Well, happy Marcust Friday here, welcome back back in the studio here,
revamped studio. Don't don't just your sets. I can talk through that.
But did some adult team that got somethings framed? And I cleaned out a
lot of the other office here kind of during the off season. But we're
coming back here today. Yeah, new revamp. Guys. Do you like
to look here a little different? Got rid of the clutter. Yeah,
it looks fantastic to me, and it's like, I don't care, let's
get clean. It's clean. I like it. Well, it was one
of those things that kind of rocked it for a couple of years. And
then Dorothy's like, you know, you know that really looks messy, and
like my friend Michael's like, you know that really looks messy, and all
the I'm like, you just just tell me and the brother will clean it
up. So we have our defend the Deep here. I got framed cracking
went through the entire losing streak I eight game while I was waiting for that
to come in. And then this is from I have my media badges.
And then when we did our pit Bull Cruise many years ago, we meet
met pit Bull and did shots with pit Bull and everything else. So they
put together all the kind of schmorgas sport of all that. So I thought
that was fun. A couple of programming notes. So we're here today.
We're going to talk CFL schedule, We're going to talk negotiations, list all
of that stuff. Amazingly, we have a CFL schedule to talk about while
still waiting on an XFL twenty twenty four schedules, and that's always fun.
We had similar feelings last year for that. But we'll talk through all that
today. I don't know how, in the interest of avoiding burnout, this
might be a little bit more how the podcast is, you know, things
happen, we'll do it. I don't know if this will read as a
Friday every week kind of guy right now with everything. You know, we
took a couple of weeks off obviously, kind of after the CFL and I
don't know, I posted on the YouTube the other week. You know,
I just don't feel good right now like posting well, people are kind of
waiting to find out about their jobs and lives and careers, so kind of
waiting that out. But you know, it's one hundred and seventy whatever weeks
of this now and if we want to get to two hundred and fifty whatever,
I think we need to go through this. So we'll kind of wagh
through all of that. And then if you are trying to get a hold
of like I have a lot of people that message me on Facebook. I've
been locked out of Facebook. Happened last year as well. My business pages
get like play. It's a whole thing. So if you like Fran,
all these people that message me, Brad, all these people that message me
on Facebook, LinkedIn message me on LinkedIn, or my best made videos Instagram
works, but my mark cast Instagram down, mark Cast Facebook down, personal
Facebook down. So it's kind of a whole lot pain in the but that
way, So I, Jason, I have you deal with that, Steven
Canada, But it really is kind of a pain in the butt. Yeah,
I think I'm actually locked out of my like Facebook thing for Hussey's Huddle,
So yeah, I'm dealing with the same thing. I'm glad I take
you on that all the time. I do tang you what, but yeah,
like this one, I'm not able to post online. So Evan,
I'm going to open my window here Evan, how have you been since kind
of the CFL buy that we've been going on. Yeah, I've been good.
I mean, you know, still waiting on news here, I think
on the XFL and USFL side of things, but at this point I'm not
holding my breath. So, you know, just been looking at some CFL
stuff. There's been some transactions, the netlist came out. We can talk
about that for a bit, along with some of the coaching changes. So
yeah, I've just been looking at that, you know, taking care of
business, and I guess life's been good. It's good. Yeah, So
we'll do the I figured we'll kind of talk scheduled today. I will go
week by week. That'll give us a good excuse to kind of talk about
you know, the Toronto Argonauts, you know, coaching, you know higher
you know moving around and the Corey mass of the world and you know BC
Lions bringing everyone back Seela here to chat it in. So that's always good
to see. So let's, I guess, first off, talk about the
schedule. Let me get pulled up here. Thank goodness, we have you
know people, And when I tweeted this yesterday, I meant this kind of
tongue in cheek, but it seemed like the CFL listened. There was the
big Hubblou last year, and we didn't get a meaningful Great Cup rematch until
it was like way into the season and Argonauts already kind of locked everything out.
Jason, here we go, we have you know what right Montreal and
the heck was in the Great coupter Montreal and Winnipeg. Here, what did
you make of this year at kicking off the season. I think it's great
that we have a Great Cup rematch. I mean, it's only been a
couple of years since we've you know, previously done this. I think Hamblton
and Winnipeg played a couple of years ago when they had played in twenty nineteen
in the Great Cups, so they have done this before. But my one
critique would be that I think the team that wins the Great Cup should have
the home game to host this. I think that this beag in Winnipeg.
I think it should really be in Montreal. But I mean, I think
I'm not really going to complain about having the Great Cup rematches the first game
of the season. Well, I think that's a fair point, and I
have my bookmarks here. I got to pull up as well, because I
know that the Tim Kapper with the Alwitz flight deck like he was upset because
they have a bunch I got some bookmarks saved and like people, you know,
because there's all these complaints and then complaints and everything about everything. But
yeah, Montreal has a bunch of Thursday games and they're you know, more
than they've ever had, and they've had historically more than everyone else. But
it is a good point. Yeah. I feel like, especially where the
Gray Cup is a neutral site, I feel like we've won the Great Cup
should be able to host that. Evan, what do you make having the
game back here at least getting the rematch out of the way. Yeah,
I agree with Jason. I think it's good that, you know, we
finally are getting a rematch, and that was one of the things that people
were talking a lot about, you know, scheduling wise, was not having
the Great Cup rematch last year in Week one between Toronto and Winnipeg. And
then when that game did happen, it was pretty much meaningless because Toronto sitting
a lot of their guys really just didn't have the same feel to it.
But I agree with Jason, I feel like not having the game in Montreal
is a significant you know, critique or something that would you know, not
negate not negate the matchup right, because I feel like it'll still be a
good game. There'll still be a lot of hype around that. But yeah,
I think it was Darnel Sanki who put it up and he said,
you know, typically I think if the team you know wins the game,
they're the one who gets to host you know, the game in the in
the following season. But you know, the CFL schedule, right when it's
twenty one week season with only nine teams, you know, you're just gonna
have to, you know, make do with some things, and I think
in this case, you know, that's one of them. I'm just glad
that we're getting the rematch. I don't really care where it's being played,
you know. I know that maybe some Montreal fans might find that disrespectful,
but I think this will be a good way to start the CFL season.
Definitely. Well, is someone that you know, presumably here will you know,
go live for for the you know kickoff at least feels like a really
hot game. To me. It was like BC at Calgary last year or
something. It was a really innoculous game, like it just didn't it didn't
have and I think they tried to say, well, this is you know
whatever and historically, but I think this is cool. It sells itself.
I mean, we have graphics built already. In terms of any other Gray
Cup fallout, Jason anything from this, I know Cody's been talking a lot
and he was on Rogero anything else following out with Winnipeg, and it seems
like the band is ready to kind of stick back in there where this is
going to be you know, we're still going to go through free agency and
all that, but feels like this this is going to be a complete team
again next year. Yeah. I think that. You know, for the
most part, the core of that team is still intact. But there are
a few guys that, I think Mike O'Shea, the head coach said that
are still considering retirement. So I'm looking at guys like Stanley Bryant and the
O, JaMarcus Hardrick, guys that haven't brought up on the Great Cup Show.
So still waiting on those guys. But I think in terms of you
know, the quarterback, the receivers, those kind of guys will be back
and if those guys are intact, they're gonna be a you know, threatening
team again. So the other highlights they had here, and they talked about
this, I think when Ambrosi had his either both the state of the media
and the fan or either or. But you know, returned to the balance
schedule. Jason, we've kind of and Evan and I have entered the CFL
through all this kind of COVID world where this used to be the This wasn't
the differentiation, this was the norm, and then COVID and we're cutting down
costs and stuff. But going back to a balance schedule, is that the
thought process here? We're cutting back money for a few years, we're not
flying people from BC to Montreal or whatever. Yeah, I mean I think
that some people kind of complain that, you know, the East Division teams
would play more games against the West than they would against other Eastern teams.
So I think people like said that was the reason why the CFL did that.
But I think at the end of the day, like you said,
I think it's about cost and why they you know, cut out some of
those you know, long distance cross country trips to save a little money.
