Isaac Owusu
Ticats.ca
The long awaited season opener for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats begins on Sunday night in Regina. The team faces the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a Grey Cup rematch, as both teams look to kick off their 2014 campaigns on the right foot.
Head coach Kent Austin and his players remain united in their philosophy that the game is not so much about getting revenge after losing the Riders in last season’s championship.
“We don’t focus on that stuff. It’s about execution, the level of preparation going into the game, making plays, playing a clean game, not having missed assignments. All the clichés that you hear are really true, that’s how you’re supposed to approach the game.
With quarterback Zach Collaros getting the start, Austin knows what he will be looking for from his pivot on Sunday
“Decision making, completing the football, managing the offence, putting the ball in the end zone, and not turning it over,” said Austin.
Austin gushed over the growth that Collaros has made in taking the reins of his new offence.
“He’s really prepared hard, not just during training camp, but in the off-season and I think he’ll be ready to play.”
Collaros gets his first opening week start in the CFL, after spending his first two seasons with the Toronto Argonauts. He admits that there is some anxiety coming into this game, but his nerves wont impact his preparation.
“I’m just approaching the game the way I always do. They beat us in the Grey Cup last year, they have a new team there and we have a new team here.
A lot of the same guys are at both places, but there’s a lot of different guys as well, so we’re just approaching it like we would approach any game,” he said.
Collaros was successful with Toronto in 2013, winning five games a starter while Ricky Ray sat out with injury. He finished the year by going 190-of-287 passes, good for 66.2 per cent for 2,316 yards with 14 TDs and six interceptions; he also added five touchdowns on the ground.
Last September, he led the Argonauts a remarkable comeback victory in this same stadium against the Riders. He orchestrated an attack that posted 19 fourth quarter points to beat the eventual Grey Cup champs by a score of 31-29. He expects that it will be challenging to pull off that feat in Saskatchewan again.
“I don’t know if you can replicate it. We just have to go out there and take what the defence gives us. They have a good defence, they have a good front four and they defend the pass well, so we’ll have to be on our A-game to get a win, but I think we’re ready to go.”
While Collaros is making his first regular season start in black and gold, Greg Wojt, the team’s most outstanding offensive lineman in 2013, is making his first in-game appearance in 2014.
“I got banged up and missed the two pre-season games and missed out on the feeling of playing games,” he said.
“I can’t treat this one like a preseason game, it’s a big deal right now, especially knowing the circumstances of this game,” he added.
Wojt doesn’t fret about the time he’s missed, as a player going into his sixth season in the CFL he has the experience and understands how to prepare for a season opener.
“I’ve been taking it upon myself to do a little bit more in practice so I get my mind focused and just prepare myself even more. Just doing that little bit extra to make up for what I’ve missed out on.”
A player with the experience that Wojt has knows that the Saskatchewan crowd can be imposing on visiting teams. However, he also knows what is needed to be done to handle the Mosaic Stadium crowd.
“Score a lot early. That’s how you silence them. The best way to silence the crowd is to put up a lot of points on the board and get the fans out of the game.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the Ticats will look to take advantage of the Roughriders offensive unit that has lost a few weapons in Weston Dressler, Geroy Simon and Kory Sheets.
Despite these changes, defensive back Emanuel Davis says the preparation does not change.
“We’re professional athletes, and everybody’s good at this level. You don’t sluff off on anybody, you take your best to everybody that you compete against,” he stated.
“In the secondary we cover whoever they’ll have to match up with us,” Davis added.
Davis, coming into his second season with the team, played against the Riders in November’s Grey Cup. He echoes his head coach’s sentiment about the overblown narrative of revenge heading into week one.
“Every year is a different year. You know last year, and we do have a bitter taste in our mouth from that but this year is a new year. Saskatchewan isn’t the only team that we’re going to play. Even though it was a hard loss for us last year, we just approach every game the same, just take care of what we’re supposed to do and let the chips fall where they may,” Davis said.
“Whoever they have to match up with us, we really don’t care about, we’ll just take care of our responsibilities, be where we’re supposed to be, get pressure on [Darian] Durant, try to force him to make bad decisions and go from there, but it will start up front with pressure,” he added.
