World Cup. I highly recommend Stephen Brunt's piece on the same subject in The Globe and Mail (which includes an interview with Hill) for those looking for more information on the topic. This interview with Hill in Der Spiegel (a German news magazine, but the article's in English) is also very interesting.
- "Gaels fall to Trent in regular-season opener": This is a game recap of the women's rugby team's loss to the Trent Excalibur Wednesday. It features interviews with co-captain Shauna Geerts and head coach Beth Barz. The team plays again at home tomorrow against the York Lions.
- "Rock and Roll Report Card": Yes, it's not sports, but this review of Alice Cooper's new CD Along Came A Spider is the first album review I've ever had published, so I thought I'd include it.
Queen's Journal, Tuesday, September 9:
- "Football defeats Guelph": My game story on the football team's 41-30 win over the Guelph Gryphons. Includes quotes from centre Dan Bederman, quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan.
- "Baptism by fire": My game story on new Queen's men's soccer head coach Carlo Cannovan's first win over the Trent Excalibur Saturday, and the team's loss to the Carleton Ravens the next day. (My earlier thoughts on Cannovan's appointment can be found here [Out of Left Field]). The story includes quotes from Cannovan, defender Andrew Nador and midfielder Grame Webber, a new transfer from Cornell.
- "A win and a loss for women's soccer": A game story on the women's soccer team's victory over Trent Saturday and loss to Carleton the next day. Includes quotes from head coach Dave McDowell, midfielder Jenn Pentesco and striker/defender Sara Buckham.
Best of the Intertubes:
-"The Brief Wonderous Life of Angel Berroa" [Joe Posnanski, September 7]: Posnanski delivers his usual excellence with this post about Dodgers' shortstop Angel Berroa. He covers stats, fandom, bizarre stories, and the unusual places you have to turn to for hope when your franchise falls on tough times. Highly recommended.
-"The Hunted" [Ivan Solotaroff,Details (I don't usually read Details, so hat-tip to Deadspin's Clay Travis for picking this up), October issue (yes, it's from the future)]: A fantastic profile of Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who's been described as "the next Vince Young and the next LeBron James—in one".
-"Twelve-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Boys' Basketball Team For Being Too Good" [Clay Travis, Deadspin, Sept. 12]: Clay makes another solid pickup, this one from The New York Times Magazine. Both his thoughts and the original article are well worth a read.
"Zen Dayley: Manny is taking it easy for all of us sinners" [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field, Sept. 12]: Neate has a great deconstruction of Daily Breeze writer John Klima's article that alleges in the lede, "Manny Ramirez is the worst ballplayer I have ever seen." What I like about Neate's piece is how he gets why Klima would write that and why Ramirez is frustrating to watch, but still exposes the illogical nature of Klima's arguments.
"Still dreaming of the Ontario Derby" [Duane Rollins, Out of Left Field, Sept. 13]: Duane comes through with some good insight about why an Ottawa MLS franchise may not be a ridiculous idea.
"Angst Over Sonics' Departure Drives Local Man To Reach For New Heights...With His Feet!" [Damon Agnos, Buzzer Beater, Seattle Weekly, Sept 11 (via the fabulous J.E. Skeets at Ball Don't Lie)]: This is a hilarious but sad post about a Seattle resident who's started kicking his ceiling to cope with the loss of the Sonics.
Bucholtz Roundup:
Out of Left Field/The CIS Blog:
- "More coverage of CIS Sports on the way?": This is a piece based off of the feature I wrote for Friday's Journal about the potentially expanding media coverage of the CIS. It includes quotes from CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore, Score Media chairman and CEO John Levy and Streaming Sports Network Canada president Bengt Neathery. The Journal piece is written as a traditional news story, while the blog piece features more analysis, so feel free to look at whichever one suits your fancy.
