Well here we are happy CFL twenty twenty three kickoff day. Read here with
the Mark Hast decked out in my BC Lions gear, tremendously excited. I
have my co host for this adventure standing by before I get to a little
bit of programming on here. Excited. We have our big CFL pregame show
tonight, right, big guest list, Dan Naylor, Dan Ralph, We
got Darryl Darryl Davis coming on everyone else tomorrow morning. If you want our
XFL coverage as normal, Andy Murray and I will be back to Professor who
might be stopping by here near the end of the program. But Andy and
I are going live tomorrow morning ninety m Pacific, twelve Eastern. We're doing
our XFL plotting the chorus for XFL twenty twenty four. So if you're here
for the CFL content welcome, I have my zoa here. We have been
enjoying football content since February. But if you're back for the CFL welcome today,
we're going to be doing your weekly previews recaps. Jason's going to be
joining us your weekly Monday recaps as normal, but we will have our XFL
content this Friday. So enough rambling for me. I'm going to bring in
a Jason here, Jason Husey. Jason, how are you doing. Welcome
to the show. I'm doing great. Thanks for inviting me. Honestly,
it's such an honor to be a part of such a great show. Well,
I'm serious. I was sitting here. We've been doing the XFL stuff
and just all the guys and Andy and Evan and Pat. Everyone has been
so great. Matt Lyons, everyone else, Anthony Miller and I gotta get
just someone that can do you want to pop in, that's fine, the
professor. I'm sure I'll do fly buys and stuff, but if we need
to have someone dedicated you. We've been interacting online for years. You have
your own great YouTube channel as well, so I appreciate Jason coming on.
Why don't you tell everyone just quickly what you do. We'll get it in
everything today, all right. So I run the YouTube channel Hussy's Huddle,
And basically what I do is I upload about a couple of videos a week.
I do a preview video, a recap video during the season, and
then you know, little other videos you know, every so often as well
throughout the season. But I also do an extensive offseason content. My idea
is trying to make my channel the most consistent CFL content out there on YouTube.
And I've been running for about three years now and I've been pretty proud
of what I've accomplished over there. So if you want some great CFL content,
go check it out. Yeah, Jason's great. We're going to be
doing like I said Monday recaps, it's been really successful with the XFL going
through and even the USFL as well, So doing live, I just I
don't see a lot of that in the space and being able to take contents
and all that. If we have people checking in, Max already happy to
see Hussy here on in the spotlight. Max is already excited for that.
So we're gonna bring it. Darryl's gonna be popping in here in a few
minutes. I have a lot of stuff to talk with Darryl about. Like
I said, we have Dave Naylor, Sarah's coming on far Hume, we
have Marty York as well, Blast from the Past Marty. But I want
to make sure we talk enough about the game here because we might spiral all
this to day and everything else. BC alliance at Calgary Stan Peters here.
We gotta do one of these in Vancouver so I can get there. But
what are you looking forward to? I think I'm really looking at the quarterbacks
tonight. Honestly. I think going into the season, obviously the big story
is Nathan Rourke leaving the BC Lions' offseason and burnand Adams taking hold of a
starter's job yet again, and then behind them you have Dane Evans, and
I think they've kind of, you know, obviously they're not the similar in
terms of style of quarterback, but you look at, you know, in
terms of inconsistencies they've shown throughout their career. They've both had flashes of brilliance.
But I think maybe them together this is a very very much Break Cup
contending team. So I'm interested to see how it works out this year for
the Lions and then for Calgary obviously moving on from Bolievi, I Mitchell,
how does Jake Mayre Doug excuse me, how does Jake Mayre do in his
first season as a CF all starter. I think we saw that with Dane
Evans last year. I looked great when he had another guy there, and
with Jeremiah Mazzoli, but I think, you know, going forward, um,
you know, if can you really do it without being the number one
guy in the spotlight. I'm really interested to see how Jake Mayre does for
Calgary. I'm excited. I love Jake. We have him on pre season
last year, even with Bo was there, I said, I wanted to
get my hitch, my wag into this guy early, you know, kind
of winning the faces of the franchise. Amazing Calgary, you know, stumbles
into you know, doesn't snubble, but it gets believe I you know,
franchise quarterback there and now Bow moves on to Hamilton and now we have,
you know, another great quarterback waiting in the weeks. I love Vernon Adams
as a person. He's been on the show multiple times. I love him
on Arrow Up, you know, produced by Nick and Matt every over there.
I just don't know if I love him as like my starting quarterback for
the entire season. What do you make of just burning this the player to
separate him from the locker room leader? And do you think Burdon will still
be the VC line starting quarterback here midway through the season. I think it's
bound to be a situation where Burnon has a couple of really bad games and
then Dane will take hold for a couple of games, and then you know,
he'll struggle, and then I think they'll go back and forth, maybe
a couple of times this season. Eighteen game schedule, a long year in
the CFL, and I'm interested to see because, like I said, they've
both been pretty inconsistent players. I think burning the main problem with him has
been the sporadic accuracy. I think over the past a few years. You
know, sometimes he's in the low fifties in terms of completion percentage, which
really stands out when you look at the CFL game and some of these other
numbers that other guys are putting up around the league. So I'm looking at
that. He was very accurate when he came over from Montreal lightly last season,
So I'm interested to see how Burnon does as a full time starter.
Again. Yeah, it's I don't know if I love Dan this well.
I mean, this is nothing against the people, but you know it's almost
like, can both of them combine? Can we get a starting quarterback there?
Right? Because I Burned in scares me and he's running and doing backflips
or front flips and trying to scramble, and you know, Dan didn't really
I never really seemed to kind of bounce back after the you know, the
Great Cup loss and all of that. I just don't know what I make
of that. I love the BC lines, obviously, that's the America's CFL
team, as I call them. I just I would like to see them
be competitive. Do you do you think between the two there's enough to keep
BC competitive throughout the season. Well, I think it helps that they have
a great supporting cast. I think, you know, their defense looks excellent.
I think it has the chance I was saying in my season preview for
them, they have the chance to be the best defense in the CFL this
year. Great secondary, very deep front seven. So I think that's going
to keep them in a lot of games, which really helps. I think
the receiving core is gonna make their job easier. One question I have is
their offensive line. The left tackle position. They lose Joel Figaroa to the
Handmilton Tigre Cats in free agency. That was a problem for them for years
before last year, so we'll see how they do replacing that position yet again.
But I think that you know, if they can get the best out
of each other, I think they do have a chance to be one of
the leaders for a great Cup intention in twenty twenty three. Tim kapri Chevy
checking in here Montreal Alwitt's flight Deck podcast. I had Tim and Cliffy on
last year and for the season kickoff. The only way I could talk that
was getting you know, eighteen guests or however many we have today. So
kudos to Tim and Cliffy over there doing all their work with the Montreal Speaking
of you know, movement to Hamilton. Obviously, James Butler here a big
loss for the Lions. I had Steve Milton on last week kind of talking
about that with the Tie Catts. What do you make of a BC's run
game here? Because it was horrible and the Butler at least had some semblance
of you know, obviously had had a great season. What do you make
of them moving forward now? Well, I think a lot of it comes
down to the offensive line, and I think the offensive lines actually improved a
lot over the past couple of years, especially in terms of their Canadian guys
on the interior. I think that should help the new starting running back to
Kwan Mozzell I believe his name is, that's starting the game tonight, have
some success, but at the end of the day, I think a lot
of it comes down to their game plan. They're usually not usually a team
before they had James bother that leaned on the running game that much and that
was really to their detriment. I think last year you saw when they had
balance, they had a lot more success. So I'm very interested to see
how they do. You can't really tell with some of these rookies. Some
of these guys end up being some of the best players in the league right
away. In the CFL, benefit of guys like coming in at an older
rage and they're not just like twenty two years old coming up the street as
an NFL rookie. You know, these guys are twenty six, twenty seven
years old, have played in professional games before, and you know, some
of these guys can really hit the ground running. So we'll have to see
if Mozelle does that. Tonight, we have our first guest, Dandy Byer
Hero. I'll bring him on in a minute. I'll ask the question you
first, and then we'll toss the Darrow player standing by a lot's been made,
And I want to talk with Dary about his article of the Canadian of
the CFL. John Hodge had this article out last night with three that nation
recent friend of the show. Now, you know, John and I are
kind of working to bury the hatchet there. Um this whole like it's a
mockery now and the rosters and they we're starting the designated nationals and kind of
all that stuff. What do you make of this? Knew it was the
CBA and no one knew how it was going to work, But now coming
in it's like kind of we're breaking the fourth wall and it's not people who
don't seem happy. Well, yeah, it just seems like the teams have
kind of manipulated the rule to not be what it was intended to be.
Like you said, like, um, I think this was intended for American
players that, you know, not necessarily we're going to be starters anymore,
but had been in the league for a number of years a bit wait for
them to kind of continue their career, kind of like Sean Lemon, maybe
a guy that fits that bill. Maybe not a guy that you know,
you see how much he's moved around the league, you know, not a
guy that teams really trust to be their number one starter. Um, you
know, on a consistent basis, so um, you know, rotational eyes
like that. That was the intention of the rule. But at the end
of the day, I don't think it's really done, you know, when
you're actually seeing it in practice here. I mean, I didn't really think
it was going to be this confusing. I don't really know how they screwed
it up as much as they did, but yeah, it's kind of disappointed
to see it kind of make a mockery of the game a little bit.
I kind of do agree with John Hodge a bit. Darrel, if you
already give me a thumbs up, we'll bring you on here. I see
Darrell's he's got big thumbs up here, Joe Davis. Here was my tour
guide back in Regina for the Great Cup. We have Darrel back here,
Darl Davis, How are you all right? Read? There's not much tour
in Regina though, is there? Well? No, but so you Darryl
famously was our closing act from our first ever CFL Gray Cup show back in
Hamilton. Now leading off tonight, Daryl, how did you make it all
the way to the top of the lineup. I don't know attrition, I
guess read or everybody else is busy. Is that it? No, It's
good it worked out. You know, there is a reason why I kind
of prerecord a lot of these interviews because then I can get people on.
Obviously um our do and I try work to get him on. Schedules didn't
allow it today, and that will bring him on during the season. Daryl,
I want to talk with you and then we'll get Jason's continued thoughts in
this American and the Canadianess and the CFL. You had your article. I
had pinned to bring you on a couple of weeks ago, just ran out
of time. What do you make of all this roster shenanigans? Oh my
goodness, as you guys have been talking about it, it seems silly now,
right like what they started out, it was supposed to be forty nine
percent of the plays and Nationalized American could play. Now it's twenty three plays.
It just seems like it's changing. They don't They'm not sure what they're
doing, and the toughest part is they don't know how to enforce it.
You know, they're going to try to keep track and then tell the benches
that with five plays left or three plays left or one snap left, the
player has to come out. It's just it's just silly. Let's just go
back to make it simple. I've always in favor of more Canadians than the
CFL. Not that I hate Americans playing in the Canadian Football League. Obviously
they had a lot to the CFL over the years. Historically they're the best
players, of course they are. But let's give Canadian players that great opportunity
all the time to play in the Canadian Football and make sure because it's tougher
to get Americans. There's the XFL, there's the USFL, there's Arena Football.
NFL rosters are expanding all the time, so there are fewer top quality
American players available. Let's give more roster space to Canadians and throughout all these
stupid designated International Globe or whatever they are players that they're making up. Jesson,
what do you make of that? We had on when they were doing
the CBA's last year, and I you know, had j Mulling on and
I think Daryl was on as well, talking like all this and either we're
messing with the ratio and stuff. Now what do you make of this the
canadianness of the game. Well, I think it's it's like, I'm kind
of split on it. I've always been kind of split on it because obviously,
I think it kind of hurts the perception of the league a lot.
I think, like especially with you know, when you're trying to recruit more
American fans and stuff that are like, oh, what the hell is this
ratio thing? So I do think there is a negative connotation with it,
but I don't think like I think if you take that away, we took
in the ratio completely away, I think that it would destroy a lot of
the connections that Canadians have to the game. And I think that culture that
it's been built up over a number of years. I think, you know,
that's why you really couldn't do without it. But asked for this new
rule that they brought in, the forty nine percent whatever you want to call
it. I think that it's just kind of ridiculous. I think that they
didn't it's just kind of overly complicated. And I thought when they had introduced
this that this was going to kind of be like a background thing. You
wouldn't really notice it. A lot of the time. But you saw the
opening week depth charts and it was kind of ridiculous, kind of silly season
over here. And that's basically my thoughts on it. Yeah, Dared,
what do you make is here? And you know we're trying to do the
single game sports betting and you know we've dealt with this and the XFL and
the USFL like we get depth charts and the USFL doesn't want to give us,
and we want people to gamble on the games and you fancy and all
that. But now we have these this depth chart kind of kerfunfle What do
you make of this? Well, it's gonna be confusing in a lot of
ways, isn't it. What about players who are supposed to be paid extra
in their contracts first starts? Is he a starter now that he's a designated
national lot It's just it's silly stuff all the time, over and over again.
That I asked Jeremy O'Day, the Saskatchean rough Riders general manager, yesterday.
He was walking by and I said, Jeremy, could you explain to
me this forty nine percent rule the twenty three snaps? And he just looked
and point at me and started laughing. Hysterically, and he said, well,
you know what I'm gonna do. They're all he said, I'm going
to watch the other games this weekend and then see how it's handled by the
other teams, because the rough Riders don't play until they visit Edmonton on Sunday,
so they get the advantage of watching three games before they have to decide.
