Ticats starting to roar
The Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup last season. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats finished dead-last in the CFL.
And yet, when the two teams clash at Hamilton’s Ivor Wynne Stadium on Saturday, the Ticats will be favoured by oddsmakers to win.
How the heck does this happen?
Well, first of all, it’s the CFL. Things happen in this league that just don’t in other leagues.
Second, the Riders likely will be without their first-string quarterback, Marcus Crandell, who has a hamstring injury.
Third, the Tiger-Cats are a considerably better team than they were the last few seasons.
Granted, they couldn’t be any worse. But, hey, these Ticats truly seem to be for real.
“I don’t pay too much attention to who’s favoured in games,” Ticats president Scott Mitchell was telling me in a telephone interview Thursday, “but we do feel as though we’re headed in the right direction.”
That’s understandable, considering the team’s 32-13 rout of the Argonauts in Toronto last week.
“We just feel like we have all the right people in the right places now,” Mitchell added.
And that’s understandable, too.
In the off-season, Mitchell hired Bob O’Billovich to serve as Hamilton’s general manager, and he’s been around the CFL as a player, coach and front-office executive since the 1960s. He knows the league inside out. As the B.C. Lions’ personnel director the past few seasons, Obie recruited a bevy of no-name players who became CFL superstars. Defensive lineman Cameron Wake, both the rookie of the year and the defensive player of the year in the CFL last season, is one example.
Obie chose to retain Charlie Taaffe as the Cats’ head coach but two co-ordinators with plenty of CFL experience were added to coach under Taaffe, and they appear to be making differences. Both have been head-coaching candidates in the CFL and will be again relatively soon.
Denny Creehan is in charge of the Hamilton defence. Marcel Bellefeuille runs the offence.
Bellefeuille’s quarterback is Casey Printers, who took some heat for his antics both on and off the field after joining the Ticats for relatively big bucks in midseason last year. However, last week ho looked like he did with the Lions in 2004, when he was voted as the CFL’s premier player.
Last season, Printers struggled and couldn’t come close to reviving the Ticats. He also was criticized for taking a few shots at his underachieving teammates.
But, this season, “Casey’s been everything we’ve asked him to be,” Mitchell said. “He’s been a great leader and a great field general and we’re thrilled to have him.”
The Ticats seem to be a deep squad this season, laden with first-rate backups, including at the key positions of quarterback and running back.
Jesse Lumsden may just be emerging as the top running back in the CFL this season – and when was the last time you could say that about a Canadian? – and he’s backed up by an impressive rookie named Tre Smith. Filling in for Lumsden on occasion, and returning kicks, Smith has established himself as an early candidate for rookie-of-the-year laurels in the CFL.
“He’s one of Obie’s key newcomers,” Mitchell said. “He was heavily recruited out of high school and ended up at Auburn but found himself backing up two (eventual first-round draft choices in the NFL) in Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown. So he didn’t get much recognition in college football.”
He’s starting to get some in the CFL, though.
Oh, and Obie signed three or four other players who still haven’t graduated from the Ticats’ practice roster yet but who, according to Mitchell, are destined for CFL stardom.
Help wanted
• If neither Jarious Jackson or Buck Pierce help the Lions defeat the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg Friday night, don’t be surprised if there’s a new veteran quarterback in B.C. next week.
The Lions are talking about pursuing a couple of established QBs in trade talks – Toronto’s Michael Bishop and – get this -- the Calgary Stampeders’ Dave Dickenson, who was released by the Lions in November.
Dickenson, of course, was the Lions’ starting QB for years, and excelled, but he signed as a free agent in the off-season with the Calgary Stampeders, where, at 35, he is backing up Henry Burris.
Dickenson has rebounded from his concussion problems, which dogged him in B.C. last season, and you wonder whether he’d like to return to his old team as a starter.
"You don't enjoy the wins as much when you're not playing,” Dickenson told The Montreal Gazette’s Herb Zurkowsky this week. “But you also don't take the losses as hard. This is what I signed on to do. I'm excited, because (Calgary) has a chance to win. I'm not stressed about not playing."
Dickenson said he and Lions GM/head coach Wally Buono parted on good terms.
"He treated me more than fair," Dickenson said. "They made their decision. But I felt like I was a big part of that team and the success it had.”
• It’s been a rough week for the Argos.
After being trounced by the Ticats, co-owner David Cynamon appeared on television and ripped his team’s offence for its lack of production.
Then, assistant general manager Greg Mohns did a radio interview, tearing apart his team’s defence for its lousy effort last week.
Then Metro reported this week that members of the Argos are peeved at new head coach Rich Stubler for his poor communication skills.
Then reports surfaced elsewhere that Bishop was placed on recallable waivers for the purpose of determining whether any team would be interested in trading for him.
Then Stubler denied the Bishop story, but that was lame because, in reality, it was true.
And so you start asking this question: How long before club bossman Michael (Pinball) Clemons returns as the Argos’ head coach?
WEEKLY PICKS
Every week during the CFL season, I make my traditional picks against the spread at the bottom of this column. I went 2-2 last week and am 3-5 on the season. Here we go with Week Three:
THURSDAY –Toronto at Edmonton:
The Eskimos are favoured by 2.5 points. The Eskimos looked good offensively last week in beating the Stampeders, and they’re on their home turf again. The Argos seem to be sliding downhill. TAKE EDMONTON MINUS THE 2.5 POINTS.
THURSDAY – Calgary at Montreal:
The Alouettes are favoured by 4.5 points. Yes, the Als have been exceeding expectations. But this is where they return to earth. I smell an upset here. TAKE CALGARY PLUS THE 4.5 POINTS.
FRIDAY – B.C. at Winnipeg:
The Blue Bombers are favoured by 1.5 points. Can a Wally Buono team actually be 0-3? Yep. In this battle of 0-2 teams, the Bombers should be able to take advantage of the visiting Lions, who will be without injured running back Joe Smith and are struggling conspicuously. TAKE WINNIPEG MINUS THE 1.5 POINTS.
SATURDAY – Saskatchewan at Hamilton:
The Tiger-Cats are favoured by 1.5 points. Perhaps I’m wrong about this year’s Riders. Perhaps they are better than I reckoned they would be. But the Ticats are favoured in this game for a reason. I like Printers and Lumsden to roar to victory in this one. TAKE HAMILTON MINUS THE 1.5 POINTS.
Marty York is Metro's national sports columnist and can be heard each Wednesday night on Vancouver radio station CKNW with Sportstalk host Dan Russell.
He is also an instructor at the College of Sports Media in Toronto.
You can reach Marty at marty.york@metronews.ca