Queen's Journal, Friday, September 12:
- "Football prepares to face Golden Hawks": This is a preview of today's football game between Queen's and Laurier, featuring quotes from quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan. It also includes the details of the last times Queen's played Laurier. The last Gaels' victory came on October 11, 2003 during the Tommy Denison era. Dan Pawliw was nice enough to link to this one in his excellent Queen's Football Newsletter.
- "An ugly mark on a beautiful game": This is a column I wrote about Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill's allegations of match-fixing during the 2006 World Cup. I highly recommend Stephen Brunt's piece on the same subject in The Globe and Mail (which includes an interview with Hill) for those looking for more information on the topic. This interview with Hill in Der Spiegel (a German news magazine, but the article's in English) is also very interesting.
- "Gaels fall to Trent in regular-season opener": This is a game recap of the women's rugby team's loss to the Trent Excalibur Wednesday. It features interviews with co-captain Shauna Geerts and head coach Beth Barz. The team plays again at home tomorrow against the York Lions.
- "Rock and Roll Report Card": Yes, it's not sports, but this review of Alice Cooper's new CD Along Came A Spider is the first album review I've ever had published, so I thought I'd include it.
Queen's Journal, Tuesday, September 9:
- "Football defeats Guelph": My game story on the football team's 41-30 win over the Guelph Gryphons. Includes quotes from centre Dan Bederman, quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan.
- "Baptism by fire": My game story on new Queen's men's soccer head coach Carlo Cannovan's first win over the Trent Excalibur Saturday, and the team's loss to the Carleton Ravens the next day. (My earlier thoughts on Cannovan's appointment can be found here [Out of Left Field]). The story includes quotes from Cannovan, defender Andrew Nador and midfielder Grame Webber, a new transfer from Cornell.
- "A win and a loss for women's soccer": A game story on the women's soccer team's victory over Trent Saturday and loss to Carleton the next day. Includes quotes from head coach Dave McDowell, midfielder Jenn Pentesco and striker/defender Sara Buckham.
Best of the Intertubes:
-"The Brief Wonderous Life of Angel Berroa" [Joe Posnanski, September 7]: Posnanski delivers his usual excellence with this post about Dodgers' shortstop Angel Berroa. He covers stats, fandom, bizarre stories, and the unusual places you have to turn to for hope when your franchise falls on tough times. Highly recommended.
-"The Hunted" [Ivan Solotaroff,Details (I don't usually read Details, so hat-tip to Deadspin's Clay Travis for picking this up), October issue (yes, it's from the future)]: A fantastic profile of Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who's been described as "the next Vince Young and the next LeBron James—in one".
-"Twelve-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Boys' Basketball Team For Being Too Good" [Clay Travis, Deadspin, Sept. 12]: Clay makes another solid pickup, this one from The New York Times Magazine. Both his thoughts and the original article are well worth a read.
"Zen Dayley: Manny is taking it easy for all of us sinners" [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field, Sept. 12]: Neate has a great deconstruction of Daily Breeze writer John Klima's article that alleges in the lede, "Manny Ramirez is the worst ballplayer I have ever seen." What I like about Neate's piece is how he gets why Klima would write that and why Ramirez is frustrating to watch, but still exposes the illogical nature of Klima's arguments.
"Still dreaming of the Ontario Derby" [Duane Rollins, Out of Left Field, Sept. 13]: Duane comes through with some good insight about why an Ottawa MLS franchise may not be a ridiculous idea.
"Angst Over Sonics' Departure Drives Local Man To Reach For New Heights...With His Feet!" [Damon Agnos, Buzzer Beater, Seattle Weekly, Sept 11 (via the fabulous J.E. Skeets at Ball Don't Lie)]: This is a hilarious but sad post about a Seattle resident who's started kicking his ceiling to cope with the loss of the Sonics.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Campus Corner: What's in a name?
