CFL

With Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray expected to miss six weeks with a partial tear in his shoulder, backup Zach Collaros has been thrust into the spotlight.

Collaros will be charged with commanding the first place Argonauts until November, and his football future may be determined within that time.

It is not often that a 25-year-old backup starting in place of a future Hall Of Fame quarterback is a career defining moment, but the situation this season is unique. When Ray returns, the starting job will be his, no matter how well Collaros plays; so why are the next six weeks so important?

The answer is the 2013 CFL expansion draft and the Ottawa REDBLACKS.

Collaros played his college football with the Cincinnati Bearcats where he started in his final two seasons. After leading the Big East in passing yards and touchdowns in 2010, Collaros was selected as the First-Team All-Big East Quarterback.

In 2012, Collaros worked out with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers but did not make the team. He signed with the Toronto Argonauts and made his CFL debut in 2012 against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The Ottawa REDBLACKS will join the CFL for the 2014 season and will have a chance to draft 24 current players as part of an expansion draft. They will select three players from each of the eight teams—two Canadians and one import.

Teams are allowed to protect one quarterback, and it is a foregone conclusion that the Argonauts are going to protect Ricky Ray. That leaves Collaros as a potential first-round draft choice for the new franchise.

But Collaros is not the only young and talented quarterback potentially available to the REDBLACKS. In order to get a sense of who is out there, we only need to look back as far as Week 5 of this season.

In Week 5, four backup quarterbacks started and impressed, including Collaros. Drew Willy, 26, started for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns while on the road. Bo Mitchell made his CFL debut for the Calgary Stampeders and completed 29 of 33 passes (throwing for three touchdowns), while Justin Goltz started for Winnipeg and threw for two touchdowns. Collaros led the Argonauts to victory by throwing for 253 yards and three touchdowns.

All four of these backup quarterbacks are born outside of Canada, which makes them eligible as import players. The Ottawa REDBLACKS management will be looking at the Week 5 game film closely, but they have been afforded another opportunity with Collaros.

The REDBLACKS will have an extended chance to see Collaros. They can analyze how he leads the offense, how he takes a hit and how he reads defenses. Collaros is a hybrid-type quarterback that can run outside the pocket in order to extend the play.

At practice on Saturday, Argonauts head coach Scott Milanovich had high praise for Collaros. Milanovich mentioned how “he’s a confident, young guy” and later added that “he is a very natural leader.”

If Ottawa is looking for a mobile, young quarterback to lead their franchise, then for Zach Collaros, the next six weeks are more than just a chance to take regular snaps. They are a try out.

Note: all quotes were acquired first hand.

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The Battle of Alberta begins anew on Monday when the Edmonton Eskimos make their annual trip to Calgary to face the Stampeders in the Labour Day Classic.

In most years, this is one of the most hotly contested games of the season for both teams. The Calgary-Edmonton rivalry seems to run deep and wide throughout all sports, be it football, hockey, lacrosse or baseball—when the cities have pro baseball teams, that is.

So watching the Stamps and Eskimos square off is usually a treat.

This year, however, it is liable to be a snoozer. The Stampeders are currently a solid 6-2 and in second place in the Western Division while the Eskies are a dismal 1-7, tied for the worst record in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and languishing in a six-game losing streak.

The only thing that might make this game more interesting is the ongoing issues with injuries that Calgary continues to deal with.

Nik Lewis fractured his tibia during Calgary's Week 8 loss to the BC Lions, leaving the Stamps without their top receiver. Quarterback Kevin Glenn was forced out of last week's win against the Toronto Argonauts after taking a shot to the head and superstar running back Jon Cornish missed the entire game due to a leg injury.

However, both Glenn and Cornish are apparently good to go for Monday, which means Calgary's key weapons are in play.

Glenn has been solid all year long as Calgary's pivot. In six games he has thrown six touchdown passes against just two interceptions, producing a strong 99.4 passer's rating. And if he has to check out, backup Bo Levi Mitchell has done an outstanding job in relief, tossing five TDs in only 54 pass attempts with no interceptions.

Cornish, meanwhile, remains in second place in CFL rushing this year in spite of missing last week's game. He has racked up 916 all-purpose yards in seven games this year and is well on the way to a second-straight Outstanding Canadian award.

Even without Lewis, Calgary's receiving corps is deep and dangerous. Marquay McDaniel has 419 yards receiving so far, with his first 100-yard game coming last week in Lewis' absence. Maurice Price and Jabari Arthur are both over 200 yards in receiving and four more players are over 100 yards.

Defensively, Calgary has given up the second-fewest points so far this year (200). Charleston Hughes and Cordarro Law have five sacks each and are providing excellent pass pressure.

The Eskimos, on the other hand, have struggled mightily all year.

