It's Game Day

Man that feels good to say! Today is the day we get to return to our seats at Mosaic and kick another great season of Rider football.

Its kinda sad that I'm looking forward to a game that will likely be played in the rain by a bunch of people who will probably never be heard from again. But I'm pumped, I can't help it.

I enjoy preseason games, not just because we get to see the new recruits see their first live action (and we begin to separate the over-hyped Joe Sykes' of the world from the legitimate Jerrell Freeman's of the world.). I also like because its preseason for the fans too. I don't have to get all stressed about the game. I can relax, take in some mediocre at best football action and begin charting my list of future cuts.

There will be 4 things I will be focusing on during the game. 1) The play of our centres 2) Our performance on special teams (given that we seem to have devoted half of training camp to it) 3) whether some rookie returner has a brain fart and calls for a fair catch (fingers crossed) and 4) I will be scouting for new people to add to my hatred list. While Dinwiddie still dominates that list, the departures of Omarr Morgan and Jim Daley have created a couple openings. (The good news is that there aren't any logical successors, which is a good sign)

- Look for Marc Mueller to get the token 4th quarter apearance purely for good PR... or as it is more commonly known "the Teale Orban Special". Honestly I don't think ET would have signed Mueller if the Esks didn't play us in the preseason.

- Also look for Mueller to be cut prior to the plane ride home so they don't have to pay for a ticket back to Edmonton for him.

For god's sake bring a roster to the game or even the most devout fans will get confused over who the hell is out there. If you happen to forget one, you are probably best to just drink until you think our starters are still out there. These will be the people cursing Durant's name in the 4th quarter when a white QB wearing #8 throws a pick.

See you in the stands

Monday Morning Sentimonies: I Have A Problem

My name is Rider Prophet and I have a confession…I’m addicted to Rider football (I’m also addicted to caffeine, whiskey, rage-ahol, sports-related gambling and a few other things I should probably seek help for, but that’s a topic for another day). 

It’s been almost 7 months since my last fix. I went through withdrawals the whole offseason.  At first even the smallest things were enough to keep me going: a free agent signing, new Rider paraphernalia at the LB, the draft. But eventually it got to the point where only the real thing would do.

The opening of training camp helped quell my cravings for the real thing… for a bit. But after 13 days, I’m just not getting the same high I used to. My cravings have gotten so bad that not only I’m actually looking forward to a Rider football game that will dominated by players that will soon be cut … I’m also looking forward to watching other teams’ field their future cuts just so I can get my football fix.

While the right thing to do would be to try and conquer my addiction, I’ve never been big on doing the right thing. And besides, I am just going to relapse anyway when the preseason kicks off on Friday so I’m just going to accept my fate, get pumped for Friday, drink some whiskey, punch a cat and bet on elementary school track meets.

Until we actually get to see the players in game action, there’s not a lot of news coming out of training camp. Its same old, same old. I guess on one hand we should be happy that training camp seems to be running smoothly and the competition is still fairly close. On the other, as someone who blogs on a regular basis (I said regular… not timely), it would be nice if I had something to talk about.

Oh well, Friday will be here soon enough… and we will all get to return to our beloved football stadium to watch out beloved Riders (as well as the not so beloved ones… and even Ryan Dinwiddie).

In the meantime, there are a few good stories from around the league that warrant my patent-pending hilarious commentary on.

- The Calgary Stampeders signed a player called Scorpio Babers. Scorpio! As if that is not one of the awesomest names ever! (**Note: Upon further review, Scorpio’s mom apparently named him after a character on General Hospital.  Though the association with a soap opera certainly drops it down the scale of manliness, I still contend Scorpio is a great name)

- Word out of Montreal is that the starting kicker job is Sean Whyte’s to lose. He is getting significantly more reps in practice… which of course is royally pissing of everyone’s favourite prima donna Sandro DeAngelis. Is it wrong to take so much pleasure in this guy’s pain? It would be harder to hate the guy if he wasn’t so full of himself and delusional about his awesomeness. First he gets cut from Hamilton since they paid him as the league’s top kicker but his performance didn’t crack the top 5. Rather than be a man and accept the fact that he had a bad year, he blamed it on being distracted by doing home renos. Now he shows up in Montreal and is insulted when they don’t immediately appoint his as the unquestioned starter. “What me compete for a job? But I’m the best ever. You should be grateful to have me.” I wonder if we all chipped in some money if we could convince Burke Dales to fly out there and punch Sandro? I would donate heavily to that cause.