There's been quite a bit of controversy over the Queen's Athletics and Recreation Department's recent decision to refer to their teams as the "Queen's Gaels" from now on instead of the traditional "Queen's Golden Gaels". For dead-tree edition background on the story, check out my piece in today's Journal or the article Jordan Press wrote for Monday's Kingston Whig-Standard. There's also some solid pieces of the Out of Left Field variety, including Neate's initial post on the rebranding and name change, Neate's post on Monday's football game (which includes some reaction to the name change and Duane's first upset comment on the matter), a satirical press release written by Duane about the next logical step, dropping the "Thigh" from the Oil Thigh*, and Duane's post today suggesting that this is all part of "the modern marketers' pathological need to control every aspect of everything."**
*By the way, I'm completely staggered that some people completely missed the satire, which originally was explained in a tag if you weren't clever enough to clue in from the context, but later saw Neate posting an editor's note in the post and "Satire" in the headline because some people didn't clue in and called the Athletics Department to complain. People, people: please read the whole thing before you lose your cool. Yes, it should have been better-labeled, but I knew it was a fake from the first sentence, and everyone who read the whole thing really should have caught on to the joke. There's a place called conclusions, but jumping off a cliff to get there isn't the greatest idea.
**Does anyone else find it funny that our site's Laurier alumnus (Duane) is far more outraged by the name change than the Queen's alumnus who's the overall site editor (Neate)? Not to come down on Duane for that: he's got just as much right as I do to speak out on Queen's issues, and the outsider perspective is a valuable one, but it just strikes me as odd that he's leading the charge to bring Golden back. Perhaps he's worried that if Queen's drops it, Laurier will follow. If you're looking for outrage on the Queen's end, feel free to tune into the Tyler King Rant (sorry, Offsides) at 4 p.m. (cfrc.ca): I'm sure there will be plenty of venting going on there.
Anyway, to my views on the matter. I'm a bit conflicted about this. I can understand why the athletics department decided to make the change, and I think my experience working for the Journal especially helps to show why they thought it might have been needed. In Journal Sports, we generally refer to any Queen's team as either "Queen's", "Gaels", or by their own name (i.e. men's basketball): it's less clumsy than writing out Queen's Golden Gaels five or six times per article, and it allows for some variation. Thus, I can also see why they might think it would be easier to promote a team as "Queen's" or "The Gaels" rather than the "Queen's Golden Gaels". It's also not like they made the decision out of thin air: the rebranding process started in 2006, while John McFarlane was still in charge, and Marketing, Communications and Events Manager Brad Greenwood told me Wednesday that they consulted over 500 people (students, student-athletes, alumni, faculty, staff and several other groups) during the process, though, as Out of Left Field commenter Big V wrote, there's a chance their input was misinterpreted as a desire to eliminate Golden.
Additionally, name changes have happened before: the teams were initially called "The Tricolour", and switched to Golden Gaels in the 1950s. "Golden Gaels" actually started as somewhat of a derogatory term, coined by Whig-Standard reporter Cliff Bowering in 1947 after the football team in their shiny new golden uniforms got pasted 52-3 by Western. However, the university started to embrace it, and it caught on quickly. I bet there was probably a similar controversy to the current one when they tried to officially switch from "Tricolour" to "Golden Gaels", though.
Furthermore, the teams aren't losing all connection with the "golden". Ironically, they're probably more golden than ever, as all teams will wear primarily-golden uniforms at home this year*, a point Athletics and Recreation is trying to emphasize. As Director of Athletics and Recreation Leslie Dal Cin told me Wednesday, "I think we’re actually doing more service to the name now with the strategy we’ve taken to bring the brand to life." That's debatable, but the point is that there is still an element of golden around.
*By the way, the new adidas uniforms look great, and the move to unified home and road colour schemes for all teams is a solid one that should have happened years ago. It was also nice (and unexpected) to hear that the uniforms will be made in Canada: that should help alleviate some of the ethical concerns that were raised around the old Russell uniforms, and it shows that the Athletics Department is willing to respond to student concerns.