Quarterback Mike Reilly has shown steady progress and is currently third in the CFL in passing yards with 2,031. But there haven't been too many other standouts in the year; the Eskies have the second fewest points for (188) and are fifth in points against (235), which doesn't add up to a lot of good news.

On the bright side, Edmonton's last three losses have all been by a field goal or less, so they have shown signs of improvement, but unless several players on their roster can step up in a big way on Monday, the Eskimos will be dropping their eighth game of the year.

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Pipe down, everybody. Canada has something to show us. 

Guyism spotted the perfect highlight to get us through the weekend, in which B.C. Lions' Tim Brown returns a failed field goal for 125 yards and a touchdown. 

Let's just give thanks to the genius who decided to make fields bigger north of the border, because we would never get magnificent runs of this length without them. 

The last time we mentioned the size discrepancy between CFL and NFL fields, the National Football Post was reporting the NFL was looking at widening its own fields for safety purposes.

While nothing came of it, we were reminded that fields in Canada are roughly 35-feet wider and 30 yards longer. 

As for this run, Brown gets the ball in the end zone with about 12 minutes to go in the third quarter in a game against the Montreal Alouettes. He takes it approximately 125 yards the other way for a touchdown. 

Exhausted? Me, too. Let's continue anyway. 

Brown performed a similar feat against the Calgary Stampeders, returning a kickoff for 97 yards and a touchdown. Essentially, teams would do well to keep the ball away from him at the moment. 

Unfortunately, this is a good news-bad news scenario, because the Lions actually dropped the game 39-38 to the Alouettes. 

The Vancouver Sun mentions magnificent kick returns were contagious during the game. Montreal's Tyron Carrier had a 90-yard return for a TD and procured "274 yards in total, on seven punt and five kickoff returns."

We might be thinking the same thing: I simply must catch up on my CFL watching. Do they even allow defense to take the field up north? I certainly hope not, because it sounds like they have a good thing going. 

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After a dismal 1-6 start to the season, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers decided it was time for another major shake-up. After ousting CEO Garth Buchko and GM Joe Mack last week, the Bombers fired offensive coordinator Gary Crowton on Sunday.

Crowton's firing came after the team's 37-18 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at home on Friday, the Bombers' fifth consecutive loss.

Crowton's inability to get the passing game going led to his removal, as the Bombers have yet to find a solid solution at quarterback.  While running back Chad Simpson has been solid for the team, racking up 477 yards and five touchdowns with a 5.2 yards-per-carry average, the Winnipeg QB's have failed to match his level of play.

Buck Pierce started the season as the Bombers' QB but was ineffective.  He has thrown for only 854 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions so far.  He was then replaced by Justin Goltz, who didn't fare much better.  Goltz has 476 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and only a 57.7 completion percentage.

For Friday's game against the Ticats, the Bombers turned to a player making his CFL debut, former Arizona Cardinal and BYU Cougar QB Max Hall. In the first half of the game, Hall was impressive enough, going 10-12 for 129 yards and a touchdown.  After getting banged up in the second half, however, Hall started to falter, and finished the game with 241 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

While Hall is likely to get another chance, the same cannot be said for Crowton. Marcel Bellefeuille, who has been with the team for only a week, will take over Crowton's duties for the rest of the season.

The Calgary Stampeders resume their 2013 season this weekend with a matchup against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

After a decisive 37-24 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers two weekends ago featuring an outstanding performance by third-string quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, the quarterback situation remains murky for the Stamps.

Although Calgary head coach John Hufnagel has already announced that Drew Tate is healthy and will be the starter against the Roughriders, the fact that Mitchell's very first CFL start earned him the league's Offensive Player of the Week award means that Calgary has three athletes who can fill that role on any given night.

Kevin Glenn has done an admirable job over the last two years in backing up Tate, including last season when he wound up as Calgary's starter for most of the season after Tate went down with an injury in Week Two. Glenn stepped up and guided the Stamps all the way to the playoffs, then took over again for the Grey Cup when Tate was re-injured in the Western final.

There are a couple realities that Calgary will have to deal with in the coming weeks and months.

The first one is that Tate is proving to be fragile. While he has been a major asset when he's on the field, he has never played in more than 15 games in a season. He has to have a reliable backup waiting in the wings to step in the next time he goes down. 

Right now, that backup is Glenn, but Mitchell could just as easily be that guy if he is capable of continuing to put up the numbers he already has this season.

The second reality is that next year's CFL expansion draft will mean giving up some assets. With the depth of talent that the Stampeders have at quarterback, it is a virtual certainty that the Ottawa Redblacks will snap up one of them.

Given that Glenn is 34 years old, it seems unlikely that Ottawa would take him. Building a new franchise around a player in his mid-30s doesn't make much sense, which means he's probably safe to leave exposed for the draft. That means the Stamps must decide whether to protect Tate or Mitchell.