The last couple of years when the CFL is little lean in that regard,
So good to see them go back to a balance schedule. I think the
biggest thing, you know, we're what I'm looking at is do we get
a crossover team this year because the last time that we did have a balance
schedule back in twenty nineteen, we did have a crossover team and that was
the last time a team's crossed over into the East Division. So looking forward
to seeing if that's the case this year. Yeah, I always talk about
that. They always It's like I feel like when you're watching NFL right now
and they're like Chicago Bear are still alive. Like we always talk about it,
but like I would like to actually see you know, this out of
the cross I talk about consistency is key. I like the CFL summer schedule
this Thursday through Sunday. It seems like that worked a lot of Sunday night
games and then obviously going back into the Friday Saturday here in the fall,
and we're you know, have have not had any meaningful updates involved with the
CFL Plus or the CBS Sports Network or anything for US American viewers. But
Evan, in terms of that, you know, obviously shifting things away from
the NFL where we hit the fall, but there's ay through Sunday that all
works. Yeah, I mean I feel like it was very equally distributed this
summer, you know, over those four days, and I would like to
see it continue that way, and the CFL here, you know, has
clearly stated that. Yeah, I think that works out well. Just you
know, because there's not as much going on in the summer in terms of
sports, you're probably going to get more us it's viewers during that time period,
because I mean it was the NFL, but really college football kind of
started that shift, you know, And I noticed that because the second that
the college football season started, you know, there weren't a lot of games
CFL games on CBS Sports Net anymore, just because they had to take those
slots for college games, right. And then obviously, you know, once
the NFL you know, gets into full swing, you know, a couple
of weeks later whatever, you know, that also takes away. So yeah,
the schedule changes pretty quickly in the fall. But I like the summer
one. I like having you know, those couple of days, and I
know not everybody likes having you know, four days of games or whatever,
even three days. But you know, I don't mind. I think if
you you know, distribute it equally, it's just a longer week football in
general, and it feels like you get to take in more. I know,
you know, maybe if you're doing a recap or something, then you
know you're doing it on Monday. It's harder to remember what happened, you
know on Thursday, there, Friday. We've obviously dealt with that before.
But you know, other than that, I think it's good. Yeah,
it keeps it, you know. To me, it keeps the CFL and
they don't have as much a problem. I mean, this is something with
the XFL and the USNL have them existing during the week outside of their games.
I mean obviously, you know with Naylor and far Han and you know
all the Kate and kind of everyone involved in you know, the TSN and
Sportsnet and everything else, and uh, by the way, uh the sports
Net people. I would have loved to have been in those board rooms with
all the show heyo, Tawny talks we're taking down the CFL here and then
uh, you know the flight that was wild, Like if we had been
podcasting, what was that two weeks ago? That would have been wild,
but keeps the CFL more in this guys, I like it. I agree
with Evan. Sometimes on Monday you're like, what the heck happened on Thursday.
But it was so weird to me that when they announced this shift back
last year, We're gonna have more Sunday games. You know, all these
like Saskatchewan people complaining and I'm never going to go to the games on Sunday
because you know, we got to get up in the morning to drive.
I mean just Monday here we were watching what was it, the Titans,
Titans and Giants and Green Bay and all that, and like, we mean
it's eleven thirty here in New York. You're watching these games, like you
know, yeah, so don't tell me about that. I mean, people
make, you know, people make sacrifices that they need hussey thoughts on the
Sunday through or Thursday through Sunday stuff. Yeah, I agree with Evan that
it's good to have them like kind of spread out, so you know,
it keeps kind of the news cycle going throughout the week. I think that,
you know, at the end of the day, you know, I
think it's something to be said about the CFL keeping a consistent schedule of where
you know, the fans know when the games are going to be, the
consistent seven o'clock Eastern time slots to start the games every week. I think
that's really important because you look at the NFL like you know exactly when those
games are on every week. So I think that's very important and that will
help drive some viewership by itself, well not even even for that regard,
like using my mother as an example, like maybe not even know what the
game is, but knows like, hey and we're West Coast. Hey,
ten, am I have a game? So let me log on, you
know, let me pull up my Exfinity at nine and figure out kind of
what game I have? So, h yeah, you know, maybe I
don't know it's the you know, it's the Red Blacks playing whatever, but
at least I know there's going to be a game on at that time,
and if we have time, we'll get into that. I thought some of
the schedule reveals with the Lions and the argos did where they were the Titans
had done it last year, where they're showing the logos and trying to figure
all that out, and I THOWT Baker getting really chippy with at Winnipeg and
there was like a Winnipeg a BC Lions Twitter few But I thought that was
funny. And then alas and this is weird to me, and we you
know, last year we're doing the play moving the playoff games to Saturday.
I still think the Great Crump should be on Saturday, but we're doing the
Great that and like after one year, it was a resounding success for moving
forward with that. Evan, any comments, I'm mad. I mean it
seems like they're at least for the time being, really die hard on doing
the Saturday playoffs. Yeah, I mean I really don't mind. Again,
it really has to do I think with the time of year, your your
window kind of narrows when you're doing playoffs and what is it November, you
know, just because again that's like deep into the NFL season. Yeah,
I would like to have the Great Cup, you know, on a Saturday,
just because it's standard blown you're not playing other playoff games, you know.
But I didn't mind it on a Sunday, you know. I went
this year obviously with you guys, and I mean, you know, obviously
there's NFL on there's other stuff, you know, next day's Monday, which
is kind of tough if you want to go out and you know, do
whatever party after the game. But I really didn't mind it, you know.
I think those are again, those are all very nitpicky issues, maybe,
and I'm always somebody who focused is more on the grand scale of things,
you know, in terms of where a league or where a team could
improve. So overall, I'm just I'm really happy, you know, with
the way that this schedule has turned out, whether it's regular season, you
know, or the playoff structure. Has there anything else on this? Yeah,
I don't mind the Great Cups on Sunday personally because I think it's important
for the host city to be able to have that full weekend for the whole
festival aspect of it. You think of all the events that were going on
Saturday night in Hamilton that you guys attended at the Hamilton Convention Center. So
I think it's important for that aspect of things. And I think that because
the later start time of the Great Cup, it doesn't interfere as much with
the NFL side of things. It's more like a Super Bowl time kind of
kickoff. So I think at the end of the day, I think great
cups on Sunday are here to stay. Yeah, and I especially like that.
I like getting all of our work done on Saturday and being able to
just enjoy Sundays. That to me works out. I have a couple of
just wide ranging here and then we'll get into the schedule. Tim Caprire I
guess at Alwin's Flight Tech al WEF's opening the season great Cup rematch at Blue
Bamber's first time opening season in Winnipig since sixteen. I'm talking about the three
Thursday games a Sunday, Monday, one Saturday four with preseason. The other
one I thought was interesting here I had with Derek Taylor Pierce of Red Blacks
because I love Eric for all this like nerdy stats up, which is great.
Piers of the Red Blacks have the most RESTful schedule in total, the
fourteen days more rest in their opponents nine times they'll have had more rest versus
six with LASTI elks On only have four times rest versus I don't know how
you figure all this stuff out, but Jason is that exciting. I mean,
red Blacks here, Let's give him any opportunity we can here, Let's
give them more. I even tweeted because Tim Baines tweeted out, like,
oh, good to see the Red Blacks have a week one by I said,
gotta get time the round, all that time they can get. Yeah
for sure, I mean like yeah, like you said, I don't know
how Derek Taylor calculated this, but I was gonna say the same thing about
the Red Blacks make a joke about they need all the help that they can
get in this scenario. Yeah, look at this BC working on the hardest
there and you know Edmonton, you know, let's see. I hope Edmonton
maintains all that. So let's get in here us. Like we said,
we talked about a week one here, Montreal out, Winnipeg, Hamilton going
into Calgary, has Saskatchewan, the Edmonton BC at Toronto, and I think
this would be a good opportunity to talk BC in Toronto, coaching or all
that kind of stuff. But what do you make of this Hussey, your
tie Cats traveling into Calgary. Well, I mean, I'm very curious to
see the outcome for bow leave Mitchell this offseason because I mean a lot of
people complained last year that they didn't get to go to Calgary and they didn't
get the return game. Who knows if he would have been even healthy for
that game. But that's just another point altogether. But I think at the
end of the day, you know, Calgary and Hamilton playing in the first
game of the season, I think that's a pretty good matchup. I think,
you know, you Knowmilton will be interesting with the new head coach there,
and I think, you know, Calgary bringing back probably a lot of
the same group as last year in terms of, you know, the quarterback
and the head coach and whatnot. So I think it'll be interesting to see
how it plays out. I think a lot of the time, the CFL
likes to get those you know, Western teams to have their home games earlier
in the season so they don't have to deal with the weather as much later
on in the season. So I think that's big. And you see you
know, three or four West teams hosting Week one here. Yeah, Evan,
what did you make I'm talking to Hamilton and the coaching and all of
that. It was really weird. It was like last week and they had
a press release like Steinhauer has a different role now and like, by the
way, we're going to have a head coach later like, it was kind
of weird how they did that. What did you make of everything that Hamilton
did well? I actually think it was a good thing, and a lot
of people I understand, you know, the structure was strange. I think
they could have just made the announcement at once whatever. But it's really nice
to see that they were able to retain both Scott Milanovich and Orlando Steinauwer just
because I feel like, you know, Orlando Steinauer he's a very good football
mind, but maybe that team, you know, ran its course with him
at the Helm. After you go to back to back Great Cups and you're
not able to win those games, especially you know, one that went to
overtime and was ultimately a heartbreaker. I mean, both of them were,
but you know, especially the second one there in Hamilton, you know that
that was very difficult. So, you know, I think having him,
you know, still in the building and still having you know, some control
over certain decisions, I think that's a good thing. You know, I
don't think you needed to just get rid of him completely, but at the
same time, you know, having him be the head coach, you know,
it was pretty clear that maybe that wasn't going to be the best thing
moving forward. And you know, I'm really glad to see that Scott Milanovitch,
you know, got the job there in Hamilton. It was kind of
unclear where he was going to go. There was some rumblings of him going
to Saskatchewan, but that ultimately didn't happen. You know, those rumors were
clear away pretty quickly. I know we were talking about that at Great Cup,
but really the two finalists for the Saskatchewan job where Buck Peers from Winnipeg
and then Corey Mays from Toronto. Obviously, but yeah, I think Milanovitch,
you know, I think he'll do I think he'll do great things there.
