CFL.ca
In the final week of the first ever season, Ottawa REDBLACKS’ head coach Rick Campbell made a comment to his players on how lucky they were to get through a season without really facing any extreme weather.
Campbell was speaking from first-hand experience as the former assistant coach spent many years dealing with the unpredictability of the changing seasons, never really knowing what field conditions to prepare for in the final weeks of a CFL regular season as it moved into the postseason.
Lest anyone think Campbell was advocating climate change, however, the coach was only putting the thought in the back of his young players that winning, playoff-bound, teams play well into November. They also get to face everything from snow to freezing rain to high winds to frozen fields, all kinds of adversity he hopes his REDBLACKS get to experience in the near future.
The REDBLACKS have just one final test this week in Toronto before exit meetings Sunday. Then they scatter their separate ways to sit back and watch what moves management can make to get this team more competitive in year two.
In so many ways, the first season was long enough but with the value of a year’s experience under the belt of many young players, many don’t think it will take a whole lot to turn a 2-15 mark into something much closer to .500 and playoff contention.
“I’ve been through rebuilds in this league,” said team elder statesmen Henry Burris, senior in both age and number of years in the league. “I went through it in Saskatchewan in 2000 and Hamilton in 2012 and we had more veterans in both cases. This team is young and with any young team there are going to be growing pains.
“But there is a much better feeling going forward. The trust is growing among the players and we’ve had more and more auditions for next year.”
“Yes, we had hoped to get more wins. But these young guys are getting a much better idea of how the game is played. They can now recognize defences on the fly.”
“And when we get all these young guys back next year, the proving part will be over. All we need is some added depth and just a few more guys who can get the job done.”
“It would be great to get some impact players. And there’s no telling who will be here next year. Who knows where I will be?” said Burris, though we think he was joking.
“(Free agents) would be nice. But there’s nothing wrong with finding young impact players too.”
Football past the first week of November is not exactly a rite of fall in Ottawa. The Ottawa Renegades never qualified for postseason football in their short, four-year existence and the Rough Riders hadn’t played host to a playoff game since the East Semi-Final in 1983.
That means it’s been 31 seasons since a CFL playoff game on Bank Street and there’s no telling when the next one might be.
All that losing aside, the new Ottawa football club enters an off-season unlike any of the teams that preceded it. For starters, what’s missing for the off-season is any mention of uncertainty around the franchise. Most years it was concern over ownership and ticket sales. Other years it was about the coaching staff and free agency.
This off-season REDBLACKS fans can look forward to an off-season where the club will try to find a few more pieces towards making the team a contender. Fans hope the club can find an impact player or two on offence who might upgrade the league’s most anemic offence.
Ottawa fans don’t have to be reminded that their team has scored a league-low 273 points (an average of just 16 points per game).
That’s an amazing 102 points less than the second-lowest scoring team in the league, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a team that played most of the season without their No. 1 quarterback Darian Durant due to injury.
Compare the REDBLACKS points per game to the league-leading Calgary Stampeders at 28 points per game and it doesn’t take a specialist is analytics to determine what a difference a game-breaker or two on offence could make for Ottawa in 2015.
It’s that simple. Improve the offence with a couple of big play weapons and add a veteran stud along the offensive line and this team might just be ready for respectability in a hurry.
That was not the case back in June when the first edition of REDBLACKS assembled in Richmond, Virginia, in April for mini-camp and again in June at Carleton University for main camp.
No one knew exactly what the REDBLACKS had.
The 2015 off-season will be different in many ways and the team is expected to once again run a mini-camp for the veterans and rookies, likely again in April, and this time Las Vegas is a possible locale.
Long before that, CFL free agency begins the day after Grey Cup and the REDBLACKS will have money to spend.
One thing is certain: the off-season should be interesting.
After nine consecutive sellouts at TD Place, the REDBLACKS wasted no time in notifying the season-ticket base that deposit for 2015 are due now.
The club can expect a high percentage of renewals and hope a few key off-season moves might even get the club closer to assuring a repeat of the first season attendance-wise.
All of which, should set up a very competitive training camp next June.
“Going into camp with no tough decisions really isn’t a good sign,” said Campbell. “We expect to go to camp with a lot of tough decisions and let the players make the decisions for us.
“The players (this year) deserve full credit. No one around here is happy with the record but they were mentally tough and very resilient and they realize they are part of building something and there won’t be any dismantling of what we have here right now.
“We need to add more pieces to the puzzle. As much as we want to win now we still have to add more weapons.”
“I’m proud to coach these guys. This was a very difficult season from a win standpoint. But these guys worked very hard and I am very proud of them.”
Next November he hopes to be saying the same thing as the REDBLACKS, hopefully, prepare for a playoff game.