Tate's health is a question mark, although he is right in the prime of his professional life. Mitchell, on the other hand, is younger and has a ton of upside with a few more years to continue to develop.

It seems to me that the right play will be to protect Mitchell and leave Tate available to be taken by the Redblacks.

It also seems to me that Calgary would do well to give Mitchell more time under centre to gain experience if they want to designate him as the quarterback of the future. That means spreading the workload around a little more as this season wears on.

In the meantime, it looks like the lion's share of the snaps will be taken by Tate while Hufnagel crosses his fingers that nothing else happens to his star QB.

August 7 Update: It seems that Drew Tate's arm injury will sideline him for at least one more week. According to CFL.ca, Tate's forearm strain has flared up again this week, putting him on the bench once again. Kevin Glenn gets the nod as the starter while Bo Levi Mitchell will serve as the backup.

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It is never a dull week in the CFL, and week five of the 2013 season was no different. With byes quickly approaching in weeks six and seven, teams were looking to enter their rest week on a high note.

Week five saw the Edmonton Eskimos lose on the road in Montreal, the Calgary Stampeders beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Saskatchewan Roughriders remain undefeated against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts top the BC Lions.

Backups

It was a week of backup quarterbacks in the CFL, as four of the eight starting quarterbacks were replacements. However, inexperience did not appear to play a role this week as all the backups put up some impressive numbers.

Drew Willy started for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and kept their undefeated record intact. Willy threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns on the road.

In Winnipeg, Bo Mitchell started his first CFL game for the Calgary Stampeders, and he completed 29 of 33 passes for 376 yards and three touchdowns. His counter part for the Blue Bombers, Justin Goltz, completed 19 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns.

The final backup quarterback getting a start in week five was Zack Collaros. With the Argonauts bye week coming up, the team was likely just being cautious with Ricky Ray, but the plan did not backfire.

The Argonauts adjusted their game plan and used Collaros’ skill set to perfection. He finished with 28 yards rushing, 253 through the air and 3 touchdowns en route to a 38-12 victory.

Riders remain undefeated

The Saskatchewan Roughriders went on the to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and did exactly what they needed to in order to remain undefeated.

With starting quarterback Darian Durant sidelined, the Roughriders relied on the return of Geroy Simon and running back Kory Sheets to beat the Tiger-Cats. Simon caught his first TD pass of the season, and Sheets rumbled for 140 yards on the ground.

It appears the Roughriders can do no wrong for now. If a backup quarterback can win on the road, perhaps the Roughriders are for real.

Kory Sheets

Kory Sheets, the Saskatchewan Roughriders breakout running back, continued to tear up defenses in week five. He rushed for 140 yards on 25 carries and added two catches for 29 yards.

Sheets became the first player in CFL history to rush for over 100 yards in each of his teams first five regular season games. If he can keep up this torrid pace, he will shatter Mike Pringle's single season rushing record by nearly 500 yards.

Alexander Robinson

Three years ago, when the Toronto Argonauts drafted Alexander Robinson, they were drafting an athletic Canadian who they expected to play defensive end and special teams.

Fast forward to 2013, and Robinson has been asked to help out all over the field. He has taken snaps at fullback and linebacker in practice, seen game action at defensive end and on special teams and even handled kickoff duties in week one.

In week five, Robinson caught the first two passes of his CFL career. Both came on the same drive, in the red zone, with the second one ending in a touchdown.

There does not appear to be much the team won’t ask him to do. Week five may have been the beginning of his coming out party.

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Although the Calgary Stampeders picked up a huge win last weekend against the Montreal Alouettes, coming from way behind to earn the 38-27 victory, it came with a price.

Backup quarterback Kevin Glenn, starting in place of injured No. 1 QB Drew Tate, suffered an arm injury in the second half, forcing the Stamps to go to third-string pivot Bo Levi Mitchell.

Mitchell acquitted himself well late in the game, completing seven of 13 passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns while also adding 29 rushing yards on three carries.

Calgary head coach and general manager John Hufnagel has confirmed that Kevin Glenn's injury will keep him out of the starting role this coming weekend when the Stampeders travel to Winnipeg to face the Blue Bombers. Calgary Sun reporter Scott Mitchell reported via Twitter on Wednesday:

Hufnagel said QB will be a gameday decision. It's either Bo Levi or Tate. KG will be 3rd string #calstampeders #cfl

— Scott Mitchell (@SUNMitchell) July 24, 2013

Whether or not Tate takes his spot under centre will depend entirely on the condition of his arm, and it seems likely that, given the fragility he has shown in the past couple of years, they won't put him in that situation until he is 100 percent healthy.

That means it might be time for Mitchell to see his first CFL start.

