The Whig-Standard's Erin Flegg has a good profile today last year's Queen's Golden Gaels wide-receiver tandem, Rob Bagg and Brad Smith, and their respective progress with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Argonauts.
One little nugget is that linebacker Ian Hazlett, who last we heard had enrolled at the U of O for a post-grad degree, had injured his knee at the Calgary Stampeders camp. That raises some question over what effect this has on him being able to play for the Gee-Gees this fall. They already have one good player, O-lineman Kyle Kirkwood, whose season is in the balance after injuring his knee at a CFL camp.
As for the Gaels, it seems like it's no coincidence their last play of 2006 was wideout Scott Valberg making a catch in the end zone for his only touchdown of the season in the final seconds of the playoff loss to the Gee-Gees. If Bagg stays in Saskatchewan (either on the dress roster or as a practice-squad player), Valberg, the Bayridge Secondary grad, stands to be Queen's leading returning receiver by virtue of ganed 128 yards last year, which is what Jock Climie used to tally in a slow week back in the day.
Valberg was picked to play in the CIS East-West Game this spring and the general impression last season was his stats reflected on the team's all-around offensive struggles, not him. So yes, we're hoping Scott Valberg is having a great summer and that coach Pat Sheahan finds some other receivers. Apologies for being a selfish, bleeding-Tricolour bastard, but if Bagg also isn't back, the Gaels will be missing 58% of their pass completions and 48% of their total offence from last fall, along with only two receivers who caught touchdowns during the regular season.
(UPDATE, June 24, 7:10 p.m. Sportsnet is reporting that Smith was cut by the Argonauts today, but he's been moved to the practice roster, as has Andre Durie.)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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8 comments:
What maybe a bigger loss to the GGs is that Adam Nicholson is still with the BC Lions. Good for him! I was hoping though that he would return to Ottawa. He has a very few credits left to get his B.Sc. in Biology.Also enjoyed seeing his sister at the games, carrying a big sign that read: BE JEALOUS,#88 IS MY BROTHER. It is always good to get that degree nailed down as soon as you can. I hope Hazlett is okay. He will add a lot of depth to a LB corps that has a lot of veterans.
Well, the Gee-Gees probably planned for Nicolson to not be back for this season... plus they are very deep in the receiving group. The line was the engine of that team last season and was looking to return at least four starters, I believe.
I hope they are deep enough at all positions to overcome the loss of Nicholson, Asselin, and Desmond--all excellent receivers.
That's a lot to replace.... but the U of O always seems to have a lot of guys who can run and catch.
David Crane's a decent receiver, but it'll be different for him w/o Nicolson there to draw the double coverage.
They were a dominant running team, though, espy with Donnelly and Mason.
The high percentage of team offence that Smith and Bagg represented seems to me to be more due to lack of available alternatives than many would like to admit. The bevy of dropped passes one saw whenever the ball went the way of a receiver without one of those two names could've had a major impact on Danny Brannagan's underwhelming completion percentage last year.
That might be the case... if memory serves The Whig referred to Valberg as a "forgotten receiver," which I -- again, I only saw 3 games in person -- took to mean that they were underutilizing him.
That said, no one's trying to say this is anything on the level of the 2002 team that had Smith, Iain Fleming and Craig Spear, plus John Northcote and Sean McKinnon as the fourth and fifth guys.
Northcote that season had something like 172 yards on 16 catches in one game vs. Waterloo, and he caught the last-second pass to give Queen's their first win over the U of O since '97.
One of my major memories from last year was listening to one of the games on the radio, I can't remember which, and hearing the commentators note that a pass was caught by (after a long pause to look up the number) Scott Stinson. This was followed by the entire four-man booth saying, in unison, "Who the hell is Scott Stinson?".
He was their #4 receiver.
He's a tight end from North Bay. Almost caught a big pass in the Ottawa regular-season game when they were just two touchdowns behind.
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