Of all the battles throughout the first week of training camp, the biggest one for the Ticats could be the battle against time.
Since training camp officially opened last Sunday morning, the team has managed to fit just seven practices in before their first preseason game on Monday night.
The Tiger-Cats will face the Ottawa Redblacks on Monday night, in the first game action of the entire CFL season; and while that’s more than exciting news for fans, it has put some extra pressure on the coaches and players.
“The game’s a pretty quick game after camp started,” said head coach Kent Austin, “so the preparation time isn’t as good as it could have been.”
The rest of the league’s teams will see game action throughout this week as well, with the final ‘Week 1’ preseason game taking place on June 13.
Coach Austin isn’t about to make excuses for his team, acknowledging that every team faces adversity; yet while he refused to complain about the tight timeline, he fully recognizes what it means for player evaluations.
On June 15, the league requires every team to trim down their rosters to include just 65 players; the Ticats currently have 89 on theirs.
The early preseason game does not handicap the Ticats in the sense that they have to make personnel decisions earlier than other teams; but rather, it means that players who are new to the team and new to the CFL have less time to learn the team’s system and the nuances of the Canadian game prior to getting into game action.
Because of this shortened practice time, Coach Austin and his staff know that they will have to do some ‘projection’ of players’ talents. In other words, they will need to evaluate players by what they see in practice, in hopes that those skills will translate to the game field.
While the task may be challenging for the coaching staff, Austin believes it will be eased by his dedicated and talented coaching staff. He also realizes that the process is difficult on the players, and he’s doing the best to be fair to all of them throughout the process.
“We’ll do our best in getting those evaluations done and being fair to the guys,” said Austin.
As for the players, they’ve had enough of light contact and are ready to play some football against an opponent.
“It’s going to be fun, especially getting to play against other people, getting to hit other people,” said running back Nic Grigsby.
The team has obviously been taking it relatively easy on each other, explained Grigsby, but everyone is looking forward to the contact.
“We’re a hard hitting team out there, we love the contact,” said the second-year Ticats running back, “we’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of guys who are ready to go.”
Grigsby is part of a loaded group of running backs, all of whom will be looking to establish themselves in the first preseason game of the season. CJ Gable will not participate in Monday’s game, but the running back position will definitely be one to watch during the Ticats first preseason action, as will the quarterback position.
The quarterback group behind starter Zach Collaros have all performed well in practice throughout the week, earning praise from Austin for their decision making, passing abilities and their dedication to preparation. Jeremiah Masoli, Jeff Mathews and Jacory Harris each figure to have an opportunity to show what they’ve got in Monday’s game.
“Zach [Collaros] probably will not play, and we’ll get the other guys in,” said Austin, “as far as the exact rotation, we’re still working on that.”
Tiquan Underwood and Terrence Toliver, two of the early camp standouts will get their first taste of the Canadian game on Monday, as well. The two receivers have received plenty of attention at training camp, and both are excited to show what they can do in games.
“I’m excited, we’ve been working hard,” said Underwood, “and it’s time for me, along with other rookies and guys to show the coaches what we can do out there.”
As difficult as it may be to evaluate players in such a short period of time, Coach Austin has an established way of doing it.
“We like competitive players,” said Austin, “If you don’t love the game and you’re not competitive, it’s really hard to play football.”
Competitiveness should come out in games, but it does not always has to, explained Austin, stating that it can come out in the way a player prepares for practice and how hard he practices once he’s on the field.
Defensive line coach Dennis McPhee is well aware of Austin’s philosophies as a coach, and he provided a list of the fundamental qualities the coaching staff will be looking for in Monday’s game, and throughout the rest of training camp.
“He’s always a guy that says there are three things they [the players] need,” started McPhee, “[they need to] to love the game, they need to be able to change directions, and they’ve got to want to compete all the time.”
Other guys seeing their first CFL action include Drake Nevis (DL), Julian Posey (DB), Nick Brassell (DB), Ray Holley (RB), Matthieu Girard (OL), and a large group of rookie linebackers including Byron Archambault, Ron Omara, and Jonathan Langa.
Meanwhile, Ryan Bomben (OL), Johnny Sears Jr. (DB), Seydou Haidara (WR) will see time with the Ticats for the first time after spending previous seasons elsewhere in the CFL.