By Tim Switzer,
Regina Leader-Post
With one game left to go, Chris Bauman has already put together what might be the best season ever by a University of Regina Rams receiver.
So what is the secret to his success?
“I’m working a lot harder to get those little passes — the 10- and 12-yard passes,” said Bauman, a fourth-year science major. “Before, I was just looking for the big plays. I wasn’t getting too many of the shorter ones. This year I’ve been working really hard on getting open and getting in the holes.”
What?
This from the guy who has 100- and 107-yard touchdown receptions to his credit this season? This from the guy leading the CIS in receiving and touchdown receptions and averaging 22.7 yards per catch and 126.6 yards per game?
“The little ones are usually the ones that count the most,” explained Bauman, a 6-foot-5 and 215-pound Brandon product. “Most of those, you need to set up your big plays.”
The long and the short of it is that Bauman set a U of R Rams record when he hit 886 yards for the season Saturday in a 49-44 loss to the Manitoba Bisons. He also broke his own single-game team record when he had 218 receiving yards against the Simon Fraser Clan on Sept. 23 and nearly broke that when he went for 207 yards Saturday.
His 39 catches on the season are just two short of the current Rams record and he is one touchdown away from matching the standard of 11.
Bauman is also fully aware that, entering the season, the records for yards, touchdowns and catches in a season belonged to B.C. Lions slotback Jason Clermont — the CFL’s Outstanding Canadian in 2004.
“He’s someone that I look up to,” said Bauman. “We’re different players — he’s more big and powerful of an inside guy. I’m more of an outside guy. But I don’t try to think too much about that . . . but it’s hard not to.
“Everyone always talks about it. It’s hard to get away from it, but I just try to block it out as much as I can.”
Few expected Bauman to be where is after he arrived at the U of R out of the nine-man program at Vincent Massey High School in Brandon.
Bauman spent one season with the Rams before going on sabbatical with the PFC’s Winnipeg Rifles for a year. Since his return to Regina, his numbers have improved each season.
Now that’s he is in his draft year, Bauman couldn’t be having a better season for CFL scouts to notice.
“Chris is really deceiving — he’s really smooth and he’s faster than you think he is,” said Rams receivers coach Rick Seaman.
“He is gifted, but I think the big ingredient is Chris has made a decision that he wants to be good.
“He has a determination to catch the ball and take it straight up the field. You talk about his receiving, but if you look at his support of other people on the team — like coming in and blocking — he’s doing a great job of that. He has made a decision to be an all-around, really good football player.”
Plenty of credit for Bauman’s season also has to go to fellow receivers Chris Getzlaf and Chad Goldie, both of whom have put up some big numbers of their own.
Quarterback Teale Orban, who is second in the CIS with 2,390 passing yards this season, can’t be ignored either.
“You get these guys and they’re all over 100 yards a game, you can’t double-team one,” said Orban. “If you keep him in single coverage, he’s going to beat anybody out there. He’s not the one guy, he’s one of the one guys.”
With one regular-season game remaining, he’s one of a handful of guys who may reach a coveted 1,000-yard season.
But as the Rams head into a week of preparations before a do-or-die game against the Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday in Edmonton, Bauman would trade all the numbers and potential awards for a playoff spot.
“You always hope (for a 1,000-yard season),” Bauman said. “Now I’m so close but I’d rather take a win here and get into the playoffs rather than getting the yardage.”