Jason made a good point. Could I just touch on something about the
connection, and you're right, it's important to have American players so you can
say they came from Tulane, they played in Alabama, wherever they played,
and if you're going to grow the market the United States' that's of course that's
important. The reason I always think that the ratio is important to maintain is
if we take it out, of course, it reduces the number of chances
for Canadian players because they're reserved, and I think that hurts grassroots. But
it also then suddenly the CFL is strictly a farm system or a second class
system, a second class league to the National Football League, because all of
a sudden, the best players are all going to the NFL and only the
second and third and fourth best players are coming to the Canadian Football league.
This way, you have a ratio and you say, well, the Canadians
are good enough to play, we want to make sure that they have a
chance to play. And we have these unique rules, including the ratio,
which makes the league a little bit different. There's already the USFL, there's
the XFL, there's American colleges, which are basically the feeder system for the
National Football League. The CFL could become that, and of course they want
to produce players to make the big money and get the big spot light in
the National Football League. But if they're just another farm team or another farm
system for the NFL, I think the league will really fall apart and die.
Well, here's my thing and thoughts for both of you guys on it.
You know, we talk all this and the American players all that.
You know, Hodge was on last week or whatever it was weeks to ago
and said, you know, we want CFL wants the xivent on the USFL
to die. You know, they don't want this because we need to make
sure we're getting all the players up here. Yeah, you had this,
this ratio now that's supposed to protect I mean, d God forbid, if
the XFL exists for five years. Do we even need to worry about that?
Or and then we're like, oh my god, we need to get
Canadian players now. Yeah, Well, it is making making it tougher for
the CFL to get American players. So is the NIL right in American colleges
that the players are making a lot more money now in college, so they
don't they're spoiled a little bit and don't have to come to the Canadian Football
League to earn money anymore. They've made enough in their college careers perhaps,
and they're not so eager to come here. So that's why I can see
John Hodds saying that the CFL wants the USFL and the XFL to die.
I don't know if that's one hundred percent accurate. You know, they've seen
a lot of leagues over the years come and go. Some of them have
had a little bit of success here, and they're having football around and having
people talk about football. I think in the long run benefits every league that
is around, because then suddenly you know more about the game. You know
somebody who's playing the game, You can identify with people who are involved with
it, and I don't think it hurts the game of football or hurts the
Canadian Football League to have the USFL and the NFL and the XFL and Arena
football and all those other alternatives. The CFL is unique in its way.
I know that everybody says it's shrinking. I just think that it's it's the
side of the times. The way things have gone since COVID crowds are smaller,
there's less interest paid in it. But I think that it can hang
tough and keep its business model intact and continue to exist for a long long
time. Jason Are, Yeah, what do you judge like the hype level
right now going into this year, because obviously, you know two years ago
is coming off the XFL and the canceled season last year, we have all
the CBA Steff, it feels like a clean offseason. We're getting into all
this. I mean, do you do you sense an overwhelming excitement right now?
I think so, because yeah, like like you said, this is
the kind of the first year that we haven't had any kind of disruption going
into the season or some kind of dark cloud hanging over the league. I
mean, obviously the shortened twenty twenty one season to cancel twenty twenty s in
the year before, Um, you know, just brought a lot of negative
press to the league, the commissioner going to the House of Commons and asking
for you know, federal funding for the bailout the league. Honestly, um
was, you know, just kind of a bad image for the league.
So I think that it's good that we have kind of a clean runway,
like you said to h to reach the season here in twenty twenty three,
and I think that's helped it alone. Daryl, what other storylines are you
tracking into this season? Obviously we talked a little bit vern in and everything
going on with the quarterback staff and BC. You know, Hamilton here playing
Winnipeg over the lots of history between that every the weekend. What do you
what do you tracking here? Storylines? Well, it will be all the
quarterbacks. I mean, what's remember no labor strikes this year too, Jason,
Right, last year we had a who had a lockout or a lockout,
So that's that was really unusual and I had never seen it before.
In all my years of covering the Canadian Football League. There were threats every
year, but first time I ever saw any job action taken, So that
was different and maybe a bit of a black cloud hanging over the league.
It's it's all about the quarterbacks, as this league always is, as all
leagues are. You know, it all filters down from who's playing where in
the mid nineties, and forgive me for that read, because I've been following
this league a long time. But when the when the CFL expanded to the
Canadian to the United States, all the great quarterbacks were wooed away from their
teams with money paid for. They didn't have a salary cap in those times.
Uh, you know, Matt Dunnigan, one of the great players,
went to the Birmingham Barracouters. Damon Allen, one of the Hall of Famers,
went to the Memphis mad Dogs. David Archer, a former NFL or
ended up playing for the Sacramento Goal Miners. So all these great quarterbacks were
swinging around. It was like a calliope, like a Merry go round,
going around and around and around. Everybody showed up in new places. And
it's kind of like that this year, right, every how many how many
teams are starting the same quarterback they started last season with? I think the
only one is Winnipeg, right, If I if I'm not, if I'm
not mistaken on now, and so that's unusual new quarterbacks in new places.
It makes it easy for everybody to follow the big story because as fans can
talk that they know about the offensive line and the running backs and the receivers,
but all they almost everybody knows about is the quarterback. So it's pretty
easy to say bully by Mitchell and Hamilton, Wow, Trevor Harrison Saskatchewan,
Wow, Nathan work has gone and Vernon Adams in DC wow. You know
Jake Meyer's terror cornelis? How are they going to do in Calgary and Edmonton?
So it's pretty easy. Chad Kelly in Toronto another great, big one.
Right, there are so many things that are going on in the quarterback
position that that's where we're going to be paying our most attention to read.
And I know it might be boring and repetitive, but that's the biggest story
that we're going to be following that for a long long time around here.
Jason, how big was bo going to Hamilton? From someone that's there,
I think it's just a gigantic addition, honestly, Like I think that after
the disastrous season like last year, was just seeing as a complete disaster like
I mean, look at the end of the year, eight and ten didn't
look too bad. But I mean at the end of the day, that
team had break up aspirations last year and really to get back in the good
graces of the fan base, I think they needed to make a splash like
that. And I think if they didn't bring in Bollie by Mitchell, I
guess Trevor Harris probably would have been the guy that it would have targeted.
But I mean, I don't think that would have made as big of a
splash is bringing in Ball when I think the vibes around the team this year.
He has a chip on his shoulder and I'm just really excited to see
him play this year. Daryl, I remember who I was talking to.
It was one of the one of our guests from this last week. If
you had to market a quarterback, would you if you had good to your
head, would you rather have to market Trevor Harris here in Saskatchewin or Code
Ford in Montreal. I don't think it's close. H Cody Viajardo was a
wonderful guy. I have you made up with him? By the way,
We're friends good. I'm glad to hear that because he's blocked like everybody on
Twitter in all of Canada who's ever criticized him. He's very thin skin,
which is unfortunate because if you're playing quarterback in Saskatchewan, you have to be
able to take the criticism, and he wasn't very good at that. But
he is a nice guy, you know, and so most of the guys
the league are pretty decent guys because they're not these spoiled athletes were often used
to dealing with so marketing. Cody Fajardo and Montreal. I got a kick
out of him, even though he's locked me on Twitter. Somebody will send
me something and I've got another account that I can go check. He's speaking
French to the French to the French Canadian speaking audience in Montreal and saying,
welcome here, Joe Mapela, Cody Faggardo, and he's saying he's a new
quarterback in Montreal. So good for him. He's he can be a marketer's
dream because he tries really hard and he's very personal. Trevor Harris just goes
out and works. Every time I've been at the writer office, it seems
like even late at night watching the Canadian Draft. He's in there working,
watching film and what his workouts in his attention to detail or legendary. I
wasn't a huge Trevor Harris fan before he got here. I always thought,
you know what he messes up in the big games. He's never won a
Great Cup as a starting quarterback. He's gotten there, but he's never won
it. So he always think, well, maybe there's something that prevents him
from doing it. But when you see what he's done here in Saskatchewan and
the way that people are starred for a hard hitting quarterback, a guy who's
dedicated and keep saying he wants to be here. He always dreamed about playing
in Saskatchewan. That's a marketer's dream. But any quarterback who walks in here
and New New is going to be a marketer's dream. And how long does
you stay up on the pedestal, That's always the question I want to know.
Yeah, I want to know the Darrell Davis bernerd Twitter account. I
think that would be interesting backstory to figure out. No, I mean,
you know, I as a minor d D list here YouTube celebrity covering USFL
and XFL, I know what it's like to be the quarterback in Saskatchewan.
It must be a hard a hard pressure here, hard celebrity pressure. Jason
does this, does Trevor Harrison reginted? Does that excite you? Like if
you had to go zero to zero to ten, what is your excitement level?
Well, on my channel, I've called Trevor Harris an East Division quarterback.
That's kind of a phrase I've kind of coined him because I thought he
really rejuvenated his career last year in Montreal. I thought it would have been
perfect he had I'm back. Obviously, the ownership situation there kind of revented
him from doing so. I mean, I would have made the move if
I was Saskatchewan. I do agree that it is an upgrade over what they
had, and I think Trevor Harris gives them a better week to week floor.
But honestly, he really doesn't excite me a lot. And you saw
what happened when he went to Edmonton even you know, not even just a
twenty twenty one season, which was disastrous for Edmonton, but twenty nineteen he
had had his struggles with the team. So honestly, he doesn't really excite
me. I'm playing a tougher division in the West Division, and I'm really
interested to see how he does this year, but it doesn't really excite me
as a rough If I was a rough Rider's Spanish Jason, it's interesting Storry
to butt in on this read. But this is Trevor Harris is what fifth
CFL team in his twelfth season, and as you said, he did revitalize
himself in Montreal look pretty good last season. Yesterday, in the media scrum
after rough Rider's practice, one of the reporters asked him, are you looking
forward to going back to Edmonton? This pause in the conversation, and he
looked. He said, well, not really. You know, I've played
a lot of different places, and everybody kind of you know, we all
kind of shook our heads. And then then he said, well, and
to be honest, I like it better here. He said, Well,
I just I don't I just don't know. And I know that they've you
nave coined like Trevor's accuracy whatever. I just don't know if he's head and
shoulders better than Cody. And I think you're well, I think it's gonna
happen. Is Saskatchewan kind of rebuilt? You're refiguring out everything. I think
Trevor is going to get the credit where I think if you would have kind
of build better around Cody or is that am I have too much Rob Vanstone
kind of in my ear? Well, he got a little bit of that
because Rob Banston love Cody Fajardo and still does. Right, so, and
I know that you guys have just made obsolete. You're probably probably on his
side a little bit. But Cody Fajardo did a lot of things wrong.
You know, he couldn't read defenses. He holds onto the football too long.
He has one amazing spin move to get away, but everybody knew about
that by the time he was done, so he wasn't effective anymore. You're
right, there were a lot of problems with the offense with Jason Moss,
the coordinator wasn't calling things. They did have a bad offensive line. They've
rebuilt that offensive line. They've added good receivers, They've gotten rid of the
dead weight they were carrying last year off their roster, and I think that
they've really made an effort to help Trevor Harris to be a better quarterback.
And you're right, if Cody Fajardo we're still here, this team would be
better but I think Trevor Harris makes it even better than that. What team
performs better this year, I'll go Jason and Daryl, Montreal or Saskatchewan.
Which team gets the bigger boosts this year? You want Jason the first,
all right, So I actually have both of them missing the playoffs, But
I do have Saskatchewan finishing finishing with an eight and ten record, so like
just missing out on the playoffs, Whereas I have Montreal as the worst team
in the league this year. I just think they've lost too many key pieces
at key position, head coach, quarterback, wide receiver, really difficult positions
to a place over one off season. So um yeah, I would have
to say Saskatchewan. I think sascatchwe does have a chance of making the playoffs.
I just personally didn't pick them. Errold did Carl By a stinker of
a franchise here. Yes, I've never been at Danny machocha fan. I
have never been a Jason Moss fan, and I really it's the best city
in the CFL to visit, but I think it has the worst team and
the worst organization around it right now in terms of administratively, in terms of
putting a team on the field, I think that they've taken a huge step
backwards. As Jason said, the ownership kerfuffle probably caused them a lot of
problems. They wouldn't have lost Trevor Harris if they weren't going through that ownership
decision. Trevor Harris was ready to stay in Montreal, and who knows,
maybe Gino Lewis would have stayed and they don't lose all those players Montreal is.
As Jason said, I agree with that the worst team in the CFL
this coming season, Saskatchewan is better. I've gone out on a limb and
said they're gonna win ten games. I really think that they have filled And
I'm not a homer. I never cheer for them or I never cheer against
them, but I keep thinking that they've done a very good assessment of themselves
and gone after the people who really helped fill the holes or replace the players
that they've lost. And one of the assessments is Craig Dickinson, the head
coach, has decided he's going to get tougher on these guys about penalties.
When he's been coaching three years here. The rough Riders have been the second
worst the worst and the worst team in the league for penalties assessed, and
he said in the last preseason game they only had one. So he seems
to think that that's working, that he's doing something that's going to make them
better, give them a better chance to win. And I think they're a
better team. I think they're gonna make the playoffs. Are they going to
host a playoff game? I'm not sure about that, but they're probably a
playoff team. Are you just speaking to penalize the suscassion wherefarres? Are you
surprised Garrett Marino still is employed by the USFL here going into week nine.
