By Michael Murillo,
CFL.ca
NCAA football fans don’t have to lose track of their favourite players when they leave their competitive teams and conferences. Each week, College Connection looks at a pair of former college stars who are making waves today in the CFL. Their teams will meet in an upcoming match-up, televised in the U.S.
This week: Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Saskatchewan Roughriders, October 21, available on TSN.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats: Casey Printers, QB, Texas Christian University. It might seem difficult to gain notoriety playing college football with NFL superstar LaDainian Tomlinson, but Printers earned his share of accolades in his three years at TCU (1999-2001). As a freshman he was named a Freshman All-American third-teamer by The Sporting News, and the Dallas Morning News named him Freshman of the Year. He led the Horned Frogs to a Mobile Alabama Bowl (now known as the GMAC Bowl) victory, where he was named the game’s MVP. He ended up passing for more than 1,000 yards in all three seasons (no small feat considering Tomlinson led the NCAA in rushing for two of those years) and left TCU ranked third on the school’s all-time passing list. His senior season was played for the Florida A&M Rattlers, where he led the team to a winning record.
Printers’ most extensive CFL action came in 2004, when he threw for a CFL-best 35 touchdowns and was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player. In limited action this year, Printers has 559 passing yards, 88 rushing yards, one touchdown pass, one touchdown run and three interceptions.
Saskatchewan Roughriders: T.J. Stancil, Boston College Eagles. Stancil was part of a successful program at Boston College: The team won bowl games all four years of his collegiate career (2001-2004) and finished two of those years ranked in the AP Top 25 (2001 and 2004, ranked No. 21 both times). In 2003 he was named the defensive MVP of the San Francisco Bowl, and earned All-Big east second-team honours as a senior, finishing with 61 regular-season tackles.
Stancil signed on with Saskatchewan in 2005 and finished the year with 31 tackles, and interception and a fumble. For his efforts, he earned a Defensive Player of the Week honour in week 9 and was the team’s Most Outstanding Rookie nominee. He had three tackles in last week’s 40-23 victory over the Ti-Cats, and has 26 on the year (with one interception) so far in 2007.
If you’d like to see a specific school or player featured in College Connection, contact Michael Murillo at vivamurillo@hotmail.com.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