You know, regardless of who the quarterback is. I know that this
game that we're talking about here between Hamilton and Calgary is supposed to be you
know, Bo Levi's return to the Stampeders. Whether or not that actually happens,
or even if he's there, is he the starting quarterback in that game?
A lot of questions around that. But regardless, you know, whoever
is the quarterback there, you know, could be Taylor Powell, could be
somebody else. You know, I think Scott Milanovitch will do good things.
Again, I keep saying it, and well I was saying it during the
season, but I'll keep saying it now even as we move into the twenty
twenty four run. You know what he did with that offense, you know,
I think that's why he got the head coaching job. Really, just
that immediate turnaround. I think that really sparked something, and that team went
from you know, maybe a situation where you go into a complete rebuild,
to hey, we can just do some restructuring here, get Milanovitch and as
the coach, you know, move Orlando to the front office with Ed Hervey,
who I believe is the new general manager there. And I think ultimately
again just being able to retain those two guys and not having one leave and
not having you know, some form of power structure. Again, I get
that it might be a bit interesting. You don't see that very often where
a coach is removed from you know, his duty but is still with the
team. You don't see that very often. But I think in this case,
it's a really good thing for the Tycats. Yeah, it's like you
said, and Jason, it seems like we had every complaint last year and
they're like we're gonna do We're gonna figure out everything that everyone complained about week
one. We're gonna fix it. We're gonna get bow Levi in the Calgary,
We're gonna do the Great Cup rematch, and we're gonna do b C
Trump. I just look at it this like this is like okay, guys,
even at this BC Toronto game closing out Sunday, like let's let's let's
see you got it CFL. CFL season is a marathon here talking Saskatchwan Edmonton
a good point to talk about Corey Mace and we kind of that happened right
after we kind of logged out everything for the season. We joked a lot
online like the the you know, the ass kiss scene that went in and
I'm sure Corey Mace is a tremendous gentleman and phenomenal football coach. I My
Twitter for about three days was like Corey Mays is crazy and he saved eighteen
children in the war and he did and you're like, guys, like I
understand that anyway, but Corey Mays couldn't be worse here in Saskatchewan. Jason,
what do you make of this? Them going on the road to going
to Edmonton here, but you know, we get the new look Rough Riders
here and he's still saying they want a Trevor Harris. I guess right.
Yeah, it seems like they're very committed to Trevor Harris going into next year.
I mean, that's one thing that Corey Mays really was adamant about in
his opening press conference with the Riders. And I think it was a good
hire. I think that in general, I prefer an offensive head coach if
I was running a football team, but I think there's still his value in
having these up and coming defensive mind especially in the CFL, where you know,
a defensive led team can make a big difference. So I think it's
gonna be very interesting to see how it works out. And about of all
the about all the hooplaw that was going on, I wrote, you know,
Corey Mason, all the you know, the cheerleading. I think that,
you know, that just goes to show you, like, there aren't
that many new faces that get into head coaching jobs in the CFL. So
I think whenever that happens, you see a lot of buzz made about it.
Yeah, I mean it's great, you know, and I'm excited.
It's something to take away, but it was you. I mean, you
would have thought that they you know, I mean, like now they influenced
Gene Jones up here out haven't gotten him involved in all that. I think
Evan and I probably would have been leading the cheerleading bandwagon. And so I
haven't any thoughts hereon Corey Mays because he missed talking about all that. Yeah.
Well, I think the one really cool part about Corey Mace is,
you know, he's the definition of a player's coach. You could tell people
immediately gravitated towards him, you know when he was hired. And you know,
I'm not gonna I'm not going to carry on whatever you're talking about in
terms of the you know, Twitter parade for Corey. I'll be a bit
more reserved with my thoughts, but there is no denying he's a good coach.
And I think the best part, you know, like I said,
he's a players coach, really cares about those guys. And he's young,
right, he's only thirty seven, believe it or not. Him and Trevor
Harris are the same age. And Trevor Harris is probably gonna be his starting
quarterback next season, which is fascinating to me. You don't see that very
often. But again, he's a young coach. He brings a fresh philosophy
to the team, one that I think they really need. I don't want
to say that things got stale over there in Regina, but you know,
I feel like he's a guy that can come in and really just you know,
almost rebrand the team in a way. You look, look at what
you know Antonio Pearce is doing with the Raiders. I think it'll be something
like that where you really see a significant culture change. So yeah, really
happy for Mace. I think that's a good hire. I was honestly surprised
that they didn't go in the direction of an offensive guy like Buck Pierce,
but I think you know, the money was right in Winnipeg for him to
stay. And again, Corey just I think brings a bit more. I
keep using the term culture, but I think he brings more of that in.
And then in terms of you know, who's gonna run the offense,
well, they just brought in Mark Mueller from Calgary, you know, to
uh to lead the offense there in Saskatchewan, and I think that was a
pretty good hire. Obviously, you know, Calgary's offense struggled a bit last
year, very up and down. Uh you know, only a few games
where they really seemed complete. But uh, you know, I think I
think that there's some potential there. You know, I think Mark Mueller again,
you know, he worked with Jake Mayer. He's worked with a lot
of these guys you know who have been successful, Mark and Michelle. I
mean again, list of names, Reggie Bagelton. So even if that offense
wasn't complete, you know, the players again that he had to work with
there in Calgary were we're you know, some of the better in the league,
no doubt. Yeah. And I think, like you were saying,
in terms of just that players coach more the leader of man at that point
of like there had been and it was so weird, like once Dickinson went
out and it was like the players didn't respect him and he had totally room
when you're like, okay, I mean you know clearly there was a lot
of like ill seated kind of things going on there. So I made a
fresh start there. This would be exciting. Yeah, crazy to think that
Trevor Harris is my age and it's still playing football in Mcadian football league is
reually remarkable. Uh do Jasey anything else on Saskatchewan. Well, I think
it's gonna be very interesting to see, you know, with this Mark Muller
hiring, the effects that it has on not only Saskatchwe but Calgary. Next
year, this Calgary's offense all of a sudden get better, because I've heard
people you know around the CFL, you know, tweet out saying that they
were kind of blaming Mark Muller a little bit for calgary struggles last year.
