It's not this site's place to burnish LeBron James' iconography. A colleague did suggest there was a remarkable similarity between King James' buzzer-beating three that tied the NBA Eastern Conference final on Friday and Michael Jordan's shot which eliminated the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1989.
LeBron:
Jordan:
Well, it was in the same city and it was a straight-on look at the hoop with almost no angle.
It could be a fun debate which was the greater unlikelihood. Jordan had to shake off Craig Ehlo and a very long defender, Larry Nance to give himself the sliver of an opening he needed. It was also on the road.
LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers had only one second, though, and it was a three-pointer.
Andrew Bucholtz has a comprehensive post up at Sporting Madness. It's worth the click-through.
Showing posts with label Andrew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andrew. Show all posts
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Bleeding Tricolour: The Buch stops at the podium,
The ol' alma mater presented its athletic awards last night, so congratulations are in order for Queen's football standout Jimmy Allin and rower Kristine Matusiak for being named the school's athletes of the year at the annual Colour Night.
Also of note, our own Andrew Bucholtz was recognized for his invaluable contributions to the Tricoloured sportscape. The living legend from Langley, part man, part myth, part mustache, has been a cross-platforming media superstar throughout the school year as a sports editor of The Queen's Journal and no less than four blogs, including The 24th minute, cisblog.ca and Sporting Madness.
It is more than well-deserved. Andrew, Jared Book and Rob Pettapiece went the extra mile running live blogs during the recent CIS Final 8 in Ottawa. Andrew actually came up for the first-round games on the Friday, rushed back to Kingston for some Journal activities that Saturday which the sports ed. back in 1999-2000 (wow, spanning two decades) likely would have blown off, then came up on Sunday to liveblog the championship game. That is dedication.
It was not announced during the banquet, but CFRC 101.9 sports director Tyler King was also presented with the First Annual C. Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Broadcasting Excellence.
Also of note, our own Andrew Bucholtz was recognized for his invaluable contributions to the Tricoloured sportscape. The living legend from Langley, part man, part myth, part mustache, has been a cross-platforming media superstar throughout the school year as a sports editor of The Queen's Journal and no less than four blogs, including The 24th minute, cisblog.ca and Sporting Madness.
It is more than well-deserved. Andrew, Jared Book and Rob Pettapiece went the extra mile running live blogs during the recent CIS Final 8 in Ottawa. Andrew actually came up for the first-round games on the Friday, rushed back to Kingston for some Journal activities that Saturday which the sports ed. back in 1999-2000 (wow, spanning two decades) likely would have blown off, then came up on Sunday to liveblog the championship game. That is dedication.
It was not announced during the banquet, but CFRC 101.9 sports director Tyler King was also presented with the First Annual C. Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Broadcasting Excellence.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
CIS Corner: Ravens reload; Gaels get more cash
Notes on our teams of interest from The 613 ...
Carleton's 2009-10 basketball outlook and Queen's nearly doubling its athletics fee (as Andrew noted at Sporting Madness are topics du jour.
RAVENS
The Ottawa Citizen's excellent Wayne Kondro has a what's-next piece on the Carleton Ravens, who as you know, lose five-year standouts Aaron Doornekamp, Rob Saunders and Stu Turnbull to graduation. (Their impact is pretty much impossible to sum up in a sentence or two.)
It woudn't do to piggyback on Wayne's reporting and writing, since I'll try to have a take and not suck in the Ottawa Sun later this week. Here's some bullet points:
As Bucholtz noted, Queen's Athletics has raised its athletics fee to $251, making it the highest among Ontario University Athletics member institutions. Eleven other schools, according to Andrew's report, are likely going to seek an increase in the next two years
This has presumbably raised the KHD (Kinger High Dudgeon) alert level to four, since our own inimitable, irrepressible Tyler King has been a dissenting voice about the funding increase on this on his sports-related radio program. The crux of his argument seemed to be that this was less about doing better and more about maintaining the current standards, which have included scarcely few national championships since the last football Vanier Cup in 1992 and the women's soccer team winning the whole megillah back in '88.
The great part about being an alumnus is that you don't have to care; it's not your money, and hell yeah, it would be nice if Queen's got its act together. You can't take it on faith it's going to happen. At least someone in Kingston is in the range of doing whatever it takes to produce a winner, since it sure won't be the Frontenacs.
Related:
A momentous day
Ravens lose big three, but coach still likes chances (Wayne Kondro, Canwest News Service)
Carleton's 2009-10 basketball outlook and Queen's nearly doubling its athletics fee (as Andrew noted at Sporting Madness are topics du jour.
RAVENS
The Ottawa Citizen's excellent Wayne Kondro has a what's-next piece on the Carleton Ravens, who as you know, lose five-year standouts Aaron Doornekamp, Rob Saunders and Stu Turnbull to graduation. (Their impact is pretty much impossible to sum up in a sentence or two.)
It woudn't do to piggyback on Wayne's reporting and writing, since I'll try to have a take and not suck in the Ottawa Sun later this week. Here's some bullet points:
- Carleton has five rotation players back: Kevin McCleery in the post, forwards Kyle Smendziuk and Cole Hobin at the 3-4 spots, Elliot Thompson as the 2-guard and Mike Kenny running the point.
- Two HoopStars Canada Top 50 players from Kingston, 6-foot-8 centre/power forward Owen Klassen and 6-5 swingman Greg Faulkner, are also mentioned as possibilies. Klassen and Faulkner are the No. 2 power forward and No. 7 small forward, respectively.
Oddly enough, like the Kingston trio, both are from the west-end schools in the Kingston high school league. Klassen attended Bayridge, Faulkner went to Holy Cross.
- At least two people who would know told me during the Final 8 that Carleton is likely to get twin guards Kyle and Scott Ring and forward Tyson Hinz (ranked No. 4 in Canada at his position), who led the St. Matthew's Tigers to a 45-1 season and the Ontario AAA title.
- Some of you probably noticed that Willy Manigat, who was a valuable seventh man on Ottawa's national semi-finalist team in 2006-07, was sitting on Carleton's bench during recent games; he has three years' eligibility remaining if he gets his schoolwork in order.
Manigat averaged 5.1 points in 13 minutes per game for the '06-07 Gee-Gees and also led them in three-point shooting (.455).
As Bucholtz noted, Queen's Athletics has raised its athletics fee to $251, making it the highest among Ontario University Athletics member institutions. Eleven other schools, according to Andrew's report, are likely going to seek an increase in the next two years
This has presumbably raised the KHD (Kinger High Dudgeon) alert level to four, since our own inimitable, irrepressible Tyler King has been a dissenting voice about the funding increase on this on his sports-related radio program. The crux of his argument seemed to be that this was less about doing better and more about maintaining the current standards, which have included scarcely few national championships since the last football Vanier Cup in 1992 and the women's soccer team winning the whole megillah back in '88.
The great part about being an alumnus is that you don't have to care; it's not your money, and hell yeah, it would be nice if Queen's got its act together. You can't take it on faith it's going to happen. At least someone in Kingston is in the range of doing whatever it takes to produce a winner, since it sure won't be the Frontenacs.
Related:
A momentous day
Ravens lose big three, but coach still likes chances (Wayne Kondro, Canwest News Service)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
CIS Corner: Plans for Queen's rink sink
Notes on our athletes/teams of interest from The 613 ...
HOCKEY
Golden Gaels: Queen's is still standing in the OUA playoff race. Ottawa dropped a 3-1 decision to Carleton Tuesday, on the very same day our own Andrew Bucholtz confirmed that confirmed "the dream of a new hockey arena on Main Campus was all but dead."
That is a downer, although there have been rumblings about this for more than a year that any new arena at Queen's would be built on its west campus. Among we Queenies, West Campus is universally loathed because it lacks the buffer the Queen's bubble and the great unwashed. (It is like, a 20-minute walk from the corner of University and Union.)
It is understood that the Queen's admin is about as aware the school has hockey teams as Rogers is that it owns a baseball team. The Gaels' being plucky underdogs fighting the current will always be endearing, but a university of 15,000 students without a readily accessible rink is unfathomable. It could also reflect shifting priorities; perhaps not as many students arrive on campus with skates, sticks and hockey gear.
Anyway, Ottawa's loss means the scenario remains the same. The Gee-Gees need three points from their final homestand (No. 10 McGill Saturday, also-ran Ryerson Sunday) or a Queen's loss to Ryerson on Friday. Queen's gets in if they win and Ottawa has a regulation-time loss in either game.
Gee-Gees: Scheduling has altered the playoff race, but please bear in mind that, as far as we know, everyone signed off on an unbalanced scheduled to save money.
Ottawa (10-11-5) will end up playing 16 of its 28 games within the deep Far East division, whose other four teams have all clinched playoff berths. They might end up being bumped out by Queen's, which has not beaten a Far East team in regulation time this season (they beat Ottawa in a shootout, and Carleton and Trois-Rivieres in overtime).
The Gee-Gees played just four times outside the conference, none against the loaded OUA Far West, which has had at least three teams ranked every week this season.
Ottawa's record, broken down by division:
It figures that Ottawa and Queen's two head-to-head matchups this season would have each gone to shootouts, that's how tight it's been.
HOCKEY
Golden Gaels: Queen's is still standing in the OUA playoff race. Ottawa dropped a 3-1 decision to Carleton Tuesday, on the very same day our own Andrew Bucholtz confirmed that confirmed "the dream of a new hockey arena on Main Campus was all but dead."
That is a downer, although there have been rumblings about this for more than a year that any new arena at Queen's would be built on its west campus. Among we Queenies, West Campus is universally loathed because it lacks the buffer the Queen's bubble and the great unwashed. (It is like, a 20-minute walk from the corner of University and Union.)
It is understood that the Queen's admin is about as aware the school has hockey teams as Rogers is that it owns a baseball team. The Gaels' being plucky underdogs fighting the current will always be endearing, but a university of 15,000 students without a readily accessible rink is unfathomable. It could also reflect shifting priorities; perhaps not as many students arrive on campus with skates, sticks and hockey gear.
Anyway, Ottawa's loss means the scenario remains the same. The Gee-Gees need three points from their final homestand (No. 10 McGill Saturday, also-ran Ryerson Sunday) or a Queen's loss to Ryerson on Friday. Queen's gets in if they win and Ottawa has a regulation-time loss in either game.
Gee-Gees: Scheduling has altered the playoff race, but please bear in mind that, as far as we know, everyone signed off on an unbalanced scheduled to save money.
Ottawa (10-11-5) will end up playing 16 of its 28 games within the deep Far East division, whose other four teams have all clinched playoff berths. They might end up being bumped out by Queen's, which has not beaten a Far East team in regulation time this season (they beat Ottawa in a shootout, and Carleton and Trois-Rivieres in overtime).
The Gee-Gees played just four times outside the conference, none against the loaded OUA Far West, which has had at least three teams ranked every week this season.
Ottawa's record, broken down by division:
vs. Far East: 5-7-3And for Queen's:
vs. Mid East: 3-2-2
vs. Mid West: 2-2-0
vs. Far West: Didn't play 'em
vs. Far East: 3-6-1 (all three wins in extra time)One can see why there's some impetus for change. Ottawa played more games against the best teams in the East, but had the misfortune to be beset by injuries in January when it had a four-game stretch against the mediocre Mid West division, which kept them from getting the job done. Queen's has made a virtue out of averageness on the ice at times this season, but for the most part beat the times it was supposed to defeat. Replace those five games vs. Far West with Ryerson, RMC and Toronto and they would probably have a better record.
vs. Mid East: 6-1-1
vs. Mid West: 2-1-1
vs. Far West: 0-5-0
It figures that Ottawa and Queen's two head-to-head matchups this season would have each gone to shootouts, that's how tight it's been.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
CIS Corner: Moore ado about crazy game-ender; OFC returns, right on Ravens' turn
Notes on our athletes/teams of interest from The 613 ...
MEN'S HOOPS
WOMEN'S HOOPS
More on Moore
Can't we just marvel at a crazy game-ending play without getting sucked into a philosophical debate?
The YouTubeage of Queen's Brittany Moore's ultimate uncontested layup vs. Carleton on Jan. 24 has surfaced, via gogaelsgo.com.
It was argued on on Dale Stevens' Canadian University Basketball Discussion List that the referees should have informed the teams a mistake was about to be made. No, they shouldn't have, because that's not the rule. University-level coaches and players are skilled and smart enough that they shouldn't expect any bailouts. Anyway, here's the argument:
It is true that referees will often explain a rule to coaches and players to tell them what they're doing wrong. You see it in rugby, especially.
The rule has changed, and everyone should stay on top of that. After that game, Carleton coach Taffe Charles put it on himself, because he realized he and his team erred by not being aware of the situation.
For those who need a refresher, Andrew covered this last Saturday. Each team went to the bench — Carleton was out of timeouts — while Moore took three free throws with Queen's down by two points. The Ravens didn't realize when Moore was on her final shot, and when she missed (after splitting the first two), she laid in the rebound for the winning basket.
HOCKEY
FOOTBALL
Ravens: The indispensable Capital Region Football Blog notes the Ottawa Sooners have been accepted into the Ontario Football Conference.
This will be good for football in Ottawa, and if it leads to having two CIS teams in the nation's capital again, so much the better. It's funny, if you read Ottawa Sun articles from early in 1999 when Carleton discontinued football (the 10th anniversary is in less than five weeks), there was a lot of doom and gloom about how it would set the university back by decades. Chris Stevenson was the lone one to point out that on March 4, 1999, the day Carleton pulled the plug on football, the men's basketball Ravens won a playoff game. It was if a torch was passed.
The focus should be on the Sooners and what having a program in the OFC will do for the football talent pool in this area. Good for their organization, under president Jeff Balys, and the organization for pulling this off. There is already an event notification on Facebook for the Aug. 28 season opener vs. the Burlington Braves.
Related:
Sooners accomplish their goal! (Capital Region Football Blog)
MEN'S HOOPS
- Ravens: One big takeaway from Carleton's walkovers (104-82 over York, 107-56 over Laurentian) was that second-year wing Elliott Thompson scored in double figures in both games, including 17 points vs. York with five three-pointers.
Thompson made a big three to halt an Ottawa run in the Ravens' win on Wednesday. It's nice to have a shooter who can come in off the bench.
Frosh forward Kyle Smendziuk also had 12 points vs. Laurentian, a nice reward after he contributed some defence and rebounding in eight first-half minutes vs. Ottawa. It probably saved his more senior teammates a couple fouls. - Gee-Gees: It was no shock to see that Josh Wright has moved into Ottawa's starting lineup after he ran the point for long stretches of the second half on Wednesday. He and Josh Gibson-Bascombe combined for 51 points (26 for JGB, 25 for JW) vs. York, as Ottawa had a season high in points in the 111-76 win.
They have shown some signs of working the two-man game, with a lot of give-and-gos, with JGB making the backdoor cut and getting a bounce pass. It's tough to stop, unless a team wants to foul all night.
WOMEN'S HOOPS
More on Moore
Can't we just marvel at a crazy game-ending play without getting sucked into a philosophical debate?
The YouTubeage of Queen's Brittany Moore's ultimate uncontested layup vs. Carleton on Jan. 24 has surfaced, via gogaelsgo.com.
It was argued on on Dale Stevens' Canadian University Basketball Discussion List that the referees should have informed the teams a mistake was about to be made. No, they shouldn't have, because that's not the rule. University-level coaches and players are skilled and smart enough that they shouldn't expect any bailouts. Anyway, here's the argument:
"The question therefore arises if the referees realizing a mistake is about to be made should have blown a whistle and indicated it was time for Carleton and/or Queen's to get in place (if they wished to) for the third and final foul shot.The reader mentioned a long-time official who "often gently called a player's attention to something that he could have called before starting to call it. In effect he gave a player a chance to alter his/her ways before enforcing an infraction."
It is true that referees will often explain a rule to coaches and players to tell them what they're doing wrong. You see it in rugby, especially.
The rule has changed, and everyone should stay on top of that. After that game, Carleton coach Taffe Charles put it on himself, because he realized he and his team erred by not being aware of the situation.
For those who need a refresher, Andrew covered this last Saturday. Each team went to the bench — Carleton was out of timeouts — while Moore took three free throws with Queen's down by two points. The Ravens didn't realize when Moore was on her final shot, and when she missed (after splitting the first two), she laid in the rebound for the winning basket.
HOCKEY
- Golden Gaels: To put Queen's offensive struggles in perspective, they've scored 47 goals all season. The OUA's co-scoring leaders each have 46 points, yet Queen's is actually in a playoff chase.
