It wasn’t all that long ago that Jason Clermont was tearing up the CFL statistically. In 2002, he was drafted fourth overall by the B.C. Lions and made an immediate impact, catching 46 passes for 735 yards and six touchdowns and earning the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie award. In 2004, he had a career year, recording 83 catches for 1,220 yards and seven touchdowns. He also put up 1,000+ yard seasons with B.C. in 2005 and 2007. In 2008, he was held to 50 catches for 640 yards and three touchdowns, still very solid numbers, but he was released by the Lions after the season ended. He signed a deal with Saskatchewan nine days later and played this year with the Roughriders.
In terms of pure statistics, the move didn’t pay off. Saskatchewan has probably the best Canadian receiving corps in the league, so Clermont struggled to find time with the likes of Rob Bagg, Andy Fantuz and Chris Getzlaf competing for catches. He only recorded catches in 12 different games this year, and only had six games with more than one catch. He finished the year with career lows in catches (23), yards (317) and touchdowns (zero).
Still, Regina native Clermont said coming home brings its own rewards. “It’s been great,” he said. “I had a baby boy 10 months ago, so it’s great to get to go home, have dinner with my family and sleep in my own bed.”
Some might be jealous of the younger receivers stealing their catches, but not Clermont. He said he loves watching the young Canadians succeed, and their accomplishments are proof of the depth of Canadian talent in the league today. Saskatchewan’s frequently started more than the league minimum of non-imports, and they’ve found great success doing so.
“At some times, we’ve had up to 10 Canadian players on the field at the same time on our offence, and I don’t think we’ve really skipped a beat,” Clermont said.
Bagg credited Clermont with much of the younger receivers’ development.
“He’s obviously been there and been a big influence on all of us,” Bagg said. “He’s won a championship and been a huge player in this game. While he might not be on the field on every down right now, mentally he helps us prepare for every play. He’s a fun guy to be around and a bigger part of this team than people on the outside probably realize.”
The move has also worked out for Clermont from another standpoint, as it allows him a chance to pick up his second Grey Cup ring. For him, one of the few disappointments is not getting a chance to take on his old team thanks to B.C.’s loss in the Eastern Final.
“For a lot of the friends I have on that team, I hoped for their sake that they’d get through and then lose in the Grey Cup.”
Showing posts with label Rob Bagg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rob Bagg. Show all posts
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Graham Harrell and Saskatchewan: a perfect fit?
It was rather exciting to see former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell sign with the Saskatchewan Roughriders yesterday [Murray McCormick, Regina Leader-Post]. Harrell, the NCAA Division I career leader in touchdown passes, is one of the most impressive quarterbacks I've seen. As I wrote a while ago, there's a great chance he would have been able to succeed in the NFL if not for the groupthink that determines the evaluation of NFL quarterbacks. Harrell had a far better season and career statistically than first-overall draft pick Matthew Stafford or fifth-overall pick Mark Sanchez, but went completely undrafted and then failed to catch on with the Cleveland Browns as a free agent.
The logic behind passing Harrell over? Well, it isn't especially convincing. NFL evaluation of quarterbacks has long placed college numbers below such things as height and arm strength. The NFL also consistently passes over "system" quarterbacks who run pass-heavy offences in favour of those who got their playing time in a more balanced environment . Sometimes this works well; players like Matt Cassel, who never started in college, have gone on to be NFL stars, while other players with impressive college careers, like Ryan Leaf, have failed spectacularly in the professional ranks.
On the whole, though, the system is rather flawed. As Malcolm Gladwell examined in Outliers (a book I wrote about here), many different approaches have been tried, but no consistent way to predict quarterbacks' professional success has yet been found. With that in mind, it doesn't particularly make sense to eliminate massive amounts of capable quarterbacks such as Harrell because they don't fit into an evaluation model that has been demonstrated not to work.
The NFL's loss may well be the CFL's gain, though. As I wrote in my initial piece, Harrell isn't a perfect quarterback in the traditional NFL mould. He doesn't have the pure arm strength of many NFL players (although he's still able to throw deep balls when needed), and he isn't a gunslinger in the Brett Favre mould who zips bullet passes into tight coverage. That may be to his advantage, though, especially in Canada.