So maybe it could be like an addition by subtraction, not saying he's a
bad coach or anything, but maybe uh, you know, Calgary's offense does
take another step next year, and you know, maybe Saskatchwan's you know,
offense, you know, struggles a little bit. So I'm very interested to
see how it works out. Well, I mean, especially you know with
may or whatever like this might be. You know, this this is contract
year here, right, like we got to kind of figure out what we're
doing. Uh not like last year, you know we were easy. You
know, we went into Calgary kind of kicked the snot out of them BC
here uh in Toronto, uh people you know, and all the complaints about
you know, Toronto home games and everything. You get one opening weekend here,
uh BC going in. Uh I had the the the article here,
you know, retaining their whole staff, which I think is I mean,
obviously tremendously exciting. But Jason, are you surprised that, you know,
we had talked about the Ryan Phillips and the Scotts and everything in the world
like that, they're not that BC was able to retain everyone. Is that
that we paying up? Is that a lack of it? I can't imagine
it would be a lack of interest in any of the BC staff. Well,
I think it came down to the fact that there weren't that many openings
around the league this year. You had saskatchwe which is obviously you know,
you know, a full search and everything like that. They interviewed a bunch
of candidates, but Hamilton really wasn't an open you know, head coaching job
where you didn't really know that that job was open, and so until they
officially announced Milanovich as the head coach there. So I think it comes down
to the fact that there weren't that many open jobs this particular offseason, and
they'll have to wait another year in terms of you know, Ryan Phillips and
Jordan Maximmok becoming potential head coaches in the CFL. Yeah, and they made
Jordan Scotty too many and rosters. Yeah, Evan, I mean this is
exciting b C. You know, full on Gray Cup hosting here. I
mean, I think this is kind of the window and with Vernon and everything
else, are you are you thrilled as I am to have them kind of
keep all their staff together. Absolutely. I mean, both the coordinators,
Ryan Phillips and Jordan Maximik, Both of those guys, I think, you
know, we're head coaching candidates in a variety of places. But again,
you just don't know the direction in which franchises want to move in and what
openings are going to be available, Like Jason pointed out, So all those
guys I think would have been finalists for you know, any openings like there
would have been interviewed, things of that nature, but that didn't happen,
and BC gets to keep them. And I think that's really significant because I
think those two guys you know, did a fantastic job in twenty twenty three,
and it's very rare to have you know, two coordinators on your staff,
who again would both be head coaching candidates. You know, that could
create some significant losses if they were to take other jobs, but again they
didn't. Those opportunities were not available, and therefore, you know, BC
has taken that to their advantage keeping both of those guys. I think that
makes them, you know, an incredibly strong team next year. Yeah,
I mean, what else do you say, right? I mean, it's
just that the work there has already spoken for itself. So I'm excited to
see, you know, what they can do next year. And really,
I mean, if we want to talk about BC here for a minute briefly,
I don't want to say. I mean, I really don't want to
say next year's make or break. I could have said that this year,
you know, right, I mean being in the West Final with Winnipeg again,
which we literally predicted probably six months before it actually happened. It just
seemed like all signs reporting in that direction very well could happen again next year.
To be honest, we'll see you know who Winnipeg retains and you know
who goes that. There's still some uncertainty there, but you know, next
year with BC hosting the Gray Cup in Vancouver, which I think is going
to be fantastic by itself, regardless of who's playing in that game. But
you know the fact that BC's hosting next year, and you know the fact
again that they were able to retain both of their coordinators, which something tells
me that one of those guys is probably gonna leave after next year for a
job i'd have to imagine, or again at least be interviewed. You're going
to go through that cycle of uncertainty, you know next year. I mean,
you really have a chance to make a statement. Things are, you
know, lined up in the right direction. You know, Vernon, you
know clearly is your franchise guy again. Very good pick up there. I
can't underestimate, you know how good it was that they brought him over from
Montreal, you know that season and twenty two when Rourke got hurt, they
brought him in his insurance and that's paid off, I think more than anybody
could have ever imagined, you know. But we'll see. I really hope
that they can pull it off next year. I think we'd all, you
know, love to see BC at home. I know I'd love to see
that. That would make the experience just a little bit more special for me.
But yeah, man, I mean, who knows. Just really I
hope BC is reading the room in that regard. I think I'll leave it
at that well, And I think that Rick had said already and there was
the other quote coming out that you know, they're already working to retain a
lot of the players and everything, you know, I don't know. I
think it was a really stack Dak and to the point where you had that
incredible depth, Like I don't know if like if like Lucky Whitehead isn't back
this year, if I'm going to have like a you know, a heartbreak
at this point just because of kind of the use of a lot of these
players during the year, and obviously you had that death where people got hurt
and you could cycle through. But to men though, it almost feels like
there's a couple of names that maybe are more expendable than it felt like they
were going into last season. I Jason thoughts on BC and then kind of
any of the coaching of the player stuff. Yeah, I think Lucky Whitehead
will be one guy that I don't see being back, just because of how
much he was getting paid previously. I think they're probably gonna want to spend
that money elsewhere to retain other guys. I think Hollins and Hatcher are both
free agents as well, so I think they'll want to retain those guys above
Whitehead. So I think it's going to be really important for them to do
that. But I will say this, I think I'm more confident. We'll
see what happens in the offseason. I think I'm more confident BC going into
next year than I was going into this year, because I think at the
beginning of this year, I didn't think that Vernon Adams are Like I think
it was a question that Vernon Adams was a starting caliber, franchise level quarterback
in this league. And I don't have that question anymore. So I think
that's really important. And obviously the fact that they've been able to retain a
lot of their coaching staff, the entire coaching staff, and the probably retain
a lot of their players. I think I'm pretty confident in BC going into
next year. And then in terms of Toronto Evan Corey Mays and all of
that, and then right they're still working to replace him in Toronto. Kind
of any any thoughts on that, And I know Mike Mitchell's them the deep
guys. We'll get into some negotiation list here if anyone has any comments and
any of those players, but evan any thoughts on Toronto here coming back after
obviously losing and uh it was that the CFL like super Late News twitter account
tweeted the other day like Chack Kelly got picked off again by the mantra Alwitt
But I thought it was incredibly funny. But thoughts here on on Toronto hosting
BC and anything with their staff. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Toronto, I really don't have any doubts about either. I mean that team
was so complete this year. Again, you know what we'll see, Uh,
I'm sure Mike would know. I don't know how many free agents they
have to resign, and I don't have a number on that. You know,
we'll see who they're able to retain, you know, maybe bring in
a couple of new guys. But you wouldn't I mean, even if you
lose some guys, I really don't need. I really don't think you need
to bring in a whole lot there to uh, you know, to make
up for anything. I think what happened against Montreal and that uh, you
know that that game, the playoff game. Yeah, I think that was
just a whiff simply, you know, I think again just one of those
games you weren't ready. It sucked, you know again, really sucked to
see that because again that's not a game that really should define anybody's career,
especially Chad Kelly's. I think Kelly will come back next year and he'll play
just as he played this season. Again, he has shown just like guys
like Vernon Adams have and Zach Kalaro's and even Cody Fajardo now who just got
extended. And uh, these guys are franchise quarterbacks. They found a home.
They can be successful. And you know, Isual Toronto being right back
in the in the Great Cup race without a doubt. Yeah. I think
in terms of Cody as well, you know, and we've talked about this,
having Naylor commented it out it as well during the season, like it
should be a lesson you know, quarterbacks in the CFL or a commodity.
I like it might be worth same with like Jake Mayer here, it might
be worth Okay, let's work through a couple of seasons of this versus you
know, and the next thing you know you send up, yeah, you
know, talking about the al Wes Montreal like sports are weird. You know,
the Kraken just went into Chicago two weeks ago and absolutely got rocked kind
of by a team that they should have beaten, and it spiraled this whole
kind of losing streak and all that stuff. And then they just beat the
same team seven to one last night in Seattle. Like, you know,
sports are kind of weird that way. Anything else here I guess stack and
we won't do is deep obviously deep dive here with all the other weeks,
but really stacked a week one here, Jason. Anything else on that,
well, all just build on a point about Toronto. I think that one
thing to watch this offseason is that Chad Kelly goes from making basically nothing to
making six hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. So there probably will be
some loss to this roster this offseason. It just depends where those losses tend
to fall. Yeah, and that was talking about the show hey contract and
the seven hundred million and it would be like a billion dollars. Can you
imagine the billion dollars on that? So coming in here. My only big
takeaway with this a kind of glance in the head and if anyone has any
kind of standout thoughts for all this, you know, we'll kind of scroll
through all that. But yeah, Ottawa gets their first you know, the
first game. It's the first home game we're hosting on a Thursday against Winnipeg.
To me, that is kind of a bummer and snooze. And at
that point here, we already have the week one by and then we're coming
in and that's probably getting there. I can't imagine against Winnipeg. Jacent thoughts
on that, Well, it's it's worth to say it's worth pointing out that
Ottawa beat Winnipeg last year and that one of the games of the year.
So I mean, I think that's kind of the angle that they're trying to
play here. But uh, yeah, it sucks for anybody that gets that
first week by. I really feel bad for any fan that has to go
through that, Like you're excited for the season to start, Oh my team
doesn't play this week. Yeah, it's and like even with the NFL,
like it's so weird that like the Commanders didn't have their buy till last week.