- BC has some disgruntled vets of their own. Apparently Dante Marsh and Ryan Phillips are mad that Wally chose to extend the contracts of some players and not them. . How dare he expect a player to adhere to the contract terms they both agreed to!Didn't Buono know that when Phillips and Marsh said they agreed to a 3 year deal what they meant was a 2 year deal that automatically got extended indefinitely? 

PS - Now that I have defended Wally Buono, I feel dirty and need to go take a shower.

Fantas-Eh Launches for 2011

Here's something for the fantasy sports addicts out there. The only Canadian fantasy football site on the web has launched for the 2011. I highly recommned you check out www.fantaseh.ca and join a league. I makes our great Canadian game even better.

For the second year in a row, they guys at fantasy have chosen the Rider Prophet as their resident fantasy expert. The first, best and only CFL Fantasy expert. When you sign up you will have the option to purchase a draft package prepared by me including position analysis and rankings and all the information you need to dominate your league in 2011 (unless of course more than one person in a given league reads the package... in which case I make no guarantees). My regular Fantas-Eh column Prophet's Picks will be starting soon, your source for CFL fantasy information throughout the season.

For those of you unfamiliar with Canadian fantasy football it is pretty much the exact same as its American counterpart with a few exceptions:

- Statistics are measured in metres not yards.

- Given the current exchange rate, a typical fantasy point is worth 1.02 Fantas-Eh points.

- The injured reserve is publicly funded by all Fantas-Eh participants

- Team names and rosters must be published in English and French

- After you win, an email of apology is automatically sent to the losing team. 

- Each week of play commences with the national anthem sung by Bryan Adams, Shania Twain or Celine Dion (commissioner's choice)

- and most importantly all transactions are ultimately subject to the approval of the queen.

Be sure to check out www.fantaseh.ca for all this and more.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Let The Competition Begin

What a great day Sunday was! The sun was out, no a cloud in the sky, birds were having sex with bees (or so it is to my understanding). And most importantly main camp opened for the Riders! It was great to be back in the stands watching our beloved Riders (and even the less beloved ones) back in action.

Unfortunately I didn’t make it up for the first practice of the day which started at 8 in the morning. I have trouble getting up for work at 8 in the morning and I have incentives such as the fact that they pay me and would likely stop paying me if I stopped coming in at 8. Good luck getting me out of bed that early with no incentives.

We did make it for the second session and here are some random observations (as if I ever have any other kind of observations).

-       Durant and Dressler look like they haven’t missed a beat. Both look in all-star form (Dressler in particular)

-       Getzlaf also looks to have not missed a beat and by that I mean he showed off his inconsistent hands. When you look at how successful he has been so far in his career despite fighting the ball at times, it makes you wonder just how high his ceiling would be if he became damn-near automatic like Fantuz was.

-       Given that I missed the first 20 minutes of the days practice, I naturally missed “healthy” Aaron Fairooz. He yet again succumbed to injury this time less than an hour into the year’s first practice. Since we inexplicably kept him all last year he now counts as a veteran and can’t be cut while injured so it looks like were stuck with him and his toothpick legs occupying our injury list for the foreseeable future.  At this point I can’t tell if Fairooz delusionally thinks he can make it in the pros or has just figured out an ingenious way to ensure job security with minimal work on his part.

-       Oh how I missed Eddie Johnson! He was just booming punts. He eventually got bored with that and started kicking with his left foot. The other punters were close to his range but nowhere near his hang time. I suggest they think about growing moustaches as that seems to be the key to Johnson’s success.

-       FGs is another story for Johnson though. He has one kind of kick… line drive, even on short chip shots. Can’t say I’m overly confident in that.

-       Fortunately our Special Teams coach is actually doing what we pay him to do and had the team practicing missed FG coverage. This is a remarkable change in philosophy from our previous ST coach whose plan was assume we will never miss and stand idly dumfounded when it happens… repeatedly.

-       It looks like it will be the battle of George Hudson and Marc Parenteau for centre.  I get the preference to put a vet there but man would I love a Nick Hutchins or Alex Krausnick-Groh to step up so we can have a long-term solution to that spot as we had in the past.

-       Say what you will about Cates but with the effort he is showing I don’t see anyone unseating him at RB anytime soon.

-       I watched one series of the bonsai drill with Dinwiddie at the helm… it went interception, sack, incompletion. My mother always said if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all… umm… err… I appreciate the consistent level of play Dinwiddie always brings. 

-       Kornegay and Graham appear to be the early favourite’s on the corners. With Patrick, Frazier and McKenzie inside this has the makings of a very good secondary.