What Harrell excels at is running a spread offence with four or five receivers, making quick reads and finding the open man. That allows him to have an extraordinarily high completion percentage and a low number of interceptions, as well as a lot of touchdown passes. He's far more efficient and effective then the strong-armed types who rely on pure power and often throw interceptions. Harrell might or might not be a successful quarterback in a traditional NFL offence, but I'm quite confident he could be very successful with a team that tailored its offence to his strengths. Well, the CFL just happens to feature a lot of shotgun spread formations and pass-oriented offences, and the Roughriders in particular have an extraordinarily deep receiving corps that would be a perfect fit for Harrell. With the likes of former teammate Eric Morris, Rob Bagg, Andy Fantuz, Chris Getzlaf, Jason Clermont, Weston Dressler and Johnny Quinn as slotbacks and wide receivers, plus a couple of excellent receiving backs in Wes Cates and Hugh Charles, Harrell will have plenty of weapons suited to his style of play. That's not just my evaluation, either; Texas Tech play-by-play man Brian Jensen wrote that "this could be a match made in ... yes ... Canada is far enough north to be close to heaven!" and Tech assistant coach Matt Jansen wrote on Twitter that he's also a big fan of the move. " I'm so excited for Graham," he wrote. "He gets to team up with Eric Morris again and they could be a deadly combo up there. If you're a fan of that team, you couldn't ask for two guys with more heart for the game of football. I'm jealous."
Of course, the Roughriders are 2-0 so far this year, and you don't usually make quarterback changes when you're winning. Still, starter Darian Durant hasn't been overly impressive thus far, and backup Steven Jyles still has to prove himself at the CFL level. The Riders' quarterback situation is actually perhaps more open than any CFL team except Winnipeg, as neither of their top two options has really been spectacular at the CFL level yet. Thus, this could be a terrific fit for Harrell.
It also could be good for the league to get a high-profile QB like Harrell. It brings back memories of the days when the likes of Warren Moon and Doug Flutie were passed over by the NFL and opted to come to Canada. In fact, those guys faced similar challenges in cracking the NFL system; Moon was a black quarterback long before black quarterbacks were widely accepted, and Flutie was considered far too short to succeed in the NFL. Both did well in Canada and then proved to the NFL that their evaluation model was flawed with triumphant returns. Let's see if Harrell can follow in their footsteps.
The logic behind passing Harrell over? Well, it isn't especially convincing. NFL evaluation of quarterbacks has long placed college numbers below such things as height and arm strength. The NFL also consistently passes over "system" quarterbacks who run pass-heavy offences in favour of those who got their playing time in a more balanced environment . Sometimes this works well; players like Matt Cassel, who never started in college, have gone on to be NFL stars, while other players with impressive college careers, like Ryan Leaf, have failed spectacularly in the professional ranks.
On the whole, though, the system is rather flawed. As Malcolm Gladwell examined in Outliers (a book I wrote about here), many different approaches have been tried, but no consistent way to predict quarterbacks' professional success has yet been found. With that in mind, it doesn't particularly make sense to eliminate massive amounts of capable quarterbacks such as Harrell because they don't fit into an evaluation model that has been demonstrated not to work.
The NFL's loss may well be the CFL's gain, though. As I wrote in my initial piece, Harrell isn't a perfect quarterback in the traditional NFL mould. He doesn't have the pure arm strength of many NFL players (although he's still able to throw deep balls when needed), and he isn't a gunslinger in the Brett Favre mould who zips bullet passes into tight coverage. That may be to his advantage, though, especially in Canada.
What Harrell excels at is running a spread offence with four or five receivers, making quick reads and finding the open man. That allows him to have an extraordinarily high completion percentage and a low number of interceptions, as well as a lot of touchdown passes. He's far more efficient and effective then the strong-armed types who rely on pure power and often throw interceptions. Harrell might or might not be a successful quarterback in a traditional NFL offence, but I'm quite confident he could be very successful with a team that tailored its offence to his strengths. Well, the CFL just happens to feature a lot of shotgun spread formations and pass-oriented offences, and the Roughriders in particular have an extraordinarily deep receiving corps that would be a perfect fit for Harrell. With the likes of former teammate Eric Morris, Rob Bagg, Andy Fantuz, Chris Getzlaf, Jason Clermont, Weston Dressler and Johnny Quinn as slotbacks and wide receivers, plus a couple of excellent receiving backs in Wes Cates and Hugh Charles, Harrell will have plenty of weapons suited to his style of play. That's not just my evaluation, either; Texas Tech play-by-play man Brian Jensen wrote that "this could be a match made in ... yes ... Canada is far enough north to be close to heaven!" and Tech assistant coach Matt Jansen wrote on Twitter that he's also a big fan of the move. " I'm so excited for Graham," he wrote. "He gets to team up with Eric Morris again and they could be a deadly combo up there. If you're a fan of that team, you couldn't ask for two guys with more heart for the game of football. I'm jealous."