They're within three points of Ottawa with four games remaining. The Gee-Gees got a little more breathing room with their 5-4 shootout loss at Concordia. (Keven Gagne had a hat trick, but was stymied in the shootout.)
Queen's got 52 saves from ex-67 Brady Morrison in a 5-4 shootout win over Toronto on Saturday. (David Chubb got the only goal of the shootout.)
The Gaels' remaining schedule includes a makeup game at Carleton and three games vs. also-rans Ryerson and RMC. If Queen's beats Carleton, suddenly it's on.
Ottawa's remaining games include Toronto, Carleton, McGill and Ryerson.
Carleton's magic number for clinching a playoff berth is two (Ravens wins and/or Queen's losses). Their remaining schedule is Queen's, at Concordia, at Trois-Rivieres, Ottawa and at McGill.
FOOTBALL
Ravens: The indispensable Capital Region Football Blog notes the Ottawa Sooners have been accepted into the Ontario Football Conference.
This will be good for football in Ottawa, and if it leads to having two CIS teams in the nation's capital again, so much the better. It's funny, if you read Ottawa Sun articles from early in 1999 when Carleton discontinued football (the 10th anniversary is in less than five weeks), there was a lot of doom and gloom about how it would set the university back by decades. Chris Stevenson was the lone one to point out that on March 4, 1999, the day Carleton pulled the plug on football, the men's basketball Ravens won a playoff game. It was if a torch was passed.
The focus should be on the Sooners and what having a program in the OFC will do for the football talent pool in this area. Good for their organization, under president Jeff Balys, and the organization for pulling this off. There is already an event notification on Facebook for the Aug. 28 season opener vs. the Burlington Braves.
Related:
Sooners accomplish their goal! (Capital Region Football Blog)
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Deliberating over Deadspin...
Our own Andrew Bucholtz has raised some questions about what the goings-on at Gawker Media might mean for a certain site that rhymes with eadspin.
Andrew is acknowledging it's straight-up speculative, but he has done a thorough job.
This seems to come back to something good friend Pete Toms pointed out in conversation a while ago: Sports blogs are pretty small fry compared to those dedicated to politics, entertainment and technology -- just do a check at Technorati. Those who have read Drew Curtis' It's Not News, It's Fark will recall the argument is being driven by advertisers being able to figure out how much bang they get for the advertising buck.
Gawker within the past few days scored a major advertising deal, meaning it is possible that all of its member sites are out of the woods, but you know how media conglomerates are about being leaner and meaner. At the same time, the press release doesn't mention Deadspin, make of that what you will. It could just be that in the big wide Gawker world, it's not at the front of the line.
This is not about getting into the merits of Deadspin. It is a known commodity and as Bucholtz pointed out, it could very well end up being snapped by a major media outlet and being homogenized. It has name awarness, it's readable and it's still good enough, like The Simpsons on most Sunday nights. It's just that nothing seems safe in the media.
All of this is hairy, scary stuff for writers both bona fide and imagined, although it has never been easy. Please, go ahead and free-associate with the Huff Post piece Erika Heller wrote about her father getting $1,500 for Catch-22 in 1961, in the wake of a certain Alaskan governor getting a $7-million advance for a book she won't write, maybe not even read.
Now, if you'll excuse us, there's an application to be prepared for The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program.
Related:
Is Deadspin next on the Gawker chopping block? (Andrew Bucholtz, Sporting Madness)
Andrew is acknowledging it's straight-up speculative, but he has done a thorough job.
This seems to come back to something good friend Pete Toms pointed out in conversation a while ago: Sports blogs are pretty small fry compared to those dedicated to politics, entertainment and technology -- just do a check at Technorati. Those who have read Drew Curtis' It's Not News, It's Fark will recall the argument is being driven by advertisers being able to figure out how much bang they get for the advertising buck.
Gawker within the past few days scored a major advertising deal, meaning it is possible that all of its member sites are out of the woods, but you know how media conglomerates are about being leaner and meaner. At the same time, the press release doesn't mention Deadspin, make of that what you will. It could just be that in the big wide Gawker world, it's not at the front of the line.
This is not about getting into the merits of Deadspin. It is a known commodity and as Bucholtz pointed out, it could very well end up being snapped by a major media outlet and being homogenized. It has name awarness, it's readable and it's still good enough, like The Simpsons on most Sunday nights. It's just that nothing seems safe in the media.
All of this is hairy, scary stuff for writers both bona fide and imagined, although it has never been easy. Please, go ahead and free-associate with the Huff Post piece Erika Heller wrote about her father getting $1,500 for Catch-22 in 1961, in the wake of a certain Alaskan governor getting a $7-million advance for a book she won't write, maybe not even read.
Now, if you'll excuse us, there's an application to be prepared for The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program.
Related:
Is Deadspin next on the Gawker chopping block? (Andrew Bucholtz, Sporting Madness)
Sunday, November 16, 2008
CIS Corner: Ravens likely to get No. 1 spot back
Notes on our athletes/teams of interest From The 613...
HOOPS
Ravens: Carleton, with a pair of 20-plus-point wins at home this weekend, could return to No. 1 in the CIS Top Ten since UBC No. 1 UBC was upset 76-73 by an unheralded Regina team in what Leader-Post scribe Tim Switzer called, "probably the most entertaining basketball game I have ever seen live."
It is just a number. Carleton, by its standards, is not all there yet, but it put McMaster away early with a savvy veteran performance by the law firm of Doornekamp, Turnbull, McCleery and Saunders. It easily could have been a bigger spread than 25 points (74-49). Aaron Doornekamp had 19 points and 11 rebounds; Rob Saunders (12 points, all off threes, and nine boards) was one board away from one of the stealthiest double-doubles in modern stat-keeping history.
There is a soft spot for the Ravens women's team, which after Saturday's 49-48 loss to McMaster, has lost three games by a total of nine points. (Their two wins were by a total of three.) The nature of their team seems to dictate that every game is going to be a grind.
Gee-Gees: The U of O, a fun team to watch, won both its games. A worrisome note was that Nemanja Baletic left the game vs. Lakehead after getting poked in the eye (one hopes it was just a precaution). Only five other players (presumably all five starters) scored in the 80-67 win over Lakehead.
Golden Gaels: It ended up being a split (win over Guelph, loss at Brock, which is 8-0 vs. CIS foes despite losing everything from the national championship team except Owen White and their lucky tub of garlic).
Mitch Leger had a 25-point night vs. Brock. Queen's (2-2 in the OUA) finishes out the pre-Christmas sked with a McMaster-Lakehead road trip and a Western-Windsor homestand. It would be nice to see them be 5-3 at the break.
HOCKEY
Our own Andrew Bucholtz did a liveblog of Queen's 3-0 loss to McGill, its second to the Red guys in eight days. Here's a quick rundown of the conference standings, games played and point totals:
Carleton, in contrast, plays one of its games in hand today against McGill (3 p.m., ssncanada.ca).
That is all for now. Please visit The CIS Blog during Semi-Final Sunday.
HOOPS
Ravens: Carleton, with a pair of 20-plus-point wins at home this weekend, could return to No. 1 in the CIS Top Ten since UBC No. 1 UBC was upset 76-73 by an unheralded Regina team in what Leader-Post scribe Tim Switzer called, "probably the most entertaining basketball game I have ever seen live."
It is just a number. Carleton, by its standards, is not all there yet, but it put McMaster away early with a savvy veteran performance by the law firm of Doornekamp, Turnbull, McCleery and Saunders. It easily could have been a bigger spread than 25 points (74-49). Aaron Doornekamp had 19 points and 11 rebounds; Rob Saunders (12 points, all off threes, and nine boards) was one board away from one of the stealthiest double-doubles in modern stat-keeping history.
There is a soft spot for the Ravens women's team, which after Saturday's 49-48 loss to McMaster, has lost three games by a total of nine points. (Their two wins were by a total of three.) The nature of their team seems to dictate that every game is going to be a grind.
Gee-Gees: The U of O, a fun team to watch, won both its games. A worrisome note was that Nemanja Baletic left the game vs. Lakehead after getting poked in the eye (one hopes it was just a precaution). Only five other players (presumably all five starters) scored in the 80-67 win over Lakehead.
Golden Gaels: It ended up being a split (win over Guelph, loss at Brock, which is 8-0 vs. CIS foes despite losing everything from the national championship team except Owen White and their lucky tub of garlic).
Mitch Leger had a 25-point night vs. Brock. Queen's (2-2 in the OUA) finishes out the pre-Christmas sked with a McMaster-Lakehead road trip and a Western-Windsor homestand. It would be nice to see them be 5-3 at the break.
HOCKEY
Our own Andrew Bucholtz did a liveblog of Queen's 3-0 loss to McGill, its second to the Red guys in eight days. Here's a quick rundown of the conference standings, games played and point totals:
- UTQR: 22 (12)
- Toronto: 12 (11)
- Carleton: 13 (9)
- Ottawa 12 (11)
- Queen's 12 (13)
- Concordia 11 (11)
- RMC 8 (12)
- McGill 7 (8)
- Ryerson 5 (10)
Carleton, in contrast, plays one of its games in hand today against McGill (3 p.m., ssncanada.ca).
That is all for now. Please visit The CIS Blog during Semi-Final Sunday.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Bleeding Tricolour: Gaels keep focus, take out Toronto
by Andrew Bucholtz, Sporting Madness
See Andrew's live blog of the game here.)
Today’s match against the University of Toronto was perhaps a difficult situation for the Gaels. They were expected to win big, so a huge victory would be the status quo and anything less a disappointment. Queen’s managed the huge victory, though, beating Toronto 58-14.
The game wasn’t necessarily always going to be this much of a blowout, though. In fact, the Blues should have had the first touchdown early on when quarterback David Hamilton handed off to slash player Mark Stinson. Queen’s defensive backs bit on the fake run, leaving Drew Meedveld wide open deep, and he waltzed in for the TD. It was called back for a holding penalty though, the Gaels’ defence held, and the offence was off to the races with two quick touchdowns.
Toronto pulled within seven before the end of the first quarter, but the Gaels pulled out to a 37-7 lead going into the half. Queen’s added two more early touchdowns in the third quarter, putting the result beyond all doubt.
It was the ground attack that carried the day for the Gaels. Mike Giffin finished with 212 yards, his 14th straight 100-yard game. He finished with three TDs, two rushing and one receiver.
The defensive performance was also impressive. The Gaels defensive line was creating solid pressure on Toronto’s quarterbacks all day and forcing plenty of bad throws. You could tell they were keying on Dee Sterling, which left holes for the other linemen. The front four also shut down the run almost completely, with the aid of linebackers like Thaine Carter. There were several injuries, including LB T.J. Leeper and DE Kyle MacDonald, but the replacement players came in and did their job quite well.
Brannagan finished 13-of-22 for 241 yards with three TDs. Not a lights-out passing performance, but not a bad one either. Blaise Morrison had career highs with six catches for 121 yards — the fourth Gaels receiver to have a "century game" — while Scott Valberg had two TD catches. Blocking back Tim Poffley also caught one, which meant graduates of Kingston-area high schools scored six of Queen's eight touchdowns.
It would have been easy to take this game off and look ahead to Western next week, and that could have been costly. Western crushed York 71-0 today, so we get to see the rivalry battle between two 4-0 teams in the middle of Queen’s Homecoming next weekend, which should be incredible. It was hard to avoid thinking about that one prematurely, but now we can all start salivating in eager anticipation.
Update, 10:00 P.M. by Andrew: Here's the quotes I promised, from Blaise Morrison, Neil Puffer, Jimmy Allin, Dan Brannagan and Pat Sheahan:
Wide receiver Blaise Morrison:
Stat line: Six catches for a game-high 121 yards, longest catch for 37 yards
On maintaining focus for this game, despite Western coming up next week:
“The coaches prepared us really well this week, making sure all our focus was on this week’s game.”
On slow starts: “That’s just the way it’s been going this season.”
On Valberg creating room for the rest of the receivers: “After the game Scott Valberg had last week, obviously they’re going to pay a bit more attention to him, so it opens up all the other guys.”
On Western: “We’ve got a week to prepare now, and we’re really excited about this game.”
Defensive lineman Neil Puffer:
Stat line: One sack, two solo tackles
On the expectations placed on the team: “There was a fair bit of pressure on us. Everyone expected us to win, everyone expected us to be perfect.”
On improvement: “We`re not terribly excited about our game today because it didn`t meet our standards for this sort of game. ... We`ve just got to tighten up the loose ends.”
On key things to work on: “We had a couple fumbles, and the trick plays that they were running on us, they got a lot of mileage from. We need to have our heads wrapped around those and know when they`re coming. That`s pretty much it, but we just need to stick to fundamental football.”
On if Dee Sterling`s performance last week opened holes for him:
“He certainly attracted a lot of attention, and if guys are double- and triple-teaming him, it frees me up for a one on one.”
On Western: “It couldn’t get much better than this, a rematch of how things ended last year in the playoffs, and on Homecoming on national TV, and in this case, it’s a battle of the undefeated. ... It’s going to be a good football game, and I’m really excited for it.”
On what they’ll have to do differently from last year’s playoff loss: “We were a step behind all last year’s game. ... They just beat us. They came out, outschemed us, out played us, played with more heart. We’re just going to have to be perfect.”
Halfback/kick returner Jimmy Allin:
Stat line: One solo tackle, one breakup, five punt returns for 90 yards and two kick returns for 27 yards.
On how far U of T has come: “U of T’s obviously a much-improved team. They’ve got some great athletes.”
On what to improve: “Everything. We need to work on everything, we need to get better. We’ve got a big game coming up this week, and we’ll need to play well if we want to win.”
On facing Western: “We need to focus on what we do best. We’re all confident, we’ll all prepare like we always do, and hopefully it comes out for us.”
On if he thinks there will be a good crowd: “We hope so. Homecoming, we always look forward to it because the stadium’s always packed and we’ll hopefully put on a good show.”
On if he thinks his reputation as a returner is causing teams to kick away from him the way Toronto did most of the day: “I hope not. You always like to get a chance, but it’s like last game, they kicked to Jimmy (Therrien) a lot and he did an amazing job, so you can’t really take away our returns. We have two good returners, and guys are doing a great job of blocking for them.”
QB Dan Brannagan:
Stat line: 13 for 22 for 241 yards, three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, two interceptions.
On if the team met their goals against U of T: “I think overall there’s a lot of room for improvement, but the ultimate goal, the goal every week is to get a win, and we did that.”
On what’s causing the slow starts: “I’m not too sure. I guess it takes us a while to get going, but it’s something we can work on in the second half of the season.”
On if Giffin’s stellar performance on the ground opened up passing lanes in the second half:
“Definitely. All year long, I think that’s been the case. It definitely helps to have him in the backfield, and teams have to respect that and bring guys up. When you have to gang-tackle a big running back like that, it means less guys in double coverage.”
On his own scrambling performance: “Going into the game, I wouldn’t have predicted that, but it just gets to the point where you have to take what the defence is giving you if they’re going to drop a lot of guys into coverage. I think it’s something they weren’t expecting, so I think I kind of caught them off guard a little.”
On what to improve: “It’s just a matter of execution. We have great players and great plays, it’s just a matter of going out there and being confident, making sure that we’re going out there and fully executing every play.”
On if there’s a desire for revenge against Western after last year’s playoff loss: “It’s not really on my mind. You’re always trying to look forward and not look backwards. It’s a different team and a new season.”
Coach Pat Sheahan:
On the game overall: “I’m pleased with the win, but I think that we’re still not a hundred per cent polished. We still have a few areas that we can improve on, and my hope is with each passing week, we’re going to gain a measure of consistency and improve our execution. ... Maybe I’m becoming too hard to please, I don’t know. It was a good win, and we want to be better, that’s all.”
On the slow starts: “I think standard practice in football is to do some things early in the game. You unveil your plan, you set your formation, see how they play you. You’d like things to go a little better than perhaps they did today in the early going. ... Being a slow-starting team doesn’t worry me, as we’re a big finishing team. I think we’ve outscored our opponents in the second half of most games, if not all of them.”
On Morrison: “I thought the contribution of Blaise Morrison today was very good. Each week, we kind of have a new hero stepping up. ... The new face that seemed to rise to the occasion was Blaise Morrison.”