It was like I didn't even know, like you're kind of living through
and then you're like, what is like, what is happening here? What's
going on? You know, Montreal going in Scotsman Hamilton, who's getting the
Toronto's got the Week two buy? Here to kind of figure out stuff with
that, Evan, did you have and I have the negotiation list here pulled
up? Did you have any names? I know you tweeted out some of
the names, anyone you wanted to talk about in particular on the winner necklace
that came out. Yeah, I mean I think if we just go,
you know, team by team, I didn't write anybody down in particular,
but there's certainly a couple of guys I can talk about. I mean,
starting with the BC Lions here first, I got the list pulled up.
Like Devron Harper, he's someone you know who's very close to me. I
interviewed him and I forget the other guy's name, Ty James. I also
I've also talked to him at Mercer. They been a very good duo in
the FCS, And I think he's a guy, you know who does have
you know, maybe a realistic chance of playing in the CFL. Because keep
in mind on the neglist. You know, some of these guys you know
that are listed probably aren't gonna play in the CFL. Every now and then
you'll get one of these really cool stories, like the one last year that
got brought up constantly was Tommy Lee Lewis, who was on the neglist in
Calgary for like seven years. They pretty much waited for his entire NFL career,
you know, to be over which span in multiple teams for him to
finally come up, and he did play. You know, he did make
an impact. It wasn't anything ridiculous because he's an older guy. Now again
they waited seven years for him or something, but you know he was there,
he did sign on and you know, did play a portion of the
season. So yeah, Devron Harper there from Mercer. Sean Chambers at Montana
State, I mean again one of the top of CS programs. They always
have a lot of guys going down to Edmonton. Holton Taylor's I don't know
if he's a free agent right now, but I believe he was with the
Seahawks out of East Carolina. Isaiah Davis again, another really good running back
from South Dakota State, another top FCS program. I would expect him to
have some NFL interest. kJ Jefferson is an interesting one. I'm not really
sure where he stands. I've seen him play before at LSU, you know,
live, so I've seen his ability again. You know, kind of
an interesting prospect again, you know, a guy that I'd really have to
dive deeper on. Cam Rising, a bigger name from Utah, didn't didn't
play this year. I don't think due to injury. But you know,
we'll see where he's at. He's going back to school for like a seventh
year. You get all these guys in college now with COVID eligibility going back
for you know, year seven. Let's see, BJ Wilson was just picked
up by the Roughnecks in the XFL. You'll see there's a couple of guys
here who do have XFL interest, you know, who signed letters of intent,
were acquired in the rookie drafts over the summer. Dresser Win quarterback from
Tennessee Martin. He was actually already with the Elks this season, you know,
signed and on for a couple of weeks to their practice roster, got
an extra few game checks. He's with the Rams now, I believe on
their practice squad or he might have been released, but he was with the
Rams. He went back, was like with them in training camp, got
cut signed with Edmonton. Couple you know, checks sitting there and then went
back to the Rams for a bit, and you know, we'll see where
he's at, you know, going into twenty twenty four. Also in regards
to Edmonton, shout out to Rick Sarahtell who's been on here before. Just
took one of the scouting jobs there with the Elks. So you know,
wow, that's exciting. The other day, what's that I said, that's
exciting. That's awesome for Rick. Yeah, no, it's good anyway,
just going down the lift here going to Calgary. Jerome Capp, that's the
name that rings the bell from Cuttstown Division two school. Believe he was with
the Jets at one point. Josh Love, former USFL player with the Michigan
Panthers there and Pittsburgh Mallers, I believe, quarterback from San Jose State.
Audentate from Florida State. I believe he was with the Bengals. That was
also a name that I was surprised to see on there. Well, maybe
not surprised, but one of those names where you're like, it'd be cool
to see him in this league, you know, I think Mike had brought
him up at one point in regards to the XFL. Just going down here
to Saskatchewan. Jerry and Ealy I believe just signed from Ole, Miss Chase
Scarber's from California. I believe he could have a CFL future again, another
quarterback. These lists are always pretty quarterback heavy. The Carrious Keys, that
one rings, the name from Tulane, you know, I've been down there
before to do work. Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Let's see Michael Ayers, I
believe from Ashland. He signed or I don't know if he signed a letter
of intent, but he was drafted by the Roughnecks in the XFL and had
some previous CFL experience before. I don't think it was with Winnipeg. It
was maybe with Ottawa, but don't quote me on that. Mark Gronowski another
guy from South Dakota State. You always see these, uh, you know,
these top FCS schools on there, the Montanas, the Dakota's, you
know, and again those guys, I mean geographically those are all pretty close
to Canada already, so it'd be fun to see some of those guys up
there. Anthony Witherstone from Merrimack I believe just signed with maybe the BattleHawks in
the XFL as of yesterday, signed a letter of intent with one of the
XFL teams, and I believe was in an NFL training camp going down the
Hamilton. Chamar Bridges, a name that rings a bell, was with the
Ravens at one point at a Division two Fort Valley State. Thomas Castelianos from
Boston College. Again, another quarterback by a guy you know who might not
have that NFL interest. He played at Boston College this year was the starter
for them. De Kwan Finn from Toledo is a is a guy that's interesting.
He'll go back to college. He's in the transfer portal right now.
I believe I don't know where he's supposed to go. But again a guy
that i I'm looking at there, you know, so again he won't be
he won't even have, you know, a pro future I don't think till
twenty twenty five. But a name to keep an eye on. He's been
one of my favorite quarterbacks to watch this year in college and to kind of
follow along. Austin Reid from Western Kentucky. Probably a guy that will have
NFL interest, I think, but you know he plays in that uh you
know, one of those wide open, you know, air raid type offenses.
Again, really liked his stuff. He played at Division two school before
he came to Western Kentucky. I believe it was West Florida, so you
know, quick rise for him. Him and again a name that I'm familiar
with, Talia tagovloa brother of Tuitago Viloa who played at Maryland started for them.
Uh you know what we'll see again that's these are just names. Nothing
really here that that's concrete. Rajon Wright I believe was there's a he has
a brother who I think is with the Cowboys. I always get a mixed
up. But he might have been the guy that was on last chance to
you. I'm not sure. But anyway, going down to Toronto, Mike
Mitchell did a deep dive on these guys, so check out day. Yeah
right. He was very fascinated by this list. I mean, I won't
talk about too many guys here just for time time's sake, but John Motocha,
the quarterback from Colorado School of Mines, just passed Tyson Bagent for the
All time passing, don't. I'm not sure if it's all time passing touchdowns
or just all time career touchdowns in general at the NC double A level.
Colorado School of Mines is a Division two school, and he passed Tyson Bagent
who's currently with the Bears and played it played at Sheppard and MATOCHI will be
in the Division two National Championship coming up against Harding, so you know,
we'll see what happens with him. John Ruis plumb Lee, that's a guy
that I've seen before live at UCF. I've actually seen him and Castilianos.
Castilianos was at UCF before he transferred to Boston College. So good to see
both of those guys here on cflagolist that they're narrating some interest. Matt Sluca
from Holy Cross is a fascinating one, very mobile guy. I want to
say he has some sort of background in lacrosse, but I could be wrong,
but I you know, I've watched him plenty again. Another FCS quarterback,
but a guy that can you know, run and throw really well,
so you know, interested to see if he latches on. Could definitely see
him, you know, coming out out and signing a CFL contract, you
know, maybe pretty quickly. Again, some of these guys will have NFL
interests, go to a camp, some of them won't. You know,
you'll see some of these guys sign on pretty quickly, just depending on you
know, that they gauge their level of interest. Going down to Ottawa,
Tim Demarrat from Fordham, I believe he was in camp with the Commanders,
a very good FCS quarterback last year in twenty two. Khalil Pimpleton. He
was on hard knocks with the lines, if I remember correctly. This's just
kind of a fun one. He played a Central Michigan. I don't actually
know a ton about him in terms of the player. And then you go
down to Montreal. There's some names here that I think are returning. Davis
Cheek was the USFL guy I believe with the New Orleans Breakers. The quarterback
Brett Gabert played at Miami. I think he's coming back Miami of Ohio,
not the school in Florida. Jerray Jenkins is the guy I'm really hoping to
see up there sign an undrafted contract with the the Jacksonville Jaguars. I believe,
you know, played at LSU back in twenty two, so I saw
him, very familiar with him. He's a he's a great player. Surprised
that he didn't, you know, latch onto a practice squad or anything like
that. Parker McKinney from Eastern Kentucky, another SCS quarterback. It's incredible how
many of them there are on this list. Probably a guy that you know
gets an NFL look. And then you know E. J. Perry from
Brown that's a USFL guy. Also played with the Michigan Panthers. Lindsay Lindsay
Scoot. It's Lindsay Scott. It's a type of there but played it incarnate
Ward obviously, you know, planning on joining the Houston Roughnecks this season if
they're around. Believed he signed the letter of intent with them, so he's
good to go. And yeah, Darwin Thompson, I think is the last
guy really worth talking about. Believe he was in the NFL for a bit,
maybe has some playing experience, so kind of a veteran in that regard.