We're a week nine. I'm surprised he's anywhere. When I see the actions
last year, I jumped on that right away read I'm sorry, I'm tooting
my own horn on this one, and I apologize for that. But right
after that game, I said, they have to hand Garrett Marino and Apple
in a roadmap and get him out of the town so fast that your head
would spin. But they just set them there and said and couldn't wait for
him to come back four games later, and it just totally destroyed their season.
I've never, I've rarely seen an incident. Well, when Corey Chamblin
was coaching the Writers a few years ago, there was one spot in the
Ottawa game that he played a quarterback he shouldn't have and you could just see
the whole team disintegrate right there. And that's what happened with Garrett Marino last
year. They should have done that. I think they've learned from it since
then. Yes, I'm surprised Garrett Marino is playing anywhere. He's very talented,
but he's very unpredictable and explosives. He's a loose cannon on any team
and if you can keep him in line while you might have a talent.
But I think that's difficult, and he made explode or implode at any moment.
Jason, Yeah, this is the bad boy the CFL. Does that
do anything from marketing or would you rather have him out of the league.
I think there's a fine line. I think that. I mean, like,
you know, some people would consider Simony Lawrence, you know, a
cheap player, but like, I think that he's done. He's been a
net positive for the league in the you know, publicity and like the buzz
that he gets round the league. But I think that you know, with
Garrett Marino. He has such a history of being that kind of player,
that kind of dirty player that I mean, just not the player that you
want to have in the league. If you know, this league has been
kind of hard on players that you know, have troubled backgrounds a lot of
the time. You look at Johnny Manzel and how they just completely barred him
from the league a few years back, and you know, I think,
you know it was understandable to do so for Marino as well. Next guest
here should be hopping on soon. We got Dan Ralph standing by here in
a little bit, Darryl. I want to make sure I get your take
on the game at hand tonight. You know, I don't want to do
just this game can do everything. But what do you make a BC at
Calgary? Well, Vernon Adams had a good preseason game, and he does
have some explosive games. He's really unpredictable, up and down and up and
down. I can't see him sustaining that all the time. That's why he
keeps losing his starting job Calgary with Jake Mayer stepping in, Well, it's
a transition time, but they always seem to put good pieces around their quarterback
in Calgary. I'm never going to bet against Calgary in the long term,
so I think that I have to probably even though it's a flamboy and quarterback
against the guy who's proving himself. I think I'm still sticking with the Calgary
Stampeters in most games this year. I do. Although it didn't BC didn't.
BC kind of embarrassed Calgary at home at the end of last season,
wasn't that right? Probably, Yeah, you would remember that because it's your
team, right, So I'm just trying to remember I can't. I feel
like, you know, I think if Vernon can keep his head on,
I don't know, it's he's he's a super fascinating guy. I think he's
a really neat guy. I've watched the arrow up and kind of watching him
interact with his teammates and everything. I think is fascinating. That kind of
is just a personality study, yes, but amazingly talented. And you know,
he's been at different places because every coach thinks, oh yeah, look
at the skill level, look at what he showed college, look at what
he's capable of doing, and he certainly can if he could do that even
close to that consistently. What a great career he could have had, but
it just it's so up and down. He's so mercurial read that I don't
know if he can sustain it. And stepping in after Nathan Rourke. There
are pretty high expectations out in BC. They have a decent team around him.
He's got to fulfill those things. He always takes it upon himself to
be a leader and and and tries to show that, and it seems like
everything disintegrates around him. They've got Dane Evans sitting there, who thrives in
the two quarterback system. Maybe he's the guy who ends up playing about most
of the time. Who knows it's tough, it's game one, it's fun
to predict what might happen. Does that and I'll get Jason sonsi it too?
Does that kind of same with Trevor? Like having all this team does
that stink on there? Does that kind of hurt at this point? Or
do you pete de fans just kind of give up here like they'll like it
doesn't bother them? What? Sorry? Like the Vernon has been on so
many teams? Has been many ever Harris too right? Yeah? Um,
well, in terms of what have they accomplished all the time. I think
they're going to get another chance. Of course, Vernon Adams and everybody's raven
when it was the twelve for twelve or thirteen for thirteen in the preseason game.
You're going to give him a chance. But if things start to falter,
it's so easy to point the finger at the quarterback and say, I
see he's never won anything. Things are falling apart. Just like we knew
it would happen with Nathan Rourk. That never happened last year. It seemed
like great and with the good quarterbacks it rarely happens. They hit a bump
in the road, but they don't just go crashing into a valley. And
these guys are both capable of driving it right into a valley. The same
question for you, Jason, about that kind of like the multi teams stink
on these quarterbacks. It's it's a good question because we have seen the seamaws
a weird league, and how we've seen guys that have gone through They've struggled
at their first couple of stops and then all of a sudden, they you
know, everything just clicks for them and they become you know, a solid
starting quarterback. But I mean I think that for Burning, it's all about
the consistency for him. I think that, you know, I always say
he doesn't do the easy things. Well, I think that he's not great
at taking those underneath check downs. He's you know, really good at throwing
the ball deep down the field, making these crazy improvisational plays, but it's
kind of keeping it simple is the problem for him. And I'm interested to
see how he does. Already did a really good job of it when he
came down the stretch last year at BC. So we'll see how he does.
But at the end of the day, I think that it's going to
be tough for him to really have that rebound because it can happen, but
it is rare. I've a message here, ralphaild We'll see Darrel. We're
gonna keep you on here for a minute. If that's okay, all right,
I'm replaced Dan, Ralphi. Hey, I've done that before. Who
knew you were carrying the one on this Let's talk a little bit about to
me. This isn't Maybe I disagree, you disagree that highest profile game of
the weekend, the Hamilton the Winnipeg game just because of believe I do do
you think that that or what do you make of that game here coming up
tomorrow. Yeah, that's probably the biggest one. Everybody wants to see how
Winnipeg is. I was in Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago. I went
to play the Canadian National Rockeball Championship in Winnipeg, and I stopped in to
watch the Bomber's practice at training camp and I talked to a couple of old
X rough Riders, Patty and feld Richie all the defensive coordinator, and visited
and visited with Mike Michael Shay, the head coach for a little while.
And there's a different feeling was it was. It was tangible that you could
tell the difference between Saskatchewan where they're approving and it's you know, there's this
tense feeling around training camp that you have to prove something, you have to
prove you so you're worth and we're going to show them and the laid it's
not it's more of a laid back attitude and winn a peg. I know
that the coaches would resent that, but there's that comfort level that they've done
it before, they know what they're doing. They just need a little bit
of tinkering. The positions have already been locked up, you know, they
haven't had to make many changes. It's such a solid team. They've been
so good for so long that if they win a great Cup this year,
they're basically a dynasty. If they had a one last year, which they
were all seconds away from winning, they'd be a dynasty. So they're They're
a good team, and you always want to see how the favorites are doing,
and you want to see against because Bully by Mitchell maybe one of the
best personalities in the Kidnean Football League. How's he going to do with this
new team that's kind of been constructed around him? Does he have anything left?
So? Yeah, to me, that's the big game at the weekend.
Do you agree with that, Jason, to take your you know,
Hamilton homerism out of it, But are you the most looking forward to the
believe By debut a game? Yeah, That's definitely the game of the week
for me. But I will say this, I think the CFL absolutely got
this week one schedule right. I think we have four great games. But
I do think, yeah, the Winnipeg Hamilton won, there's just so many
storylines. I'm always fascinated in sports, like when do these great teams come
to an end? How does it all fall apart from them? Kind of
waiting for that for Winnipeg. I think a lot of CFL fans are kind
of waiting for Winnipeg to kind of fall off eventually, just wondering how that's
going to happen. I'm interested to see what believe By Mitchell does. Obviously
in his first game, I think it's a tough ask to go to Winnipeg
and win. But if he can do that, honestly, it would be
a hell of a start for the Hamilton era for believe By Mitchell Darrel.
I was gonna ask, damn this, but what do you the Toronto?
There was so much stuff and the schedule and everything, and you got the
defending champions not playing here. I know we've got the nine teams and all
that said, but what do you make of the Toronto not playing this weekend?
Well, sometimes, as you say, one team always has to have
a buy so which one is it? I agree with Jason, I think
this is a good schedule. Let's try to have another week right, they
can bask in their glory and be the reigning Great Cup champions for one more
week and let everybody ask do they have a suitable replacement at quarterback? Maybe
it will build some extra interest in ticket selling, so I have no problem
with that. It's going to happen once in a while. There are good
meetings this week. This BC Calgary game is a great game, the Saskatchewan
at Edmonton game. Edmonton doesn't want a home game in how many years,
and Saskatchewan's kind of a rebuilt team and one of their great rivals, so
it's guaranteed win night in Edmonton there if you if the Elks don't win,
then you're at the game. You get another ticket to the next game,
and they keep giving you a ticket until the Elks win a home game,
which I think is a great promotion and I'm interested in that. I want
to you know, Taylor Cornelius is an interesting guy at quarterback, so I
want to see how these teams are performing. Chris Jones does a good job
in the second year when he's running a franchise, So how Edmonton going to
be there? There are a lot of great games giving out of the buy
no big deal. It might be the that might be the right team to
give the buy too. I think Reid, if you were going to ask
me who should get the buy in Week one, I would say the Rainy
Great Cup champions. And we have a comment here w Jones. Week one
should always have a Great Cup rematch. I mean, obviously you want Hamilton
playing here because of the bow of it all. Jason, if you had
to put Toronto in here, I mean there's there is a lot of intriguing
matchups, even the Ottawa Montreal one kind of that rivalry over there, But
what would you how would you fit Toronto in here if you had to go
back? Yeah, I think it's you take one of Autiwa or Montreal out,
because I think the other three matchups definitely have the most spice to it.
I think that when you look at you know, Jeremia Mizzoli being out
for the first couple of games in the season. Obviously that wasn't known when
they made the schedule, but I mean that takes a lot of juice out
of that matchup potentially. So I mean I think that maybe you take Outaway
out, but I think that you know, Toronto's probably is good a choice
of any to take the first week off honestly, they have gone with Tory
read, they have gone with as you'r as your texture said. They have
gone with rematches with a Great Cup quite often to open the season. But
you know, there's some mess ups in the schedule to Cody Tajardo won't be
playing in Saskatchewan this year with the Montreal Alouettes. That's not on the schedule,
Bolie by Mitchell. The Hamilton Tiger Cats won't be going back to those
old stomping grounds in Calgary. So you cannot make the perfect schedule. But
they've done a pretty good job on this year's Well it's hard, you know,
because obviously and it comes out so early, but then you have all
this offseason kind of free agencies sound like, I don't know, are they
better off waiting to kind of figure this out, to see how a little
bit, you know, I know the NFL and they kind of say,
okay, well we gotta wait now, Okay Rogers is traded, Okay,
now we're gonna put the Jets and all this stuff. I mean, they
have all their amalgamations there. But are they better off waiting and not announcing
it so far out and being able to plan this a little bit better.
Well, they can do that in the NFL because they all have access.
They all own their own stadiums, don't they. But it's difficult to schedule
in Toronto and Vancouver where the teams and even Montreal where the teams don't really
have priority on their on their scheduling time. So yes, the NFL does
that. Well. The CFL used to get criticized vehemently, and I was
one of the lead critics saying, why are you waiting so long to put
out your schedule? People want to In Saskatchewan, people schedule weddings around Saskatchean
rough Rider games, that people schedule vacations around when the Riders are playing,
so a lot of things have to be done early enough. The fact that
they did it early, I'm never going to complain Now the CFL puts out
its schedule because we can make our plans, the media can make its plans,
everybody can make social plans because the schedule is put out earlier. So
maybe they missed one, but it's better to get the schedule out early than
it is to put it out late and have everybody haranguing them for not having
it published already. Well, no, I mean XFL fans, so that
we didn't have the schedule. Jason, what do you make of this,
because I mean I get to travel and all that we the exit velment.
I think it was like six weeks out before the CM and it was it
was like dropped dead time there to get it out. What do you make
of the schedule planning? Well, I think I don't necessarily have a problem
with when they released the schedule. I think having released pretty far out is
not a big deal. But I don't like the fact that, like in
a nine team league, how does not every team play at each other's like
every stadium in the league. I don't think I would explained that very right
well, but like, how does like Calgary not play at home against Hamilton?
And like, I think there's a couple every team I think has one
team that doesn't have you know, it doesn't come to their stadium. So
I think that's a major problem. I don't know why. I think it's
really only become a problem in the past couple of years since uh they you
know, when came back from the canceled twenty twenty season, they kind of
pooled with the schedule, made it more division heavy, but I'm not necessarily
a big fan of that because I think that, uh, you know,
it's such a small league. I think every team should be playing every team
at every stadium. It used to be a very simple solution, You're right,
Jason, that it was there was a home and home game against everybody
in that accounted for sixteen games basically, and then they would add two against
their division. But it ended up that the Eastern teams, which were weaker,
would be playing ten games against the Western teams when you play home at
home, because you've got five at home, five away, So there would
be ten games for Eastern teams out of their eighteen would be played against the
West, and when the West was so much stronger, they started thinking maybe
we better come up with an unbalanced schedule because of that. It's unfortunate because,
as you say, Hamilton, that would be a really big show,
Hamilton in Calgary. I would love to see that one, but they don't
have it on the schedule, so that you know, you can't you can't
predict everything's going to happen, but it would have been a good one.