On Mike Giffin breaking his career-high mark of 214 rushing yards (Giffin finished with 215 yards, and was pulled after the third quarter): “For the number of carries he got, I thought his numbers were good today. ... At times, they shut him up pretty good. I’m afraid with him today, it was kind of feast or famine: he either made a great play or they did a pretty good job on him. With a great runner, when they come in with the plan that they’re going to stack up on the running game, sometimes it works. He just kept at it, he was very determined, he was fired up about having a big game today and he did.”
On other strong performances: “ Valberg was solid today, I thought he made a couple of great big plays. I thought Danny (Brannagan) was pretty good.”
On the injuries to linebacker T.J. Leeper and Kyle MacDonald: “I don’t think it’s anything serious. MacDonald, I think he went down just to give the defence a breather. T.J. Leeper, it’s an ongoing thing, but he could have come back and played today if he had to.”
On Western next week: “There’s a lot of preparation work that needs to be done. I think we have to look at them a whole lot closer. We didn’t look at them this week, we didn’t talk about them, we didn’t even mention them, which was a challenge in itself for our team, knowing that this one was looming large. Anyway, this is a game to get excited about, and it should be a good one.”
Bullet points à la Sager:
See Andrew's live blog of the game here.)
Today’s match against the University of Toronto was perhaps a difficult situation for the Gaels. They were expected to win big, so a huge victory would be the status quo and anything less a disappointment. Queen’s managed the huge victory, though, beating Toronto 58-14.
The game wasn’t necessarily always going to be this much of a blowout, though. In fact, the Blues should have had the first touchdown early on when quarterback David Hamilton handed off to slash player Mark Stinson. Queen’s defensive backs bit on the fake run, leaving Drew Meedveld wide open deep, and he waltzed in for the TD. It was called back for a holding penalty though, the Gaels’ defence held, and the offence was off to the races with two quick touchdowns.
Toronto pulled within seven before the end of the first quarter, but the Gaels pulled out to a 37-7 lead going into the half. Queen’s added two more early touchdowns in the third quarter, putting the result beyond all doubt.
It was the ground attack that carried the day for the Gaels. Mike Giffin finished with 212 yards, his 14th straight 100-yard game. He finished with three TDs, two rushing and one receiver.
The defensive performance was also impressive. The Gaels defensive line was creating solid pressure on Toronto’s quarterbacks all day and forcing plenty of bad throws. You could tell they were keying on Dee Sterling, which left holes for the other linemen. The front four also shut down the run almost completely, with the aid of linebackers like Thaine Carter. There were several injuries, including LB T.J. Leeper and DE Kyle MacDonald, but the replacement players came in and did their job quite well.
Brannagan finished 13-of-22 for 241 yards with three TDs. Not a lights-out passing performance, but not a bad one either. Blaise Morrison had career highs with six catches for 121 yards — the fourth Gaels receiver to have a "century game" — while Scott Valberg had two TD catches. Blocking back Tim Poffley also caught one, which meant graduates of Kingston-area high schools scored six of Queen's eight touchdowns.
It would have been easy to take this game off and look ahead to Western next week, and that could have been costly. Western crushed York 71-0 today, so we get to see the rivalry battle between two 4-0 teams in the middle of Queen’s Homecoming next weekend, which should be incredible. It was hard to avoid thinking about that one prematurely, but now we can all start salivating in eager anticipation.
Update, 10:00 P.M. by Andrew: Here's the quotes I promised, from Blaise Morrison, Neil Puffer, Jimmy Allin, Dan Brannagan and Pat Sheahan:
Wide receiver Blaise Morrison:
Stat line: Six catches for a game-high 121 yards, longest catch for 37 yards
On maintaining focus for this game, despite Western coming up next week:
“The coaches prepared us really well this week, making sure all our focus was on this week’s game.”
On slow starts: “That’s just the way it’s been going this season.”
On Valberg creating room for the rest of the receivers: “After the game Scott Valberg had last week, obviously they’re going to pay a bit more attention to him, so it opens up all the other guys.”
On Western: “We’ve got a week to prepare now, and we’re really excited about this game.”
Defensive lineman Neil Puffer:
Stat line: One sack, two solo tackles
On the expectations placed on the team: “There was a fair bit of pressure on us. Everyone expected us to win, everyone expected us to be perfect.”
On improvement: “We`re not terribly excited about our game today because it didn`t meet our standards for this sort of game. ... We`ve just got to tighten up the loose ends.”
On key things to work on: “We had a couple fumbles, and the trick plays that they were running on us, they got a lot of mileage from. We need to have our heads wrapped around those and know when they`re coming. That`s pretty much it, but we just need to stick to fundamental football.”
On if Dee Sterling`s performance last week opened holes for him:
“He certainly attracted a lot of attention, and if guys are double- and triple-teaming him, it frees me up for a one on one.”
On Western: “It couldn’t get much better than this, a rematch of how things ended last year in the playoffs, and on Homecoming on national TV, and in this case, it’s a battle of the undefeated. ... It’s going to be a good football game, and I’m really excited for it.”
On what they’ll have to do differently from last year’s playoff loss: “We were a step behind all last year’s game. ... They just beat us. They came out, outschemed us, out played us, played with more heart. We’re just going to have to be perfect.”
Halfback/kick returner Jimmy Allin:
Stat line: One solo tackle, one breakup, five punt returns for 90 yards and two kick returns for 27 yards.
On how far U of T has come: “U of T’s obviously a much-improved team. They’ve got some great athletes.”
On what to improve: “Everything. We need to work on everything, we need to get better. We’ve got a big game coming up this week, and we’ll need to play well if we want to win.”
On facing Western: “We need to focus on what we do best. We’re all confident, we’ll all prepare like we always do, and hopefully it comes out for us.”
On if he thinks there will be a good crowd: “We hope so. Homecoming, we always look forward to it because the stadium’s always packed and we’ll hopefully put on a good show.”
On if he thinks his reputation as a returner is causing teams to kick away from him the way Toronto did most of the day: “I hope not. You always like to get a chance, but it’s like last game, they kicked to Jimmy (Therrien) a lot and he did an amazing job, so you can’t really take away our returns. We have two good returners, and guys are doing a great job of blocking for them.”
QB Dan Brannagan:
Stat line: 13 for 22 for 241 yards, three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, two interceptions.
On if the team met their goals against U of T: “I think overall there’s a lot of room for improvement, but the ultimate goal, the goal every week is to get a win, and we did that.”
On what’s causing the slow starts: “I’m not too sure. I guess it takes us a while to get going, but it’s something we can work on in the second half of the season.”
On if Giffin’s stellar performance on the ground opened up passing lanes in the second half:
“Definitely. All year long, I think that’s been the case. It definitely helps to have him in the backfield, and teams have to respect that and bring guys up. When you have to gang-tackle a big running back like that, it means less guys in double coverage.”
On his own scrambling performance: “Going into the game, I wouldn’t have predicted that, but it just gets to the point where you have to take what the defence is giving you if they’re going to drop a lot of guys into coverage. I think it’s something they weren’t expecting, so I think I kind of caught them off guard a little.”
On what to improve: “It’s just a matter of execution. We have great players and great plays, it’s just a matter of going out there and being confident, making sure that we’re going out there and fully executing every play.”
On if there’s a desire for revenge against Western after last year’s playoff loss: “It’s not really on my mind. You’re always trying to look forward and not look backwards. It’s a different team and a new season.”
Coach Pat Sheahan:
On the game overall: “I’m pleased with the win, but I think that we’re still not a hundred per cent polished. We still have a few areas that we can improve on, and my hope is with each passing week, we’re going to gain a measure of consistency and improve our execution. ... Maybe I’m becoming too hard to please, I don’t know. It was a good win, and we want to be better, that’s all.”
On the slow starts: “I think standard practice in football is to do some things early in the game. You unveil your plan, you set your formation, see how they play you. You’d like things to go a little better than perhaps they did today in the early going. ... Being a slow-starting team doesn’t worry me, as we’re a big finishing team. I think we’ve outscored our opponents in the second half of most games, if not all of them.”
On Morrison: “I thought the contribution of Blaise Morrison today was very good. Each week, we kind of have a new hero stepping up. ... The new face that seemed to rise to the occasion was Blaise Morrison.”
On Mike Giffin breaking his career-high mark of 214 rushing yards (Giffin finished with 215 yards, and was pulled after the third quarter): “For the number of carries he got, I thought his numbers were good today. ... At times, they shut him up pretty good. I’m afraid with him today, it was kind of feast or famine: he either made a great play or they did a pretty good job on him. With a great runner, when they come in with the plan that they’re going to stack up on the running game, sometimes it works. He just kept at it, he was very determined, he was fired up about having a big game today and he did.”
On other strong performances: “ Valberg was solid today, I thought he made a couple of great big plays. I thought Danny (Brannagan) was pretty good.”
On the injuries to linebacker T.J. Leeper and Kyle MacDonald: “I don’t think it’s anything serious. MacDonald, I think he went down just to give the defence a breather. T.J. Leeper, it’s an ongoing thing, but he could have come back and played today if he had to.”
On Western next week: “There’s a lot of preparation work that needs to be done. I think we have to look at them a whole lot closer. We didn’t look at them this week, we didn’t talk about them, we didn’t even mention them, which was a challenge in itself for our team, knowing that this one was looming large. Anyway, this is a game to get excited about, and it should be a good one.”
Bullet points à la Sager:
- The Whig-Standard had a full writeup online within 90 minutes of the game being over. New sports ed. Mike Koreen's impact is already being felt!
You can read all about Koreen's new gig here. - at The CIS Blog, there's a digest of the big stories coming out of Friday and Saturday's games, along with tidbits on each game.
- Former CFRC play-by-play man Richard Zussman is calling games for Rogers 22 here in Ottawa.
- Quoth Mike Toth, on the Mike who wears No. 21 for the Gaels: "He runs like an angry young man."
- Jeff Chan has his usual outstanding photo gallery.
- Amrit Ahluwalia of The Queen's Journal covered Queen's big rugby match at Western on Saturday. It ended in a tie, 12-12, so everyone was happy ... well, not really.
- A national news service called Laurier the "Wilfrid Laurier Eagles." Just to play devil's advocate, it might well be that happened because having Golden in the team nickname caused confusion.
On second thought, probably not.
(Eagles? Really? The only other explanation is now that having two high school football teams in Lennox & Addington County, the Napanee Golden Hawks and the unbeaten Ernestown Eagles, is wreaking havoc on the minds of journalists in Toronto.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Bleeding Tricolour: Gaels' first win over Laurier since 2003
Today's 41-7 smashing of the Laurier Golden Hawks by the Queen's (formerly Golden) Gaels felt oddly wrong.
It seemed like a voice somewhere was saying, "It's not supposed to be this easy."
After all, this was a Laurier team that the Gaels hadn't beat since October 11, 2003, back in the Tommy Denison era. This was a Laurier team that was ranked 10th nationally, beat a talented Guelph team in Week 1 and narrowly lost 31-20 to the very impressive Western Mustangs last week. This was also a Laurier team whose head coach, Gary Jeffries, held an overall record of 45-9-0-1 coming into today's match and had never lost back-to-back games. After today, he can no longer make that claim.
This is not the same Laurier that thumped Queen's 23-4 last season and 45-0 in 2005. Some of the key starters from those years have moved on, and the Golden Hawks aren't as imposing. They're still a formidable opponent though, and there wasn't much going into this that would suggest that Queen's quarterback Dan Brannagan would throw for 438 yards, two short of his career high (recorded against U of T last season).* Queen's also put up 222 rushing yards on the day, with 125 coming from Mike Giffin on 25 carries, and another 64 coming from Brannagan (one 62-yard carry and a bunch of short QB sneaks). Those aren't the kind of offensive statistics you expect to see against the Golden Hawks.
*Note on Brannagan's numbers: he completed 22 of 38 passes for 438 yards and three touchdowns with a longest pass of 64 yards, but he was also sacked twice and threw four interceptions. He easily could have had a career day in passing yards, but was yanked with about four minutes left for backup Jansen Shrubb.
When you look at the overall picture, though, the game starts to make sense. The first quarter in particular was more of what we expected to see from Laurier's defence. Queen's put together some decent drives, but couldn't convert, and only came away with six points (off a 42-yard field goal, a 35-yard rouge and a safety). Giffin carried the ball seven times for 32 yards and a decent but not overly impressive 4.6 yards per carry average. Brannagan completed eight of 12 passes for 123 yards, but also was charged with an interception when Devan Sheahan had a pass ripped out of his hands in the end zone.
The Laurier offensive stats from the first quarter sound like something out of the Twilight Zone (cue dah-do-dah-do music). Ryan Lynch, who ran for over 1,000 yards last season, achieved a grand total of two net yards on four carries, thanks to excellent pressure from defensive end Osie Ukwuoma and linebacker Thaine Carter, among others. Quarterback Ian Noble, who didn't play in last week's game against Western, completed two of four passes for 12 yards, and the Hawks spent only 5:38 with the ball.
Things didn't improve much for Laurier in the second quarter, but their defence was still holding under the strain. They conceded another safety and then a field goal, but picked Brannagan off again in the end zone to prevent a touchdown. Their offence couldn't get going, though, even with backup quarterback Luke Thompson in. Thompson couldn't complete a pass early, and Lynch was still getting stuffed on every run attempt, meaning that the Hawks had to keep punting the ball away and hoping their defence could bear up under the strain. The dam finally broke when Brannagan scampered 48 yards to set up an easy two-yard touchdown run for Giffin, giving Queen's an 18-0 lead. On the next drive, the Laurier offence showed signs of life when Thompson completed a 26-yard pass to Josh Bishop. However, the play was called back for holding, and Laurier had to punt again. Brannagan threw his third interception of the day on the next Queen's drive, though, and Thompson responded with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Shamawd Chambers* with less than a minute to go in the half, reducing the lead to 11 points. At halftime, it still looked like the Gaels were in for a fight, especially after such a late demoralizing score.
*Interesting note on the Chambers pass: he was isolated one-on-one against Queen's backup cornerback Josh Sultana, and blew by him with some speed. Sultana was only in the game because Jay Oduwole was hurt early on. I didn't see Oduwole return, so that may be an area to keep an eye on next week.
Football is a surprising game, though. Sometimes, you'll see a team fired up by their own late success and storming out of the gate in the second half to make things
interesting. At other times, it's the team that gets scored on that gets mad, and that's what happened in this case. Queen's punted on the first drive, but their defence forced another two-and-out from Laurier, and then the Gaels blew things open. Just over three minutes into the second half, Brannagan launched a 34-yard pass to Scott Valberg, who added another 30 yards after the catch for an early touchdown. Another touchdown came two and a half minutes later on a pass to Scott Stinson, and the Gaels had an almost insurmountable 32-7 lead. They added another safety and another touchdown on a Brannagan-Valberg connection, leading to a final score of Queen's 41, Laurier 7.
Time of possession was probably the game's key factor. Laurier held Queen's to 18 points in the first half, and they would have only conceded 11 points if their defence hadn't misread Brannagan's long scramble up the middle with less than two minutes to go that set up Giffin for the easy touchdown. They were on the field for 16:23 in the first half, though, and you could tell they were getting tired by the end. Laurier's offence could only produce two-and-outs, though, so the Gaels kept Laurier's defence on the field and took advantage of their fatigue in the second half.
If the Hawks had been able to create any offence at all, this could have been a pretty close game, especially given that their defence created six turnovers on the day (four interceptions and two fumble recoveries). As Jeffries said after the game, "I thought our defence played an outstanding game today, regardless of the points on the board." That sounds silly at first, coming from a coach whose team gave up 41 points, but when you consider that his defence was on the field for over 33 minutes of the game and was facing one of the most dangerous offences in the OUA, that really isn't all that bad. There's still plenty of time for Laurier to turn it around, and there were definitely some positive signs on the defensive side of the ball today.
Two standouts for Queen's today were Valberg and defensive tackle Dee Sterling. Valberg caught six passes for a career-high 193 yards and also scored two touchdowns. His previous career-best mark was 146 yards against Waterloo in 2005. Sterling gave Laurier's offensive line nightmares, racking up five individual sacks and one shared sack (with Ukwuoma). According to Queen's sports information officer Mike Grobe, that's a Gaels record. He also had six solo tackles, four assisted tackles, and six tackles for a loss (leading to a total of 37 yards lost) and was named Player of the Game.
