Bleeding Tricolour: Rejoice, just once, the battle is still at hand

Please keep in mind every 24 hours, the world turns over on someone who was on top of it yesterday.

Nevertheless, apparently some Western Mustangs followers have added crow to their diets, instead of crowing about a victory, as TSN football analyst Duane Forde related:

"The Queen's Gaels' thrilling come-from-behind 27-26 victory over Western last Saturday ended any chance the Mustangs had of finishing first in the OUA standings this season but, for this analyst, the implications are much worse. Had UWO won the game, my CFL on TSN colleagues Chris Cuthbert and Jock Climie, a pair of Queen's grads, would've been forced to incorporate the Mustangs' traditional purple and silver into their wardrobes during this weekend's broadcasts. However, the Queen's victory means that I will be wearing the gold, blue, and red of the Gaels during Friday night's Toronto-Hamilton game. Misery apparently loves company, as I'm told that fellow Western alumni, Andy Fantuz of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Tyler Scott of the Argonauts lost bets to their current CFL teammates and Queen's products, Rob Bagg (Riders) and Brad Smith (Argos)."

There's no word what the stakes were between Toronto Blue Jays interim CEO Paul "Western Will Definitely Win" Beeston owes Sun Media baseball writer Bob Elliott (Kingston native whose father and daughter graduated from Queen's).

Two seasons ago, when Laurier beat Queen's, Argos running back Bryan Crawford went on Mike Hogan's show on The FAN 590 and sing an ow-my-freakin'-ears rendition of Take Me Home, Country Roads.

It's all about who was the better man on that day; ain't no final victories.

(Cross-posted from cisblog.ca.)

Bleeding Tricolour: Bagg lights up land of the Big Sky

It looks like former Queen's Golden Gaels receiver Rob Bagg is faring pretty well in his third training camp with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Bagg ended up playing a lot last season when the 'Riders had seventy-eight receivers on the injured list (not quite, but almost). The Regina Leader-Post is running a feature on Bagg in its Tuesday edition.

The Regina Leader-Post's beat writers mentioned the former Gaels all-Canadian in some recent dispatches at Rider Rumblings. From Sunday:

"On the turf, Chris Jones and Rob Bagg took turns making dazzling catches. Bagg made a lovely gliding catch on a pass from Dalton Bell and Jones showed his speed when he cut under a defender for what turned out to be an easy reception. He just made it look effortless.

"LB Sean Lucas and Bagg also had a spirited battle during one-on-one drills. It was a great moment within training camp. Lucas had Baggg covered on a sideline route. Bagg battled to get open and Bell delivered the perfect pass for the catch. It was a play where everyone did their job. Pretty to watch."

Former Ottawa Gee-Gees receiver Adam Nicolson also "went down during a drill with an injury to his left knee or calf." It seems like Nicolson, the former B.C. Lions draft choice, has often been snakebitten with injuries.

Also, from Friday:

"With so much going on off the field, it was tough keeping track of what was taking place on the turf. Rob Bagg made a spectacular, twisting 45-yard reception on a pass from Dalton Bell."

With everything Bagg can do on special teams, the 'Riders might have to find a spot for him along with their two Canadian slotbacks, Jason Clermont and Andy Fantuz. Granted, 'Riders fans are worrying more about who's going to be throwing the lion's shares of the passes, not who's going to be catching them.

You remember Andy Fantuz. He won the Hec Crighton award at Western in 2005, was nails when the 'Riders won the Grey Cup in '07 and no true Queen'sman will admit that he might have been a more dominant Canadian university receiver than No. 3, Jock Climie. Hell, it's even hard to admit there was a better slotback at an Ontario school than James MacLean.

(Cross-posted to cisblog.ca.)

It's his Bagg, baby

Rider Rumblings, the best CFL beat writer blog going, has just posted an interview with Kingston's own Rob Bagg about his rookie season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

This weekend's division final, for us Kingstonians, is a Frontenac-Holy Cross matchup, as in the old high schools of Bagg and Lions defensive end Brent Johnson.

Bleeding Tricolour: Deja vu all over again

Queen's Golden Gaels coach Pat Sheahan has big shoulders. He needs them today.

Losing in the first playoff game at home for the second straight season, 23-13 Saturday to the Ottawa Gee-Gees, well, it lets people say whatever they want about the Queen's coaches and players. It won't be fair, some of it will be spurred by emotion and, worst of all, there are the OUA and Queen's haters sitting there smugly saying, "I knew it, I knew it." For those of us for whose Tricolour love is un-con-dit-ion-al, well, on some level you can rationalize it by saying, when you love a league because it is amateur and somewhat imprecise, you have to accept that 8-0 teams can have their season go up in smoke in the space of less than three hours on one dismal Saturday.