But yeah, there's your there's your negolist guys. So that that shaved
off a couple of minutes of the stream. No, that's good, Jason,
No, because and I wanted to at least it's it's good. It's
a little deep diving because and I god knows how Evan keeps shack kind of
all this stuff, but because it was you know, I posted the other
day, and you know, they oh, like these people are like they're
in talks. It's like, no, you know, they're on the list
and they go up to Canada. Are you a proponent of the negolst here?
What do you make of this, mister north of the border. I
never get excited about the negotiating negotiation list personally, because one, they only
reveal like one quarter of it, so I think it's like forty players long
per team, so they only reveal or have to reveal ten names, which
I guess is better than nothing. But I think that the CFL does a
very poor job, and I've said this before of introducing the American players to
the fans, and I think that I would like to see some kind of
draft like for American players, you know, even if it's just some small
thing with you know, just like like an online live stream or something like
that, just to tell us something about these players that are coming into the
league, because they just show up in training camp and it's just like you
just have to figure everything out on your own. So I think at the
end of the day, not a huge fan of the negotiation list process in
the CFL. Well, I think it could be better. It's one of
those things like it takes work right, And we did that with the what
was it the because the USFL did the college draft and the XFL did the
rookie Draft, and you know, we did that and we're the same thing,
like they just dump the list and we're okay, these teams acquired these
people, and we're sitting there and I need, you know, Evan and
like four or five other guys on to be able to like, okay,
who knows about this guy or who can talk about it, Like I know
we had coach Craig on and I know Ris bean on some of those that
Evan was talking about with the Elks. But you need a lot of people
because some of these guys, you know, you're not you know, you're
getting a TSM panel together to talk about some of these guys, they're not
going to know even half of what Evan is able to spot off even just
here on the stream. So it's one of those things challenging at least to
me. I like seeing players that are interested in the XFL and the CFL
is interested in them. I like seeing these guys, you know, pop
up a couple of different places just because it means that God knows what's gonna
happen with this UFL or whatever. But like there are options out there.
But yeah, the whole like secretive and like, okay, we can have
this many quarterbacks or it's kind of weird in that way. Yeah, for
sure. I think Naylor brought up a great point to the thing about quarterbacks
is like I wish teams had to narrow down like who's their guy, Like
they should have like only a maximum amount of quarterbacks allowed on these lists that
they have exclusive rights to. Yeah, so let's get in here, we'll
kind of scroll through all this together out you know, ten minutes are so
left on here. You know, HiT's keep coming here, right, Okay?
Augar b c BC back in at Winnipeg here exciting to me? Uh,
what's he here? Ottawa going on the road against Montreal? Anything stand
out to you here with this one? Evan? Which game did you said?
Sorry? Oh? Just week just week three? And I mean to
me, the BC Winnipeg is stand out and BC is it you know,
challenging schedule here, going to you know in Toronto, hosting Calgary and then
going back into Winnipeg here. Yeah, I mean, i'd say I think
obviously the BC Winnipeg game stands out there more than anything. You know,
Yeah, I will say b C, you know, going up against Toronto
and Winnipeg, all these heavyweights you know in the East and West. It's
uh again, they're gonna be tested early. We just talked about, you
know, it's a big proven year for BC. Can they really get it
done well. They're gonna have to open up against some pretty tough competitions that
we might find out you know, pretty early on whether or not you know,
or well maybe not whether or not, but what the identity of the
team is, I think is what I'm trying to say. You know,
it's kind of instead of playing the bottom tier of teams first, you know,
you kind of go out there and you take on, you know,
all these teams that you had or that you played very well against, you
know to some degree in the previous season, or you had some very good
games against, right like BC and Winnipeg. There were some I guess you'd
say classic matchups there, some blowouts in both directions, some close games,
and then obviously the Toronto game, you know, between that and BC,
Like I thought BC in Toronto, I thought that was gonna be the Great
Cup this year, and I was obviously mistaken. But you know, both
of those teams, you know, made it to the final and then lost,
so you know, we'll see. I mean, I wouldn't mind that,
you know, as the Great Cup next year either in BC, right,
I think that'd be a great matchup. Not that we needed to talk
about that quite yet, because twenty twenty four seasons still quite a days away,
but yeah, no, I think I think it'll be an interesting start
for BC here well, and Jason to me, like you know, and
obviously we got to go through a lot of free agency here, but like,
yeah, identities have changed here. Right, we're maybe like Montreal last
year, we're walking you know, we're walking in and maybe we didn't do
as because I think I can't remember how the schedule came out last year in
terms of whatever else we were doing, but like we certainly didn't do this
and you're sitting here in like, you know, Montreal are looking at is
like one of the you know, worst teams in the league potentially last year,
we're here like you know, all us got to go into Montreal like
that's you know, that's really like, you know, any identities of these
teams changed from last year to this year. I mean, Hamilton, I
still don't really know how to read. Saskatchewan's got a lot of you know,
missing you know, kind of question marks here. But Montreal feels good.
Edmonton if they can roll, feels good. And then we know what
Winnipeg and BC in Toronto are. Yeah, I mean, one thing I
was going to bring up is that Hamilton and Saskatchwan week two and three,
they actually played back to back here, so that's very early in the season,
both brand new head coaches. So we always talk about, you know,
it takes time for a new coach to establish their culture and their systems
and they'll be in to see, you know, who gets the edge in
those if it goes too well either way in that early home and home there
between Hamilton Saskatswan. But yeah, like you said, I think Montreal looks
a lot better than they did at this time a year ago. And you
know, that game for Ottawa. I think it would be interesting to see
how they look this year because I think audawe Edmonton, these are going to
be very crucial years for both of these teams. I think that it's been
far too long without playoffs. It's not good for any team in the CFL
to go more than like three years without playoffs. So I think it's gonna
be very important for odd one Edmonton to have you know, big seasons next
year. Yeah, I've said already on here, like I don't I don't
know how Odawa has a fan base right now, Like I mean, I
understand that they won a great cut back before we got involved in all this
stuff, but I really just kind of living through all of this here Hamilton
right here going into Ottawa. You may you know, if you're looking at
this right just Odawa get their first win week four right like hosting Hamilton.
I mean they very You're just there. You're asking a lot here at Edmonton
going into BC. That would be good another So not only are we doubling
down, Well, no, it's not because I keep in my mind I
keep thinking that Toronto was in the Great Coupan. Yeah, here the the
East Finals here at Montreal at Toronto, I should be exciting their week for
Evan. You certainly have to have that one circled. Oh yeah, I
mean, you know, Montreal, they're already starting to bring back a lot
of their guys. You can tell that. You know, they're not wasting
any time. And you know, Phil pot Fajardo got extended, Sankey Lemon,
all those guys are already. You know, any questions that people had
about the core, I think those have already been answered. So you know,
now it's just a matter of can they elevate their game in twenty twenty
four, because again, the whole storyline with Montreal was they had a pretty
pedestrian I guess you'd say regular season, not that there was anything wrong with
that, but again, no one saw them as a great Cup contender,
and suddenly playoffs rolled around. In those those last three games were on nothing
short of incredible. So hopefully they can carry some of that momentum into the
regular season and make that play more exciting. And you know, we'll see
whether or not they're able to get off to that hot start or you know,
maybe they open things up. But it's a bit slow and it still
takes time to get acclimated again. But again, when you're bringing back a
lot of the same guys, that's a good sign in terms of continued success.
So it'd be cool to see them go into Toronto, you know,
and maybe have more of a back and forth type of game this time,
as opposed to Montreal just kind of running away with it early and you know,
Chad Kelly, you know, just struggling not you know, not seeing
the field correctly. You know, hopefully all that will be resolved to that
game, because again, yeah, that would be a very fun one,
a repeat of the East Final that I guess nobody expected. Yeah, not
to date this podcast too much. It looks like Brandon Staley was officially let
go from there lah here, So unless there was a surprise, we'll kind
of go through here. We got to get out of here pretty see.