But I understand, as you said, Jason, why they would like to
be more concentrated on their divisional play. Daryl. We have our next guest,
Dandy buy here, Sarah. Any I think Darrell extended time. We
might have to put out an APB on Dan Ralpher. I'm not quite sure
if Dan got held him at the grocery store. Anything else from you before
we let you go. I'm good. I look over to the season guys,
and thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Darrel, I'll
be there. I got my play the flights booked. I got to go
through Toronto again. Don't like that, but we'll be going to Seattle to
Toronto and then down, so I appreciate it. We'll see you hopefully up
there at this week. All right, guys, take care. This is
Darryl drops out. We're gonna bring in Sarah. Now. I gotta get
my browser bigger here, I can't. It's there we go. This is
wonderful podcast. Sarah. How are you doing? Hi? I'm great?
How are you? We're good, Sarah. Here, I'm moving transitional kind
of stuff here following the season. Just saw you pop up on the First
and Out podcast with Mad and Nick. How is your life going? It's
been great? Thank you? I mean CFL's back. What can I say?
Yeah, talking about this and you're doing you know, you have some
new projects, right We've seen you work on and trying to get more CFL
fans engage. What are you working on right now? Yeah, basically what
you're saying. I mean, it's kind of piecing together a few different projects.
So some things are still no work, but like I think it's going.
It's great. You know, Like I like making my own content,
whether that's from home, whether that's for you know, a different kind of
platform. I think just getting that out there and and giving fans something to
look at, you know, during the off season as well as now like
during the season, it's kind of my main goal, so I try to
be flexible with it. There's not a specific thing that I would say that
I'm working on. It's more just kind of keeping up what do you as
storylines you're tracking here going end of the season. Obviously we're talking BC Calgary
the Night, but kind of everything else. What are you looking forward to?
Oh, there's so many storylines. That's my problem is I just kind
of love like looking at all of them. One that I was thinking about
today that really is exciting to me. Is actually the Saskatchewan rough Riders and
Mentreal Allottes sort of thing that they got going on there. I mean,
obviously I'm connecting the two because of the quarterback switch, right you got Trevor
Harris who's now as Sakatchewan Roughriders, and then you've got Cody fajarda with the
Aloweds. And to me, the intriguing part is that both of those organizations
last season and even during the off season a little bit, we're kind of
chaotic, you know, in different ways that they they but they both had
that energy to them where you don't really know where it's gonna go, do
you Are they going to make the correct changes in order to change the narrative,
right, And they're both really trying you could see, I mean obviously,
especially with the Riders with their offensive line, they're kind of free vamping
that which is everybody was, you know, asking for um. Trevor looks
to be more settled as well, we're there. And then on the other
flip side, you have Cody Fajardo, who who's I think kind of liking
you know, Montreal and not being having everybody stare at him all the time
with this intense blare because you know how Riders fans are very passionate and stuff,
and I think for him, he couldn't handle that as much. So
I think I think that's a really cool storyline to follow. I mean,
I don't want to compare them too much. They're different, you know,
even divisions, but I kind of love looking at those dynamics. Jason,
do you like that? Do you like the Cody Fajar though here it's it's
kind of like like mister Bean in the Bean Movie, like we're going to
the museum, Like it's kind of just fish out of while. I mean
that with all due respect, but kind of a fisher. Do you like
this? He is your sweet Cody Fajar though with everything else. As long
as he proves it on the field, I don't really have a problem what
he does. Honestly. I think that was the problem last year. He
didn't really perform on the field. And that's what the CFLs very year to
year league. I mean, it just takes one poor season the loop your
job, and we saw that last year with Cody. So he's gonna have
to play well to fit in with Montreal. I mean, you know,
I think he's a great guy by all accounts, but at the end of
the day, it's all about performance in this league, and I'm interested to
see how he does and how Trevor does in Saskatchewan. In terms of it,
we'll go Jason back to Sarah. In terms of Montreal, how much
can it feels like a lot of weights on Cody here, like how much
can he realistically do coming in here? Obviously we have the new ownership and
everything else, but kind of a chaotic guy landing spot for him. I
think the big question with Montreal, like the big overarching question from you know,
a schematic scan standpoint, is that head coach Jason Moss He's never been
a guy that relies on the running game a lot, and that is Montreal's
biggest strength. On paper. William stand Back should be much better this year
coming back from that injury. Walter Fletcher very talented running backs well, Josh
when Antwee. So I think if they lean on that running game, that
is kind of their path to success. I've said it before on my channel
that Cody vigardod is just not that great as a drop back in slang at
forty times kind of quarterback. He's better when he's you know, can use
play action as an advantage and use that athleticism run some bootlegs. So I
think that is what I'm looking for from a schematic standpoint from Montreal this season,
and I think that's gonna be a big key for their success this season.
Far Han texting me in the background here, Sarah, what do you
make of Cody here with a Montreal and let me try to figure out what
he wants me to do with his timing. I mean, for me,
a lot of it is seeing the mentality, right, he's kind of been
to me he's a sassy player because he kin he kind of like fights back
through and he's defensive, that's the word, right, And I think I
think that could be a good thing in a lot of ways, because you
know, he really wants to show that no matter what, you know,
he's going to push back and he's not going to kind of like be falling
under the brick, so to speak. But at the same time, I
think having that positive attitude, especially in Montreal, is going to be very
necessary because it's extremely different than the Riders. Right, Obviously he had struggles
there, but there's a huge fandom there, or is in Montreal, it's
a little bit less you know, popular the the CFL, so he's kind
of going to fly under the radar. But it's like you have yes to
kind of be that leadership's presence still regardless, and then you have obviously the
whole organization is kind of had to had to revamp itself, right, and
so when you're in that stage, you kind of assume that there's going to
be more obstacles down the road throughout the season. It's not going to just
fly fly by in the ways that it maybe has had done before. It's
it's going to be hard, and it's he's going to require some leadership again,
like I said, And then I don't know, I don't know what
to make of it. I don't There's also some injuries there that concern me.
So it's it's going to be interesting to see in terms of you know,
the Ottawa everything else here against Montreal and Jason the Missola thing came out,
you know, he's not playing here and then they got the week three
bye week. What do you make of that? Is Ottawa kind of trying
to get stuff together here after not a tremendously good last season. Well,
I think It's very concerning to me personally because this kind of dates back to
twenty nineteen when he got injured. He was off to a great start and
then kind of a lower leg injury again, and then obviously this past season
or twenty twenty two, he suffers another injury. So I'm very concerned.
He's not a young guy. I think he's like thirty five or thirty six
years old, quietly, because he took him a while to really establish himself
in the CFL. So I'm interested to see how he plays when he eventually
comes back from that injury. It's smart for Ottawa not to rush him because
I think they have a Week three buy, so I think their plan is
to get him on the field in Week four hopefully. But I mean,
it's kind of concerning that he's coming off big time injury once again, and
he hasn't really played a full season in a long time. Even in twenty
twenty one with Hamilton, he missed some games due to injury. So I'm
kind of concerned for Ottawa and their quarterback position because I don't really think Nick
Arbuck was a guy that you could really rely upon to win, as you
saw the past couple of seasons, Brandy given some live here. For Sara,
I just can't give a re on Ottawa at all. I just felt
like they took the big two last year with Missoli he got her. It
really felt like it was a terrible season. Though we have Bob Dyce in
there right as the head coach. And do you have any vibe at all
on Ottawa here? Sarah did the season It is a really tricky one because
of the Missowa's situation, like you're saying, um, and with Nick Arbuckle,
I mean, he's kind of been in around the league for a few
years, so it's like, you don't you don't feel like he's a sense
of stability right in the quarterback position at all. Um. In terms of
just the vibe, I mean, I think that there was a lot of
hope right for Ottawa this year because we thought people would come back because um,
you know, even just seeing how many trials played out, you're kind
of thinking, well, they could be on top, they could they could
move forward. And then the the Chad Kelly question, you know, are
they going to be still that top team if you have a new quarterback there
as well, that's not as experienced as MBT or some of the other guys.
So I think when I placed Ottawa kind of in the ranks, I
think at first it was higher. I think, honestly, it's probably going
to be similar to last year. If Missoli's not there, In my opinion,
I think he might might be at the very at the very bottom.
Unfortunately, Cayson, what do you make of that? I've kind of the
vibes here. I'm still kind of coordinating guests here in the background. Sorry.
Well, I think another problem is they've already suffered a lot of major
injuries. I think you look at a couple of the receivers that they brought
in, Royland Addison they brought in recently, who was injured at the end
of last year, still recovering from a pretty serious injury. Shack Evans,
who comes in from the Scotch One rough Riders. He's had a couple of
injury riddled seasons. He was one of the best receivers in the CFL in
twenty nineteen, but a couple of really inconsistent seasons in certains of staying on
the field. So I think those injuries are very concerning because I think the
very thin at wide receiver behind Jalen Acklin. I think you need a very
deep receiving core to succeed in this league, and I think that, combined
with the quarterback injury, they're gonna have a really tough time putting points on
the board. I think in the first couple of weeks of the season here
with Nick Arbuckle, even when Missole gets back, they really have trouble in
those first four games last year. I know it was a small sample size
and they had a hard schedule, but they had a hard time getting the
ball into the end zone. They don't really have that great red zone threat,
So I think that's a concern for Ottawa and why I don't think they're
gonna finish very high in the CFL standings this year. But I could be
wrong. We got Dan sandy By. We'll go back to Sarah one more
time. Anything else from me, and then we're gonna hurry up offense here
because we have far Hunt calling in here with the in stadium thing here coming
up in a bit. Sarah, anything else? Can we appreciate you calling
into that? Yeah? Thanks for having me. I'm just excited for this
game. I mean, I think it's such an interesting matchup. They were
both twelve and six last year. You know, the quarterback situation is kind
of brand new. Obviously, Jake Mayer was there last year, so it
was Vernon. But to me, this is like a fresh start where they
really get to begin and hopefully end with the team. I think that with
what we saw with Vernon in the preseason was really a ray of hope for
BC, especially you know post Nathan work, where there's that momentum already being
built. So I think just kind of coming into this matchup, which is
going to be perfect. I think also Jake Meyer has a little bit of
a chip on his shoulder because I think last time they played it was he
was what twelve, he threw for twelve and twenty two or something like that,
and I know that that bothers him and he's kind of taken on this
bigger leadership role there as well. So for me, it's a really it's
a really interesting game. And actually both I just to throw this in there
quickly. I was looking at their stats from last season. Both of those
quarterbacks, they both played in twelve games, so it's like very much similar,
but Jake Meyer actually threw for six hundred more yards. He also screwed
Story scored double the amount of touchdowns. He had fourteen and Vernon had seven.
His percentage completed completed presents rate was like seventy four point seven or something,
and then Vernon's was like sixty three something. So there really is an
interesting you know, similarities to the teams and to those quarterbacks, but also
there are some differences as well. We saw a last season, but this
season has been so many changes, so I'm excited to see how it evolves.
The story just evolves, you know, it's exciting. I'm good for
this season. I think it's going to be you know, like I said,
settled here coming in with Nott. Have any labor strikes anything else?
Sarah, thank you so much, appreciate you calling in. Go to check
out Sarah on all her new adventures. It should be good. Thanks guys.
Good bye, Dan, I was we're gonna bring in here, We're
gonna hurry up offense. I think Farhan's calling it Dan, Ralph here,
I mute yourself. We didn't have to send out the all points bulletin.
Dan, how are you doing here? Let's get you on muted too much?
Not enough hours in a day. My sincere, apologies, you're good.
What are you looking forward to here? We got BC tonight, Calgary
everything else. You know, Toronto's off this week. What are you looking
forward to this season? Well, UM, a couple of things. First
of all, I'm glad football starts. It's been a long winter here,
especially with Canadian hockey teams bounding out early. Um, but I just you
know, I mean, I'm curious to see BC looks like post Nathan Rourke,
most Brian Burnham. And I'm also curious to see what the stam Peters
look like pot Levi and Mitchell. You know, they lost a couple of
people on defense to Eastern Division teams in free agency, so we'll see what
the scamps are all about. But we're I'm also curious to find out is
whether or not that that horrific seventeen game losing school can Everton continues or if
they finally get off to Schneiden and start the season with the winning against Sat
Jason, how much of a black mark is that right now? For Edmonton,
I think their season could look completely different that they go out and win
this first game, and they go out and it'd say this is a brand
new season, but if they let it persist, they lose the couple games
at home. Again. It's just it seems like it could be the same
old story. So I think it's so crucial for them to win that first
game, and I definitely think they couldn't do it. They won the last
at Saskatchewan um last year, the last match of these two teams played,
so I think they have a good chance to win this one. But if
they don't win this game, it's going to be very concerning for them.
I think it could be a snowball effect once again. Yeah, why are
they are trying to and that's playing this week? I don't know, it's
it seems to be a recurring theme. This happened in two nineteen and happened
again last year. So you know what. I think part of the deal
is that the CFL or the MLS gives the CFL eight playoffs, eight home
gates to work around, and that ninth game is always the game in Halifax
or out East. So um. I think sometimes the argos are constructed by
by availabilities and hence this is what they get. But I'll tell you I
spoke with Ryan, didn't with you early or late last week. But he's
not crying. They're hurting right now and we can use them in terms of
injuries. Really yeah yeah, he said, they're they're really banged up,
and uh you know, um, I mean they had a bunch of people
walking around with crutches and with the limbs last time I saw them in golf
two weeks or a week and a half of the so, um, they
say they need it, and you know, I'll take him at his word.