Although most of his game reps to date have been in short yardage situations—he has more rushes (41) than pass attempts (34) since his arrival with the Stamps in 2012—his passing so far has been decent, completing 55.9 percent of his attempts for a solid passer's rating of 90. 

Add in the fact that the Blue Bombers could be vulnerable—they've started the season with a 1-3 record and they'll be starting backup quarterback Justin Goltz because No. 1 QB Buck Pierce is also hurt—and this might be the perfect situation to see what Mitchell can do. 

On the other hand, the Bombers have already picked up 19 sacks in just four games, and all that pressure could break the untested young pivot.

When you add all of the factors up, however, it seems like this is the time to give Mitchell his shot, if he's ever going to get one. The Blue Bombers are a soft opponent, notwithstanding their pass rush, which gives Mitchell his best chance to have a positive impact. 

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Unfortunately for print journalism, it’s not easy to take back words that have been inked in 64-point font on the front page of your latest edition.

Editors cannot just call down to a flock of newsies singing show tunes in the town square and order them to steal the paper back from their customers, which is what I’m sure the Edmonton Sun wishes it could have done after a recent headline snafu, via Rick Chandler of SportsGrid.

In the name of previewing its readership on the progress of the Edmonton Eskimos, the publication printed this headline regarding the CFL team’s participation in a preseason training camp.

Hmmm...that “pun” tastes like regret, with a smack of insensitivity some could mistake for antisemitism. 

If you’re missing the boat on this one, the Sun’s “Camp Concentration” headline was considered by readers to be a play on words concerning Nazi concentration camps implemented in World War II. 

People weren’t too jazzed about it, probably because most people like football with their football as opposed to loose allusions to 20th century war crimes.

The Sun apologized via Twitter about the headline gaffe, saying it was an “error” and “extremely insensitive.”

Mistakes happen, and in this instance, I highly doubt a Canadian newspaper was looking to stick it to the Chosen People with a front-page story about a local football team.

With that being said, they might want to cool the jets on the cleverness until this whole prison camp thing blows over, lest they risk the wrath of Snape. 

Print media isn’t dead, but outlets aren’t doing themselves any favors when they begin testing the Holocaust waters.

It's been 70 years, and yes—it’s still too soon.

In a weekend ceremony, the new Ottawa franchise made official what most people already knew was coming. The CFL's newest franchise will be called the REDBLACKS when they begin play in 2014.

Apparently team management thinks this new name is "edgy". According to cfl.ca, Jeff Hunt, president of the sports division of Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), had this to say at a special event to unveil the team name and logo: 

We are thrilled to confirm our team nick name and logo design and to finally be able to tell the story behind them. REDBLACKS represents Ottawa’s sports history and pays tribute to the Ottawa men and women who serve our country.  From the original Rough Riders in the 1890’s to the modern Ottawa Senators Hockey Club, red and black are the colours of Ottawa sport.  They are also the ceremonial colours of Ottawa’s Cameron Highlanders, the Governor General’s Foot Guards and the RCMP.  REDBLACKS gives us the opportunity to recognize our past and, at the same time, establish a fresh new identity for our team’s future.  It’s unique, maybe even a little edgy, and it’s a brand that we think will stand the test of time.

The new team logo, revealed at the same time, retains a similar look to the logo of the Ottawa Rough Riders of years past—with a large "R" as the focal point. The REDBLACKS' logo features the "R" on top of a saw blade background, which, according to REDBLACKS governor and OSEG partner Jon Ruddy:

... represents many of the characteristics we hope our players will demonstrate; speed, unstoppable  force, precision, balance, strong-as-steel and even dangerous.  It also has a relationship to Ottawa’s founding as a lumber industry town. 

Sentiment around the Internet appears to be mixed about the name. Numerous commenters on Twitter have criticized the moniker, with only a smattering of praise:

OK I will admit it...I like the name #RedBlacks. #OttawaRedBlacks

— Savi Sr. (@SavMoney1point0) June 11, 2013

I'm afraid I have to side with the majority in this debate. While management seems to have come up with several reasons to choose REDBLACKS over every other name that could have been associated with Ottawa, it just leaves me cold.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen Ottawa readopt the Rough Riders title, but of course the Saskatchewan Roughriders would have none of that. But even so, there surely must have been a better, more fearsome name out there for the new CFL franchise.

Governors? Parliamentarians? Footballers? Lawmakers? There had to be a better option than REDBLACKS.

And while we're on the subject, what's with going all caps with the name? Did they figure that it would be more bold and impressive if written like that? To me it just looks like a gimmick to distract from the fact that the team settled on an unimaginative, uninspired name—and that's not a good sign. Not to mention how all caps is considered shouting in our modern, Internet-driven world.

On the upside, in a couple seasons we'll all be used to calling the team the REDBLACKS and the naming controversy will be in the past. For now, however, it looks to me like a first, big misstep to kick off the new franchise.

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