With that said, I understand why a lot of alumni are upset, particularly those who played under the "Golden Gaels" name. I wouldn't want to have spent five years of my life toiling for a team that doesn't exist any more due to a name change. Golden Gaels was 61 years old (from first creation, not official adoption) this year: it may be a relatively recent tradition by Queen's standards, but it's still a tradition and it's still been around for a long while.
One of the biggest problems with this change, in my mind, is the way it was done: if Queen's Athletics really wanted to properly change the name, they should have put out a detailed release announcing the change and their reasons for it. At the minimum, they should have included it as a footnote in the release about the rebranding efforts. Instead, they just hinted to various media outlets that they'd prefer to be called "Queen's Gaels", and the announcers started rolling out the "Please welcome your Queen's Gaels" line.* Neate wrote about it last Friday, the Whig explored it further Monday, and we ran it today (our first issue of the fall term, which is why we didn't get it out earlier). Athletics still hasn't even issued a release telling their full side of the story: obviously, both our article and The Whig piece included quotes from key department personnel and tried to be unbiased by giving both sides, but (in my view, at least) it's an important part of public relations that you don't rely solely on the media to tell your side: it's not our job to make your case, only to present it.** Not releasing the information doesn't look good on their part: it makes it seem like more of a secret, elitist decision than was really the case, and as every journalist knows, the appearance of hiding something is often more harmful than anything that's actually being hid (just ask Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton). I don't think Queen's is hiding anything here, as Greenwood and Dal Cin took a lot of time to sit down with me and answer my questions about the change earlier in the process, but that impression may still be out there for other people who are less familiar with the situation. Queen's Athletics has a very popular website and the unlimited space provided by the intertubes: wouldn't it benefit them to explain themselves and their rationale in full without going through the intermediaries of the press? That might help alleviate the volume of angry calls and e-mails Dal Cin's surely been getting all week.
*This is one of the areas where the new name really is a letdown. "Queen's Gaels" sounds terrible over a PA system: it's just begging for more syllables. A two-syllable name gives an announcer nothing to work with.
**This is by no means an indictment of Queen's Communications and Sports Information Officer Mike Grobe, who is both very competent and tremendously helpful to the media. My understanding is that it wasn't his decision. I'm not privy to the department's inner workings though, so I can't tell you why they decided not to put out a release on it.
Thus, arguments can be made both for and against the switch. Personally, I think the proper solution is in the middle. It would have been better to keep Golden as the official name, for use primarily in introductions, in the OUA and CIS directories and box scores. At the same time, they could have gone more in the direction of using "Gaels" exclusively in releases, programs and the like, and it would have been easy to focus branding efforts on both "Queen's" and "Gaels" without completely scratching the Golden. This wouldn't have offended anyone, while still accomplishing most of the same aims. I'm not a huge fan of dropping the Golden, but I can live with Queen's Gaels.
To close, here's the complete e-mail I received from former Queen's and CFL star Jock Climie, who's now a lawyer with Ottawa's Emond Harnden and an analyst with the CFL on TSN (and the best football analyst on TV in my opinion). This was in response to an interview request I sent him for my Journal piece, and large portions of his comments were used in there, but I thought I'd present the whole thing. He makes the anti-Golden argument more persuasively than anyone else I've seen so far, and whether you agree or not, his thoughts are well worth a read. Here they are:
Hi Andrew,
I can give you a few quick thoughts. First, this is the first I've heard of it. And I'm very disappointed by the decision. Some marketing consultant says that a 60 year tradition doesn't make sense and bang...it's gone? Why does everything have to be about marketing and branding? And is someone actually claiming that streamlining the university's nickname is going to attract more students? Generate more school pride? So, my big issue with this is why. Change for the sake of change has never made any sense to me. There are some quirky things that should just be allowed to stay quirky. Our golden (most would say yellow) uniforms in years past was one such example. I had many CFL teammates laugh when they saw Queens' uniforms. But I guarantee none of them will ever fail to recognize a Queens football team on TV again. The name "Golden Gaels" was also unique and traditional. There is no good reason to have changed it.