I think it was Steve Melvin was saying too that one of the Hamilton's
recent signees injured too. Jason Snidis said, what is this preseason? And
where I don't understand that? I guess that seems surprising. Well, I
mean I think there are injuries in training camp. I mean these guys,
um, you know, they don't go. It's not the two days and
full pads that it used to be. So you you know, you have
a padded practice here, in a padded practice there, then you play in
the game and then um, you know, I still think there's something to
be said about you're in shape, but you're not in football shape and um,
and that includes learning how to take a hit and how to give a
hit, and uh so, I mean a lot of veterans didn't play much
in training camp either, So you know there's gonna be some some bumps and
some bruises the first three four weeks of the season. And you know,
we're starting to see it a little earlier right now, James, I saw
you know you're headed with that. How big of an injury was that for
the tie Cats here coming in? I think they because the thing is he
was kind of their second guy that they were going to use at that boundary
receiver position, which is a pretty crucial spot in a CFL offense. And
I think that they really lack size in the receiving corps. After those first
couple of guys went down, Anthony Johnson as the other guy I was talking
about, and then Justin McGriff is the guy Steve Milton was talking about who
went down, big, tall receivers, something Hamilton doesn't have a lot of
in the receiving corps, guys like Tim White. Like Tim White I think
is like six two if I'm not mistaken, but just not huge guys in
that receiving corps. And I think Bow has always been a guy that likes
those big targets. So I think having those guys go down in twenty camps
pretty big loss for Hamilton. Getting your thoughts on the believe in Hamilton,
is that your biggest most watched game of the weekend coming up? Um?
Not really, because they're it's gonna be a cake walk. Well I don't
say a cakewalk. I think it'll be toys game. But I think there's
something about Winnipeg at home. I mean, this is not a slide against
Hamilton. They do this almost to anybody. They're tough, they're they're you
know, they get the home crowd support behind them. And the big thing.
I look at that roster and there's little to noble. There's turnover,
but not as much turnover as you think. So they there is a sense
of comfort that they know each other, they know what they can do,
they know what they're capable of. They've been in the offense. You know,
if you're looking at zach Collaros and and all these guys, they've been
in the offense now for two or three years. They know what they can
do, they know what needs to be done. There's a sense of familiarity
at a time during the early part of the season, when teams are still
in that feeling up process. Winnipeg's got that familiarity and that's where I base
that on. And I feel for Hamilton. They start the season playing Winnipeg
and Toronto. In Winnipeg and in Toronto, So you know what, I
guess, I know Bo's turning it into the idea that they're going to see
who, you know, who they are early in the season, and that's
a good way I expect him to take that that approach, being a veteran
and a guy who's won in both places. So you know, it's it's
not an ideal situation for for the Tiecats, but they'll they'll know who they
are week three for sure. In terms of the Toronto argus here before we
got to bounce out with you, what do you make of this? I
mean, obviously Chad Kelly kind of right now, but we have you Bryan
Scott there and Evan ben Holmes didn't play grade and there's a lot of kind
of that backup, a lot of interests there. What do you make of
that? Back? Yeah, there's an interest or uncertainty. I mean,
they're putting all the eggs and a lot of the eggs in the in the
in the in the Kelly basket, and good, you know, and good
on him. He looked very good in camp the times I saw him.
He looked really good in the first quarter of the exhibition game that he played.
That being said, it's training camp and it's the exhibition season season.
So I think you're gonna you know, you're gonna see him do a lot
of the things that he did in the Gray Cup game. He's gonna be
run. He'll run, he'll be mobile, and I think he's gonna he's
going to be a leader. I think he's a good player. I mean,
he showed me something in training camp, and he showed me something in
that exhibition game. And now whether that translates to eighteen games over the regular
season, the art goes better, hope. So because there's not much experience,
as you said, behind him, I mean Ben Holmes, who in
my mind was the most experience of the three, they let him go after
after the exhibition game. So you know, um, hold your breath time.
Are you that we'll get Jason thoughts too? Are you that surprised that
they've gone all in on Chad Kelly right here and then that we will we
will let you. We're gonna go Dan answer this, and then we've got
our call on. We'll get We'll get Jason thoughts there any final thoughts Dan
on chat Kelly, and then we got to grab our next guess. I've
been I've been very impressed with his maturity. I've been very impressed with his
leadership ability, and I've been very very impressed with his team first approach.
And I mean he came in with a bit of an attitude, or came
in with a bit of a of a reputation rather, But I'll tell you
I've been I've been very very impressed with the young man in training camp,
and like I said, he showed very well in the first core against Ottawa,
and you know, I think he's there's reason to be optimistic in Toronto
if he can stay healthy. Awesome, Well, Dan, I appreciate it.
We got you on. I was about to send out the ap beyond
you. We got Dan. I appreciate that. Dan, thank you so
much with the Canadian press, gentlemen, thank you now standy by here.
I have been on the other side of this a lot where I have been
in the field, but now I'm back at the home studio here we have
livey party far on Collin and around the stadium. How are you doing good?
Some good music on in the background and getting sent for the season opener
here Lines and Stampshire. Most of them are in their locker room. Actually
a few of them are still out here on the field right now, but
looking looking to get pull warm up started and the season kicked off. My
friend, what are the conditions out there right now? We have going on?
But Sonny thirty celsist whatever that means in your language. Once it's hot,
it's warm, I get to wear a golf shirt. I don't have
to wear suits. Viewers are going to want to know what's the footwear looking
like tonight? Um, let's see on no slide most lines. But you
know, I'll get back to that at some point in the season. Far
Hall, what are you making looking into the season right now? Everything else
and lots of storylines attract Oh wow, yeah, that is a big topic.
You know. You had you had Dan just on talking about the quarterback
situation with Chad Kelly in Toronto, and I honestly, I think there's probably
eight of nine teams, everybody not named Winnipeg that has some level of question
around their quarterback situation, right, including the two teams here, you know
who's gonna win the spots, right, I mean, Vernon Adams is the
established starter in DC. Jake Mayer's got that role in Calgary. Certainly,
BC's got the best quarterback room because Dan Evans being there is the backup that
they can turn to if it doesn't go well. For Calgary, it's it's
Jake or or nobody. That's just the way it's going to be. But
you know, if you look all the way around, there's still some level
of question that needs to be answered. I taught today on Sports Center.
Naylor and I had a debate about the top five quarterbacks in the league today,
and I said, look, that's not the question the top The question
is who are the two Who are the five quarterbacks that have the best opportunity
to succude based both on talent but also situation, right and what's around them?
And I think those might be two different answers. Trevor Harris, if
you just ask me who the best quarterbacks are, I put Harrison in my
top three. But if you ask me who's gonna the best situation to succeed,
I don't have Harrison my top five, so you know, I want
to see how some of these guys performed. Jason, what do you got
for a far Hunt? Any questions for the man? Well this is kind
of book not football related, but I think you know here in Hamilton we've
kind of been dealing the last couple of days with you poor air quality issues.
How are the skies looking around in Calgary today? Well, look,
you never want to make light of air quality issues because forest fires are a
serious thing. But you know, this is just like a regular Thursday in
Vancouver right when you talking about our quality issues because every summer we've now gotten
into forests fire season, which begins in May and continues right through September and
October. So it's interesting to me that your guys are finally dealing with it
in southern Ontario, but the skies here are absolutely clear air quality is not
an issue. And yeah, I don't expect that anything to delay this starts.
How far han am I? Do I have right to be worried about
my boy Vernon Adams this year? What do you make a Vernon going the
end of the season worried? Why? What worries? You just worried that
you know, he tried to maybe a little too hard turn the ball over
a little bit, you know, just I want you know this is my
our team, I mean this America's team. Well, first of all,
if you think it turns the ball over a lot, you got to look
at the PFF stats. He actually had the least number of turnover worth he
plays in the league amongst starting quarterbacks last year. And he takes the most
beat shots, so he knows how to protect the football to be to be
honest with you, and I had Vernon on my list and quarterbacks as number
two behind Zach Collaros, because he's in a great position to succeed. You
know, we know how good he looked against Calgary in the preseason game,
and you can only put so much stock into that given how many guys Calgary
left home on the defensive side of the ball. But I think Burnham's in
in a great spot to do well this year. He's been completely focused,
completely dialed in. He understands the offense now that in ways that he didn't
before. And Jordan mckimmick understands him in ways that he did him before.
And you've also got a receiving for who loved nath the Worth last year,
and they're fully invested in Vernon out and they want to play for him because
he's an exceptional teammate. You know, he's not the hot dog that his
playing style would imply. He really cares about his teammates and they want to
perform for him. So I think he's in a great position to do well.
And I think we'll get a twenty nineteen version of Vernon Adams when he
was the East Aalster quarterback. A couple here, well quick, I'll let
you go. I know you have a hate here coming up. Nailors have
a trouble logging in the more trouble here doing this remote than it isn't like
you got all you You know, when I when I'm on the when I'm
on the road and I've got the worst conditions, I have better connections to
get on the air then Nailer when he's at home with a properly professionally installed
home studio. We're always waiting for Naylor and the signal. It's crazy.
Wait this PFF thing this week with the CFL, the announcement they're going to
be working. Does that is that a big deal. Yeah, I think
so. I mean, I think we've all gotten really accustomed to the quality
of data the PFF provides, and you know, certainly on the betting side,
both in college football and in the NFL, PFF has become the bible.
So I really believe having the CFL involved with that, I think is
a great thing. And hopefully people substrate to the service because I want,
I want to give our viewers more credit then sometimes we give them. I
think we get comfortable offering generic commentary, not diving into the analytics as deeply
as we should. I want to. I want to give our audience more
credit and you know, and I hope they consume that information because it just
makes the league that much better. Well it isn't, Yeah, because I
got some of the PFF guys say, you know, come on before or
USFL, and they said, well, we don't have as much time,
you know, this year we're kind of doing the articles. We don't have
as much time to deep dive. So it's interesting that is the CFL has
at least kind of gotten above that threshold. I guess they have. Yeah,
no, no, there's no doubt. It's good. And you know,
I know that there's been some growing pains with the Genius Stats package through
the preseason that I know is going to get resolved here sooner than later.
And once that gets resolved and you coupled with what PFF can do, I
just think it gives fans so much more in terms of access to players,
what they what they're actually able to do, and just resources to get to
know those guys that much better. It helps CFL fantasy, it helps all
of it. So it's a real win and people understand the brand of PF
if you're an NFL fan, to now be able to access to CFL information
just as readily on the same platform as a great deal. Well far Haunt
anything else for me, I'll let you go. We'll stop down here before
Naylor comes. I I don't want to hold you anything else from me before
you gotta get out. No, it's just it's gonna be a fun season.
It's a great night and I can't wait for this first weekend to get
going, and it's the earliest start date for a CFL regular season, and
I think it's gonna be a great year. Awesome. Well, far Hot,
We'll get you on proper in this season. I appreciate your time,
no problem. Next time Dorothy has to ask, because she's my favorite of
you. I know she's walking around here somewhere. I don't know, she's
walking the dog or something. So we'll get there, all right, do
you love talk to you buddy? Well, Jason here, we'll let Naylor's
trying to log on. We'll stop down here for just a quick second.
How a lot of your far Hans got full rather playing on the background,
Dan, Ralph everything else? How are we doing here? How have you
made the show so far? Sorry? Zara, what's the question? I
said? What do you? What have you made the show so far?
How are we surviving here? I think we're doing great, like considering I've
got a lot of moving parts here, a lot of guests, but a
lot of great guests, and uh, you know, I think this has
been a great show so far. Yeah. People always wonder why why do
you prerecord these all the time to the week, But we're here, We
have Naylor getting ready to hop on. We also have Marty York coming on
as well here and near the of the hour before we get into it,
and we'll probably log off here a little bit before I know the Professor Andrew
Murray stopping by as well. The wildfire smoke interesting, I did see a
lot of that, especially in New York. Doesn't seem to be concerned in
Calgary. That's kind of feel good, right, Jason, Yeah, for
sure. It's great to have a clear Skuys for kickoff in the first game
of the season. Obviously, I'm interested to see if that affects the month
for y'all game on Saturday night, so you know, something the monitor going
forward. But as far On said, it's something that they're used to unfortunately
in the West, and it's good to see that there's clear Skuys for tonight.
Interesting. Yeah, I saw Tim Kapper posting that it seems like Montreal
is selling really well for that twenty thousand plus trending for that. What do
you make of the Montreal fan base here? It feels like they've been through
a lot here in the last couple of years, and the ownership and kind
of everything else the Gary Stearns overall, what's your read on the Montreal fan
base. I think it's hard to judge because I think a lot of time
in the CFL, most of the you know, most teams are not like
say Saskatchewan, even the Saskatchewan's having some decline in attendance. But I think
most teams are reliant upon having some sort of recent success to you know,
get the fan base back into it and have interest in the team. And
I think Montreal it's been a long time. They have the second longest Great
cupp Route behind Hamilton, who has by far the longest Great Cup Route,
and I think that plays into it. I think when I was growing up,
the Montreal Wettes were the premier franchise in the CFL at Anthony Calvio,
so they were just a very proud franchise and they just have not reached that
level ever since Calvio retired. And I think that they were getting there a
little bit with Vernon Adams back in twenty nineteen, but then obviously COVID happened
in canceled twenty twenty season, So imagine what would have happened if they played
in twenty twenty. Maybe they could have continued that positive momentum. But I
mean the ownership changes, morale's got to be pretty low, I think around
the what's but I mean a new owner has um, you know, deep
pockets, and I think that a big problem with them as well as the
stadium issue. I think that they really need to have their own stadium and
not share the facility with mcguel. I think there's some benefits to having that
right downtown in Montreal, just kind of great scenery around the stadium, But
at the end of the day, I think it's better. They're better off
getting their own stadium if that's a feasibility feasible option in the future, and
maybe with this deep pocketed owner it could happen. Yeah, I mean it
looks awesome. Man, I've obviously never been the mont trouble watching it TV,
it looks great. W Jones has Lions like to sell out their first
home game, like there, you know, they always open the upper deck.