But you know, Toronto and Saskatchewan some of these, you know, we
get to kind of get into the you know, I say, here by
July or we're getting a little bit into the to the minushav that you know,
you never know, BC Hamilton, I mean we had that where Hamilton
came in last year, right, they kind of rocked BC's world. I'm
going to kind of scroll through. Jason, do you have anything you want
to pop up on this let me know here. Yeah, I mean,
like b C Hamilton, the second game last year that took place in Hamilton,
that was one of the games of the year. I was there in
attendance. I would say as a tay Cat season ticket holder, that was
my favorite game that I attended last year, even though that ty CAATs even
lost. So I mean really excited for that one for sure. Doublely down
here. So we got Toronto back at Montreal, so a week apart,
but then they'll be going in here. I don't know, it's just to
me some of these you know, I know it was predictable last year,
but it felt like it was a good season here to get some juice behind
some of these teams. I mean, you know this Ottawa Edmonton week six
is a little bit you know, Thursday night here Toronto at Montreal. I
mean that's like, you know, if there's nothing going on XFL in the
world, like that's a Thursday night live show we have going into that game.
I mean, I'm just you know, saying here, like some of
these games to me seem a little bit more appealing on paper now than they
did maybe a year ago. Evan, any thoughts here, I mean,
it's gonna kind of keep getting through here. Yeah, I mean, just
going back to the nagelist for a quick second. I mean, I know
we've kind of moved off that, but there was actually a player I forgot
to talk about, James Morgan from Florida International, you know, former NFL
draft pick who also played in the USFL with the Pittsburgh Mallers. So you're
seeing this common theme again, a lot of guys that have XFL interest,
a lot of guys that have already been under contract and maybe played in the
USFL. I know the Argos already signed a couple of you know, former
USFL players I think from the Philadelphia Stars. So just something to watch,
you know, as these I guess, merger whatever, I don't even know
if you can call them talks anymore continue to unfold. You know, CFL
teams I think are keeping an eye on some of those guys. And I'm
not going to be blowing anybody's cover, but I don't think that's really a
secret at this point that you know, there will be some guys, you
know, even maybe before the mergers finalized and you know, certain teams are
cut out, as we've been speculating, you know, some of those guys
will probably head up to Canada and it'll still be an uphill battle for some
of them, I think, right. I mean, they're gonna have to
compete you know, for starting jobs and things of that nature that they didn't
really not that they didn't have to compete for them in the XFL, but
it was a bit more of a clear path. Like you've already got a
lot of established players, you know, up there in the CFL, so
you know, we'll see. It'll be interesting, you know some of the
names that might you know, head north, as we like to say,
over the next coming weeks and months, because there's no denying that there will
be a few. There already has been a few, so you know,
just something to monitor, right. I don't think that the number of XFL
and USFL names on these lists coincidence. I think it's meant to, you
know, give options to guys that they can kind of weigh and think about,
you know, because there are some players you know that would fit well
into both leagues. I I guess now it's just going to be the CFL,
and we'll call it the UFL for the time being. But I just
wanted to throw that out there. I know that's kind of a little random
factor tidbit, but I felt like it was it was important to bring up,
just with everything going on, and after all, we are trying to
include every form of football into this, I guess, and you know,
it's been a while since we've actually done anything uh XFL, USFL UFL related
again, I don't even know what to call it anymore, but you know,
just to tie that into the you know that that's something that you know,
whether you're a CFL fan or one of these American league fans, you
maybe want to keep an eye on that well. And I think, and
I agree with you, I think, and I've Knailer's been on here,
like I wish this CFL didn't get so like our league so difficult, like
you got to work your ass to get in here, Like I I think,
if you know, with these nagas all this and with these leagues,
like I think, if THEFL did a better job like fostering getting some of
these like it's like you got to overcome all this, Like if you got
to be an American quarterback like it's gonna take you five years, so like
you better put in your time, and you're like, I just don't know.
I just think they could change their mentality with that. And that's kind
of a conversation for a different day. In terms of this, you know,
here a great cup last year here Winnipeg Toronto randomly week eight here Saturday,
July twenty seven. That's got to be exciting, Jason, Yeah,
for sure. I mean, at least we get it earlier in the season
this year. I still think that these two teams are the favorites to finish
first place in their respected divisions. With all due respect to Montreal, I
think that Toronto probably is still the favorite to have the best regular season next
year. So very much interested to see how that one plays out, and
the fact that we get it earlier in that it will actually mean something.
I think that's huge. Yeah, And like even here like BC at Winnipeg,
you know, that's like another that's a that's an early and that's what
we're having a beer on the deck. We're doing a pre stro pre show
live stream there going into that Thursday game. I'm just giving you, I
mean, somebody I don't know. To me, this is an exciting schedule
here kind of going through all this. Yeah, again, you're always going
to get like, Okay, we're Saskatchewan and Ottaway here on August eighth is
probably not going to be the peak of that. This This might be the
worst week I've seen this far. Hamilton in Montreal. Does that do anything
for Jason? I mean, I'm always looking forward to seeing the ty Cats.
But that's just the fan and me talking. Yeah, some of the
you know, it seems like we're from a little bit. You know,
we got Winnipeg BC here again closing out Sunday August eighteenth here. You know,
some of these Thursday games are rough anytime. I don't know why,
like I would get so many of these Thursday games. Well, I mean
I feel like they I don't know why they do that. I feel like
maybe the Thursday night games they don't like, they're not going to do that
well anyway in terms of the rating. Probably so, I mean like they'll
just throw you know, the shittiest team for lack of a better word on
there. But I think at the end of the day, on the Calgary
Autawa game, I think it's worth throwning. That was one of the better
games of last year too. Despite the struggles, those two teams had pluck
at this we got we go one, two, three, four, five,
six, I mean, you know, we got anyway, it's interesting.
They're interesting with all that stuff going through OTWA at BC. So see
then we're jumping to Salary Day here, so that's when the NFL starts.
We'll get into all that stuff. Move in. I can ind of the
day Labor Day weekend here August twenty. First, this is the touchdown right
the thirty first thoughts on that a Jason and not well round out here,
we're we're almost done with this. Thoughts on no touchdown Atlantic beginning to touchdown
Pacific and then Evan you can give your comments. Well, I don't necessarily
like the fact that they're not having a touchdown Atlantic this year, but I
do like this whole idea of having you know, another touchdown games or having
touchdown games at other locations. I think that it's really great what BC's doing
in terms of trying to make it the problems his team, and I think
this is you know, having a game in Victoria is uh, you know,
goes a long way to doing that. So I think at the end
of the day, I think it's really cool and I think, you know,
the game is gonna sell regardless, so I think putting audible there,
I think is is fine. Yeah, I have a lot of questions,
like are you going to go to that game? Like wedding videographer weekend,
the Labor Day weekend in Seattle is is challenging, whether it's with an ou
R just in the O R so in ten In terms of I do wish
that there was both in Atlantic and the Pacific. It very much feels to
me like the CFL like whoa, whoa, whoa, Like Okay, we're
doing the Pacific this year, like we can't, God forbid. We try
to balance both of those. Evan, whether or not we're going through the
game, you gotta be excited for that having your life. Yeah, I
think, you know. I think the one thing I'll say about the touchdown
Pacific that no one's really brought up yet, and it's significantly different from touchdown
Atlantic. So the touchdown Atlantic game is typically you know Nova Scotia right,
see Victoria. You can take the ferry from Vancouver over to Victoria, so
you can get a lot of BC fans there, I mean Halifax, Like
that's Nova Scotia. That's way, you know, way over there on the
other side of the country, pretty far out of the way, like you'd
have to fly there. You know, it's a way, I guess,
bigger deal. And I believe the matchup last year for Touchdown Atlantic was Toronto
and Saskatchewan. Yeah, the last two years. Yeah, last two years,
right, and not like very many people from Saskatchewan are going to be
making the trip over to Halifax. I don't think that's a very common path.
But you know, with the Touchdown Pacific being in Victoria, like,
you know, Victoria is not that far from a lot of things, and
it's you know, again right there on Vancouver Island. It's not terribly far
from Vancouver itself, so you can actually get you know, a lot of
BC fans there, Ottawa fans again, other side of the country. Probably
not like maybe if it was a team in Alberta or something, you'd maybe
have people fly over and then you know, go to Victoria from there and
kind of make it a weekend or something. But you know, I still
feel like, again you're gonna have a better turnout just because of that,
I guess convenience factor, right, because again, if you're playing a game
in Halifax, there's just not you know, the CFL market again has not
been establablished over there. I get it. Look, we were at Great
Cup the Atlantic Schoooners had a great setup, but that's he has not been
established there yet and maybe never will. So dare I get into that discussion.