Jock Climie
(Note: the asterisks throughout this post are based on Joe Posnanski's use of the Posterisk. Please read his fantastic blog (now serialized at SI!) or buy his book.)
*By the way, I'm completely staggered that some people completely missed the satire, which originally was explained in a tag if you weren't clever enough to clue in from the context, but later saw Neate posting an editor's note in the post and "Satire" in the headline because some people didn't clue in and called the Athletics Department to complain. People, people: please read the whole thing before you lose your cool. Yes, it should have been better-labeled, but I knew it was a fake from the first sentence, and everyone who read the whole thing really should have caught on to the joke. There's a place called conclusions, but jumping off a cliff to get there isn't the greatest idea.
**Does anyone else find it funny that our site's Laurier alumnus (Duane) is far more outraged by the name change than the Queen's alumnus who's the overall site editor (Neate)? Not to come down on Duane for that: he's got just as much right as I do to speak out on Queen's issues, and the outsider perspective is a valuable one, but it just strikes me as odd that he's leading the charge to bring Golden back. Perhaps he's worried that if Queen's drops it, Laurier will follow. If you're looking for outrage on the Queen's end, feel free to tune into the Tyler King Rant (sorry, Offsides) at 4 p.m. (cfrc.ca): I'm sure there will be plenty of venting going on there.
Anyway, to my views on the matter. I'm a bit conflicted about this. I can understand why the athletics department decided to make the change, and I think my experience working for the Journal especially helps to show why they thought it might have been needed. In Journal Sports, we generally refer to any Queen's team as either "Queen's", "Gaels", or by their own name (i.e. men's basketball): it's less clumsy than writing out Queen's Golden Gaels five or six times per article, and it allows for some variation. Thus, I can also see why they might think it would be easier to promote a team as "Queen's" or "The Gaels" rather than the "Queen's Golden Gaels". It's also not like they made the decision out of thin air: the rebranding process started in 2006, while John McFarlane was still in charge, and Marketing, Communications and Events Manager Brad Greenwood told me Wednesday that they consulted over 500 people (students, student-athletes, alumni, faculty, staff and several other groups) during the process, though, as Out of Left Field commenter Big V wrote, there's a chance their input was misinterpreted as a desire to eliminate Golden.
Additionally, name changes have happened before: the teams were initially called "The Tricolour", and switched to Golden Gaels in the 1950s. "Golden Gaels" actually started as somewhat of a derogatory term, coined by Whig-Standard reporter Cliff Bowering in 1947 after the football team in their shiny new golden uniforms got pasted 52-3 by Western. However, the university started to embrace it, and it caught on quickly. I bet there was probably a similar controversy to the current one when they tried to officially switch from "Tricolour" to "Golden Gaels", though.
Furthermore, the teams aren't losing all connection with the "golden". Ironically, they're probably more golden than ever, as all teams will wear primarily-golden uniforms at home this year*, a point Athletics and Recreation is trying to emphasize. As Director of Athletics and Recreation Leslie Dal Cin told me Wednesday, "I think we’re actually doing more service to the name now with the strategy we’ve taken to bring the brand to life." That's debatable, but the point is that there is still an element of golden around.
*By the way, the new adidas uniforms look great, and the move to unified home and road colour schemes for all teams is a solid one that should have happened years ago. It was also nice (and unexpected) to hear that the uniforms will be made in Canada: that should help alleviate some of the ethical concerns that were raised around the old Russell uniforms, and it shows that the Athletics Department is willing to respond to student concerns.
With that said, I understand why a lot of alumni are upset, particularly those who played under the "Golden Gaels" name. I wouldn't want to have spent five years of my life toiling for a team that doesn't exist any more due to a name change. Golden Gaels was 61 years old (from first creation, not official adoption) this year: it may be a relatively recent tradition by Queen's standards, but it's still a tradition and it's still been around for a long while.