It was perhaps appropriate that Queen's honoured the 1968 and 1978 Vanier Cup championship teams today, as well as the 1983 Dunsmore Cup champions and the 1963 Yates Cup champions. The Gaels' play on the defensive side of the ball was certainly reminiscent of some of those glory years (Neate suggested that the play of today's defensive line looked like the famed Gold Rush of Dick Bakker, Bob Francis, Jim Muller and Rob Ball). In fact, Jeffries chalked up the Hawks' offensive failures to the play of his O-line. "We had no offence whatsoever," he said after the game. "Our kids up front just got flat-out beaten." Queen's held Guelph to two net rushing yards (on 17 carries), 121 net passing yards, six first downs and only 22 minutes of possession.
The Gaels now go on to face the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, who moved to 2-1today with a 58-7 blowout of the York Lions. It will be important for the Gaels not to get too confident heading into that matchup. They should still win, but Toronto has shown this year that they've improved substantially. Queen's will have to focus on this upcoming game, as it would be all too easy to start thinking about the Homecoming clash with Western on Sept. 27. Given that Western thwomped Waterloo 49-3 today and faces the 0-3 York Lions next week, there's every chance that the Homecoming game will feature two unbeaten teams, which would be a heck of a show.
Notes:
It seemed like a voice somewhere was saying, "It's not supposed to be this easy."
After all, this was a Laurier team that the Gaels hadn't beat since October 11, 2003, back in the Tommy Denison era. This was a Laurier team that was ranked 10th nationally, beat a talented Guelph team in Week 1 and narrowly lost 31-20 to the very impressive Western Mustangs last week. This was also a Laurier team whose head coach, Gary Jeffries, held an overall record of 45-9-0-1 coming into today's match and had never lost back-to-back games. After today, he can no longer make that claim.
This is not the same Laurier that thumped Queen's 23-4 last season and 45-0 in 2005. Some of the key starters from those years have moved on, and the Golden Hawks aren't as imposing. They're still a formidable opponent though, and there wasn't much going into this that would suggest that Queen's quarterback Dan Brannagan would throw for 438 yards, two short of his career high (recorded against U of T last season).* Queen's also put up 222 rushing yards on the day, with 125 coming from Mike Giffin on 25 carries, and another 64 coming from Brannagan (one 62-yard carry and a bunch of short QB sneaks). Those aren't the kind of offensive statistics you expect to see against the Golden Hawks.
*Note on Brannagan's numbers: he completed 22 of 38 passes for 438 yards and three touchdowns with a longest pass of 64 yards, but he was also sacked twice and threw four interceptions. He easily could have had a career day in passing yards, but was yanked with about four minutes left for backup Jansen Shrubb.
When you look at the overall picture, though, the game starts to make sense. The first quarter in particular was more of what we expected to see from Laurier's defence. Queen's put together some decent drives, but couldn't convert, and only came away with six points (off a 42-yard field goal, a 35-yard rouge and a safety). Giffin carried the ball seven times for 32 yards and a decent but not overly impressive 4.6 yards per carry average. Brannagan completed eight of 12 passes for 123 yards, but also was charged with an interception when Devan Sheahan had a pass ripped out of his hands in the end zone.
The Laurier offensive stats from the first quarter sound like something out of the Twilight Zone (cue dah-do-dah-do music). Ryan Lynch, who ran for over 1,000 yards last season, achieved a grand total of two net yards on four carries, thanks to excellent pressure from defensive end Osie Ukwuoma and linebacker Thaine Carter, among others. Quarterback Ian Noble, who didn't play in last week's game against Western, completed two of four passes for 12 yards, and the Hawks spent only 5:38 with the ball.
Things didn't improve much for Laurier in the second quarter, but their defence was still holding under the strain. They conceded another safety and then a field goal, but picked Brannagan off again in the end zone to prevent a touchdown. Their offence couldn't get going, though, even with backup quarterback Luke Thompson in. Thompson couldn't complete a pass early, and Lynch was still getting stuffed on every run attempt, meaning that the Hawks had to keep punting the ball away and hoping their defence could bear up under the strain. The dam finally broke when Brannagan scampered 48 yards to set up an easy two-yard touchdown run for Giffin, giving Queen's an 18-0 lead. On the next drive, the Laurier offence showed signs of life when Thompson completed a 26-yard pass to Josh Bishop. However, the play was called back for holding, and Laurier had to punt again. Brannagan threw his third interception of the day on the next Queen's drive, though, and Thompson responded with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Shamawd Chambers* with less than a minute to go in the half, reducing the lead to 11 points. At halftime, it still looked like the Gaels were in for a fight, especially after such a late demoralizing score.
*Interesting note on the Chambers pass: he was isolated one-on-one against Queen's backup cornerback Josh Sultana, and blew by him with some speed. Sultana was only in the game because Jay Oduwole was hurt early on. I didn't see Oduwole return, so that may be an area to keep an eye on next week.
Football is a surprising game, though. Sometimes, you'll see a team fired up by their own late success and storming out of the gate in the second half to make things
interesting. At other times, it's the team that gets scored on that gets mad, and that's what happened in this case. Queen's punted on the first drive, but their defence forced another two-and-out from Laurier, and then the Gaels blew things open. Just over three minutes into the second half, Brannagan launched a 34-yard pass to Scott Valberg, who added another 30 yards after the catch for an early touchdown. Another touchdown came two and a half minutes later on a pass to Scott Stinson, and the Gaels had an almost insurmountable 32-7 lead. They added another safety and another touchdown on a Brannagan-Valberg connection, leading to a final score of Queen's 41, Laurier 7.
Time of possession was probably the game's key factor. Laurier held Queen's to 18 points in the first half, and they would have only conceded 11 points if their defence hadn't misread Brannagan's long scramble up the middle with less than two minutes to go that set up Giffin for the easy touchdown. They were on the field for 16:23 in the first half, though, and you could tell they were getting tired by the end. Laurier's offence could only produce two-and-outs, though, so the Gaels kept Laurier's defence on the field and took advantage of their fatigue in the second half.
If the Hawks had been able to create any offence at all, this could have been a pretty close game, especially given that their defence created six turnovers on the day (four interceptions and two fumble recoveries). As Jeffries said after the game, "I thought our defence played an outstanding game today, regardless of the points on the board." That sounds silly at first, coming from a coach whose team gave up 41 points, but when you consider that his defence was on the field for over 33 minutes of the game and was facing one of the most dangerous offences in the OUA, that really isn't all that bad. There's still plenty of time for Laurier to turn it around, and there were definitely some positive signs on the defensive side of the ball today.
Two standouts for Queen's today were Valberg and defensive tackle Dee Sterling. Valberg caught six passes for a career-high 193 yards and also scored two touchdowns. His previous career-best mark was 146 yards against Waterloo in 2005. Sterling gave Laurier's offensive line nightmares, racking up five individual sacks and one shared sack (with Ukwuoma). According to Queen's sports information officer Mike Grobe, that's a Gaels record. He also had six solo tackles, four assisted tackles, and six tackles for a loss (leading to a total of 37 yards lost) and was named Player of the Game.
It was perhaps appropriate that Queen's honoured the 1968 and 1978 Vanier Cup championship teams today, as well as the 1983 Dunsmore Cup champions and the 1963 Yates Cup champions. The Gaels' play on the defensive side of the ball was certainly reminiscent of some of those glory years (Neate suggested that the play of today's defensive line looked like the famed Gold Rush of Dick Bakker, Bob Francis, Jim Muller and Rob Ball). In fact, Jeffries chalked up the Hawks' offensive failures to the play of his O-line. "We had no offence whatsoever," he said after the game. "Our kids up front just got flat-out beaten." Queen's held Guelph to two net rushing yards (on 17 carries), 121 net passing yards, six first downs and only 22 minutes of possession.
The Gaels now go on to face the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, who moved to 2-1today with a 58-7 blowout of the York Lions. It will be important for the Gaels not to get too confident heading into that matchup. They should still win, but Toronto has shown this year that they've improved substantially. Queen's will have to focus on this upcoming game, as it would be all too easy to start thinking about the Homecoming clash with Western on Sept. 27. Given that Western thwomped Waterloo 49-3 today and faces the 0-3 York Lions next week, there's every chance that the Homecoming game will feature two unbeaten teams, which would be a heck of a show.
Notes:
- If you ever wondered what football players do between games, this item is for you. Kingston's own Bryan Crawford of Toronto Argonauts fame penned this piece for today's Whig-Standard about game-week preparation details. There's some quite interesting stuff in there for those of us who haven't played high-level football.
- If you want more information on the teams that were honoured today, you can look at this piece by Clint Walper in today's Whig, which goes through the details of all four of those seasons. It's not for everyone due to the length and level of description involved, but those interested in Gaels' history should check it out. He includes quotes from the likes of Doug Hargreaves, Ross O'Doherty, Jim D'Andrea and Ed Andrew. There's also a lot of interesting reactions to the name change from former players and coaches at the bottom of the piece.
- Here's the link to my GBU breakdown at Sporting Madness, with quotes from Pat Sheahan, Gary Jeffries and Dan Brannagan.
- Neate has digested all of the week's action coast-to-coast at The CIS Blog.
Friday, September 12, 2008
More coverage of CIS sports on the way?
It's looking like CIS fans may be able to access more game broadcasts, interviews, highlights and other content than ever before in the near future. For this piece in today's Queen's Journal, I spoke with John Levy, chairman and CEO of Score Media, Bengt Neathery, president of Streaming Sports Network Canada and Scott Moore, executive director of CBC Sports about their plans to expand their coverage of CIS sports. After the jump, some selected quotes from each on their networks' goals and some analysis of what this could mean for CIS.
Name:John Levy
Position: Chairman and CEO, Score Media
His CIS goals: Expand The Score's CIS coverage through additional live broadcasts, but especially through highlights, reporting pieces and Internet coverage. Levy wants to meld CIS coverage with The Score's other content as well: the example he quoted was basketball, where they have NBA, March Madness and CIS rights, and they want to try to attract fans of each to the other shows. He also envisions a country-wide network of contributors on campus, possibly through blogs, reporting or submitted pieces. He's a big fan of CIS sports because they appeal to The Score's target demographics of younger sports fans.
Selected quotes:
- "It’s a great product for us. We’ve been building it for the last number of years, and we continue to be excited to provide that level of programming at the university level. … We have an extreme interest in doing as much as we can at the university level. That’s a big draw for us."
- “A lot of what we do isn’t just broadcasting the games. ... Our network is more about the stories around the games, and universities are a hub for sports activity. … We want to plug into that more directly. I’d love to have reporters feeding into our network from every university across the country.”
Analysis: Levy seems very interested in expanding The Score's CIS coverage, and the online elements he proposed sound particularly strong. His network's done well in the past with their blogs and podcasts, bringing in people that you wouldn't normally see or hear at a lot of mainstream media outlets (such as the Drunk Jays Fans). The highlights he mentioned also sound like a great idea, and sports information directors across the country really should look into packaging and sending off highlights whenever possible. It would probably take quite a bit of time and money, but the potential exposure is huge: you can reach a whole new audience that won't tune in for a full game. The next logical step for The Score in terms of full-game coverage would probably be showing some regular-season basketball games in the lead-up to the Final 8 to build interest. As Levy said, "The more we show, the bigger we can grow the audience." He mentioned that there are some technical and scheduling issues still to overcome with regular-season basketball, but my guess is that you may see some of those games at some point soon.
Name:Bengt Neathery
Position: President, Streaming Sports Network Canada
His CIS goals: Make SSN more of a national network, bringing in game coverage from universities across the country. SSN is also launching a new-look website this coming week, and they're encouraging schools to contribute full games, highlights, interviews and the like. This makes a lot of sense in my mind: there's plenty of people who don't have time to watch a full game, but are interested in the post-game interviews or the highlights, and SSN is wise to show those as separate clips on their website. Neathery said they plan to show show anywhere from 400 to 750 full games live this year in a variety of sports, which is very impressive. Similar to The Score, they're also looking to expand their roster of contributors to include people from schools across the country and bring in a blog system. At the moment, much of the content is provided by the schools' athletic departments, but I got the impression from Neathery that he's open to having students on campus contribute as well.
Selected quotes:
- “We have a video upload system, an image upload system so schools can take control of their own content. ... A coach or a sports manager or whoever it happens to be can upload their own interviews that they want to do, or pictures of players in action, whatever it happens to be, and that will be reflected on the SSN site as well to give more of a homegrown community feel to it.”
- “Basically, it’s going to be an easier way for different people who know the CIS or the different sports to make comments or do regular reporting for the site. ... On a national level, we should be able to bring people in, bring the content in from any city anywhere and make it simple. We’re using technology to overcome some of the barriers we have in a country of this size.”
- “Right now, we do subsidize universities for their sport streaming program, so whereas it might cost about $4,000 or $4,500 to actually do the streaming, we subsidize about 80 per cent of it, so the actual cost to the school is only about $750. ... Any school that wants to get in, even if they don’t have the capacity to live-broadcast their games, we’d of course be willing to have them create stories, do videos and send them up to us, and obviously the more of them that do that, the easier it is for us. We’d like to see a broadcasting unit, if you will, at each school that is sustainable, sustained by advertising and sponsorship at each school so the product is consistently coming out.”
Analysis: Neathery's plans for SSN are very ambitious, but they certainly sound impressive. I approve of their plan to focus on bringing in as many schools as possible through subsidies at the start: that will give them national content, which should in turn lead to profitable advertising deals and sustainable broadcasting. Queen's would do well to jump on this train (and they may yet). In my mind, a key thing for SSN will be making sure that they have voices outside athletic departments as well: department-supplied content is great, but it's important that there are different perspectives displayed. The blog system would be a good way to do this. SSN is also launching a weekly magazine/highlights show, CIS in Motion: I watched the first episode the other day, and it looks pretty good. It's a promising concept as well, so it will be interesting to see where they take it.
Name: Scott Moore
Position: Executive director, CBC Sports
His CIS goals: Moore doesn't have any concrete plans for CIS content yet, but with the approval of their new sports channel, CBC SportsPlus, it is an area they're looking at as a potential source of content.
Key quotes:
- “We feel that Canada’s athletes, both amateur and professional, are underserved. ... I think CIS sport is something that’s under-televised at the moment, underserved perhaps, and it would be an area that we would be perhaps be interested in.”
- “We haven’t really started talking with rights-holders yet. ... We’ll start that process probably in the next month or two. First, you need to make sure that you’re going to have carriage with the cable channels, the CDUs (cable distribution undertakings), and then if you can get that, you want to be able to tell them that you’re going to have great content.”
Analysis: Obviously, Moore couldn't commit to very much, as the new channel is still in its infancy (their application was only approved in August). Still, he seemed enthusiastic about the idea of CIS content, and it would make a lot of sense for them. The CRTC mandated [William Houston, The Globe and Mail] that the channel show at least 30 per cent amateur content per week, and at least 80 per cent Canadian content per year. According to my understanding, CIS sports would qualify as both amateur and Canadian. The CIS is also one of the highest-quality sources of amateur sport in Canada, especially in more mainstream sports like basketball and football. There's also a ton of product available, given the sheer volume of schools, so it likely wouldn't be too hard for CBC to snap some of it up.
Overall analysis: This has to be a positive development for CIS fans, as they may be able to see a lot more of their favourite teams if these initiatives pay off. Streaming Sports Network especially could be fantastic for university alumni in other cities, as their alma mater's athletic departments would now (at least to my understanding) be able to upload any game they were able to videotape, as well as highlights and interviews. The Score's enhanced web content could become a go-to destination for CIS opinions and information, and CBC SportsPlus could give CIS sports some major television exposure. It's looking like a good time to be a CIS fan.
(Cross-posted to The CIS Blog).
Name:John Levy
Position: Chairman and CEO, Score Media
His CIS goals: Expand The Score's CIS coverage through additional live broadcasts, but especially through highlights, reporting pieces and Internet coverage. Levy wants to meld CIS coverage with The Score's other content as well: the example he quoted was basketball, where they have NBA, March Madness and CIS rights, and they want to try to attract fans of each to the other shows. He also envisions a country-wide network of contributors on campus, possibly through blogs, reporting or submitted pieces. He's a big fan of CIS sports because they appeal to The Score's target demographics of younger sports fans.
Selected quotes:
- "It’s a great product for us. We’ve been building it for the last number of years, and we continue to be excited to provide that level of programming at the university level. … We have an extreme interest in doing as much as we can at the university level. That’s a big draw for us."
- “A lot of what we do isn’t just broadcasting the games. ... Our network is more about the stories around the games, and universities are a hub for sports activity. … We want to plug into that more directly. I’d love to have reporters feeding into our network from every university across the country.”