At least there are 10 months until the next game. As a fan, it will take at least that long to get over this one. There is no knowing what it's like for the players. No idea at all.

Zero points from the offence in the second half. An endless reel of "throwing deep ... and incomplete" pass plays, along with two fumbles from veterans (Dan Brannagan and Jimmy Allin) which allowed Ottawa to salt away the game with two field goals in the fourth quarter.

Apparently 4-4 is next to godliness in the OUA -- no sarcasm this time. There will be time, later, to go into greater detail over whether the OUA, between the first-round bye that can kill a team's momentum -- and three of the last four teams to receive one have lost in the semi-final -- and the number of creampuff teams in the league, has destroyed the integrity of the regular season.

Speaking as someone whose first love as a sports fan is baseball, one team sport where you have to be good all the time to make the World Series, the notion that a team can slog through the regular season and just "find our groove" (Ottawa linebacker Joe Barnes' words) is anathema. With that kind of personal bias, it's hard to accept that the regular season is meaningless, but today proved that point.

Look at college football south of the border, where it's more popular by a factor of what, a hundred? Every Saturday matters. Check out the stunned expressions on the faces of the Texas players after Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree scored the game-winning touchdown with one second left. Lose more than two games and your best hope is the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl or some such folderol.

Down south, every Saturday matters, but oh no, we can't have that in Canada, the true north mediocre and free. Take nothing away, from Ottawa, though. The way the Gee-Gees played, answering with a touchdown after each of Queen's two scoring drives in the first half and never looking back, suggests they could have been going to London this week for the semi-final instead of next week for the Yates Cup. They might have ended up being home this week.

One could argue that having a traditional power go 4-4 and magically get it together in time to make the Yates shows the need to break up the current OUA alignment. Western last year or Ottawa this year maybe should have been put in a dare-to-be-great situation, where they can't afford too many bad Saturdays.

As for the game itself, the Gee-Gees copied Western's template from last season's quarter-final near-perfectly. They barely gave Queen's an opening, save for an a fourth-quarter blocked punt that resulted in a safety to cut the margin to 20-13. They were otherwise turnover-free on offence, simplifying the equation with a thudding running game behind Davie Mason (who might be out for the season with a torn hamstring) and Kingston's own Craig Bearss, with just enough high-percentages passes to keep the defence honest.

The Gee-Gees won this on their defence, especially the corners, David Timmons and Chayce Elliott, who took the Queen's wideouts out of the game. Scott Valberg, in his final game, was held to two catches by Timmons, none after halftime. Their defensive line, good all season even in trying times, contained Queen's well. Sebastian Tetrault came up with the big sack-forced fumble that helped Ottawa stretch the lead in the second half.

None of the above should let Queen's off the hook. They left points on the field --ba usted fake field goal and two misses left them with only got three points from four red-zone opportunities. That was unforgivable. Fair or not, that's on the coaching for not finding a way to avoid having kicking situations come up.

The bottom line is that it is only a game. It's university football, the players are only in their early 20s. The appeal is that it's imprecise, that a team that sailed through the regular season can crash and burn over the course of three hours on Saturday. By the same token, Ottawa can beat itself for half the season and suddenly get it right in a sudden-death playoff game.

You love the game so much as a fan, you kind of have to be tolerant of that, eventually, even when the quarterback is 11-of-31 passing in a home playoff game. That doesn't mean people are not entitled to shake their heads and wonder how it all went wrong.

Queen's is 14-2 over the past two regular seasons, 18-6 since the start of 2006, but has not been to the Yates Cup. People will reduce it to question of why they cannot seem to win in the playoffs. It is that plain and simple, as much as we like to overanalyze.

Noteworthy

• If anyone has a plan for how Canadian university football could be realigned into more meaningful conferences and there could be a true national playoff system similar to that in the lower NCAA divisions, don't be shy.
  
  That is not to say the Golden Gaels would have done better if they played Concordia or St. Francis Xavier today. After today and last season, it's almost like it would feel better to be a .500 team in the old O-QIFC gasping for air, instead of beating York 80-0 and getting that false sense of security. After this year and last, losing as the favourite bites.
• Andrew Bucholtz did a live blog of the game over at Sporting Madness and there's a digest of the day's five semi-final games -- how about Simon Fraser taking out Saskatchewan! -- at The CIS Blog.
• It is a shame that Mike Giffin was unable to go and that his final play as a Golden Gael came two weeks ago against Waterloo. Fellow fifth-years, defensive back Mike Botting, end Neil Puffer, defensive tackle Ross Corley, tight end Scott Stinson and wideout Scott Valberg, will each be missed.
  
