Matthew Cauz
CFL.ca
In life timing is everything. How much success you have with your job or your personal life is all about being in the right place at the right time. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in sports. Brett Favre goes in for an injured Don Majkowski; the Dallas Mavericks title run was fuelled by the Lakers being a year too old while the Oklahoma Thunder and the Miami Heat were a year too young.
When it comes to timing no sport does it better than the CFL. The NBA and NHL Finals are over, baseball is about to enter it’s semi-irrelevant summer phase and all the big hits going on in the NFL are between greedy owners, delusional players and their respective army of lawyers.
To this I say: “Thank God for the CFL”! Hey I love this game in November when the calendar is littered with sporting events, I just love it a little but more during these summer months when my viewing options are Jays vs. the Pirates, re-runs or a parade of horrible new shows the networks hoist upon us.
Pre-Season games are starting to roll and their timing couldn’t have been better. So with that in mind lets ping-pong across this country to the 10 most compelling stories for me leading up to the 2011 season.
(1) The Saskatchewan Roughriders Wide Outs:
With Andy Fantuz impressing the coaching staff in Chicago and Rob Bagg out for nine games with a busted knee; Weston Dressler now assumes the role of Batman and the team needs to find some more Robins.
You can’t replace a talent like Fantuz but Saskatchewan will need some of their familiar faces to step up and maybe a new one to emerge. So who will it be? The obvious first choice is Chris Getzlaf (55-945-5TD) who has seen his reception totals go up over the past three years.
What about Jason Clermont, this could be the Regina native’s last chance to reclaim his glory years he had with the Lions. Bachelor number three in this equation is import Terrence Nunn who enjoys long walks on the beach, confident girls and any opportunity he can to show the Patriots and Buccaneers made a mistake cutting him.
For the Green & White to make it back to the Grey Cup they’re going to need at least two of these guys to develop a winning chemistry with Darian Durant.
(2) The ongoing development of Juwan Simpson:
In 2009 Simpson dressed in five games and started three of them at defensive end. In 2010 he switched to linebacker and made the leap from valuable depth guy to The Guy with 71 tackles, seven sacks, three fumble recoveries, one interception and a partridge in a pear tree.
Simpson finished second to Markeith Knowlton for Defensive Player of the Year and there is no reason he can’t improve in his fourth season. The 26-year old former Captain at Alabama was a key cog in the Stampeders top ranked defence and he will be counted on more heavily this year.
Remember Calgary’s secondary was gutted in the off season losing Brandon Browner, Dwight Anderson and Wes Lysack. Simpson will have to be a terror on the pass rush and a mentor on the field if Calgary wants to maintain their lofty status as the best D in the league.
(3) Friday September 30th, Montreal @ Winnipeg, 4:45 to go in the 4th quarter:
By all projections it should be right around now that we start celebrating Anthony Calvillo passing Damon Allen record of 72, 381 passing yards.
Calvillo has defied age, disease and withstood the kind of punishment that comes from throwing over 8,000 passes over 17 grueling seasons. Make no mistake about it; this will be THE year to celebrate Calvillo.
Making his pursuit of Allen more compelling is the retirement of Ben Cahoon, the loss of Avon Cobourne, the acquisition of Prechae Rodriguez and the development of S.J. Green. I think we are all in agreement that Calvillo is one of the few quarterbacks than handle all these changes.
(4) The “possible” rise of Brandon Whitaker:
Remember how about 650 words ago I spoke about the importance of timing? Well Whitaker is the perfect example.
After backing up Cobourne for the past two seasons the time is ripe for Whitaker to shine. The Ahman Green experiment thankfully is over and judging by Marc Trestman’s comments during training camp I’m betting it’ll be Whitaker not DeAndra’ Cobb who ends up being the Alpha Dog in the Alouettes back field.
I’m excited to see what this guy can do.
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| Lulay is entering his 3rd year with the Lions and his play was a big part of the Lions resurgence from a 1-7 start to a 7-3 finish. |
(5) Just what can Chad Owens do for an encore?:
I feel bad for Chad, there is no way he can match what he did in 2010, is there???? You name a special teams category that features the word “Return” and Owens led it. Beyond trying to kick field goals what more can you ask from the man who led the league with 3,288 combined yards?
