Derek Mortensen/CFL.ca
From Jack Abendschan through Dave Ridgway, placekickers have played a special role in Saskatchewan Roughrider lore.
Christopher Milo has already secured a spot in Rider history but it’s one he’d rather forget.
Milo might have set an unofficial CFL record this year by hitting the uprights four times on missed field goal attempts. Three times he bounced balls off the post in games against the BC Lions, including once in the playoffs.
“I don’t know if I would be able to hit them if I tried,” Milo said shaking his head after the Riders practised for Sunday’s 101st Grey Cup game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“It is what it is. You have to kind of laugh it off. That (last) one against BC in the Western Semi-Final, when it cranked off the post, it was early in the game. I knew I would have a chance to redeem myself later on and I did.”
For good measure, Milo also had a field goal attempt blocked in the Western Final against the Calgary Stampeders.
Having a short memory is an asset for a kicker. You can’t dwell on a miss, only get ready for the next chance.
“It’s between your ears pretty much,” said the 27-year-old from Montreal. “You’re hitting the ball the same way, you’re not trying to do anything different.
“You go through your same motion, the same steps regardless of conditions or how far (the kick) is. You work in your head and visualize what you are going to do, then go out and execute.”
Milo started the year making his first 28 attempts to tie Ridgway’s 20-year-old Rider record for consecutive field goals.
He defied the odds in a 24-22 loss to the Lions at Mosaic Stadium when he hit the right upright twice, from 35 and 37 yards out. You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that was the difference in the game. Just to show it was no fluke he also hit a post from 21 yards out in a 31-29 loss to the Argonauts in September.
He reversed history a little when he hit the uprights again in the opening playoff game against BC, but then went five for five.
During the regular season Milo made 46 of his 52 field-goal attempts, with his longest coming from 50 yards out. His 88.5 per cent accuracy rate was second only to the 94.7 per cent recorded by Calgary’s Rene Paredes. In the Riders’ two playoff games he hit another seven of nine.
It was bounce-back season after Milo had some trouble in 2012. He made just 11 of 17 field goals for a 64.7-per-cent average and lost his job to Sandro DeAngelis.
Milo credits his renewed success to working with former kicker Don Sweet, who had a 13-year career with the Montreal Alouettes. Sweet not only worked on his mechanics but also his mental game.
“He changed my game completely,” said Milo. “Not so much the physical aspect but working on the mental aspect of it. Just trusting I can do it and knowing I can do it, just trusting my swing and believing in myself.”
The two envisioned different scenarios. One was Milo making a last-play kick with his team down by two points. Another was him preparing for a kick coming off a previous miss.
“Those are all things we worked on,” Milo said. “You go through all the different things in your head so when the time comes you are ready for it.”
The face-freezing temperatures that have chilled Regina all week are expected to warm up by Sunday. Predictions are for a temperature of plus-1 degree during the day but they could dip to minus-9 by the evening.
That doesn’t help Milo or punter Ricky Schmitt.
“It makes the ball a lot harder and it doesn’t travel as far as it normally would,” said Schmitt.
The 28-year-old from Virginia Beach, Va., joined the Riders last season after NFL stops in Arizona, San Diego, Tennessee, San Francisco, Oakland and Pittsburgh. This year his average of 36.9 yards a punt was second among kickers with over 100 punts.
Schmitt admits playing in the cold is new to him.
“Both teams are going to have to play in it,” he said. “I can’t control the weather so you have to go out and try and hit the best ball you can.”
Called Meatloaf or Milosh by his teammates, Milo grew up playing soccer in an Italian family. He first started kicking a ball when he was four years old and didn’t switch to football until he was 18.
“Soccer in Canada is what it is,” said Milo, who remains fluent in Italian. “It’s tough to succeed at playing soccer in this country.
“I always had a good leg, even as a kid. I would play in the back end playing soccer, feeding balls left and right. “
Milo won two Vanier Cup championship rings playing college football for Laval. He was taken by the Riders 30th overall in the 2011 Canadian college draft. He played in 12 games that year, hitting 22 of 26 field goals, with the longest 45 yards.
Milo finds himself following in the steps of some famous Rider kickers.
Abendschan had an 11-year career with the Riders playing both placekicker and offensive guard. A member of the 1966 team which won Saskatchewan’s first Grey Cup, he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Ridgway, another Hall of Fame member, had a 78-per-cent accuracy rate during a 14-year career with the Riders. His most famous kick was a 35-yard-field goal to win the 1989 Grey Game against Hamilton.
Milo grinned when reminded of Ridgway’s heroics.
“It if happens hopefully I will be ready for it,” he said. “If it doesn’t, so be it. As long as we come out with the win it doesn’t matter how we do it.”