  Not to be one of those fans who updates the depth chart 10 minutes after the last game, but Allin, Brannagan, Carter and fellow hs linebacker T.J. Leeper, the offensive linemen Colin Boyle and Jon Koidis, Pat Corbin and Dee Sterling on the D-line are on that fourth-year bubble.
  
  Keep an eye out for Anthony Marino, who saw the field as a rookie this season. (With that last name, did he deliberately choose a career on defence?)
• Rob Bagg will score a touchdown for the Saskatchewan Roughridgers in the CFL West Division semi-final. He's due.
• I am not one of those fans who already starts envisioning next season's depth chart 10 minutes after the season ends. The early guessing is what Laurier and Western will be good again next season.
• Happy birthday to the Official Sister of Out of Left Field, Trina Sager.
• Thanks again to Dan Pawliw and all the members of the Queen's Football Club who have supported this site. Special thanks goes to Queen's sports information director Michael Grobe, CFRC sports director Tyler King (our own "Kinger") and Whig-Standard sports ed. Mike Koreen for being accommodating and gracious all season. All of you make it easier to do this for little fame and even less money.
• Andrew Bucholtz has a great recap over at Sporting Madness ("Charge of the Golden brigade?").
  
  From Monday's Whig: An upfront column by Jordan Press ("Tarnished gold") as a companion to Clint Walper's gamer ("Vanier Cup dreams dashed").
  
  This is as good a time as any to say that I'm probably done with posting on Queen's football. It has been fun doing it for three seasons, but it is to the point where it is unclear what some guy who lives in another city can bring to the table that cannot be done by the professional journalists on the scene down in K-Town. It just no longer feels right. The door is not shut. Thanks for everything, people.

That is all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

CIS Corner: Bagg gets his knee dirty...

The latest out of the Paris of the Prairies is that Rob Bagg, the former Queen's receiver, will be the holder for the Saskatchewan Roughridgers.

Getting on special teams is one way to be guaranteed a spot on the dress roster. It also means more TV time for Bagg when the 'Riders — they're 5-0, in case you can't hear the crowing all the way from Regina — play Calgary on Friday.

(If they were playing Edmonton — can we get a Maciocia! — the kick holder would get a lot of camera time.)

This is important. During Saskatchewan's Week 4 win over Montréal, it seemed like whenever a shot of 'Riders coach Ken Miller appeared on the screen, a youngish-looking player wearing No. 6 would just happen to be in camera range.

Former Western star Andy Fantuz, who unfortunately for the 'Riders and for us CIS aficionados, broke his left tibula on Sunday vs. the Argos, had been doing the holding. It's a shame, since Fantuz is right on the cusp of completing the classic Canadian tradition from wide receiver in university to a move-the-sticks slotback in the pros who's dangerous after the catch. He looked ready to give B.C.'s Jason Clermont a run for his money as the best Canadian slotback in the West.

The 'Riders receiving corps is like a M*A*S*H unit these days — they had a quarterback lining up at wideout in practice the other day — so Bagg will get some reps on offence, too.

As Bucholtz notes in the comments, fellow Kingstonian and Gaels alum Matt Kirk could be in line for more playing time with the B.C. Lions this week. Their starting D-tackle, Tyrone Williams, is nicked up.

CIS Corner: Bagg sits, Zeeman spikes

Notes on our athletes/teams of interest from The 613...

Gaels: Queen's grad Rob Bagg was a healthy scratch for the Saskatchewan Roughriders last night in their game vs. B.C. Lions (CFL teams carry 46 players but only 42 can suit up). It might be worth monitoring the situation with Leron Mitchell. The 'Riders DB was carted off with a knee injury; he plays a lot of special teams so, ipso facto, that might create an opportunity for Bagg to see the field.

(UPDATE: Slotback D.J. Flick is out for the season for the 'Riders.)

(That's unfortunate for Mitchell, even if an injury to a Western grad might help out a Queen's guy. There is no begrudging a player for his alma mater or political affiliation. Duane Forde, by the way, is blowing Glenn Suitor out of the water as an analyst on TSN.)

Meantime, borrowing a page from the Bucholtz playbook, Queen's volleyball star Joren Zeeman helped Canada nail down a spot in the 2009 world junior volleyball championship, contributing 10 points in a 3-0 sweep of Mexico in the North American semi-finals down in El Salvador. Well-done. (Andrew Bucholtz really knows his volleyball; all I know is that it's hard not to feel dirty when you're trying to take photographs for the paper at a high school girls' game.)

Gee-Gees: Former U of O receiver Adam Nicolson almost had a blocked punt in the 'Riders-Lions game tonight.