One of the biggest problems with this change, in my mind, is the way it was done: if Queen's Athletics really wanted to properly change the name, they should have put out a detailed release announcing the change and their reasons for it. At the minimum, they should have included it as a footnote in the release about the rebranding efforts. Instead, they just hinted to various media outlets that they'd prefer to be called "Queen's Gaels", and the announcers started rolling out the "Please welcome your Queen's Gaels" line.* Neate wrote about it last Friday, the Whig explored it further Monday, and we ran it today (our first issue of the fall term, which is why we didn't get it out earlier). Athletics still hasn't even issued a release telling their full side of the story: obviously, both our article and The Whig piece included quotes from key department personnel and tried to be unbiased by giving both sides, but (in my view, at least) it's an important part of public relations that you don't rely solely on the media to tell your side: it's not our job to make your case, only to present it.** Not releasing the information doesn't look good on their part: it makes it seem like more of a secret, elitist decision than was really the case, and as every journalist knows, the appearance of hiding something is often more harmful than anything that's actually being hid (just ask Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton). I don't think Queen's is hiding anything here, as Greenwood and Dal Cin took a lot of time to sit down with me and answer my questions about the change earlier in the process, but that impression may still be out there for other people who are less familiar with the situation. Queen's Athletics has a very popular website and the unlimited space provided by the intertubes: wouldn't it benefit them to explain themselves and their rationale in full without going through the intermediaries of the press? That might help alleviate the volume of angry calls and e-mails Dal Cin's surely been getting all week.
*This is one of the areas where the new name really is a letdown. "Queen's Gaels" sounds terrible over a PA system: it's just begging for more syllables. A two-syllable name gives an announcer nothing to work with.
**This is by no means an indictment of Queen's Communications and Sports Information Officer Mike Grobe, who is both very competent and tremendously helpful to the media. My understanding is that it wasn't his decision. I'm not privy to the department's inner workings though, so I can't tell you why they decided not to put out a release on it.
Thus, arguments can be made both for and against the switch. Personally, I think the proper solution is in the middle. It would have been better to keep Golden as the official name, for use primarily in introductions, in the OUA and CIS directories and box scores. At the same time, they could have gone more in the direction of using "Gaels" exclusively in releases, programs and the like, and it would have been easy to focus branding efforts on both "Queen's" and "Gaels" without completely scratching the Golden. This wouldn't have offended anyone, while still accomplishing most of the same aims. I'm not a huge fan of dropping the Golden, but I can live with Queen's Gaels.
To close, here's the complete e-mail I received from former Queen's and CFL star Jock Climie, who's now a lawyer with Ottawa's Emond Harnden and an analyst with the CFL on TSN (and the best football analyst on TV in my opinion). This was in response to an interview request I sent him for my Journal piece, and large portions of his comments were used in there, but I thought I'd present the whole thing. He makes the anti-Golden argument more persuasively than anyone else I've seen so far, and whether you agree or not, his thoughts are well worth a read. Here they are:
Hi Andrew,
I can give you a few quick thoughts. First, this is the first I've heard of it. And I'm very disappointed by the decision. Some marketing consultant says that a 60 year tradition doesn't make sense and bang...it's gone? Why does everything have to be about marketing and branding? And is someone actually claiming that streamlining the university's nickname is going to attract more students? Generate more school pride? So, my big issue with this is why. Change for the sake of change has never made any sense to me. There are some quirky things that should just be allowed to stay quirky. Our golden (most would say yellow) uniforms in years past was one such example. I had many CFL teammates laugh when they saw Queens' uniforms. But I guarantee none of them will ever fail to recognize a Queens football team on TV again. The name "Golden Gaels" was also unique and traditional. There is no good reason to have changed it.
Jock Climie
(Note: the asterisks throughout this post are based on Joe Posnanski's use of the Posterisk. Please read his fantastic blog (now serialized at SI!) or buy his book.)
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