Analysis: Levy seems very interested in expanding The Score's CIS coverage, and the online elements he proposed sound particularly strong. His network's done well in the past with their blogs and podcasts, bringing in people that you wouldn't normally see or hear at a lot of mainstream media outlets (such as the Drunk Jays Fans). The highlights he mentioned also sound like a great idea, and sports information directors across the country really should look into packaging and sending off highlights whenever possible. It would probably take quite a bit of time and money, but the potential exposure is huge: you can reach a whole new audience that won't tune in for a full game. The next logical step for The Score in terms of full-game coverage would probably be showing some regular-season basketball games in the lead-up to the Final 8 to build interest. As Levy said, "The more we show, the bigger we can grow the audience." He mentioned that there are some technical and scheduling issues still to overcome with regular-season basketball, but my guess is that you may see some of those games at some point soon.
Name:Bengt Neathery
Position: President, Streaming Sports Network Canada
His CIS goals: Make SSN more of a national network, bringing in game coverage from universities across the country. SSN is also launching a new-look website this coming week, and they're encouraging schools to contribute full games, highlights, interviews and the like. This makes a lot of sense in my mind: there's plenty of people who don't have time to watch a full game, but are interested in the post-game interviews or the highlights, and SSN is wise to show those as separate clips on their website. Neathery said they plan to show show anywhere from 400 to 750 full games live this year in a variety of sports, which is very impressive. Similar to The Score, they're also looking to expand their roster of contributors to include people from schools across the country and bring in a blog system. At the moment, much of the content is provided by the schools' athletic departments, but I got the impression from Neathery that he's open to having students on campus contribute as well.
Selected quotes:
- “We have a video upload system, an image upload system so schools can take control of their own content. ... A coach or a sports manager or whoever it happens to be can upload their own interviews that they want to do, or pictures of players in action, whatever it happens to be, and that will be reflected on the SSN site as well to give more of a homegrown community feel to it.”
- “Basically, it’s going to be an easier way for different people who know the CIS or the different sports to make comments or do regular reporting for the site. ... On a national level, we should be able to bring people in, bring the content in from any city anywhere and make it simple. We’re using technology to overcome some of the barriers we have in a country of this size.”
- “Right now, we do subsidize universities for their sport streaming program, so whereas it might cost about $4,000 or $4,500 to actually do the streaming, we subsidize about 80 per cent of it, so the actual cost to the school is only about $750. ... Any school that wants to get in, even if they don’t have the capacity to live-broadcast their games, we’d of course be willing to have them create stories, do videos and send them up to us, and obviously the more of them that do that, the easier it is for us. We’d like to see a broadcasting unit, if you will, at each school that is sustainable, sustained by advertising and sponsorship at each school so the product is consistently coming out.”
Analysis: Neathery's plans for SSN are very ambitious, but they certainly sound impressive. I approve of their plan to focus on bringing in as many schools as possible through subsidies at the start: that will give them national content, which should in turn lead to profitable advertising deals and sustainable broadcasting. Queen's would do well to jump on this train (and they may yet). In my mind, a key thing for SSN will be making sure that they have voices outside athletic departments as well: department-supplied content is great, but it's important that there are different perspectives displayed. The blog system would be a good way to do this. SSN is also launching a weekly magazine/highlights show, CIS in Motion: I watched the first episode the other day, and it looks pretty good. It's a promising concept as well, so it will be interesting to see where they take it.
Name: Scott Moore
Position: Executive director, CBC Sports
His CIS goals: Moore doesn't have any concrete plans for CIS content yet, but with the approval of their new sports channel, CBC SportsPlus, it is an area they're looking at as a potential source of content.
Key quotes:
- “We feel that Canada’s athletes, both amateur and professional, are underserved. ... I think CIS sport is something that’s under-televised at the moment, underserved perhaps, and it would be an area that we would be perhaps be interested in.”
- “We haven’t really started talking with rights-holders yet. ... We’ll start that process probably in the next month or two. First, you need to make sure that you’re going to have carriage with the cable channels, the CDUs (cable distribution undertakings), and then if you can get that, you want to be able to tell them that you’re going to have great content.”
Analysis: Obviously, Moore couldn't commit to very much, as the new channel is still in its infancy (their application was only approved in August). Still, he seemed enthusiastic about the idea of CIS content, and it would make a lot of sense for them. The CRTC mandated [William Houston, The Globe and Mail] that the channel show at least 30 per cent amateur content per week, and at least 80 per cent Canadian content per year. According to my understanding, CIS sports would qualify as both amateur and Canadian. The CIS is also one of the highest-quality sources of amateur sport in Canada, especially in more mainstream sports like basketball and football. There's also a ton of product available, given the sheer volume of schools, so it likely wouldn't be too hard for CBC to snap some of it up.
Overall analysis: This has to be a positive development for CIS fans, as they may be able to see a lot more of their favourite teams if these initiatives pay off. Streaming Sports Network especially could be fantastic for university alumni in other cities, as their alma mater's athletic departments would now (at least to my understanding) be able to upload any game they were able to videotape, as well as highlights and interviews. The Score's enhanced web content could become a go-to destination for CIS opinions and information, and CBC SportsPlus could give CIS sports some major television exposure. It's looking like a good time to be a CIS fan.
(Cross-posted to The CIS Blog).
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
CIS Countdown #10: U of S Huskies
Fast facts:
- Nixon's the one: One of the keys to the Huskies' success or failure this year will be quarterback Laurence Nixon's performance. By all accounts, Nixon had a solid season last year, which was his first as a starter. He took over from Brett Thompson in the third game of the season. However, there are some interesting discrepancies in his stats (Discrepancies in CIS stats? Perish the thought!). According to the CIS website, a Lawrence Nixon completed 89 of 126 passes in four games for 1190 yards. He averaged 9.4 yards per attempt and 297.5 passing yards per game (the third-highest per game average in the league), but threw six interceptions and only five touchdowns. However, there's a Laurence Nixon listed further down the same list as appearing in two games and completing 15 of 24 passes for 267 yards, with no interceptions or touchdowns. Combining those two stats gives you 104 completions on 150 attempts for 1,457 yards, the numbers the Huskies' team preview credits him with, which are probably right. He'd still be in the top ten in Rob's quarterback rankings in either scenario.
- Line 'em up: Nixon will need more protection from his offensive line this year: last season, he was sacked 16 times, which tied him with Acadia's Keith Lockwood for the fifth-most times sacked in CIS competition. What makes that even worse is that all five quarterbacks tied with or above him played a full eight games. If Nixon can continue to mature and his offensive line can do a better job of protecting him, the Huskies' passing game could make them a dominant team.
- How can you run when you know? The offensive line's struggles last season also impacted the Saskatchewan running game, a traditional area of strength for the Huskies. Ben Coakwell and Scott Stevens (no relation that I know of to the former New Jersey Devils defenceman) took the majority of the carries last year, but only recorded 323 and 293 rushing yards respectively, which ranked them 33rd and 35th among CIS running backs on a pure yardage basis. Their yards-per-carry averages were respectable (5.77 and 5.05, respectively), but their lack of touches (56 and 58 carries respectively) show that the Huskies' coaching staff wasn't overly confident in the running game, and a large portion of that was due to the offensive line. As Vic Ferrari of the U of S Dog Blog wrote back in June, "The injuries that weakened [the offensive line], in the last half of the 2007 season, are the biggest reason for our disappointing 5-3 record." There's some hope for the line, as the Huskies have some veterans back from injury and also picked up several promising recruits, but they'll need to put in a better showing on both pass protection and run blocking for the Huskies to be successful.
Coach: Brian Towriss. Towriss has been the Huskies' head coach since 1984. He took over the program when he was only 27, and has led it to substantial success over the years, including Vanier Cup championships in 1990, 1996 and 1998. Towriss has been named the Canada West Coach of the Year seven times, and won the Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS Coach of the Year in 1994. Before taking over the Huskies, Towriss played for them in the '70's and also served as the Provincial Coach for Football Saskatchewan. He returned to the Huskies as an administrative assistant in 1981, and took over the team only three years later. Over his 24 years in the CIS, Towriss has amassed 119 wins, 72 losses and one tie in regular-season play for a .622 winning percentage, best in Canada West among active coaches. The only other active Canada West coach with a winning percentage above .500 is Manitoba's Brian Dobie.
Co-ordinators: Mike Harrington, offence; Ed Carleton, defence; Darrel Burko, special teams.
Enrolment: 16, 430 undergraduates, 2,190 graduates [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada].
Alumni in the CFL: The Huskies had 10 alumni in the CFL as of July, second only to McMaster's 12 for the most among CIS schools. Those alumni are B.C. guard Kelly Bates, Saskatchewan offensive lineman Gene Makowsky, Winnipeg fullback Brian Guebert, three Hamilton Tiger-Cats (fullback Jeff Piercy, offensive lineman Jordan Rempel and defensive back Dylan Barker), two Toronto receivers (Chad Rempel and Nathan Hoffart), and two Montreal Alouettes (guard Scott Flory and cornerback Paul Woldu).
Famous non-football alumni: Former prime minister John Diefenbaker, Hockey Hall of Fame builder Charles Hay, a former Huskies' goaltender who became famous for his efforts in organizing the 1972 Summit Series, Liberal MP and former Minister of Finance Ralph Goodale, Nobel Prize-winning chemists Gerhard Herzberg (as a professor) and Henry Taube (as an undergraduate and graduate student), CBC sportscaster Don Wittman, former NHL and current international hockey coach Dave King and former Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden.
Three-year record: 19-5, fifth-best in CIS competition, with a point differential of 17 points per game.
2007 units ranking: 10th on offence (26.6 points per game, 13.6 per cent above league average), seventh on defence (16.4 points allowed per game, 30.2 per cent better than league average).
Key losses: The Huskies lose 18 players, including six starters. Huskies' blogger Snake Wilson has a full list here. Two key players lost on offence are running backs Ben Coakwell and Scott Stevens, who split most of the carries last year as mentioned above. Cornerback Paul Woldu, safety Dylan Barker and offensive tackle Jordan Rempel will also be significant losses: Woldu's now with the Montreal Alouettes, while Barker and Rempel are with the Toronto Argonauts.
Returning starters: As mentioned above, QB Laurence Nixon's likely the key to this team's success. He'll have a solid core of returning receivers to throw to, including Karl Phillips, Scott McHenry and Cory Jones. Running back Tyler O'Gorman will also be one to watch: he only carried the ball 19 times for 97 yards last season, but he's got more experience than any other back on the team and was the MVP of both the Hardy Cup and the Mitchell Bowl in 2006. On defence, key returning players include halfback Jordy Burrows and defensive end Ivan Brown.
Players to watch:
Keep an eye on defensive back Jon Krahenbil: he recorded four interceptions last season, and three of those came in the same game. He also put up 20 tackles and six pass breakups. Offensive lineman Darren Hinds will likely make the transition to a starting role this season: we'll see if he can help restore that unit to form. Receiver Travis Gorski is also expected to make an impact, giving Nixon a wide variety of targets.
For future reference: Running back Jamal Allen, who's joining the Huskies straight out of high school, might be a viable option on the ground if O'Gorman struggles. Allen put up 1,047 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns in seven games in his B.C. high school league last season. There are also several junior football all-stars joining this year's Huskies, including safety Bryce McCall, cornerback Grant Shaw and defensive end Kyle Kuzek.
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Aug. 29 vs. Calgary
Sept. 6 @ Regina
Sept. 13 @ SFU
Sept. 26 vs. Alberta
Oct. 4 vs. UBC
Oct. 11 @ Manitoba
Oct. 18 vs. SFU
Oct. 24 @ UBC
Final analysis: Saskatchewan should be pretty strong this season. Their schedule also helps, as four of their eight games are against SFU and UBC. Their toughest contests will be the road matchups against Manitoba and Regina. If the offensive line can improve enough to protect Nixon and pave the way for the running game, and the defence can maintain its form of last year without some of its star veterans, it could be a great year for the Huskies.
Prediction: I see a 7-1 season for the Huskies.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins, U of S Sports Information Director Nicole Betker.)
- Nixon's the one: One of the keys to the Huskies' success or failure this year will be quarterback Laurence Nixon's performance. By all accounts, Nixon had a solid season last year, which was his first as a starter. He took over from Brett Thompson in the third game of the season. However, there are some interesting discrepancies in his stats (Discrepancies in CIS stats? Perish the thought!). According to the CIS website, a Lawrence Nixon completed 89 of 126 passes in four games for 1190 yards. He averaged 9.4 yards per attempt and 297.5 passing yards per game (the third-highest per game average in the league), but threw six interceptions and only five touchdowns. However, there's a Laurence Nixon listed further down the same list as appearing in two games and completing 15 of 24 passes for 267 yards, with no interceptions or touchdowns. Combining those two stats gives you 104 completions on 150 attempts for 1,457 yards, the numbers the Huskies' team preview credits him with, which are probably right. He'd still be in the top ten in Rob's quarterback rankings in either scenario.
- Line 'em up: Nixon will need more protection from his offensive line this year: last season, he was sacked 16 times, which tied him with Acadia's Keith Lockwood for the fifth-most times sacked in CIS competition. What makes that even worse is that all five quarterbacks tied with or above him played a full eight games. If Nixon can continue to mature and his offensive line can do a better job of protecting him, the Huskies' passing game could make them a dominant team.
- How can you run when you know? The offensive line's struggles last season also impacted the Saskatchewan running game, a traditional area of strength for the Huskies. Ben Coakwell and Scott Stevens (no relation that I know of to the former New Jersey Devils defenceman) took the majority of the carries last year, but only recorded 323 and 293 rushing yards respectively, which ranked them 33rd and 35th among CIS running backs on a pure yardage basis. Their yards-per-carry averages were respectable (5.77 and 5.05, respectively), but their lack of touches (56 and 58 carries respectively) show that the Huskies' coaching staff wasn't overly confident in the running game, and a large portion of that was due to the offensive line. As Vic Ferrari of the U of S Dog Blog wrote back in June, "The injuries that weakened [the offensive line], in the last half of the 2007 season, are the biggest reason for our disappointing 5-3 record." There's some hope for the line, as the Huskies have some veterans back from injury and also picked up several promising recruits, but they'll need to put in a better showing on both pass protection and run blocking for the Huskies to be successful.
Coach: Brian Towriss. Towriss has been the Huskies' head coach since 1984. He took over the program when he was only 27, and has led it to substantial success over the years, including Vanier Cup championships in 1990, 1996 and 1998. Towriss has been named the Canada West Coach of the Year seven times, and won the Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS Coach of the Year in 1994. Before taking over the Huskies, Towriss played for them in the '70's and also served as the Provincial Coach for Football Saskatchewan. He returned to the Huskies as an administrative assistant in 1981, and took over the team only three years later. Over his 24 years in the CIS, Towriss has amassed 119 wins, 72 losses and one tie in regular-season play for a .622 winning percentage, best in Canada West among active coaches. The only other active Canada West coach with a winning percentage above .500 is Manitoba's Brian Dobie.
Co-ordinators: Mike Harrington, offence; Ed Carleton, defence; Darrel Burko, special teams.
Enrolment: 16, 430 undergraduates, 2,190 graduates [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada].
Alumni in the CFL: The Huskies had 10 alumni in the CFL as of July, second only to McMaster's 12 for the most among CIS schools. Those alumni are B.C. guard Kelly Bates, Saskatchewan offensive lineman Gene Makowsky, Winnipeg fullback Brian Guebert, three Hamilton Tiger-Cats (fullback Jeff Piercy, offensive lineman Jordan Rempel and defensive back Dylan Barker), two Toronto receivers (Chad Rempel and Nathan Hoffart), and two Montreal Alouettes (guard Scott Flory and cornerback Paul Woldu).
Famous non-football alumni: Former prime minister John Diefenbaker, Hockey Hall of Fame builder Charles Hay, a former Huskies' goaltender who became famous for his efforts in organizing the 1972 Summit Series, Liberal MP and former Minister of Finance Ralph Goodale, Nobel Prize-winning chemists Gerhard Herzberg (as a professor) and Henry Taube (as an undergraduate and graduate student), CBC sportscaster Don Wittman, former NHL and current international hockey coach Dave King and former Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden.
Three-year record: 19-5, fifth-best in CIS competition, with a point differential of 17 points per game.
2007 units ranking: 10th on offence (26.6 points per game, 13.6 per cent above league average), seventh on defence (16.4 points allowed per game, 30.2 per cent better than league average).