-       Toss in Freeman, Simpson and Lucas (assuming he’s decide to quit sucking this year) at LB and Hawkins, Shologan and Romero up front and all of a sudden you have what could be an awesome defensive unit! I’m pretty pumped about it.

-       For now it appears Mullinder/Shomari will man the other DE spot for ratio reasons. I think we could probably do better at that spot but given the other guys on the D-line I think that we’ll be fine if that’s the direction we end up going.

-       Efrem Hill looked decent but I still hope he doesn’t make the team because he is forever tainted in my mind by the association with Efrem the retarded rabbit.

-       Terrence Nunn continues to impress.

Coach Marshall will have to make his first round of cuts tomorrow.  By my count 7 people will have to go home, though expect at least a few of those to stick around town for a while as generally happens. Or maybe Marshall will just take the numbers off their jerseys like he did for the mystery punters (one of whom turned out to be Jake Harfman) and pretend like they aren’t there.

How Friday Update: Main Camp Is Nigh

Rookie camp wrapped up today. Normally this means that a few Rider hopefuls would be on a plane home before we even got to learn their name. This year however, apparently the deadlines for cutting training camp rosters down to the mandated 68 plus exemptions (juniors, draft picks, undrafted Canadians) has been extended until Tuesday so it’s unlikely any cuts will be made before them. It’s probably a good sign that nobody was bad enough in rookie camp to earn an early exit. The downside is that the Riders will have to coordinate 83 bodies (at last count) come Sunday when main camp opens which will certainly have its logistical challenges and cut down on the number of reps each player will get. The 83 bodies doesn’t include 2 mysterious and unnamed kickers who participated in practice today. The Riders are pretty much denying their existence leaving only 3 possible explanations for their sighting (assuming we believe everything the team says to be 100% truthful ;) ): Poltergeists, 2 guys just saw a line and stood in it and ended up on the field kicker or Duncan O’Mahony got lost at the airport again while trying to get to Winnipeg.

Though the overall talent level of the rookies seems to be pretty good there were a few players that stood out. DE Calvin Fance showed a ton of hustle and should provide good competition for our vets. LB Jeremiah Weatherspoon should similar hustle and demonstrated good quickness and explosiveness throughout camp. Draft pick Craig Butler has done a good job of validating his status as our top draft choice. WR Terrence Nunn as been the most consistent performer among the receivers. And RB Brandon West has been turning some heads with his speed and pass catching abilities and should add an interesting dimension in the competition at RB.

The rookies are all in tough though as there are very few spots to vie for in our veteran laden team. Here’s a quick rundown of what I see as the top 3 position battles to watch once camp opens Sunday.

Centre – For the first time since 1999 (when TLC’s “No Scrubs” and Lou Bega’s Mambo #5 ruled the airwaves) we are in need of a new anchor for our O-line due to Jeremy O’Day’s retirement. Marc Parenteau would appear to be the early favourite as he is the most experienced but he will be pushed hard by Nick Hutchins who we have been grooming since drafting him in 2009. Also in the mix will be youngsters Justin Glover and Alexander Krausnick-Groh (who can be considered long shots) as well as the emergency back-up Gene Makowsky (who’s head size and age are both greater than the sum of the 2 aforementioned youngsters).

Starting Receivers - Thanks to Da Bears and flimsy ACLs we are entering 2011 without 2 elite Canadian receivers in Fantuz and Bagg. Getzlaf, Clermont and Koch will be expected to play a bigger role this year. The team is hoping Sisco and Cetoute can prove themselves worthy of some starting reps. We will also likely be looking for 1 or 2 imports to join the mix with Nunn, Wheelright and Hill looking to be the top contenders. 

Cornerbacks – Much like our receivers we are in need to 2 CBs this season. Unlike our receivers though we do not have to replace all-star calibre players so quite frankly anyone we put there should be an improvement.  Nick Graham should be the lead guy to man one of the corners and the other will be wide open. I suppose there is a chance that guys like Tamon George, Ludovic Kashindi and what’s left of Leron Mitchell could step up and keep that spot Canadian but the more likely scenario will see an import such as Tad Kornegay, John Eubanks or one of the rookies get the nod.

As always it will be exciting to watch it all unfold. I can’t wait for Sunday to get here and for main camp to open! See you in the stands!

It Must Be Rider Season

The 2011 season has been underway for only a few hours now but already it has contained all the surprising moves, injuries and down right odd occurrences of a typical Rider season.