Coach Jim Barker says the team plans to feature him more at wide-out, a role Owens had to grasp on the go in 2010 as Owens didn’t have much of a training camp last season.
On one side I’m wildly curious to see what Owens can do if he is dedicated to playing wide receiver. On the flip side I’d be wary of making any real changes to Owens role with the team. Here’s hoping his increased role at WR doesn’t hurt his ability to scare the daylights out of special teams coaches across the league.
(6) The impact of Dario Romero:
Hey if I can mention Montreal twice I should at least give Saskatchewan a little bit more love before they trash me for my East Coast (Argooooooooooooooooooos!!!!!!) bias.
The two biggest problems for Saskatchewan in 2010 was Durant’s love affair with the interception and an overall defence which ended up 6th in yards allowed and 7th in points scored.
The team never really got over the loss of John Chick and Stevie Baggs, to be fair no organization could have replaced all that talent in just one season.
To use the parlance of our times Romero brings a hockey goonery like attitude to the field and hopefully will give the defensive line more of a, shall we say malicious disposition?
(7) Travis Lulay as the #1 Starter:
It’s one thing to step in mid season for a failing quarterback and help turn around a season, something Lulay did in 2010. It’s a whole other animal when you enter the season with the pressure of being The Guy and the rest of the league has an entire year to study film on you. Throw in his new contract and there is a lot riding on his shoulders.
Lulay is entering his 3rd year with the Lions and his play was a big part of the Lions resurgence from a 1-7 start to a 7-3 finish. He needs to improve his TD/INT ratio; but he played admirably in the teams 41-38 playoff loss to Saskatchewan amassing 396 total yards and three touchdowns so their is plenty to build on.
This team is yours Travis, let’s see what you can do with it.
(8) The last hurrah for Ricky Ray?
The 2-time Grey Cup Champ is entering his 9th season with Edmonton with a bunch of question marks.
2010 saw Ray have career lows in passing yardage and completion percent. Last year also marked the first time Ray finished a season with more interceptions than touchdowns.
Ray is only 31 but at times he looked a whole lot older out there and his life just got more complicated as he is now a proud new poppa.
Oh but wait the degree of difficulty gets even harder when you consider Ray will be playing for yet another new coach and his 6th new offensive coordinator in Marcus Crandell.
And just when you thought that was all the hurdles for Ray you can add one more with the team ‘s acquisition of Kerry Joseph. I’d say Ricky has his hands full in 2011.
All that said I’m betting on a bounce back year for Ray, the key will be finding adequate receiving mates to go along with Fred Stamps.
(9) The addition of Renauld Williams to the Tiger-Cats Linebacking Corps.
I was speaking with Stevie Baggs about Williams and Baggs could not stop gushing about him. This was no disrespect towards Otis Floyd who will most definitely be missed but Williams is five years younger and, much like, Juwan Simpson was an absolute beast for the Stampeders last year.
No wonder Cobourne signed with the Tiger-Cats, what running back wants to face a trio of linebackers like Jamaal Johnson, Markeith Knowlton and now Renauld Williams.
(10) Buck Pierce’s Health Status:
My apologies for the lack of originality but really the biggest story in the Eastern Conference could be the health of Buck Pierce. Yes I’m fairly sure I wrote this exact same thing last year but think about just how his health could tip the scales in the East.
They have the talent at wide receiver to be flat out scary. Terrence Edwards put up over 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns with a revolving door at quarterback. Greg Carr had 568 yards and four touchdowns in just seven games and Terrence Jeffers Harris showed plenty of potential.
Fred Reid’s league leading 1,396 yards paced Winnipeg’s 2nd ranked ground attack so the team has balance.
On the other side of the ball their defence ranked 2nd in yards allowed. Yes they were 6th in points scored but remember when your offence has a tough time picking up first downs it’s going to wear on the guys trying to stop the opposition from scoring.
Just imagine how much better the defensive unit will be if Buck can stay healthy and give his D more time to rest?
Now consider that nine of Winnipeg’s 14 losses were by four points or less!
It’s a simple fact, if Buck Pierce could stay healthy Winnipeg will not only make the playoffs but they will challenge Montreal for supremacy in the Eastern Conference.
Yes I know this issue will be done to death over the next several weeks but the ability of Pierce to stay in the line-up just may be the most compelling storyline going into the 2011 season.
And with that bring on the pre-season!
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