Some think Fred Perry should have won the CFL defensive player of the year award last year. The honour instead went to BC's Brent Johnson. Perry is once again nominated. He discussed whether the time has come for him to get his hands on the hardware this year when speaking about the nomination after Tuesday's practice....
Kerry Joseph is deservedly the Rider choice as Most Outstanding Player and he has a solid chance at representing the West and perhaps winning the league award this year. The Rider quarterback says the individual honour is nice but his teammates and his coach are the reason behind his success this season.
Kent Austin is downplaying the impact he's had on Kerry Joseph's career year.
The Rider nominees for year-end awards were released this morning. They are
MOP-Kerry Joseph
Canadian-Andy Fantuz
Defensive player-Fred Perry
Lineman-Jeremy O'Day
Rookie-John Chick
Special Teams-Luca Congi
To see the nominees from all eight teams, go to CFL.ca. The division finalists will be named later this month with league winners being announced as always during Grey Cup week.
The CFL and the Riders have announced the start time of their final home game against Toronto has changed. Instead of beginning at 2. kickoff will go at 1.
If the B.C. Lions clinch first place in the early game Friday, Kent Austin admits it probably would change his approach to the Edmonton game.
Kerry Joseph continues to downplay all the talk of winning the Most Outstanding Player award and coming on the verge of breaking Doug Flutie's single season quarterback rushing touchdown record.
The first round of CFL year end award balloting will be released tomorrow when we find out the team nominees for the various awards. Up for grabs as you know are Most Outstanding Player, Top Rookie, Top Canadian, Top Lineman, Top Defensive Player and Top Special Teams player. I'll give out my selections on the Drew Remenda Sports Show tonight but I want to know.....who would you be picking. The CFL wants our top two so gimme your top two in each category.
Sounded far-fetched only a month ago, not anymore!
That's the one word that comes to mind when I think of Sunday's outing. Every aspect of the game came through with a solid yet unspectacular game and that's fine. Yes there were some standouts like John Chick who was a monster out there and Kerry Joseph who just continues to move this team down the field but really with the exception of the above two were there any real standouts on this afternoon.
I thought Kent Austin put it best in the locker-room near the end of his media session after the game(Listen to that elsewhere). Kent said this team managed to put what was a very tumultuous week behind them and concentrate on the task at hand. It was a chaotic week ranging from the events of last week in Hamilton to the subsequent fines to the freak injury suffered by Chris Szarka to the family matters of Mike Washington to the pomp and pageantry of the Plaza of Honor Dinner and finally clinching 2nd spot thanks to Winnipeg's win on Friday. It was a lot for this football team as they prepared for Hamilton. They just went out and got the job done. There was no flash, there was no pizzazz. They just took it to a team that they should have. They jumped on the Ti-Cats early and never ever got threatened.
Just a couple of other thoughts on today's game. Its a play that won't be noticed by some but the tone was set early by Scott Gordon on that big hit he delivered to Brock Ralph. The other thing is I want to see Neal Hughes get in the end-zone. Neal was one of the best running backs in the CIS when he came to the Riders after his days with the Rams and he has turned into a special teams demon but Kent is seeing that he can contribute offensively and keeps giving him touches. I thought for sure we would see Hughes plunge in from the 1 today but it will happen and I for one will be a happy camper. Talk to you on the show tomorrow night.
Rider coach Kent Austin was very satisfied with the play of his team after a very eventful week....
Kerry Joseph had another impressive afternoon in leading the Riders to their 4th straight win. He threw for 261 yards and a touchdown while running for two others. He has now thrown for almost 4-thousand yards and he has run for 13 touchdowns which is one away from tying the record for most TD's scored by a quarterback in a season. People are starting to talk about him as an Most Outstanding Player candidate. He reflects on that and his performance Sunday....
Another solid effort by the Riders. They stomped on Hamilton 38-11 in front of another sold out crowd at Mosaic Stadium. Kerry Joseph only played a half and a little bit but it was another productive afternoon for the Saskatchewan quarterback as he threw for 260 yards and a touchdown while running for two others. Saskatchewan is now 11-5 on the season--still 3 back of first place BC and must hope the Lions lose both of their remaining games with the Riders winning both of theirs to finish first. Saskatchewan's next game is in Edmonton on Friday.
Can the Riders make it 4 in a row or does Hamilton win its first road game of the year in what is their last chance. It should be a raucous crowd at Mosaic as they salute their football team for clinching a home playoff game--the team's first since 88 as you all know. Here's what I'll watch for Sunday afternoon
1. What will the Riders wear: Its Plaza of Honor Weekend, BRING BACK THE RETRO JERSEYS!!!!!
2. Milestones: Andy Fantuz is 73 yards away from his first 1-thousand yard season and D-J Flick is 92 away. Kerry Joseph is 351 yards away from a 4-thousand yard season. There is no reason to think that if the offence is successful in moving the football that these milestones could be reached.
3. The Rider offence: They have managed to do well this season without key people in the lineup and that will be the case again as Wes Cates and Chris Szarka will miss the game because of injury while Mike Washington may or may not return in time from a family funeral in the U-S. They've managed to come through before with players down---can they do it again??
4. Casey Printers: He will start for Hamilton and he is getting better and better with each game. He moved the ball pretty well against the defence last week. What does he have up his sleeve?? You gotta think Jason Armstead and Jason French along with former Regina Ram Chris Bauman would like to have big days on the field they once called home.
5. Tempers: They were frayed last week. Will we see any repeats from last week and will the same combatants be involved. I doubt it but you never know.
Meanwhile, I am nearing winning the season battle against Rob Vanstone in our weekly head to head picks. Rob's been suffering from a bad ankle this week but he's suffering from a soft brain for most of the season as he trails me 9-6 meaning a win this afternoon and I win the season series. I am taking a 37-18 Riders win....he takes the final to be 43-12 Riders. Enjoy the game and one more thing. WEAR THE RETROS!!!!!!
Ken Lazaruk will be tomorrow's referee