Key losses: The Huskies lose 18 players, including six starters. Huskies' blogger Snake Wilson has a full list here. Two key players lost on offence are running backs Ben Coakwell and Scott Stevens, who split most of the carries last year as mentioned above. Cornerback Paul Woldu, safety Dylan Barker and offensive tackle Jordan Rempel will also be significant losses: Woldu's now with the Montreal Alouettes, while Barker and Rempel are with the Toronto Argonauts.
Returning starters: As mentioned above, QB Laurence Nixon's likely the key to this team's success. He'll have a solid core of returning receivers to throw to, including Karl Phillips, Scott McHenry and Cory Jones. Running back Tyler O'Gorman will also be one to watch: he only carried the ball 19 times for 97 yards last season, but he's got more experience than any other back on the team and was the MVP of both the Hardy Cup and the Mitchell Bowl in 2006. On defence, key returning players include halfback Jordy Burrows and defensive end Ivan Brown.
Players to watch:
Keep an eye on defensive back Jon Krahenbil: he recorded four interceptions last season, and three of those came in the same game. He also put up 20 tackles and six pass breakups. Offensive lineman Darren Hinds will likely make the transition to a starting role this season: we'll see if he can help restore that unit to form. Receiver Travis Gorski is also expected to make an impact, giving Nixon a wide variety of targets.
For future reference: Running back Jamal Allen, who's joining the Huskies straight out of high school, might be a viable option on the ground if O'Gorman struggles. Allen put up 1,047 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns in seven games in his B.C. high school league last season. There are also several junior football all-stars joining this year's Huskies, including safety Bryce McCall, cornerback Grant Shaw and defensive end Kyle Kuzek.
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Aug. 29 vs. Calgary
Sept. 6 @ Regina
Sept. 13 @ SFU
Sept. 26 vs. Alberta
Oct. 4 vs. UBC
Oct. 11 @ Manitoba
Oct. 18 vs. SFU
Oct. 24 @ UBC
Final analysis: Saskatchewan should be pretty strong this season. Their schedule also helps, as four of their eight games are against SFU and UBC. Their toughest contests will be the road matchups against Manitoba and Regina. If the offensive line can improve enough to protect Nixon and pave the way for the running game, and the defence can maintain its form of last year without some of its star veterans, it could be a great year for the Huskies.
Prediction: I see a 7-1 season for the Huskies.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins, U of S Sports Information Director Nicole Betker.)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
CIS Countdown #12: Manitoba Bisons
Fast facts:
- You ain't seen nothing yet: It will be pretty difficult for the Bisons to improve on their 2007 campaign, where they went 8-0 in the regular season and 4-0 in the playoffs, claiming the Vanier Cup with a 28-14 win over St. Mary's. A season that great breeds lofty expectations for future years, and the Bisons may not be able to catch lightning in a bottle again. If they can live up to the pressure and repeat despite the turnover from last year, that would be pretty amazing.
- They've come a long, long way together:That Vanier win was a bit of an unusual experience for Manitoba, though, as they hadn't claimed a national football championship since their back-to-back Vanier victories in 1969 and 1970.
- The West is the best: Last season's Vanier victory also was an unusual one for Canada West. No Western Canadian team had won the Vanier since Saskatchewan's 24-17 triumph over Concordia in the 1998 title game.
- You've got another thing coming: In most sports, back-to-back championships tend to be rather rare. That's not the case with the Vanier Cup, though, as four of the last seven Vaniers were won back-to-back (St. Mary's took the 2001 and 2002 titles, while Laval won in both 2003 and 2004). Manitoba will have a tough time trying to repeat, as they've lost 13 of last year's starters, but there's plenty of precedent to show that back-to-back championships are possible at this level.
Coach: Brian Dobie, who's entering his thirteenth season at the helm of the Bisons. Dobie won the Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS Coach of the Year for the Bisons' campaign in 2001, where they won the Hardy Trophy as Canada West champions and the Mitchell Bowl (between the OUA champion and Canada West champion), but came up short against St. Mary's in the Vanier Cup. He's been named Canada West's coach of the year five times, and has spent 34 years coaching football at the high school and university levels. His regular-season record with Manitoba is 55-40-1-1, and his playoff record is 9-6. Dobie also played with the Bisons in the early 1970s.
Co-ordinators: Stan Pierre is the Bisons' assistant head coach and defensive co-ordinator. This will be his eighth year of coaching with the Bisons. He also played five seasons with them, beginning in 1989. According to the Bisons' coaching roster (which doesn't seem to have been updated recently, as it still says that Dobie will be entering his twelth year with the team while the more recent previews say he's going into his thirteenth), the Bisons don't have anyone listed as an offensive or special-teams co-ordinator. There's a good chance Vaughan Mitchell will hold the offensive co-ordinator slot, though. Mitchell is a long-time Bisons' coach who held the offensive co-ordinator role from 1999-2002. According to the coaching roster on the Bisons' site, Mitchell now has the title of Protections and Run Game Co-ordinator, as well as running backs coach. According to the Bisons' training camp roster, he's been promoted to full offensive co-ordinator. The training camp roster also says that Dobie will co-ordinate the special teams himself, with help from Lloyd Orris (running backs and special teams coach) and Dimitris Scouras (kickers coach).
Enrolment: 23,640 undergrads, 3,160 grad students [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada].
Alumni in the CFL: According to Duane's July list, Manitoba has seven alumni in the CFL. That's tied with Laval for the fifth-best number among CIS schools. They've also got quite the geographic distribution: every team except Hamilton has a Manitoba alumnus. The alumni are B.C. offensive lineman Lorne Plante, Edmonton defensive lineman Justin Cooper, Calgary safety Wes Lysack, Saskatchewan kicker Jamie Boreham, Winnipeg offensive lineman Matt Sheridan, Toronto safety Chris Hardy and Montreal linebacker Cory Huclack. Another notable Manitoba football alumnus is Israel Idonije, a defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears.
Famous non-football alumni: Media mogul Izzy Asper; former Chief Justice of Canada Brian Dickson; Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz; former Minister of Transport and notable independent MP David Kilgour; communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase "The medium is the message"; former Manitoba premier and Governor-General Edward Schreyer; Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall; and President of the Treasury Board Vic Toews.
Three-year record: 20-3, for an astounding .870 winning percentage. During that span, they outscored opponents by an average of 16 points per game.
2007 units ranking: The Bisons' offence ranked 12th in CIS competition last year with an average of 25.8 points scored per game, 9.8 per cent above league average. Their defence was the real key to their success, though: they conceded a measly 13.8 points per game, fourth-best in CIS competition and 41.4 per cent better than the league average.
Key losses: The Bisons lost a total of 13 players from last year's squad, four on offence and nine on defence. Defensive end Justin Cooper, defensive lineman Simon Patrick and cornerback Mike Howard were all Canada West all-stars last season: their presence will be missed on the 2008 Bisons. Cooper's departure in particular is a big loss for the team, as he was named Canada West's outstanding lineman last season. The Bisons also lost two of their starting offensive linemen, so the new trench warriors will need to step up on both sides of the ball.
Returning starters: The Bisons have many of their top offensive players returning, including quarterback John Mackie, receivers Terry Firr, Simon Blaszczak and Randy Simmons, and running back Matt Henry. Henry finished fifth in Canada West with 616 rushing yards (on 104 carries, giving him a 5.9 yards per carry average) and tied for second in Canada West with eight touchdowns. He suffered a severe leg injury in the Vanier Cup game, but should be back in form when the season starts. Makie had a solid year as well, finishing seventh in Rob's QB rankings with 6.9 adjusted yards per pass attempt, 19 per cent above conference average. He completed 150 of 238 passes last year for 2022 yards, but threw eight interceptions along with his nine touchdown passes. He was also named the Vanier Cup offensive MVP.
Players to watch: Keep an eye on linebacker Jim Jeavons, defensive lineman Kenton Onofrychuk and cornerback Ryan Payette: they're the only defensive starters returning from last year. For the Bisons to have success, they'll have to use their experience to weld a group of rookies and former backups into a cohesive defensive unit.
For future reference: Offensive lineman Doug Amouzouvi has impressed in camp. He's 6’5” and 330 pounds, huge by CIS standards, but has just made the transfer from the defensive line to the offensive line. Nevertheless, as Pierre McGuire often says, "You can't teach size!"
Schedule(swing games in bold):
Aug. 30 vs. Regina
Sep. 6 at Calgary
Sep. 13 vs. UBC
Sep. 19 at Alberta
Oct. 3 at SFU
Oct. 11 vs. Saskatchewan
Oct. 18 vs. Calgary
Oct. 24 at Regina
Final analysis:
Defending the Vanier Cup won't be easy for the Bisons: they've lost a lot of their stars, while other Western teams like Saskatchewan, Calgary and Regina have reloaded and will be out to knock off the defending champions. Their schedule doesn't help either, with two tough tilts against both Regina and Calgary. Fortunately, they have home-field advantage against Saskatchewan, which may be a factor. I don't see them going undefeated again, but they'll be a team to contend with and they may make a run in the playoffs.
Prediction: A 7-1 campaign.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
- You ain't seen nothing yet: It will be pretty difficult for the Bisons to improve on their 2007 campaign, where they went 8-0 in the regular season and 4-0 in the playoffs, claiming the Vanier Cup with a 28-14 win over St. Mary's. A season that great breeds lofty expectations for future years, and the Bisons may not be able to catch lightning in a bottle again. If they can live up to the pressure and repeat despite the turnover from last year, that would be pretty amazing.
- They've come a long, long way together:That Vanier win was a bit of an unusual experience for Manitoba, though, as they hadn't claimed a national football championship since their back-to-back Vanier victories in 1969 and 1970.
- The West is the best: Last season's Vanier victory also was an unusual one for Canada West. No Western Canadian team had won the Vanier since Saskatchewan's 24-17 triumph over Concordia in the 1998 title game.
- You've got another thing coming: In most sports, back-to-back championships tend to be rather rare. That's not the case with the Vanier Cup, though, as four of the last seven Vaniers were won back-to-back (St. Mary's took the 2001 and 2002 titles, while Laval won in both 2003 and 2004). Manitoba will have a tough time trying to repeat, as they've lost 13 of last year's starters, but there's plenty of precedent to show that back-to-back championships are possible at this level.
Coach: Brian Dobie, who's entering his thirteenth season at the helm of the Bisons. Dobie won the Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS Coach of the Year for the Bisons' campaign in 2001, where they won the Hardy Trophy as Canada West champions and the Mitchell Bowl (between the OUA champion and Canada West champion), but came up short against St. Mary's in the Vanier Cup. He's been named Canada West's coach of the year five times, and has spent 34 years coaching football at the high school and university levels. His regular-season record with Manitoba is 55-40-1-1, and his playoff record is 9-6. Dobie also played with the Bisons in the early 1970s.
Co-ordinators: Stan Pierre is the Bisons' assistant head coach and defensive co-ordinator. This will be his eighth year of coaching with the Bisons. He also played five seasons with them, beginning in 1989. According to the Bisons' coaching roster (which doesn't seem to have been updated recently, as it still says that Dobie will be entering his twelth year with the team while the more recent previews say he's going into his thirteenth), the Bisons don't have anyone listed as an offensive or special-teams co-ordinator. There's a good chance Vaughan Mitchell will hold the offensive co-ordinator slot, though. Mitchell is a long-time Bisons' coach who held the offensive co-ordinator role from 1999-2002. According to the coaching roster on the Bisons' site, Mitchell now has the title of Protections and Run Game Co-ordinator, as well as running backs coach. According to the Bisons' training camp roster, he's been promoted to full offensive co-ordinator. The training camp roster also says that Dobie will co-ordinate the special teams himself, with help from Lloyd Orris (running backs and special teams coach) and Dimitris Scouras (kickers coach).
Enrolment: 23,640 undergrads, 3,160 grad students [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada].
Alumni in the CFL: According to Duane's July list, Manitoba has seven alumni in the CFL. That's tied with Laval for the fifth-best number among CIS schools. They've also got quite the geographic distribution: every team except Hamilton has a Manitoba alumnus. The alumni are B.C. offensive lineman Lorne Plante, Edmonton defensive lineman Justin Cooper, Calgary safety Wes Lysack, Saskatchewan kicker Jamie Boreham, Winnipeg offensive lineman Matt Sheridan, Toronto safety Chris Hardy and Montreal linebacker Cory Huclack. Another notable Manitoba football alumnus is Israel Idonije, a defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears.
Famous non-football alumni: Media mogul Izzy Asper; former Chief Justice of Canada Brian Dickson; Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz; former Minister of Transport and notable independent MP David Kilgour; communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase "The medium is the message"; former Manitoba premier and Governor-General Edward Schreyer; Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall; and President of the Treasury Board Vic Toews.
Three-year record: 20-3, for an astounding .870 winning percentage. During that span, they outscored opponents by an average of 16 points per game.
2007 units ranking: The Bisons' offence ranked 12th in CIS competition last year with an average of 25.8 points scored per game, 9.8 per cent above league average. Their defence was the real key to their success, though: they conceded a measly 13.8 points per game, fourth-best in CIS competition and 41.4 per cent better than the league average.
Key losses: The Bisons lost a total of 13 players from last year's squad, four on offence and nine on defence. Defensive end Justin Cooper, defensive lineman Simon Patrick and cornerback Mike Howard were all Canada West all-stars last season: their presence will be missed on the 2008 Bisons. Cooper's departure in particular is a big loss for the team, as he was named Canada West's outstanding lineman last season. The Bisons also lost two of their starting offensive linemen, so the new trench warriors will need to step up on both sides of the ball.
Returning starters: The Bisons have many of their top offensive players returning, including quarterback John Mackie, receivers Terry Firr, Simon Blaszczak and Randy Simmons, and running back Matt Henry. Henry finished fifth in Canada West with 616 rushing yards (on 104 carries, giving him a 5.9 yards per carry average) and tied for second in Canada West with eight touchdowns. He suffered a severe leg injury in the Vanier Cup game, but should be back in form when the season starts. Makie had a solid year as well, finishing seventh in Rob's QB rankings with 6.9 adjusted yards per pass attempt, 19 per cent above conference average. He completed 150 of 238 passes last year for 2022 yards, but threw eight interceptions along with his nine touchdown passes. He was also named the Vanier Cup offensive MVP.
Players to watch: Keep an eye on linebacker Jim Jeavons, defensive lineman Kenton Onofrychuk and cornerback Ryan Payette: they're the only defensive starters returning from last year. For the Bisons to have success, they'll have to use their experience to weld a group of rookies and former backups into a cohesive defensive unit.
For future reference: Offensive lineman Doug Amouzouvi has impressed in camp. He's 6’5” and 330 pounds, huge by CIS standards, but has just made the transfer from the defensive line to the offensive line. Nevertheless, as Pierre McGuire often says, "You can't teach size!"
Schedule(swing games in bold):
Aug. 30 vs. Regina
Sep. 6 at Calgary
Sep. 13 vs. UBC
Sep. 19 at Alberta
Oct. 3 at SFU
Oct. 11 vs. Saskatchewan
Oct. 18 vs. Calgary
Oct. 24 at Regina
Final analysis:
Defending the Vanier Cup won't be easy for the Bisons: they've lost a lot of their stars, while other Western teams like Saskatchewan, Calgary and Regina have reloaded and will be out to knock off the defending champions. Their schedule doesn't help either, with two tough tilts against both Regina and Calgary. Fortunately, they have home-field advantage against Saskatchewan, which may be a factor. I don't see them going undefeated again, but they'll be a team to contend with and they may make a run in the playoffs.
Prediction: A 7-1 campaign.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
CIS Countdown #14: UBC Thunderbirds
Fast facts:
Kicked out by the Karma Police: The Thunderbirds had to relocate a large portion of their training camp to Abbotsford's Columbia Bible College thanks to a Radiohead concert in their stadium.
Interchangable parts: UBC will have to hope that their offence can thrive with different pieces. As Howard Tsumura of the Vancouver Province writes, they lost their featured running back, four of their five top receivers and most of their offensive line from last year. However, that offence only averaged 21 points a game (16th-best in CIS competition and 11 per cent below the league average) last season, so perhaps change is for the best.
Hoping for a rebound: Last year, the Thunderbirds went 3-5 and missed the playoffs. It was the first year since 2004 that they failed to make the post-season.