In the surprising move category, Chris Szarka was released today. Apparently the bylaw preventing his release didn't work its way through city hall fast enough. You had to know that with the acquisition of Bell and Exume something had to give. I just really didn't think it would be Szarka. Age, salary and he fact that a true fullback isn't really a necessity anymore all played into this release. Used to be the fullback's job was to block a lot and run the ball occasionally. In our pass based offense, Wes Cates effectively fills that role. Sad to see  such a storied Rider career come to an end but that's the nature of the football business.

This will create a new battle in training camp. A battle for who the fans will now complain is underused.

In the injury department, the Riders received some terrible news as Rob Bagg has re-injured his ACL and had to have another surgery. He won't be ready to play until at least Labour Day, if at all. This is terrible news for both Bagg and the Riders. If Bagg could ever get in a full season as a starting slotback I'm convinced he would be a strong contender for Most Outstanding Canadian. This now puts the pressure on Clermont, Getzlaf, Sisco and Cetoute to step up and fill the void of 2 immensely talented Canadian receivers.

And from the odd occurrences file, draft pick Matt O'Donnell will not be reporting to training camp as he has a tryout down south... not in the NFL as we are used to but with the Boston Celtics of the NBA. Making this even weirder is the fact that O'Donnell hasn't played basketball since high school. I'd say that the odds of a fat white kid who isn't a great basketball player ending up in the NBA is slim and nil but Bryant "Big Country" Reeves made a 6 year career out of similar credentials so anything can happen I guess.

Lastly, i was finally able to quench my football fix by taking in the opening day of rookie camp this afternoon with PR Guy. While its hard to get much a sense of people's abilities from day 1 since most fo them are just learning the Canadian game, here are a few random observations I had:
- Chris Leak looked bad today, hesitating on throws, bad throws. He had better pick things up quickly if he wants to stay employed.

- There was a receiver with the #13 who wasn't on the roster out there today. Not too worried about him not being on the roster, since based on his level of play I don't see him lasting long enough to learn his name anyways.

- LB Chris Graham is a big man. I really want to see him unload and cream somebody.

- Draft pick Kyle Exume looked to have pretty decent hands

- My favourtie part of the day was when they practiced falling on loose footballs with the O-linemen. nothing more entertaining that watching fat guys jump on loose balls... err on second thought strike that last comment from the record. 

-Jeremiah Weatherspoon showed good hustle (not sure if that will translate into on-field success but at least he looks like he wants it)

- Interested to see more of Brandon West in the coming days. He  showed some good hands and nice bursts of speed.

- It was weird not having little Mike Schepper yelling his lungs off at the D-line. But I guess Coach Marshall's "get bigger on the D-line" mantra extends to the coaches as well since Mike Walker is both quieter and bigger than his predecessor. though it is nicer seeing a D-Line coach who doesn't look like he might be eaten by his players between drills.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: I'm Back

The Rider Prophet is officially a married man. Saturday, me and Mrs. Prophet were wed. In what may shock many of you the ceremony was devoid of shotguns and was not performed by someone in an Elvis costume (either the church is cool with this whole blasphemous prophet thing I do or they just don't have the internet yet). Most importantly it didn't involve any major injuries or hospital visits... though there was a close call during an ill advised decision to let one of the groomsmen lift me up on his shoulders.

But now, it's back to normal. And what perfect timing as rookie camp opens on Wednesday. I'm an pumped. I would say that I'm almost as excited for CFL football to start again as I was for my wedding but since I know that Mrs. Prophet reads this, I will instead say that I'm as excited for the start of football as the wedding guests were for the toonie bar.

I'll be headed down to camp on Wednesday to get my first football fix and to check out this year's new recruits. I'll post some comments on Wednesday.

While I've been off doing this wedding stuff, there have been a few funny stories around the league. The biggest was of course the Sandro DeAngelis saga. First he got cut from Hamilton. While the timing was somewhat surprising the move hardly is as the Ticats were paying way too much money to miss FGs and piss off the locker room. What was hilarious thought was Sandro blaming his struggles on the fact that he was busy doing home renos last season. Look unless you Chris Szarka yourself, there is no excuse for not performing your job well because you were working on your house. A doctor can't get away with saying "Sorry I botched your knee surgery, I' was up late painting my den."

The story then got better as Sandro was picked up fairly quickly by the Als. The same Als who used their first round pick this year to draft a kicker. The same Als who traded next year's first rounder to BC for another kicker. So basically Montreal could end up blowing 2 first rounders on kickers that never end up playing for them. That makes me wonder if Danny Maccicocia has been hired as a behind the scenes advisor for the Als.

It's great to be back and let's all get jacked for the start of the 2011 season!!!