Of course, the Roughriders are 2-0 so far this year, and you don't usually make quarterback changes when you're winning. Still, starter Darian Durant hasn't been overly impressive thus far, and backup Steven Jyles still has to prove himself at the CFL level. The Riders' quarterback situation is actually perhaps more open than any CFL team except Winnipeg, as neither of their top two options has really been spectacular at the CFL level yet. Thus, this could be a terrific fit for Harrell.
It also could be good for the league to get a high-profile QB like Harrell. It brings back memories of the days when the likes of Warren Moon and Doug Flutie were passed over by the NFL and opted to come to Canada. In fact, those guys faced similar challenges in cracking the NFL system; Moon was a black quarterback long before black quarterbacks were widely accepted, and Flutie was considered far too short to succeed in the NFL. Both did well in Canada and then proved to the NFL that their evaluation model was flawed with triumphant returns. Let's see if Harrell can follow in their footsteps.
Friday, July 03, 2009
CFL: CIS showdown in Regina tonight
The CFL's always a good option for CIS football diehards looking for offseason entertainment, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are one of the teams to watch. As Neate pointed out with his list of CIS players in the CFL the other day, Saskatchewan is well ahead of the rest of the league in terms of CIS content. The Roughriders, who start their season tonight against the B.C. Lions, have a league-high 21 CIS-trained players on their roster. I'll be live-blogging the game here tonight; kickoff is at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Saskatchewan's Canadian-trained talent is perhaps most evident in the receiving corps, where the Riders have two players who are already stars (slotback Jason Clermont from the University of Regina and wide receiver Andy Fantuz from Western) and three more with serious star potential (wide receiver Rob Bagg from Queen's, who I profiled here, slotback Chris Getzlaf from the University of Regina and wide receiver Adam Nicolson from the University of Ottawa) ; they also have wide receiver Dave McKoy from the University of Guelph, who's currently on the injured list. The Riders are also deep with Canadian talent on the lines and in the secondary.
Their opponents, the B.C. Lions, don't have quite the same number of CIS players, but they have some quality ones. Most of the Lions' CIS stars are on the defensive side of the ball, including linebacker Javy Glatt from Simon Fraser University (a 2008 CFL all-star), defensive end Ricky Foley from York, who will have to try and fill Cameron Wake's shoes, and their top draft pick from this year, James Yurichuk, a linebacker from Bishop's. On offence, SFU centre Angus Reid has been a consistent CFL starter for several years now and has performed well.
It should be an excellent game tonight. There's always a healthy rivalry between the teams, and both will be eager to start the season off on the right foot. One of the big storylines entering tonight's game is a former CIS player as well, Jason Clermont, who went from B.C. to his native Saskatchewan in the off-season. For those looking for a CIS football fix, it might be worth tuning in to see how yesterday's university stars are doing in the pros.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saskatchewan's Canadian-trained talent is perhaps most evident in the receiving corps, where the Riders have two players who are already stars (slotback Jason Clermont from the University of Regina and wide receiver Andy Fantuz from Western) and three more with serious star potential (wide receiver Rob Bagg from Queen's, who I profiled here, slotback Chris Getzlaf from the University of Regina and wide receiver Adam Nicolson from the University of Ottawa) ; they also have wide receiver Dave McKoy from the University of Guelph, who's currently on the injured list. The Riders are also deep with Canadian talent on the lines and in the secondary.
Their opponents, the B.C. Lions, don't have quite the same number of CIS players, but they have some quality ones. Most of the Lions' CIS stars are on the defensive side of the ball, including linebacker Javy Glatt from Simon Fraser University (a 2008 CFL all-star), defensive end Ricky Foley from York, who will have to try and fill Cameron Wake's shoes, and their top draft pick from this year, James Yurichuk, a linebacker from Bishop's. On offence, SFU centre Angus Reid has been a consistent CFL starter for several years now and has performed well.