Coach: Ted Goveia. Goveia is entering his third season as the coach of the Thunderbirds. He also carries the title of general manager, and is the first UBC head coach to do so: it's unclear if that distinction actually means much, as most university football head coaches are performing a general manager's role as well. Goveia played for the Mount Allison Mounties, and then worked there as a coach from 1994-1997 after his playing career. He was the offensive co-ordinator from 1996 to 1997, and was the youngest co-ordinator in the CIS at that time. He then worked as the head coach and offensive co-ordinator of the junior football Burlington Braves for three seasons, and led them to three straight Ontario Football Conference championship games from 1998-2000. After that, he spent three years as assistant head coach and special teams co-ordinator at McMaster under Greg Marshall (the former Ticats and current Western coach, not the Blue Bombers' defensive co-ordinator), and then switched to UBC. He was the offensive co-ordinator at UBC for two years before taking the head coaching role.
Co-ordinators: Dino Geremia is entering his third year as UBC's defensive co-ordinator. Before that, he was involved with the cross-town SFU Clan for 18 years, first as a defensive tackle, then as a defensive line coach and finally as the special teams co-ordinator (while still retaining his duties with the line).Kevin MacNeill, formerly of the Laurier Golden Hawks, will handle the Thunderbirds' special teams duties this year as well as coaching the linebackers and overseeing the team's recruiting.
No offensive co-ordinator is listed on the UBC coaching roster, so it looks like Goveia will perform that role as well. He'll have assistance on the offensive side of the ball from former SFU head coach Chris Beaton, who's now the UBC running backs coach, former UBC star Bob Beveridge, who's now coaching the offensive line, and former BC Lion Peter Ohler, the quarterbacks coach.
Enrolment: 36,370 undergraduates, 7,820 graduates [2007 numbers from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; they don't include UBC Okanagan in those, which has another 4,000 or so students).
Alumni in the CFL: UBC has five alumni who were on CFL rosters as of July, tied with SFU, Ottawa and Regina for fifth-best. They are BC Lions linebacker Javy Glatt, Edmonton running back Chris Ciezki, Winnipeg punter Duncan O'Mahony, Hamilton safety Sandy Beveridge and Montreal linebacker Shea Emry.
Famous non-football alumni: Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis, environmentalist David Suzuki, investigative journalist Stevie Cameron, former prime ministers Joe Clark, Kim Campbell and John Turner, famed paraplegic athlete Rick Hansen, author and historian Pierre Berton.
Three-year record: 11-13, with a +2 average point differential per game: that shows that they tend to win by a fair bit or lose close games.
2007 unit rankings: The UBC offence and defence both ranked 16th last year. The offence averaged 20.9 points per game, 11 per cent below the league average, while the defence conceded 24.8 points per game, 5.6 per cent above the league average.
Key losses: The Thunderbirds' main turnover is on the offensive side of the ball this year, as they only return three starters from last season. Running back Ciezki, who's now with the Eskimos, may be the biggest loss, but the team also loses four of their top five receivers, including Derek Townsend, who led the team in all-purpose yards last season.
Returning starters: Fifth-year slotback Braden Smith is the primary receiver with previous CIS experience: look for him to lead the crop of rookies. On the defensive side, the team returns nine starters from last year, including defensive end Scott McCuaig, who tied the Canada West record and led all players in CIS competition with 11 sacks last year. Also on defence is former quarterback Doug Goldsby, who returns to safety, the position he played with UBC in his rookie year. Goldsby separated his shoulder last year, which is probably why he's no longer playing quarterback.
Players to watch: The defensive line will be a strength for the Thunderbirds: in addition to McCuaig, they have other talented veterans returning in defensive end Graham Best and tackles Sean Ortiz and Mike Hayes. It will be interesting to see how second-year quarterback Marc McVeigh does as well: he had to come in under the gun midway through last year's campaign after Goldsby's injury, and he should get better with experience.
For future reference: Keep an eye on new receivers Chris Schaalo and Blaine Krueger: both put up nearly 1,000 yards in junior football last year, catching 15 and 16 TD passes respectively. Tsumura calls them "the two most prolific pass catchers in Canadian junior football last season," and that seems like an apt description.
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Today, Aug.23, @ SFU
Sept. 6 Alberta
Sept. 13 @ Manitoba
Sept. 19 Regina
Sept. 27 @ Calgary
Oct. 4 @ Saskatchewan
Oct. 9 Simon Fraser
Oct. 24 Saskatchewan
Final analysis: UBC's defense will probably improve from last year with all the returning starters, but things might be more difficult for the offense. A lot will come down to McVeigh's performance at the helm. In the end, this team might not be as strong as last year's edition.
Prediction: 2-6
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
Kicked out by the Karma Police: The Thunderbirds had to relocate a large portion of their training camp to Abbotsford's Columbia Bible College thanks to a Radiohead concert in their stadium.
Interchangable parts: UBC will have to hope that their offence can thrive with different pieces. As Howard Tsumura of the Vancouver Province writes, they lost their featured running back, four of their five top receivers and most of their offensive line from last year. However, that offence only averaged 21 points a game (16th-best in CIS competition and 11 per cent below the league average) last season, so perhaps change is for the best.
Hoping for a rebound: Last year, the Thunderbirds went 3-5 and missed the playoffs. It was the first year since 2004 that they failed to make the post-season.
Coach: Ted Goveia. Goveia is entering his third season as the coach of the Thunderbirds. He also carries the title of general manager, and is the first UBC head coach to do so: it's unclear if that distinction actually means much, as most university football head coaches are performing a general manager's role as well. Goveia played for the Mount Allison Mounties, and then worked there as a coach from 1994-1997 after his playing career. He was the offensive co-ordinator from 1996 to 1997, and was the youngest co-ordinator in the CIS at that time. He then worked as the head coach and offensive co-ordinator of the junior football Burlington Braves for three seasons, and led them to three straight Ontario Football Conference championship games from 1998-2000. After that, he spent three years as assistant head coach and special teams co-ordinator at McMaster under Greg Marshall (the former Ticats and current Western coach, not the Blue Bombers' defensive co-ordinator), and then switched to UBC. He was the offensive co-ordinator at UBC for two years before taking the head coaching role.
Co-ordinators: Dino Geremia is entering his third year as UBC's defensive co-ordinator. Before that, he was involved with the cross-town SFU Clan for 18 years, first as a defensive tackle, then as a defensive line coach and finally as the special teams co-ordinator (while still retaining his duties with the line).Kevin MacNeill, formerly of the Laurier Golden Hawks, will handle the Thunderbirds' special teams duties this year as well as coaching the linebackers and overseeing the team's recruiting.
No offensive co-ordinator is listed on the UBC coaching roster, so it looks like Goveia will perform that role as well. He'll have assistance on the offensive side of the ball from former SFU head coach Chris Beaton, who's now the UBC running backs coach, former UBC star Bob Beveridge, who's now coaching the offensive line, and former BC Lion Peter Ohler, the quarterbacks coach.
Enrolment: 36,370 undergraduates, 7,820 graduates [2007 numbers from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; they don't include UBC Okanagan in those, which has another 4,000 or so students).
Alumni in the CFL: UBC has five alumni who were on CFL rosters as of July, tied with SFU, Ottawa and Regina for fifth-best. They are BC Lions linebacker Javy Glatt, Edmonton running back Chris Ciezki, Winnipeg punter Duncan O'Mahony, Hamilton safety Sandy Beveridge and Montreal linebacker Shea Emry.
Famous non-football alumni: Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis, environmentalist David Suzuki, investigative journalist Stevie Cameron, former prime ministers Joe Clark, Kim Campbell and John Turner, famed paraplegic athlete Rick Hansen, author and historian Pierre Berton.
Three-year record: 11-13, with a +2 average point differential per game: that shows that they tend to win by a fair bit or lose close games.
2007 unit rankings: The UBC offence and defence both ranked 16th last year. The offence averaged 20.9 points per game, 11 per cent below the league average, while the defence conceded 24.8 points per game, 5.6 per cent above the league average.
Key losses: The Thunderbirds' main turnover is on the offensive side of the ball this year, as they only return three starters from last season. Running back Ciezki, who's now with the Eskimos, may be the biggest loss, but the team also loses four of their top five receivers, including Derek Townsend, who led the team in all-purpose yards last season.
Returning starters: Fifth-year slotback Braden Smith is the primary receiver with previous CIS experience: look for him to lead the crop of rookies. On the defensive side, the team returns nine starters from last year, including defensive end Scott McCuaig, who tied the Canada West record and led all players in CIS competition with 11 sacks last year. Also on defence is former quarterback Doug Goldsby, who returns to safety, the position he played with UBC in his rookie year. Goldsby separated his shoulder last year, which is probably why he's no longer playing quarterback.
Players to watch: The defensive line will be a strength for the Thunderbirds: in addition to McCuaig, they have other talented veterans returning in defensive end Graham Best and tackles Sean Ortiz and Mike Hayes. It will be interesting to see how second-year quarterback Marc McVeigh does as well: he had to come in under the gun midway through last year's campaign after Goldsby's injury, and he should get better with experience.
For future reference: Keep an eye on new receivers Chris Schaalo and Blaine Krueger: both put up nearly 1,000 yards in junior football last year, catching 15 and 16 TD passes respectively. Tsumura calls them "the two most prolific pass catchers in Canadian junior football last season," and that seems like an apt description.
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Today, Aug.23, @ SFU
Sept. 6 Alberta
Sept. 13 @ Manitoba
Sept. 19 Regina
Sept. 27 @ Calgary
Oct. 4 @ Saskatchewan
Oct. 9 Simon Fraser
Oct. 24 Saskatchewan
Final analysis: UBC's defense will probably improve from last year with all the returning starters, but things might be more difficult for the offense. A lot will come down to McVeigh's performance at the helm. In the end, this team might not be as strong as last year's edition.
Prediction: 2-6
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
Friday, August 22, 2008
CIS Countdown #16: U of A Golden Bears
Fast facts:
- Historical strength: The Golden Bears have one of the longest-running football traditions in Canada West. They started as a rugby team back in 1910 and evolved into a CIAU and CIS powerhouse, winning Vanier Cup titles in 1967, 1972 and 1980 and claiming 18 Hardy Cups since 1922.
- Slipping and sliding: The Bears' program has fallen a bit in recent years, though. They've missed the playoffs for the past two seasons, and went 2-6 last year, their first losing season since 2002.
- Individual efforts: Despite the team's struggles last season, they still placed six players on the Canada West all-star teams and four players on the All-Canadian squads. They also sent four players to the East-West Bowl.
Coach: Jerry Friesen. Friesen enters his eighth year as the Bears' head coach. He played for the University of Saskatchewan for three years, and then began a long career as a CFL linebacker. After he retired in 1986, he served as a defensive co-ordinator with the Saskatchewan Huskies from 1988 to 1995, winning a Vanier Cup in 1990. He then worked as a linebackers/special teams coach with the Saskatchewan Roughriders for a season, then spent four seasons as a defensive co-ordinator with the Calgary Dinos before taking the head job at U of A. His career CIS head coaching record is 27-29 in the regular-season, and he's 3-3 in the playoffs. He won the 2004 Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS Coach of the Year.
Co-ordinators: Jeff Stead from the Vanier Cup champion Manitoba Bisons has been brought in as a full-time assistant coach to Friesen. He'll co-ordinate the offence and coach the quarterbacks. Darryl Draudson will handle the defence and is also the linebackers coach. Friesen handles the special teams duties in addition to his role as the head coach.
Enrolment: 29, 430 undergraduates, 6,060 graduates [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada].
Alumni in the CFL: The Bears have three alumni in the CFL as of Duane's July list. Two of them, linebacker Neil Ternovatsky and defensive lineman Pat MacDonald, play for the Calgary Stampeders. The third Bears alum in the CFL is Winnipeg wide receiver Jamie Stoddard.
Famous non-football alumni: Richard E. Taylor, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics; authors W.O. Mitchell (who also went to Manitoba) and Timothy Taylor (who also went to Queen's); former prime minister Joe Clark; Chief Justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin; current Minister of Foreign Affairs David Emerson; current Industry Minister Jim Prentice; actor Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame; actor/director Paul Gross; Edmonton Oilers owner and pharmaceutical mogul Daryl Katz; former NHL president Clarence Campbell, perhaps best remembered for his role in the Richard Riot; Reform Party founder Preston Manning; former Governor-General Roland Michener and possibly (depending on your definition of alumni) current Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, who attended the school, but according to Wikipedia, dropped out to become a farmer.
Three-year record: 13-11, much better than the 2-6 showing last year. However, like Regina, they have an average zero points differential over that time, so pure probability would have them at 12-12 instead.
2007 units ranking: 17th in both defence and offence. They scored an average of 20.8 points per game (11.5 per cent below the league average), while conceding 25.5 (8.8 per cent above the league average).
Key losses: The Bears lost five players to graduation: offensive linemen Bryan Marshall and Scott Schriver, linebacker Ryan Michalenko and defensive linemen Dwayne Kumpula and Derek Krinke. Losing a couple of players from both the offensive line and defensive line may leave them in a better position than some other Canada West teams, though, as both units will still have a majority of veterans.
Returning starters: Linebacker Dan Bass Jr. should stand out for the Bears this year. He was the program's only first-team All-Canadian last season, and he attended the Edmonton Eskimos' training camp this off-season. The second-team All-Canadians returning from last year are kicker Hugh O'Neill, wide receiver Aaron Holba, offensive lineman Simeon Rottier and running back Tendayi Jozzy: they'll be expected to have a good season again. Quade Armstrong returns at quarterback: he completed 148 of 261 passes for 1873 yards last year, the eleventh-highest passing yardage in CIS competition. However, he threw 14 interceptions and only seven touchdowns, giving him a passer rating of 92 in Rob's rankings, slightly below average and 16th-best in CIS competition.
Players to watch: Keep an eye on the quarterback spot. Armstrong certainly has the inside track on it, but his numbers weren't spectacular last year, especially considering that Alberta's offence is reasonably pass-happy. He's also the third starting quarterback the Bears have tried in three years (2005 saw the fifth-ranked Darryl Salmon, while 2006 featured the 26th-ranked Cameron Linke. The Bears have two junior football QBs coming in, Ben Gorniak and Brendon Maher, and they just might put some pressure on Armstrong.
For future reference: Rookie running back Olukayode Sonuga might be one to watch: he's pretty highly-touted, and is coming straight out of high school instead of via the traditional junior route. He may make an impact down the road.
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Aug. 30 vs. SFU
Sept. 6 @ UBC
Sept. 13 @ Calgary
Sept. 19 vs. Manitoba
Sept. 26 @ Saskatchewan
Oct. 4 @ Regina
Oct. 18 vs. Regina
Oct. 25 vs. Calgary
Final analysis:
Don't expect a dramatic turnaround from the Bears. They have a reasonably tough schedule, especially the middle portion where they'll face Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Regina (twice). Moreover, two of their three potential swing games (against UBC and Calgary) are on the road.
Prediction: Another 2-6 finish.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
- Historical strength: The Golden Bears have one of the longest-running football traditions in Canada West. They started as a rugby team back in 1910 and evolved into a CIAU and CIS powerhouse, winning Vanier Cup titles in 1967, 1972 and 1980 and claiming 18 Hardy Cups since 1922.
- Slipping and sliding: The Bears' program has fallen a bit in recent years, though. They've missed the playoffs for the past two seasons, and went 2-6 last year, their first losing season since 2002.
- Individual efforts: Despite the team's struggles last season, they still placed six players on the Canada West all-star teams and four players on the All-Canadian squads. They also sent four players to the East-West Bowl.
Coach: Jerry Friesen. Friesen enters his eighth year as the Bears' head coach. He played for the University of Saskatchewan for three years, and then began a long career as a CFL linebacker. After he retired in 1986, he served as a defensive co-ordinator with the Saskatchewan Huskies from 1988 to 1995, winning a Vanier Cup in 1990. He then worked as a linebackers/special teams coach with the Saskatchewan Roughriders for a season, then spent four seasons as a defensive co-ordinator with the Calgary Dinos before taking the head job at U of A. His career CIS head coaching record is 27-29 in the regular-season, and he's 3-3 in the playoffs. He won the 2004 Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS Coach of the Year.
Co-ordinators: Jeff Stead from the Vanier Cup champion Manitoba Bisons has been brought in as a full-time assistant coach to Friesen. He'll co-ordinate the offence and coach the quarterbacks. Darryl Draudson will handle the defence and is also the linebackers coach. Friesen handles the special teams duties in addition to his role as the head coach.
Enrolment: 29, 430 undergraduates, 6,060 graduates [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada].