It never quite sells out right, And even last year with one Republic
there's LLL cool J. What is his? Like? I know LLL you
know, like being American, but like, as a Canadian living in Hamilton,
does LLL cool JA have any kind of semblance of effect on you?
In June of twenty twenty three, I'm not really the person to ask about
wrapped to be honest. I mean I listen to some of it, but
I'm not really too familiar. I'm sure I've heard a song or two of
his, but I think that, you know, it's good that they are
delving into more of the hip hop genre. I think that um, you
know, just the country element to what they've used to promote CFL games over
the past couple of years. It's kind of gotten a little stale, so
it's good that they're, um, some of these teams are bringing in other
acts and more popular acts and well known acts. Obviously, One Republic last
year was huge, So I think that it's good that the CFL teams are
doing this. Our Lady Peace coming to the Montreal home opener as well,
So I think it's good that they're you know, experimenting with bringing in these
these concerts to the home openers. Um. But at the end of the
day, I don't think that's going to be enough alone to you know,
propel momentum. But it does get the fans out to that Week one and
you get a you know, a good attendance for the Week one games doing
that. I just I'm curious, like, what what's the threshold there,
Like, how do we just had like One Republic like ever listens to the
Republic, Like even I thought the Great Cup was it two years ago with
like the Lumineers and all that, like like everyone kind of like everyone kind
of knows it's not country. Everyone kind of knows that. I just I
don't know what residents LL cool Jay has and especially like Vancouver, I don't
know. I it's not it's not like we're getting Whiz Khalifa or some young
young rapper here. I mean, it just feels like it's you're already kind
of data that that way, and then with the rap it does feel a
little odd. Yeah, I guess only time will tell and we'll see how
many people show up for that game, because I mean, if they have
similar tenants to what they had last year, I think that you can consider
that a success. And you know, I think that's a good thing for
the Lions. Oh, I think we finally have our next guest on here.
We've been scheduling and balancing everything else today. But the first question I
want to ask that data the other first time, how are you what do
you make of LLL cool Jay as the big long rumored BC Lions. But
you didn't think I was going to ask you that. Uh, you know,
I've often have been made to look silly on air answering questions about music,
especially you know, cool music. I remember I was doing some of
the super Bowl with Jay on Right Show, and it was like, hey,
before I let you go, what's your favorite Rihanna's song? Unfortunately,
his producer got in my ear and warned me that one was coming, because
otherwise it would have been like a pretty bad moment of dead air on TSN.
So anyways, just warning you that's not my area of expertise. LL
cool J like how current is he? Because he, like I know,
he's a guy who goes back a bit right, But like, is he
is he still still considered cool? Or is this I don't know. I
hadn't put any fad in LL cool J in probably fifteen years. Yeah,
it's been a while, that's my sense, even as an outsider, you
know, you know, on the on the cool stuff. I think I
think I know five figure death Punch. I think they sampled part of his
lyrics in one of their songs. I think that was probably the most residence
I have as a five figure death punch. Dave, what do you make
of this CFL Week one? I mean, obviously we'll try to get you
on here for a proper interview. But what are we making heading into the
season? Well, I wrote about on TSN dot c A today just about
how it's a quarterback class the likes of which I don't know if I've ever
seen in the league before. If you were to put stat lines from last
year in front of each of these guys and said would you take that one
again? And the only guys that would probably say yes would be you know,
Trevor Harris and Zach Colaris. The other seven would say no, I
need better than that. And on some of it, it's not just performance,
it's sample size, right, Like Jake Mayer didn't play a full season,
and you know there's a look, there's a lot of potential among this
group. You look at Jake Meyer's going into year number three, usually the
time that a CFL quarterback makes a big advance, and he was a quick
study in years one and two. Then you look at Taylor Cornelius, much
more refined in year number two. He's going into year number three. Chad
Kelly, you know, is going to have an offense in his hands for
a season for the first time since he was a year at Old Miss,
and you know, we got a little taste of what he could do,
but he walked into camp this year as the guy didn't have to win the
job. He could just find two and you know, bo Levi Mitchell,
the bounce back of bow Levi Mitchell the world anticipating. So you go around
this group, there's questions around every single one of him, even out through
Trevor Harrison. There he's thirty seven and he was a backup at this time
a year ago. That that gets a question marks, right, So other
than Zach Collaros and there's every other quarterback in the league has a big question
mark. Now, that doesn't mean at the end of the year we couldn't
be saying this was one of the great quarterback years we've seen in the last
decade because Vernon Adams put it all together in BC, you know, and
Jeremiah Mazzoli came back in week three, in Week four and you know,
had a great season. But we know the nature of football, they're not
all going to great seasons. But I do think there's lots of potential in
this quarterback class. And frankly, the CFL needs these guys to hit because
you know, the competition for the next wave is a lot tougher than it
used to be. You could even see it reflected in CFL training camps this
year, the number of guys from smaller schools and from smaller conferences. You
know, we're not We're seeing less of the you know USC's and Notre Dames
and more of the you know, Butlers and Tosen's and things like that.
And you know, I think that's just the reality of the modern league.
I just yeah, Trevor Harris is a month in two days older than me,
and that is the saying that that that makes I want to get Jason
just so he doesn't sit here in silence the whole time. And then we'll
go back to Dave here. I wanted to get your thoughts that, you
know, bo LEVI just a whole at Hamilton like it's all our bus.
I mean you were talking their Great Cup kind of you know drought here it
feels like all our bus. What do you make of that? Then obviously
we'll get Dave's thoughts. Yeah, absolutely, I think this team has been
in um, you know, Great Cup or bus mode the past several years.
Obviously, this Great Cup route has just gone on and on and on.
They've come so close, four great Cup losses in the last what was
it ten twelve years or something like that, so they've come up close.
They just cannot finish it off. And I think that that has been the
powering thing behind this off season for the tired Cats, bringing in so many
other players, obviously Bow being the biggest edition, but I think Bow also
helped them bring in other players like Jamir Thurman, bring Jahart Davis back,
who people forgot that he played with in Calgary, So I think that will
help. I think they have some experienced guys that um could help them get
over the hump. But we'll have to see if they do it, you
know, Dave, Yeah, is this I mean it feels like this is
the Aaron Rodgers equivalent with the Jets, right with bo Levi and all of
this year. I mean, what do you make of this whole storyline?
Well, and I think there's it does kind of reflect of that, and
it also reflects a little bit of what happened with Henry Burke's you know,
when he got pushed up the Calgary and you know it wasn't good about it,
the same way that you know, Bo isn't good about it. I
don't think Bow wants to make this season about Calgary, right, I think
he's about planting his legacy on another side of the country and having a second
run in his career. You know, that's what this is about. I
think. I don't think you're gonna hear a lot of Calgary talk. But
no question, you know, given what he meant to that city, that
organization to have your job taken away, you know, I know, I
know Henry Burrus. It's stuck with him for a long time, and I'm
sure it does for Bow. And you know, it was funny because when
that trade happened, you know that he said, I'm going to free agency
and I look, I didn't have any sources that told me that he was
going to Hamiltons for sure. But water runs downhill, right, guys.
The Hamilton Tiger Cats with the longest Great Cup drought in the CFL, hosting
the game for the second time in three years after losing it in overtime two
years ago, with Scott Mitchell as their president. If you know anything but
his nature, there's just no chance he makes a trade and he as he
and the organization because that's when I say he makes the trade. Of course
they have a front office, but a trade of that magnitude is going to
involve the President's you know, signature. There's just no way they make that
trade. And then walking watching Watkatter free agent, it's zero chance that was
ever going to happen. And look, I think I think he's a good
fit there. I it's a it's a good football town. You know,
they sometimes the East doesn't get the respect that it does, but in Hamilton
maybe kind of gets overlooked because of just being in the sort of considered part
of the larger GTA. But that's a good football town. And I think
they're really gonna cherish having believe I mention, I'm interested to see that.
You know, they've the receiving corps they turned. When I'm to training camp,
it was struck me the number of good American receivers they had. Guys
have just jumped out to me in practice, and you know a couple of
them have made the roster. Terry Goodwin, I guess former Georgia guy had
eighteen hundred yards receiving at Georgia was a seventh round pick. I believe with
Carolina there's another one as well. Name escapes to me right now, who's
the Sunbell player of the year at Arkansas State had seventeen touchdowns in twenty nineteen.
And you know every year, you know, I say every year there's
a Dalton show, there actually is an Adulton show and who leads the league
and receiving you know, how to training camp. We never played the CFL,
but the nature of this league is there are always guys that we couldn't
have a conversation about right now, but in six weeks from now we sure
could, all right. And and that's I think with Hamilton's County on a
couple of those receiver spots. In terms of this roster stuff, we went
on a lot with Darrel at the beginning of the show. But this whole
of the snaps and now we're doing the Howmber remember snaps? And we're doing
long division here to figure out how long? To me, you know,
we've always had this like the depth charts and the injury reports and now we
want to gamble and we wanted to XFL and USFL can't always get their minds
around that either. What do you make of all this the ratio stuff though
the roster stuff. Yeah, it was funny because I did an insider hit
on this during our draft show and I don't remember thinking, I'm not sure
anybody knows what I'm talking about, but they will about a month and a
half and sure off and look, look here's the thing. One of the
things the CFL is challenged by is bringing its game and its product to people
that are maybe more just more familiar with the four down football with the NFL,
primarily NFL football, and trying to get them to buy in. And
I'm not talking just about Americans. I'm talking about Canadians too, because they
are Canadians who grew up as if they might have, you know, their
associations football. They could have been raised in Alabama. You know, they
watch the NFL American college football, and they don't watch the Canadian game.
And those are a real challenge for the league to get through too. I
think the more things that differentiate your game in a not positive way, the
more that becomes a hurdle to new fans. And when you have rules okay
that people don't understand and have trouble processing, they feel like kind of outsiders
in your sport. That's what my concern is. I understand the objective of
this rule, but I don't like what it does to sort of the fans
in the It's incomprehensible. I can already feel the first time far Hut and
alogy and I start talking about you know, veteran American and Nationalized American and
twenty three snaps and designated can people are like, we might as well get
on ever read the phone boom, right, because we're gonna get the same
level of engagement and people. So I don't like that aspect of it.
And I think that's that's already the ratio is challenging enough, right, Well,
you can't play whoever you want whatever, no you got like even that's
a bit of a stopper for some people. So when you kind of up
the anti on this um, you know I don't. And then you have
the optics where teams are already taken advantable, well not take an advantage,
right. They're used it the way we knew they'd used it, listing starters
on the depth, charters backups for one play, and it just kind of
I think it can get in the way with people becoming fans of our game.
I had something, I'll give you an example, I won't I won't
use his name, but I'll just somebody I could whatever, it doesn't really
matter. But somebody I work with who's a really smart guy who played in
this league who now works on television. You know, it's phone to me
last night at eleven thirty trying to wrap his head around stuff. And so
if a guy who's that embedded in our sport is having trouble figuring it out,
what's the average fan of the CFL dealing with? Never mind, you
know, a general sports fan, somebody who's not familiar with things like the
ratio. So I understand the purpose of this. It's to give coaches more
flexibilities, allowed them to use better players in situations to make the game better.
I get the objective. I'm very hesitant about the application, and more
than anything with translation, I have another question for Dave here. But Jason,
Yeah, what do you make of that? Like two, it's like
we're speaking in another language, where I do you think the Canadian game?
And we know this from trying to cover Like once you're in the wall of
like talking CFL are watching it, it's awesome, but like it wasn't really
until I was up there. Kind of talking with everyone that you feel like
you're I can't part of the club. Now, what do you make of
this, Jason? And then like it's one more kind of thing now that
barrier. Yeah, I agree with Dave. I think it's another barrier to
fans that are trying to understand what the CFL is all about. Um,
the depth charts were just such a headache to look at the other day when
they when they came out. So honestly, I think that you know,
when this came out, I was in favor of the rule. I thought
that, um, you know, this would just be a little bit of
a background thing, wouldn't be as visible. But you saw from those depth
charts just how visible it is and how complicated it all is. And I
think it's confusing to fans, and I think that this is something that the
CFL will have to get, um, you know, figured out pretty quickly.
I think here, Dave, in terms of this American TV stuff,
and I so I'm so dumb, so like this all comes out. We're
even talking about this for weeks. So I finally sat down about an hour
ago, I'm like I need to Okay, how am I watching the game
tonight? Right, Like, how am I going to watch the game because
we thought it's not CBS, CBS Sports Network all that, Um, it's
on Fubo. I have Fubo, It's on Fubo. If you have ut
TV, it's on ut TV. So that to me, that's two of
the largest streaming If I'm going to watch TV here, that's you know,
if I'm actually going to subscribe to something. What do you make of this?
