Stampeders.com
CFL.ca Staff
#CFLKickoff
| 2014 By the Numbers |
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Defence
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| Key Roster Changes |
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Subtractions:
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| Important Dates |
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Sept. 7 vs. Edmonton Sept. 12 at Edmonton
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| Key Statistic |
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The rest of the Stamps receivers and slotbacks combined career total? 3,834 yards, barely over a third of Lewis’ mark. |
CALGARY – The cliché term said by or to any team coming off a championship season rings something along the lines of ‘the only thing more difficult than winning a title is defending it’.
Cliché or not, that is what the Calgary Stampeders have facing them in 2015.
Once seen as the team with all the parts but missing that killer instinct to put it together when it mattered, the Stampeders galloped their way to the league’s best record and a Grey Cup championship last season.
Sometimes they looked to be doing so with ease, if not for a scare on a late punt return in the Grey Cup game, proved to roll through the competition, even without their horse in the backfield, Jon Cornish, for half the season.
Cornish was there in 2008 the last time the Stamps won a Grey Cup, albeit in a far lesser role. Nonetheless it is experience like his that gives head coach Jon Hufnagel confidence in his team’s ability to withstand the moniker of being ‘the hunted’.
“I do have a group of core veterans that were part of that 2008 team that have the experience of trying to defend the championship,” Hufnagel said prior to the opening of training camp. “They have been working very, very hard in the off-season. I believe the mindset of our core veterans will help the younger guys in direction that we need to take as a football team to give us a chance to win some games and hopefully do some good things.”
Veteran leadership is exactly what a team poised to be in the playoff picture needs with a young head coach waiting in the wings and an even younger quarterback that has gone from backup quarterback to co-face of the franchise alongside Cornish.
Hufnagel will relinquish his coaching duties at the end of the season, handing controls over to Dave Dickenson. His general manager duties will remain intact and he can focus on securing contracts such as the one he and his quarterback agreed on in the off-season.
A statement made by both the Stampeders and Bo Levi Mitchell that the Texan is committed long term to being the leader of this team.
Mitchell signed a hefty contract extension that will see him through the 2018 season. A deal that coincides with his move to Calgary full time.
“It shows a great deal about what is important for Bo, and number one he wants to win football games. Number two, he likes the City of Calgary very much and he likes the Calgary Stampeders organization and he wanted to make a career and set roots in the City of Calgary,” Hufnagel said when he reflected on the off-season. “By signing this contract, he has made it very obvious to all the fans not only in Calgary but CFL fans all over that this is a young man that knows what he wants. Believe me, he may not be the highest-paid guy, but his banker’s is smiling.”
Mitchell will have a shift in weapons as it relates to which receivers will be on the opposite end of his attempts. Exception veteran Marquay McDaniel, pass-catchers that have been knocking on CFL stardom’s door such as Jeff Fuller, Eric Rodgers and Joe West will be leaned upon heavily. No more Nik Lewis or Maurice Price.
The defence is intact, the offensive line, not so much but either way Hufnagel could be leaving Dickenson with the best pressure situation of all when he takes over if everything goes as the Stamps plan: the task of winning a third straight championship.