It should be an excellent game tonight. There's always a healthy rivalry between the teams, and both will be eager to start the season off on the right foot. One of the big storylines entering tonight's game is a former CIS player as well, Jason Clermont, who went from B.C. to his native Saskatchewan in the off-season. For those looking for a CIS football fix, it might be worth tuning in to see how yesterday's university stars are doing in the pros.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
The GBU: Saskatchewan rides down B.C.
Photo: Saskatchewan knocked off B.C. 26-16 Friday night. (Photo from Luongo)
First, a quick disclaimer. There was plenty that happened in the sports I'm interested in over the weekend, but unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to write about it. Thus, I started several posts but didn't get them finished: they should go up later tonight or early tomorrow. Here's the first one.
I'm going to try to start doing some analysis of the various games I go to or watch on here. There's usually plenty of other outlets handling the game stories, so I'll focus more on the analytical side, with perhaps a bit of humour here and there. My preferred method for these is from the Clint Eastwood classic "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," breaking down the best performances, the worst performances and the just plain awful stuff that happened (a previous example is here). I'll file these under "The GBU". As always, post thoughts on the series or ideas for new ones here or e-mail them to me. "Good" or "bad" is relative to which team I'm following. Without further ado, the breakdown of Friday night's B.C. Lions - Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL match (game story here from Matthew Sekeres of The Globe and Mail, stats from Sportsnet.ca.
Final score: 26-16 Saskatchewan
How I saw it: In person.
The Good:
The Lions' defence:
The B.C. defence was effective for most of the night, putting a ton of pressure on Saskatchewan's succession of quarterbacks (Marcus Crandell got hurt early on). Crandell and his successors Darian Durant and Stephen Jyles were held to 13 completions on 24 attempts for 129 yards with one TD and 2 interceptions, a pretty strong pass defensive effort. The rushing defence wasn't as strong overall, but they did hold Wes Cates to 83 yards (that was more to do with forcing Saskatchewan to take to the air, as he did average 5.2 a carry when he ran), and only 28 yards in the first half. Overall, the 26 points B.C. conceded are a reasonable total that they certainly still could have won with if the offence was in gear: that becomes more impressive when you consider that half of those points were given up in the fourth quarter when Saskatchewan started to run away with the game. Their most impressive performance of the night came when the Riders had a first-and-goal situation on the Lions' 2-yard line in the first quarter, but the defence stopped them twice and held them to a field goal.
Cameron Wake:
The Lions' defensive end was their best player all game, recording four of the team's six sacks. For his efforts, he was named the CFL's defensive player of the week [The Canadian Press via Sportsnet.ca]. Wake was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise grim night for the Lions.
Ian Smart: Last year's recipient of the John Agro Special Teams Award as the CFL's top special-teams player seems to be in fine form again. Smart led the CFL in all-purpose yards (2,440), punt-return yards (912) and kick-return yards (1,228) last season, and is having a good statistical year again. Against the Roughriders, he put up seven kickoff returns for 176 yards and six punt returns for 49 yards.
The Bad:
Joe Smith:
A horrible, horrible game for the mainstay of the Lions' ground attack. He rushed 13 times for 27 yards, a pitiful average of 2.1 yards per carry (and almost half of those yards came off one 12-yard run). In fact, he wasn't even B.C.'s leading rusher: quarterback Jarious Jackson picked up 29 yards on only six carries, a much better average of 4.8 yards per carry. Smith did pick up two touchdowns on short runs, and he did have that one great 12-yard carry, but he was utterly ineffective for the rest of the night. The Lions need much more from him if they're going to compete this year. According to the Vancouver Province's excellent football writer Lowell Ullrich, Smith apparently suffered a shoulder injury early on in the game but kept playing, which could explain his low numbers. I wouldn't mind seeing Ian Smart used more in regular-game situations: his slashing speed would be a nice complement to Smith's straight-ahead power, and the two of them together in the backfield might throw off the defence.
Jarious Jackson:
The Lions' starting quarterback showed brief flashes of brilliance, but prolonged spans of mediocrity. He put up one amazing touchdown drive with under a minute left in the first half, but only went 16 for 30 on the night for 164 yards, with no passing touchdowns and one interception. He also fumbled twice at key moments, and Saskatchewan took full advantage: they scored 13 points off his turnovers. At times, he'd throw perfect bullet passes to his receivers: at other times, he'd chuck up prayers that had a higher chance of causing rain inside the B.C. Place dome than being caught by his recievers. He needs to regain the consistency he showed for most of last year as the team's primary starter while Dave Dickenson and Buck Pierce were injured.