Because I had our big giving the games away for free with the CFL
plus everything else, what do you make of the soul hodgepodge CFL American TV
deal? Well, I think it is a bit of a hodgepodge, And
like I think there's the trickney part is you've got a part of the season
that is not up against college football or the NFL. Is the part of
your season that has value. But that season runs out by early September.
So the weird thing is in most leagues we think, well, if you
were going to buy the games of the league, you buy the second half,
right, you want to stretch round the battles for the playoffs and then
the playoffs in Great Cup. In this league, we have an opposite situation.
So it looks to me like the league went out and you know,
ask CBS and said what do you want us to do? And they said,
we'd love a Sunday night game, especially you know, which is we've
never Sunday at games in this league, and now we got them ten out
of the first twelve weeks and certainly as regular and we'd like a Sunday night
game and we'll buy a package of thirty four games with you you know,
through to September. And then I assume the league went really hard to try
to find people to buy the rest and they couldn't. And I think putting
them on free streaming is probably less of an affront to CBS who paid for
games that then it would be for them to give them the ESPN or something
like that. Right, And now this is just me speculating. I am
not in the boardrooms at TSN learning about our international television contracts and streams,
so um, you know that that's my speculation. So you know, I
think ultimately they kind of served all their purpose. One is to get with
a carrier in the US that would be you know, credible and would actually
tell people when the games are on. I mean, Jim nance reading that
CFL promo on the on the weekend. I mean, that's honestly, that's
more promo than like ESPN did, Like I don't want to. What I'm
saying is that one of the issues with ESPN and other carriers is the game's
just kind of popped out of a crack in the sidewalk there's a CFL game
one, rather than actually telling people when they're on. So that I thought
that was significant that they in front of a huge audience, you know,
that was that was rolled out. So they actually monetize it, you know,
to a limited degree. But in the CFL. You know, if
somebody knocks at your door and says you want one hundred thousand, you asked
for nothing here, Okay, you know that's that's the start. That's your
starting point, we believe based on the reporter figure. And then you've all
the other goal is to make sure your product is distributed for every game to
anybody who wants in the United States. And it's and again it's one is
for fans. The other is honestly for players and coaches, so that when
you go to recruit, they've seen the game, they understand the game.
There's some familiarity, so it's not perfect, but I think in a kind
of jigsaw puzzly way, they achieved all their goals. Get with a carrier
that would be credible and promote them, try to monetize it and make sure
every game is exposed and available in the United States. It kind of a
side doorway of get there. Excuse me, but um, but they got
there. Yeah. I will tell you when Jim Nance thought about it,
you would have thought that, you know, that the Ten Commandments were handed
down whatever. Like I saw something Jim Nance talked about the CFL on Gombine.
I mean it was but hey, I saw ads today, right,
Christina tweeted, I think the CFL news. But I mean at least you're
seeing I mean, that's about what the XFL gets on ESPN. I mean
in terms of like we're running a couple of ads and banners, you know,
yeah, yeah, no, I mean see. I mean I think
it's you know, that's the kind of Canadian thing as well, like when
something that's sort of ours gets recognized on a big stage in American public culture,
we all get tingled or something like that. And that Jim Nance voice
reading about the BC Lions and the Calgary Stampeters. It's a little bit surreal
for for you know, some of us. But I again, I think
it's just the stage that they that they put it on. And I look,
I was impressed that they got I wasn't expecting that put it that one.
We got. The next guest standy by. Won't hold him too long
here before I let you go. Who do you got BC? Calgary tonight?
You know I've got Calgary. I think Calgary one being at home and
two, Like, the Stamps are a team that every year is a fast
starting team and that's usually because of continuity. They have a little less continuity
this year than they have in the past. But I'm very curious to see
what Jake Mayer's like. I love Kadean Carey watching a back at the absolute
top of his game. And you know, we're looking at some their young
Canadian receivers are gonna have to step up a little bit because of departures and
injuries. But yeah, tonight I'm leaning Stamps. Yeah, it's like backup
kdem carry right, wasn't backup? I assume I assume he'll get into the
game by play number two. Thank you well, they've appreciated it. I'm
battling through getting your connection on, so I appreciate it, and that good
luck with every night. Yeah, I should have tried to compute the laptop
off the bat. I was messing on the phone and I couldn't get it
going there, and I thought I was almost gonna give up. I said,
well maybe if I try, you can't give up on the Mark Cast.
I appreciate. Oh, I cannot read. Thanks for thank he well,
Jason. We got our last guest here, and then I think I
think the professor is going to be calling in here at the end here,
but we got back home here, Marty York a long time. You know,
everyone talking CEF I on everything else. Marty, how are you.
I'm good read Nice to be back on the Mark Cast. It's good Marty
was on. Jason. I've been asking a lot of questions. I don't
want to keep you too silent. Do you have any questions from Alty,
any thoughts about anything you want to hear Marty talk about Uh not that come
to my mind right now. But that's a story of life, story of
your life. Marty. What do you what do you make of the game
tonight? What do we talk. We're talking to you a BC. I
heard. I heard Dave Naylor's the end of your interview with him, and
Dave and I used to work together at the Globe and Mail, so I
know I've known him for many many years and I like his work. But
I disagree with him tonight. I think the Lions are a very good team,
and um, I think Calgary is in for a plunge this year.
I don't. I don't like the way the Stampeters look necessarily not wild about
their receiving courts and the quarterback to me, while he was somewhat impressive last
year in his first chances, he doesn't have the pedigree let's say that bou
lee By Mitchell does, and if he gets hurt, they don't even have
a backup so um, or at least a backup to speaker. So I
think I think the Stamps are in a bit of trouble. Are the Lions.
On the other hand, I mean, yes, they're missing. They're
not gonna have Nathan Rourke this year but u or at least not for the
beginning, and I don't think he's going to be back. But I like
Vernon Adams and I think he's and they also have a pretty decent backup in
Dane Evans. But I like Adams. He can run and uh he can
He's he's not afraid to try things, and I think that benefits him quite
a bit. I liked him a lot, and I really think the Lions
are are very very good this year, Marty, what do you think?
Megan that? And I saw some of them. Bob here was asking,
I do what we see Dane tonight? I feel like Dave was brought in.
And I want to get Jason sauce on this too, But I feel
like Dave was brought in. Is like we have the safety blanket here,
like we don't really know what vernon. We didn't really have to pay a
lot for him, right, kind of got him for a bargain. What
do you Marty? First, what do you make of Dave? I do
do we see him week one week, ten a week? Whatever? Well,
look, we we saw Dane when he was in Hamilton. Uh as
hussy will know Jason uh and uh he was very very good at times and
he was very very bad at times. Uh he's a very inconsistent quarterback.
So um, I think the Lions are totally committed to Vernon Adams, and
unless he gets hurt, I don't think you're gonna see much of the Danaans.
I think you're gonna see him on this You might see some shots of
him on the sideline in the opener tonight, but I can't imagine him playing
in the game unless he unless, as I say, Vernon gets hurt and
he's you know, experienced insurance to have. So it's it wasn't a bad
move by the Lions to get him, Jesson, you know what was wrong
with Dan last year? Was it injury? Was it mental stuff? What
do you make of it? Just everything just kind of snowballed for him.
He kind of just lost his confidence. Just some strange things were happening to
him. So many tipped interceptions last year early in the season. I had
to rail this confidence, I think the confidence of that entire team, and
I think that's kind of what led them to making the decision that they did.
Like, I don't think we truly saw him rebound even to that you
know version that we saw of him in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty one by
the end of last year, and that's why they decide to go in a
different direction at quarterback. I think if I can just energet, I agree
with you, Jason. I think he lost his confidence and probably a new
start, will you know, give him some confidence back. Although he's not
I don't think he's going to get to play very much, at least not
at the outset. And I think, you know, Dane Evans was better
than what he showed last year. I do believe Hamilton, and I don't
think I'm alone when I say this. Probably you guys agree. I think
Hamilton that tie Cats are going to be significantly better this year. I still
think Boliv Mitchell has it. I think he's a future Canadian Football Hall of
Famer. I you know he's not that old. I know that he also
lost his confidence to a degree during last season when they brought in the other
kid. And I think that Boliev Mitchell wasn't the same after they didn't want
to play him anymore. He came in a few times. He needn't look
right. But I think with the tie Cats, I know Orlando Steiner has
a lot of faith in him, and I'm imagining the tie Cats having a
very, very formidable season this year. I think they'll win the East well,
I think I think not enough is said for just like the mental and
kind of emotional like welfare of all of this. You know, we had
Vernon on the show preseason talking, Yeah, you know when I moved either
to BC and I was paying rant in three different places and I got my
family moving and kind of all that stuff. Jason, do you see tie
Cats as the team in the East. I mean, certainly with you know
argos here they're kind of I wanted to say it's a rebuilding here, it's
not, but I mean it's it's a new two the ledge with you Chack
Kelly and all that. But do you think it's the tie Cats division to
win? I think they have to view themselves as that, and I think,
you know, people are rightfully picking them to win the East as the
favorite. I think, um, you know, they're the team that has
the check a lot of boxes. That mean, I think they should have
a pretty good defense. On paper, they almost always have a very good
defense. I think that they have some playmakers and Tim White, who I
think, um I actually predicted would lead the league in receiving yards this year.
Duke Williams, if he could have a bounce back year this year would
be huge for this team, and I think believe Mitchell. Going out to
the East Division, I think where it's usually an easier path to get to
the Great Coup. I think that the tire Cats should be favored to get
there. And you're right about the defense. Defense is always strong, and
they're even stronger this year. They picked up some really good defensive players.
They have the best defensive line in the CFL, in my opinion, that
even better than Winnipeg. So I think I'm looking for big things from those
guys this year. In terms of the West, who are you? You
know BC, and it could be BCS, But who do you see here
challenging on the West? U say, you know Winnipeg and they can kind
of their kind of their ownationale. I mean, Winnipeg is Winnipeg's a dynasty.
I don't think you can avoid that, you know, unless they really
flopped this year. But if they should have a successful year, and I
don't see why they wouldn't you know, they should win that West. I'm
sorry, he adds boring. Everybody says that, but I do believe they'll
win. I think BC will be right there behind them, and I'm I'm
looking for major improvements, including a victory this weekend from the Edmonton else And
I mean there's several reasons for this. First of all, don't underestimate this
Taylor Cornelius. And you know, the quarterback is so important in the CFL.
Been covering it since nineteen seventy nine. Unless you have a good quarterback,
you're not going anywhere in this league. It's a most important position in
any league in sports, in my opinion, the quarterback, and Cornelius is
good. He can run, he's a big guy, he's got a great
arm. But more importantly, and I'm not a wild about the honesty,
I'm not wild about Chris Jones as a person. I just I don't like
his style. However, having said that, if you look at his record
and probably your other you've had a great array of guests on tonight. I'm
sure some of the others have mentioned this, Uh that Chris Jones historically has
bad first seasons when he's when he runs a team, but he has turned
to his teams around in the second year almost every single time in Skatchewan he
did. He did it everywhere. And uh, I have a feeling you're
going to see a major improvement from the Elks, and don't forget they got
the best receiver in the league now. So Lewis's you know, I can
I can see big things from him. So I think they're gonna make the
playoffs. I think they're gonna finish the third Jason, are you high on
corn Dog? What do you make of Corney Elias year? Because he I
just remember last year, like he got the extension on like Tuesday, and
I'm sitting here on Friday and he's throwing like an end zone interception. Whatever.
You know, at the end of the game, you're losing, continuing
to lose at home. So what do you make a corn Dog? I
think I saw enough at the end of last year to think that he could
have a major leap this season. I think he saw him like because the
first year he's in the CFL in twenty twenty one, he was just dreadful.
But that's kind of to be expected the first guy, first year starting
in the CFL. But I think that, you know, he showed some
signs. He has the athletic talent. I mean, what six five can
run, has a big arm, But if I can't get around with him,
and I think the thing that he has to improve on. He has
to get that accuracy, that completion percentage up. I think it's very,
very hard to win in the CFL if you're computing in the fifty percent of
passes. I think he was like a fifty eight percent past or last year,
which is way better than the year before even but I think that he
needs to get that up into the sixties. Kind of be like a Volie
by Mitchell, like sixty three sixty four, and just improve the efficiency of
the offense. Guys, it's hard to get first downs if you're not completing
a certain percentage of your passes. So I think that's one thing I'm looking
for him. That's a good point, Jason, but I think it'll happen.
I think he's going to get more time. He scrambles very well for
a big guy, so I actually think he's going to improve his past percent
He's got good receivers this year, recluding Lewis, so he'll his passing percentage
will go up. In my estimation, if there's another pressure on the tie
Cats in the East, I just have to badge. Just overall with Edmonton,
Victor's running the promotion. I just don't know, it just doesn't look
like they've done a lot, Like they didn't make a you know, it
wasn't a big move kind of do what that? Do you think they've done
enough here? Know the Edmonton On the others, I think if tie Cats
have the pressure in the East, I think Edmonton's got the pressure in the
West. I just don't know what they've done to get themselves ready to go
this year. Well, they got Lewis that's pretty good, and you've got
Jones who made all kinds of moves. I mean, look, I'm not
going to pretend that I'm familiar with the new faces that they that he's brought
in, but he usually has a good read on players who can succeed in
the CFL. His track record speaks for itself. Like I said, I
don't believe he's the nicest person in the world, but he is a damn
good coach and I expect that team to have made enough moves to strengthen itself.