Alumni in the CFL: The Bears have three alumni in the CFL as of Duane's July list. Two of them, linebacker Neil Ternovatsky and defensive lineman Pat MacDonald, play for the Calgary Stampeders. The third Bears alum in the CFL is Winnipeg wide receiver Jamie Stoddard.
Famous non-football alumni: Richard E. Taylor, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics; authors W.O. Mitchell (who also went to Manitoba) and Timothy Taylor (who also went to Queen's); former prime minister Joe Clark; Chief Justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin; current Minister of Foreign Affairs David Emerson; current Industry Minister Jim Prentice; actor Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame; actor/director Paul Gross; Edmonton Oilers owner and pharmaceutical mogul Daryl Katz; former NHL president Clarence Campbell, perhaps best remembered for his role in the Richard Riot; Reform Party founder Preston Manning; former Governor-General Roland Michener and possibly (depending on your definition of alumni) current Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, who attended the school, but according to Wikipedia, dropped out to become a farmer.
Three-year record: 13-11, much better than the 2-6 showing last year. However, like Regina, they have an average zero points differential over that time, so pure probability would have them at 12-12 instead.
2007 units ranking: 17th in both defence and offence. They scored an average of 20.8 points per game (11.5 per cent below the league average), while conceding 25.5 (8.8 per cent above the league average).
Key losses: The Bears lost five players to graduation: offensive linemen Bryan Marshall and Scott Schriver, linebacker Ryan Michalenko and defensive linemen Dwayne Kumpula and Derek Krinke. Losing a couple of players from both the offensive line and defensive line may leave them in a better position than some other Canada West teams, though, as both units will still have a majority of veterans.
Returning starters: Linebacker Dan Bass Jr. should stand out for the Bears this year. He was the program's only first-team All-Canadian last season, and he attended the Edmonton Eskimos' training camp this off-season. The second-team All-Canadians returning from last year are kicker Hugh O'Neill, wide receiver Aaron Holba, offensive lineman Simeon Rottier and running back Tendayi Jozzy: they'll be expected to have a good season again. Quade Armstrong returns at quarterback: he completed 148 of 261 passes for 1873 yards last year, the eleventh-highest passing yardage in CIS competition. However, he threw 14 interceptions and only seven touchdowns, giving him a passer rating of 92 in Rob's rankings, slightly below average and 16th-best in CIS competition.
Players to watch: Keep an eye on the quarterback spot. Armstrong certainly has the inside track on it, but his numbers weren't spectacular last year, especially considering that Alberta's offence is reasonably pass-happy. He's also the third starting quarterback the Bears have tried in three years (2005 saw the fifth-ranked Darryl Salmon, while 2006 featured the 26th-ranked Cameron Linke. The Bears have two junior football QBs coming in, Ben Gorniak and Brendon Maher, and they just might put some pressure on Armstrong.
For future reference: Rookie running back Olukayode Sonuga might be one to watch: he's pretty highly-touted, and is coming straight out of high school instead of via the traditional junior route. He may make an impact down the road.
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Aug. 30 vs. SFU
Sept. 6 @ UBC
Sept. 13 @ Calgary
Sept. 19 vs. Manitoba
Sept. 26 @ Saskatchewan
Oct. 4 @ Regina
Oct. 18 vs. Regina
Oct. 25 vs. Calgary
Final analysis:
Don't expect a dramatic turnaround from the Bears. They have a reasonably tough schedule, especially the middle portion where they'll face Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Regina (twice). Moreover, two of their three potential swing games (against UBC and Calgary) are on the road.
Prediction: Another 2-6 finish.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
CIS Countdown: #18 Regina Rams
Fast facts:
- A Cougar by any other name: Interestingly enough, the football team is the only team at the University of Regina named the Rams. The school's other teams (men's and women's basketball, volleyball and hockey, women's soccer, and mixed-gender track and field, swimming, wrestling and cross-country teams) are known as the University of Regina Cougars. History is the reason for the distinction. The Rams started life as a Regina junior football team that was founded in 1954 after the amalgamation of two other junior teams. They joined forces with the University of Regina in 1999 to compete in the CIAU (which is now CIS).
- A proud history: The Rams won 15 titles at the Canadian Junior Football Championships between 1966 and 1998, and won the Canada West conference championship (the Hardy Cup), the Atlantic Bowl and a berth in the Vanier Cup in 2000, which was only their second season of interuniversity competition. The Rams also made Hardy Cup appearances in 2001 and 2002.
- Seeing double: There will be two T. Orbans on the Rams this year, returning quarterback Teale and his younger brother, rookie linebacker Taylor. Taylor joins the team this season after two seasons with the Regina Thunder. Check out Tim Switzer's story in yesterday's Regina Leader-Post for more details.
Coach: The Rams are coached by Frank McCrystal, who's entering his 30th year of coaching with the Rams. He played with the junior team as a linebacker, then coached high school for a couple of years before becoming a Rams' assistant coach. He took over the top job with the junior team in 1984, and stayed on when they became a CIS team. Last year, he was awarded the Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS coach of the year.
Co-ordinators: The Rams don't only have amazing continuity in their head coach, they also have it in their co-ordinators. Bernie Schmidt, the Rams' offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach, has been coaching for the past 31 years at the high school, junior and university levels, and has spent 27 of those years with the Rams. Defensive co-ordinator and linebackers coach Paul Dawson has been coaching for 24 years in high school, junior and university football. He's been with the Rams for the past 13 years. Both co-ordinators are also former players with the junior team. Special teams is handled by Blaine Pearce (who also coaches the defensive backs) and Chris Warnecke (who also coaches the receivers).
Enrolment: 10, 690 undergraduates, 1480 graduates [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada]. Regina does very well for their size, but their strong connections to junior football undoubtably help.
Alumni in the CFL: The Rams have five alumni who were on CFL rosters back in July. They are B.C. slotback Jason Clermont, Saskatchewan fullback Neal Hughes and wide receiver Chris Getzlaf, Winnipeg offensive lineman Brendon LaBatte and Hamilton wide receiver Chris Bauman. They also have punter Jon Ryan in the NFL with Green Bay.
Famous non-football alumni: Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, noted journalist Pamela Wallin and jazz singer Dionne Taylor.
Three-year record: 13-11, with a zero point differential per game over that span: thus, they had a little luck on their side to grab that extra win. They turned in an impressive 6-2 season last year, though.
2007 units ranking: Regina had a strong offence last year, finishing fifth in CIS competition with a 32.1 points-per-game average (37 per cent above the league average). Their defence was weaker, as they allowed 24.5 points per game, 15th best in CIS competition and 4.5 per cent above the league average. They put up an impressive margin of victory, though, outscoring opponents by an average of 7.6 points per game.
Key losses: The Rams have been hit hard with departures this year. The worst losses perhaps came at running back, where they'll be without their top three players from last year's depth chart. Graham Mosiondz, who carried the ball 87 times last year for 483 yards (a 5.55 yards-per-carry average) in five games, is expected to miss the entire season due to injury. They'll also lose Derek Belvedere, who put up 438 yards on 70 carries (a 6.26 yards-per-carry average) in six games last season, and the less-frequently used Taylor Kidby, who only recorded 12 carries for 64 yards (a 5.33 yards-per-carry average). Belvedere graduated earlier this year, while Kidby has joined the junior football Vancouver Island Raiders. Other big losses for the Rams include linebackers Mat Nesbitt and Steve Wilson. Nesbitt put up a Canada West-leading 64 tackles last season, and was named the CIS Defensive Player of the Year, as well as a first-team All-Canadian, while Wilson was named to the Canada West all-star team. On the offensive line, the Rams lost both their starting guards: second team All-Canadian LaBatte, who went to the Bombers, and Max Ivanov, who completed his eligibility last year.
Returning starters: Quarterback Teale Orban is a key one: he finished fourth in passing yards last season with 2273. He recorded 177 completions on 293 attempts for a 60.41 completion percentage, and threw 22 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He was the Canada West nominee for the Hec Creighton Trophy as the most outstanding player in CIS competition, and is the conference's all-time leader in touchdown passes with 66. According to Rob's adjusted net yards system, he was only the sixth-best QB in the league last season, though (but the top quarterback in Canada West).
Orban has two of his key receivers coming back as well: slotback Chad Goldie, who is the Rams' career leader with 139 pass receptions and was a Canada West all-star last year, is back for a fifth year, while third-year wide receiver Jordan Sisco, who led the team with 678 receiving yards last season, will also be back.
The defensive line will be strong, as they return four out of five starters. Two linemen who should stand out for the Rams this year are defensive tackle Paul McDill, who put up 11 tackles, three sacks, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery last season, and defensive end Stan Van Sichem, who led the team with five sacks and also broke up seven pass attempts.
Players to watch: Keep an eye on returning linebackers Brandon Ganne, Todd Kristoff and Scott Magee, who will have to step up to fill the void left by Nesbitt and WIlson. The Rams' defense might be vulnerable this year: they weren't outstanding on the defensive side of the ball last season, and they've lost a couple of their top players.
For future reference: Rookie running backs Luke Derkson and Dane Kerluke may play a big role in the Rams' success, given the loss of all their veteran running backs. Both have substantial junior football experience: Kerluke comes in from the Victoria Rebels, while Derkson played for the Vancouver Island Raiders (curiously enough, that's the same team that Kidby left the Rams for).
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Aug. 30 @ Manitoba
Sept. 6 vs. Saskatchewan
Sept. 19 @ UBC
Sept. 27 vs. SFU
Oct. 4 vs. Alberta
Oct. 11 @ Calgary
Oct. 18 @ Alberta
Oct 24 vs. Manitoba
Final analysis:
It may be a bit of a tougher year for the Rams, given their losses at running back and on defence. Several other teams in the conference seem to have improved notably in the off-season, which will make things more difficult. They also have to play defending Vanier Cup champion Manitoba twice, which isn't an easy task. However, their passing offence and Orban should still be up to the challenge, and if one of the new running backs turns out to be a star, they could go a long way. I'm thinking they'll probably finish 5-3 this year.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
- A Cougar by any other name: Interestingly enough, the football team is the only team at the University of Regina named the Rams. The school's other teams (men's and women's basketball, volleyball and hockey, women's soccer, and mixed-gender track and field, swimming, wrestling and cross-country teams) are known as the University of Regina Cougars. History is the reason for the distinction. The Rams started life as a Regina junior football team that was founded in 1954 after the amalgamation of two other junior teams. They joined forces with the University of Regina in 1999 to compete in the CIAU (which is now CIS).
- A proud history: The Rams won 15 titles at the Canadian Junior Football Championships between 1966 and 1998, and won the Canada West conference championship (the Hardy Cup), the Atlantic Bowl and a berth in the Vanier Cup in 2000, which was only their second season of interuniversity competition. The Rams also made Hardy Cup appearances in 2001 and 2002.
- Seeing double: There will be two T. Orbans on the Rams this year, returning quarterback Teale and his younger brother, rookie linebacker Taylor. Taylor joins the team this season after two seasons with the Regina Thunder. Check out Tim Switzer's story in yesterday's Regina Leader-Post for more details.
Coach: The Rams are coached by Frank McCrystal, who's entering his 30th year of coaching with the Rams. He played with the junior team as a linebacker, then coached high school for a couple of years before becoming a Rams' assistant coach. He took over the top job with the junior team in 1984, and stayed on when they became a CIS team. Last year, he was awarded the Frank Tindall Trophy as the CIS coach of the year.
Co-ordinators: The Rams don't only have amazing continuity in their head coach, they also have it in their co-ordinators. Bernie Schmidt, the Rams' offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach, has been coaching for the past 31 years at the high school, junior and university levels, and has spent 27 of those years with the Rams. Defensive co-ordinator and linebackers coach Paul Dawson has been coaching for 24 years in high school, junior and university football. He's been with the Rams for the past 13 years. Both co-ordinators are also former players with the junior team. Special teams is handled by Blaine Pearce (who also coaches the defensive backs) and Chris Warnecke (who also coaches the receivers).
Enrolment: 10, 690 undergraduates, 1480 graduates [according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada]. Regina does very well for their size, but their strong connections to junior football undoubtably help.
Alumni in the CFL: The Rams have five alumni who were on CFL rosters back in July. They are B.C. slotback Jason Clermont, Saskatchewan fullback Neal Hughes and wide receiver Chris Getzlaf, Winnipeg offensive lineman Brendon LaBatte and Hamilton wide receiver Chris Bauman. They also have punter Jon Ryan in the NFL with Green Bay.
Famous non-football alumni: Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, noted journalist Pamela Wallin and jazz singer Dionne Taylor.
Three-year record: 13-11, with a zero point differential per game over that span: thus, they had a little luck on their side to grab that extra win. They turned in an impressive 6-2 season last year, though.
2007 units ranking: Regina had a strong offence last year, finishing fifth in CIS competition with a 32.1 points-per-game average (37 per cent above the league average). Their defence was weaker, as they allowed 24.5 points per game, 15th best in CIS competition and 4.5 per cent above the league average. They put up an impressive margin of victory, though, outscoring opponents by an average of 7.6 points per game.
Key losses: The Rams have been hit hard with departures this year. The worst losses perhaps came at running back, where they'll be without their top three players from last year's depth chart. Graham Mosiondz, who carried the ball 87 times last year for 483 yards (a 5.55 yards-per-carry average) in five games, is expected to miss the entire season due to injury. They'll also lose Derek Belvedere, who put up 438 yards on 70 carries (a 6.26 yards-per-carry average) in six games last season, and the less-frequently used Taylor Kidby, who only recorded 12 carries for 64 yards (a 5.33 yards-per-carry average). Belvedere graduated earlier this year, while Kidby has joined the junior football Vancouver Island Raiders. Other big losses for the Rams include linebackers Mat Nesbitt and Steve Wilson. Nesbitt put up a Canada West-leading 64 tackles last season, and was named the CIS Defensive Player of the Year, as well as a first-team All-Canadian, while Wilson was named to the Canada West all-star team. On the offensive line, the Rams lost both their starting guards: second team All-Canadian LaBatte, who went to the Bombers, and Max Ivanov, who completed his eligibility last year.
Returning starters: Quarterback Teale Orban is a key one: he finished fourth in passing yards last season with 2273. He recorded 177 completions on 293 attempts for a 60.41 completion percentage, and threw 22 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He was the Canada West nominee for the Hec Creighton Trophy as the most outstanding player in CIS competition, and is the conference's all-time leader in touchdown passes with 66. According to Rob's adjusted net yards system, he was only the sixth-best QB in the league last season, though (but the top quarterback in Canada West).
Orban has two of his key receivers coming back as well: slotback Chad Goldie, who is the Rams' career leader with 139 pass receptions and was a Canada West all-star last year, is back for a fifth year, while third-year wide receiver Jordan Sisco, who led the team with 678 receiving yards last season, will also be back.
The defensive line will be strong, as they return four out of five starters. Two linemen who should stand out for the Rams this year are defensive tackle Paul McDill, who put up 11 tackles, three sacks, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery last season, and defensive end Stan Van Sichem, who led the team with five sacks and also broke up seven pass attempts.
Players to watch: Keep an eye on returning linebackers Brandon Ganne, Todd Kristoff and Scott Magee, who will have to step up to fill the void left by Nesbitt and WIlson. The Rams' defense might be vulnerable this year: they weren't outstanding on the defensive side of the ball last season, and they've lost a couple of their top players.
For future reference: Rookie running backs Luke Derkson and Dane Kerluke may play a big role in the Rams' success, given the loss of all their veteran running backs. Both have substantial junior football experience: Kerluke comes in from the Victoria Rebels, while Derkson played for the Vancouver Island Raiders (curiously enough, that's the same team that Kidby left the Rams for).
Schedule (swing games in bold):
Aug. 30 @ Manitoba
Sept. 6 vs. Saskatchewan
Sept. 19 @ UBC
Sept. 27 vs. SFU
Oct. 4 vs. Alberta
Oct. 11 @ Calgary
Oct. 18 @ Alberta
Oct 24 vs. Manitoba
Final analysis:
It may be a bit of a tougher year for the Rams, given their losses at running back and on defence. Several other teams in the conference seem to have improved notably in the off-season, which will make things more difficult. They also have to play defending Vanier Cup champion Manitoba twice, which isn't an easy task. However, their passing offence and Orban should still be up to the challenge, and if one of the new running backs turns out to be a star, they could go a long way. I'm thinking they'll probably finish 5-3 this year.
(Contributors to this preview: Rob Pettapiece, Duane Rollins.)
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