The crowd:
Yes, there were 33,815 people [Jim Morris, The Canadian Press via Cfl.ca] there, but that really isn't that impressive for a Friday night home opener against the Leos' biggest rival. What was worse than the numbers, though, was the utter apathy shown by many in attendance. The intimidation and noise usually in full evidence at B.C. Place was missing in action (Saskatchewan only went offside on offence once by my count, very low for a game in the usually-raucous Dome), and the groups of Riders' fans present seemed more involved in the game than the hometown crowd. There were also way too many obnoxiously drunken fans of both teams: I have no problem with drinking at games (or any other time), but alcohol doesn't make you funny or give you the right to annoy others.
The lack of Rob Bagg:
One of the few things that would have made a Saskatchewan victory mildly palatable would have been if former Queen's star Rob Bagg was playing. Sadly, that wasn't the case, as he didn't even dress. Fortunately, another Gael, Matt Kirk, did see limited action for the Lions.
The Ugly:
The TV timeouts:
It's been a while since I've been to a CFL game in person, but I was shocked by how brutally long the TV timeouts have gotten and how many of them there are now: there seemed to be a break after almost every play. What made it worse was the lack of compelling distractions offered during the timeout: this was partly due to our seat location (see next item), but there really was little going on apart from the "Catch a launched football competition", which didn't even finish due to a streaker's intervention. Also, the CFL has red-shirted guys who come onto the field during the timeouts and wave to the refs when they can start play again, which I found somewhat ridiculous: TV broadcasters of hockey or baseball have to guess when they can come back from commercial breaks (which is why you sometimes miss the puck drop or the first pitch), so what gives TSN the right to tell the CFL to hold the game off until they're done the commercial break?
The Scoreboard:
This wouldn't have been a problem for most of the fans there, but it turned out that there's only one video scoreboard in B.C. Place, and rather than being mounted high in the middle like in many arenas, it's mounted at the top of one of the endzones. We were sitting in the second deck of that endzone, so the third deck floor prevented us from seeing any replays on the scoreboard. This was the first time in probably about 10 years that I'd watched a game without instant replay of one sort or another, and let me tell you, in the immortal words of Joni Mitchell, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." It's much less enjoyable to watch a game when you can't easily see where penalty violations occured or can't enjoy a highlight-reel catch over and over.
The Injuries:
Some of the game's injuries were just brutal, especially D.J. Flick breaking his leg [Sportsnet.ca], which was right up there with Eduardo [YouTube] in terms of horrible injuries that you can't stop watching. According to Greg Harder's story in the National Post, even Flick had to watch the tape of his injury. The Riders won the game, but at a cost so high that the victory may be Pyrrhic: in addition to losing Flick (fractured left fibula and torn ankle ligaments) and Crandell (strained hamstring), they also lost defensive back Leron Mitchell in the first quarter (broken right fibula). Crandell should be back soon, but Flick and Mitchell are expected to miss much of the year. That's good for the Lions, but I can't be happy about players getting so badly hurt, regardless of the colour of their jersey.
The SkyTrain lineups:
To really put a damper on the evening, we got stuck in a massive jam-up at the SkyTrain station afterwards (despite already having pre-purchased tickets). This was despite many people leaving the game early. In the end, we waited about 10 minutes on a packed platform with maybe 10 people getting into each train that came along (as they were already packed to the rafters) and then decided it would be faster to grab a train going the opposite direction, ride it to the end of the line and then back. This strategy worked surprisingly well: as we passed the Stadium station platform on the way back about 15 minutes later, we saw several people who had been waiting in line next to us. I forgot how terrible Vancouver transit is compared to the systems in Montreal or Toronto. Last summer, I was with a crowd of almost 60,000 at the "Big Owe" in Montreal to watch a U-20 World Cup doubleheader, and was able to get on the subway within 10 minutes of the game's conclusion. There's a similar lack of logjams riding the Rocket after Blue Jays' games. SkyTrain is all right, but it clearly can't handle large volumes of people at once: it backs up badly enough after Canucks' games, and the Lions' games are even worse due to the larger crowds.
Next Lions' game: Friday night at Winnipeg (0-2), 8:00 P.M. ET (TSN)
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