I know they haven't won at home in many, many years. I
think they will. I think they'll win this weekend against Saskatchewan and even though
they're underdogs, and I think they'll win at home plenty this year. I
know they're having a guaranteed win night. I don't know if i'd be that
caught Jason last thoughts on that here we'll get Marty to go and then the
professor standing by if they're gonna get rolland here I think I think Saskatchewan coming
in with Trevor and kind of figure. I think this is like your key
to the point, what do you make of Edmonton here and for they try
to get their first win. Well, we're talking about how much they've improved.
I think a lot of people will talk about the receivers, but a
couple of quiet additions they made on defense. Two former Chris Jones guys,
Ac Leonard and Luceez Purefoy. Purefoy comes over from the BC Lions. Ac
Leonard comes over from Saskatchewan. Two guys that started their careers I believe with
Chris Jones, or at least we're coached under Chris Jones and Saskatchewan. They
got a huge addition for those that defense, who I thought was easily the
worst defense in the CFL last year. I think that's gonna be potentially those
could be really big additions for this season. I absolutely agree. Again,
boy you've made some good points. Jason Leonard Particularly's outstanding easily. He's a
top five defensive player in the CFL. Marty, anything else from me before
we let you go. I appreciate you making time in your schedule tonight coming
on, and we kind of got everyone slotted on here, so I appreciate
anything else from you. Read. It's my pleasure. You can contact me
anytime. I'll try to accommodate you whenever possible. I got to ask Jason
one question, are you related to Ken Hussey at all? No? No,
I don't. I don't. I don't believe. So, I don't
because when I first started, and I'm talking about in the when I first
started covering the CFL for the Globe and Mail, um, it was we
paid a lot more attention to it back then, and there was a Canadian
coach named Ken Hussey on with the Argylls, and I remember having some great
chats with him. It's quite a while ago, and frankly, you look
a little like him, so I thought maybe you were a sunderstand. Maybe
I'll do some ancestry dot com or something I like that. Marty, thank
you so much, appreciated. Thank you Read thank you, Jason, bite
guys, and then we'll bring in here our last guest taking this in.
We'll probably get off here at you know, five ten minutes before the game
starts. I could not wait to talk tomorrow morning. We are already doing
our show tomorrow morning nine a m. Said read, I gotta committy talk
CFL the professor Andrew Burr. How are you doing, sir? I'm just
greedy, I really am. I just want where you're talking. Let's good,
know, But I mean, you've said you are excited for the season,
and we've obviously been talking USFL and next and everything else. What has
you so excited for the CFL season? I think just the amount of parody
that I see across the league. I think there's just so much movement in
the offseason. I'm really curious to see how this merry Go round of quarterbacks
initiates itself. And honestly, just making picks this weekend, it was really
hard for me to pin down a lot of them because there's just so much
movement that occurred in the last five or six months since the season ended.
And I'm really curious to see which teams get off a certain starts, like
you guys were just doing an excellent job breaking down Edmonton and Saskatchewan. I
kind of have to jump on the train here and say that I think that
Edmonton's gonna win this weekend too, and that would be the first time in
literally years that they've won a home game. The fact that they even would
get that in front of your home crowd, I think would be immense going
forward and setting the tone for the rest of the season, especially in year
two of the Chris Jones program as they try to really reboot their franchise and
you know, seeing guys like Trevor Harris play now in Saskatchewan, seeing Cody
Fergardo in Montreal, seeing the Vernon Adams regime really start here in BC,
not just kind of being a substitute for Nathan Rourke. I mean, there's
so many different headlines just with the quarterbacks alone, not even including you know,
just seeing how these teams adjust to what they had from last year expectations.
I'm really curious to see what happens in the East. I mean,
I would think that Toronto has probably kind of still top of the heap just
because they are the reigning Great Cup champions, but again, things change so
quickly overnight, and the CFL just with how much players and coaches move around
Hamilton's I'm really really excited to see what Hamilton doesn't believe I Mitchell, if
they can kind of regain some of the magic that they had two three years
ago. There's just I don't know it. To me, it's just there's
so much parody. Like I said, that's kind of what I most look
forward to outside of Winnipeg. That's still an exception in the whole equation.
I appreciate you complimenting our coverage on here because it really feels just like I've
had a whirlwin here of trying to rearrange guests and stuff on. So I'm
glad the content is good because sometimes I'm just like, Okay, say smart
things, you know, Jason or whoever on here. Let's do this exercise
before we get out. I think this will be fun because this is this
is the time of year, right, every everyone's made the best roster moves,
right, We've all we're all positioned in this. I want the team
that you are high on, do you think is going to not live up
to expectations? And then the team that you're kind of matt On, do
you think is going to exceed expectations? So it's good to Jason first,
hope I didn't give you enough time to kind of formulate a little bit of
a thought. But a team you're really low one that you think is going
to succeed, and then a team you're really high on, you're like saying,
like the tie Cats are going to miss the playoffs? Right, I
mean that would be an example the other way. So what, Jason,
what do you have? I think I'm not super high on Toronto, but
I do think they're gonna have a pretty good record this year. I think
that, you know, changing quarterbacks and going with the first time CFL starter
is is gonna be tough for anybody to succeed. But I think in terms
of their the roster, they still brought back a lot of different pieces and
going cheap in terms of paying the quarterback allowed them to keep a lot more
pieces. So I still think they'll have a pretty good season, even though
I don't think they have that. You know, I do think Hamilton will
ultimately win the East this year over Toronto, but I think Toronto will probably
still make the playoffs. And then who's the team that you're high on that
you think is not going to do good. I think I think I would
be higher on Ottawa if Jeremia Mazzoli was healthy going into this year. I
think that you know, they brought in a lot of players last off season,
so um, they kind of got that out of the way. They
didn't really do a whole lot this offseason, So I think if they were
fully healthy going into this season, I think, um they I would have
been very high on them. I probably would have picked them to finish second
in the East. But I think just the you know, uncertainty with injuries
around that team is why I think they're probably gonna finish lower than I wouldn't
predicted. Yeah, I just said I have no posts at all on Ottawa.
Like this is the longest obviously we've sat and talked for two hours year
about the CFL tonight. We've obviously been doing team previous since I just have
no like pulse on them. And now that was Missoli being out and you
know, trying to come back in here week four or whatever. Andy,
who are you high on do you think it's going to falter? And who
are you low one? Do you think it's going to succeed. Well,
I'm probably bought too much stock and chat Kelly, and so I probably might
regret it about week three. But look, I'm gonna be buying and buying
until I see otherwise because I think he's ready to assume the throne from ABT.
I don't know how it's going to be offensively cohesively. I think that
staff just always does a great job of getting their guys to play well together
and no matter like their culture I think is very underrated in Toronto. I
really do believe that. I think their coaching staff does an excellent job.
I assume that they're going to win the East again, but again I could
be wrong. And like Jason said, I mean I think Hamilton could storm
back out of the gates and maybe reclaimed the throne in the East for the
team that I guess I'm feeling low on that. I think it actually surprised
a lot of people is Edmonton. I think Edmonton could actually get into a
playoff spot. I know that sounds absolutely crazy considering what they've been as a
franchise the last two years. I think that's kind of the one that I
think might end up surprising people that I think is only like a six or
seven win team but could actually be surprisingly good. I will give you one
team that I think is actually gonna bottom out completely and this might surprise a
lot of people. Calgary. I don't know why, but I got this
really weird feeling that something's not right in that camp. And I don't know
if Jake Mayor's really bad guy. I know Boli had kind of reach his
end of the open, he kind of had had his run there, but
I'm not so sure that they're really ready to kind of move on from that
regime. And also I'm just kind of worried about some of the injuries they've
had on offense from the receiving corps. And I also just don't I don't
know like if they're gonna be able to supply enough points in this season.
I think Calgary could finish. I think they could finish last in the West.
And I know a lot of people would disagree with me about that,
but that's that's my surprise. Like really like tires fall off the off the
car in the scenario. It's interesting. I was gonna say, because I
have high expectations on Calgary. I'm a big Jake Mayer believer. Obviously he
was on the show. I like Chad Kelly back when he followed us on
Twitter a lot more. I don't know what if I did, if my
Brian Scott love was enough to kind of like turn chat against me. I
do think Tiecat's missing the playoffs. I think that's gonna be my hot take.
I think that. I don't think Bow, I don't think. I
don't think Bow has it at all. The same with Aaron Rodgers the Jets
are gonna falter. I don't think Rogers has it. I think he's kind
of maintained that whole myth over in Green Bay for years. I think Bow
comes in and sticks up to join. That's my what do you say,
Jason, We've been talking to Bow all game, but I came in.
That was my heel turn at the end. I certainly think it's within the
realm of possibilities. Like I think one thing I'm watching tomorrow night when the
tire gets played the first game, is are the passes for Bow falling up
short? A lot of the time I saw that a lot. It was
a sign of a kind of a declining player. Is that arm gonna look
a little bit more lively after having a lot more time off last season.
So I mean that's one thing I'm looking at. Is not the most mobile
guy in the world. So yes, it's definitely in the possibilities, I
think in terms of them completely falling the crater ring this year. But I
do think that maybe if he gets injured. Matthew Schiltz is kind of an
underrated player. He was I believe one of the higher rated quarterbacks by PFF
that the CFL just put up those stats the other day on their website.
But I think Schiltz could win some games for them. But I think ultimately
if both faulters um your prediction may come true, I do I do.
I think I think they needed to cut Bay and they think we got Mayor
here. I mean they had there was no hesitation. We're then like we're
moving on. We're here, we got married Andy. Any final thoughts and
then we'll kind of put this show in the bed. Here. Well,
I'm actually glad that Jason brought up Matthew Schultz. I had a bold prediction
in our chat last year. I don't think Reid remembers this because he might
have been doing something else, but I boldly proclaimed sometime in mid season.
I said, if Matthew Schultz actually stays healthy, I think the Tigers are
going to win the East. He didn't, and they obviously had quarterback trouble
all year. So look, maybe I'm not sure if I'm viticated for that,
but like that's a claim that I made because I actually really liked what
he was doing. Like he brought the most consistency to that position the entire
season out of all the quarterbacks, obviously more than eighteen Evans, more than
anybody else that they trotted out there. So I kind of agree with you.
I actually like Schultz a lot, and if he if he has to
come in and play for both, I don't think that's the worst thing in
the world, honestly. In fact, that might be the US back up
position and maybe in the entire league possibly, So I think that that would
be not too bad. But obviously you want you want Boat to perform well,
you want him to outperform expectations. You want him to become back healthy
because it's good for the league, and it's good for the Typecats because I
think it pushes their ceiling higher than it has been in the last than it
was last season. Well, if you got Max was going to come into
here and then disagree with me, he did. He said too much instability
and Ottawa Montreal for him to make it really like Hamilton's defense hard for me,
not since Hee Hamilton. I'm telling you, I'm Cody is going to
come in career researgons here, Jim Mapel, Cody Fajardo. I think that
bad is going to be a Christens here Ol professor. Game is starting soon.
I think we've made it through. Jason has been in a trying time
with me. Today, We've had guests for Shufflin's and everything else. I
think we did okay, Andy hopping on, don't forget Andy and I are
going to be tomorrow morning Live nine am for our XFL plotting. The XFL
twenty twenty four is course. Jason. I will be back on Monday to
be determined sometime early, you know, in the morning, trying to do
our CFL Week one recap, and then Pat Raffino is going to be joining
me Tuesday. We are going to do our USFL recap that day. Because
I got so excited about doing the CFL one, I said, no,
Hayter Reid, don't forget about the USFL. So we're going to do the
USFL on Tuesday. We'll have ratings and everything with that, We'll go to
Andy and then we'll let Jason close this out Andy. Anything else from you,
I'm just really excited for this. It's been an absolute world win,
I know for you, I mean, this is just a marathon. It
started with XFL coverage that went into USFL coverage. Now here we are with
CFL coverage. I mean, this is a this is truly a year round
operation now. But I couldn't be more excited for the season. I'm really
really looking forward to just seeing the crowds of the cambaraderie and just seeing the
just seeing a lot of players that I recognize. Again. I'm really really
excited for the CFL this season. I can't wait. And I just I
know, I just hope that BC and PC's another team again. I'm an
Ardent Fernan Adams supporter. I wear it on my sleeve. I hope he
has a fantastic season. I really really do, because I think he has
the ability to. This is the best situation he's ever been in. So
for anybody that I'm trying to be as objective as possible. But if there's
anybody that I'm really rooting for, it's him completely. If this wasn't if
this wasn't the PG podcast, I would have done some obscene hand gestures there
when you're talking about your life forever. Yeah, this is day one hundred
and ten here of all football coverage here. Start with our live show back
February eighteen for the excellent Jason. Anything else from you plug your channel before
we get out of here, please, Yeah. So you can find me
over on at YouTube on at Hussey's Huddle where you'll find multiple videos a week
on the cfol recap videos or we'll be doing recap here on this channel weekly
on Monday, so looking forward to that. Also a preview videos other team
specific content over there. So if you guys want the best CFL content on
YouTube, be sure to check that out. Yeah, subscribe, give Jason
subscribe, give me a subscribe please here. Lots of work exciting, but
yeah, another show tomorrow and then we'll have We still got to figure out
the XFL rookie Draft. I really need a time for that next Friday.
But our plan is to do the XFL Rookie Draft. But I have to
film a dance performance, so I hope it is earlier in the day.
So let's hope for that. Thank you guys so much. I'll play all
this and we'll get out of here and go watch the game and go go
Lions, America's CFL team here and thank you guys so much.