I'm not going to talk about that today, but you know, again
just something to keep in mind, right like Victoria there, it does feel
like again again especially being in the province too of British Columbia. You know,
touchdown at lant is a completely separate thing. It's not really attached to
any province. This feels this feels significantly different in my opinion, but again
in a positive in one that I hope to see continued in future years.
Well. And the reason I wish I we'll see I mean, if I
I just am presuming I have a wedding that day. If I don't,
I'm sure Baker can hook me up with a you know, just stand on
the sidelines or something. But we have a direct ferry from the port of
Seattle, which is about fifteen minutes from my house that takes you directly there.
I'm like, you can drink. It's like a whole It's a whole
thing. And funny enough, when I used to work at Q thirteen,
I came in, I'd work like the eight am to five shift on Sunday,
and I come in and someone had actually uh because they just more them
down there and then they take off and someone had like climbed up over the
security fence in and then like untied the boat and floated to the middle of
Elliott Bay. So then they have I had to go and like we had
our cameras with like the super long lenses and they literally have like kind of
like a Michael Bay movie, like they boarded like the ferry and they have
like the swap boats come out because you know, they don't know like does
this guy have bombs like on the boat or we you know. I mean,
it's like it gets to be this whole thing and ended up being like
drunk woman or something that climbed up over and then for But but yeah,
you can directly you go use give them your a little your passport or we
have that little the other your passport card. You can just hop right on
there and go up. So exciting that way, getting out of here BC
Montreal A good Friday game here, getting into September, this is when we
started getting you know, the triple headers, which is always tough for me
just with you know, if you're out and all on a Saturday, Jason
anything here, I'm just kind of scrolling through here. Well before we get
out of here, well, I wanted to bring up something for you guys.
CFL plus. I think it's gonna be very interesting to see if they
add more features to it. To they add the on demand feature next year,
I think that would do a lot to you know, leviating some of
your strathspur these you know, triple header double header kind of games so days.
So I'm excited to see what they do with that, like just yeah,
just once the game's done, just and I don't understand because they do
that with you know, if you're a TSN person that like just put the
game on and if you want to I get this with the ads and all
that, it just even just screen record the thing and then if we got
to fast forward through where they have the weird you know, ghetto rap instrumental
music like whatever that is I just would really go a long way, I
think to just feeling like I can't leave the house from ten am, you
know, Saturday on, you know, trying to explain to my wife like
well, you know, because we've established Sunday right, like, hey,
we understand like this, this is what we do, but it's really hard
to get both of the weekend days that way. Evan anything else here,
you know, we got another Toronto at BC. It really feels like BC's
got a contender schedule here. I mean, I know at the CFL it's
pretty balanced around and we're doing all these you know, you know, the
competitive balance this year, but it feels like BC's got a pretty heavy,
heavy hitter schedule. Well, I think we're the point in the season now
just going down this list, you know, where the schedule's starting to be
more condensed. You're moving down to one or two days. You're having teams
start to you know, go on buys. As the season wraps up.
We know from you know, doing all of our work this season, you
know, those last couple of weeks really becomes a marathon at that point,
you know, when it's like there's like three games in one day and all
these other teams are on a buy and you know, this year, like
Toronto had the East locked up, so a lot of it, you know,
for I don't want to say it became meetingless because there are players you
know, who are really making a statement out there and you know, doing
their job, you know, and providing great entertainment for us. But you
know, it was at a point where it's just like, you know,
yeah, we're here in like week twenty one, and it's like, you
know, you know who knows, Like it's just that's that situation where you
know things might already be already be again locked up, and you know you're
just you're just kind of playing games for guys to get reps at that point.
That's always one of the things that I found, you know, interesting
about the CFL in particular again with a twenty one week season in pro football
and only nine teams, I mean you just see like, I mean,
obviously there's going to be repetition, but you know you'll see you know,
teams playing each other back to back and like just some of the same matchups,
and it's hard to have diversity again with twenty one weeks and only nine
teams, So I commend you know, the I don't know, this might
sound bad. I don't know if there's like a committee who makes the CFL
schedule. You know, I don't know how that works, to be honest,
I'm not a schedule guy really, but you know, I commend the
league, I guess, I'll say, you know, for being able to
make a somewhat diverse schedule and adding these things like touchdown Pacific to just jazz
things up a bit, right, because again, with the amount of repetition,
it's it's pretty easy I think for some people to just go, oh,
well, you know, we saw this matchup two weeks ago and you
know, yeah it was in Toronto and not Ottawa, you know whatever,
but it's still the same thing. And you know, but again I say
that keeping in mind that you know, the CFL changes very quickly and last
year, like I could have said that going into the season, but then,
you know, even if you did have the same matchup, you know,
two or three weeks apart from each other, you know, the games
could still be very different. And that's one thing again, just with the
flow of the season and the length of it. That's where those those variables
come into play. So yeah, ultimately, you know, I think again,
nine teams twenty one week is going to be difficult to have a schedule
that's you know, not interesting but just captivating on a regular basis. But
you do get these weekends that are you know, i'd say more interesting than
others simply. I think, you know, anytime there's a rivalry, you
know, like the banjo boll stuff, Labor Day, all that jazz,
you know, I think that's great. So yeah, I'll leave it at
that. Yeah, I actually wanted to see so, yeah, so we
have the we have the the Victoria game, right, and then this will
be right, this is and then we go back or so with the labor
I always get a mixed up, right, so we got the Labor Day
classic and then we go back with the bangible here. So that would be
exciting kind of that week thirteen fourteen. I always flipped those in my head.
But yeah, this, you know, I don't know if it was
me. Do I do this game a different day to kind of let you
know, maybe let's bruce up week ten or something maybe, you know,
and obviously there's availability in scheduling and all that. That would be my one
comment that way, and like we talked about with the the Week one stuff,
right, like, let's put a lot of stuff and that's great,
and I think Week one should do tremendous ratings for the CFL. And I
know some of that stuff, but I think last year that touchdown Atlanta game
was kind of used as a prop game in like the beginning of August,
right, Jason, it felt like it was more of a standalone where we
were building around that versus this is part of the Labor Day weekend, which
I think maybe stands on its own, would probably be my own thing.
And then my last comment will throw the Jason, and then we'll kind of
round this out. You look here this week twenty one, like this might
be the loser bracket. Again, Calgary is as catchewan here last game of
the year, but hey, you know, the last weekend ended up being
tremendously exciting more or less with some of those games coming down the pike.
So yeah, this Saskatchewan, the Calgary game four pm on October twenty six
kind of circled out as potentially the loser bracket. Yeah, for sure.
I mean I think I agree with you guys, and I think that the
CFL should do more to like, you know, jazz up some of these
matchups and do some of these you know, special event things. And I
mean, I think it's questionable that they put it on Labor Day. But
at the same time, I'm happy that BC gets to have, you know,
be a part of Labor Day weekend for once, because they're usually the
team that misses out. It's usually Montreal versus Audiball. It's BC with the
buye that week, So I'm glad from that perspective that they get to be
a part of that. Yeah, I see, And I just spoiler alert
like the prep I do, Like I haven't looked at the schedule until today,
so I like kind of living through in the real time. But I
think that that works out. Yeah, I mean, I think, honestly
a tremendous job. Like I said, the week one feels heavy, but
I think there's a lot of moving pieces there with the schedules and who's available
what Toronto, I'd say Tim Capper complaining about the Aulettes Thursday games to talk
to If any Red Backs flans existed, they would be very upset with you
complaining about that. So that would be my last comments with that Evan anything
else before we get out of here. Evan's good, I think so well,
Jason. I appreciate that this was fun and we did Neglas, we
did coaching hires and all that stuff. We'll get back. Jason and I
are figuring out some sort of free agency thing. You keep me posted scheduling
wise and with all of that when that makes sense to do. But we'll
try to get together a panel or maybe do a live show for that,
and then yeah, we're kind of TBD. Like I said, I feel
pretty strongly about you know, and and Mark can do and Brandon can do
kind of what they want with the XFL stuff. I feel pretty weird doing
a lot of like trying to get clicks and views for stuff when it's like
people's jobs on the line. So I kind of came to it kind of
a conscious of crisis about that a couple of weeks ago. So we'll roll
through anything else. CFL will come out. I know Zach was asking about
like when's the next you know, we'll see when news breaks, you know
where to come, stay subscribed. We'll get everything on there. But I
appreciate Jason getting all this and Evan with his knowledge of all the necklace and
everything else. We'll get out of here and we'll see everyone next time, next