Steve Milton: Tiger-Cats look for different start in Winnipeg
As the Hamilton Tiger-Cats head for their opener in Winnipeg Friday night, here's a graphic reminder of how seriously things can change in the season after a losing record.
Of the seven Ticats who this week were selected to TSN's annual list of the top 50 CFL players, four of them were not even with the 'Cats during November's early playoff exit.
Only dominant receiver Tim White (ranked No. 15), franchise guard Brandon Revenberg (22) and versatile safety Tunde Adeleke (35) dressed for the Ticats' loss to the Montreal Alouettes in the 2022 East semifinal. The other Hamilton top 50s - quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell (No. 20), linebacker Jameer Thurman (25), running back James Butler (33) and defensive end Ja'Gared Davis (42) - were with other teams.
There are different faces," head coach Orlondo Steinauer said just before the club departed for Manitoba Thursday. Some of the different faces are inexperienced faces, meaning first-year, second-year players in the CFL, but we've also acquired experience that are new faces. They're separate. If you're comparing the two rosters, it definitely looks different. But what that looks like on the field, playing a game, is really what's most important."
The refurbished Ticats aren't exactly wading into the shallow end. Winnipeg has been in the last three Grey Cups, winning the first two against Hamilton, then losing last year to Toronto, where the Ticats play their second game of the season a week from Sunday.
What else do you want?" Mitchell asked rhetorically. The best test you can possibly have is the team that's been kind of running the league for a couple of years, in their stadium, and the Grey Cup champions in their stadium."
What else" everyone in Hamilton wants is a better start. The Ticats have won their first game of the season just twice since 2005 and only four times in this entire century, which is no longer young. They opened 0-4 last year and spent three months struggling to shinny up the greased walls of that deep hole.
It's clear that the Ticat brain trust wanted a tougher team this year, not only emotionally but physically. So Thurman comes in at middle linebacker; the punishing but also quick, 1,000-yard-rushing Butler is the feature at running back; big, hard-nosed Duke Williams will be one of Mitchell's primary possession targets; Javien Elliott was scooped to play boundary defensive half; confrontational wide-side linebacker Chris Edwards came over from Toronto; mountainous Joel Figueroa, who started his CFL career here a decade ago, is at the key protection spot at left tackle; and it goes on through the depth players.
Although it doesn't end there, it all definitely begins with Mitchell. He is the linchpin of the new look, the bearer of Cup rings, the owner of the highest winning percentage of any quarterback in CFL history, and possessor of an excellent (12-5) career record against the Blue Bombers, albeit at the helm of the consistently deep Stampeders.
Excited, anxious, nervous, just ready to have some fun," Mitchell said on the eve of his first regular-season game after 10 years in Calgary. All the emotions you have when you play for the first time, and are deciding what our kind of football is going to be."
Mitchell played only a couple of series during the pre-season and will be without two big receivers whom, two weeks ago, he thought would be in central roles. Sophomore Ticat Anthony Johnson will return from injury in two or three games, but six-foot-six rookie Justin McGriff is out for the season with a lower body injury incurred last week in a still-unexplained accident off the field.
But Mitchell still has Williams, the dynamic White, Butler to pound the ball and swing out of the backfield, underrated Canadians Kiondre Smith and Tyler Ternowski, and Americans Terry Godwin and Omar Bayless. If Mitchell gets the protection, it can be a productive quick-strike unit.
But when you're playing the Bombers that's always a big if" because of their defensive ends Willie Jefferson and Jackson Jeffcoat and linebacker Adam Bighill.
Rankings are only rankings but they're based on history, and the Bombers had seven players rated in the CFL's top 10, including No. 1 Zach Collaros, the former Ticat star quarterback. He's got a bunch of versatile weapons including wide receivers Dalton Schoen, Kenny Lawler and Nic Demski, and homegrown running back Brady Oliviera. And a big, proven, unified line in front of him.
Zach is one of the top quarterbacks in this league," Adeleke says. He's good on his feet and he makes all the plays on the field but we've beaten him before. He's human. They're a team that has been in the Grey Cup the last three years and it'll be a gauge of how good we are."
Overall, there are a dozen new starters - half the team - but it all depends upon on how you do the arithmetic. It's too complicated for this space, but the CFL has five different roster categories, including national Americans and designated nationals, each with their own regulations. So while the depth chart will indicate that, for instance, Duke Williams isn't starting at receiver, that's only for the first play of the game. You know he's going to be playing the rest of the way.
Let's just say it's different," Steinauer smiles. But every team is faced with the same thing."
Making too many turnovers and failing to create enough of them, penalties at critical times, missed tackles, the odd bad punt and the failure to adequately adjust during halftime, all plagued last year's team from Day Alpha to Day Omega and this season the Ticats are looking for sturdier rudders from the outset.
I see a talented team," Mitchell says. But talent doesn't get you far if you don't have execution. We have to put what we have on paper out there on the field."
Cats Clauses: LT Joel Figueroa is a game-time decision. If he can't go, Brandon Kemp will move to the game roster ... In splitting two games with the Bombers last season, the Ticats outscored Winnipeg 43-28 in the first halves and were outscored 29-17 in the second ... Since their inception, the Ticats are a cumulative 28-44 against the Bombers, but they're 8-7 in regular-season play since 2014, the year they moved into Tim Hortons Field ... Australian Bailey Flint is the starting Ticat punter and backup QB Matt Shiltz will hold for K Seth Small, who returned to the team this week.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com
Game 1
Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Friday, June 9, 8:30 p.m. ET
Investors Group Field
TV: TSN
Live Video Stream: TSN.ca, CFL+
Live Audio Stream: Ticats Audio Network
Radio: Ticats Audio Network, AM900 CHML