Stamps Insider Blog

INSIDER: Young up front

October 11, 2008

One of the great, unheralded stories of this CFL season is the play of the young Stampeders offensive line.

When the Stamps faced Saskatchewan in Week 15, centre Rob Lazeo was the only starter who had any CFL starting experience prior to the 2008 season. Right guard Dimitri Tsoumpas, left tackle Jesse Newman and right tackle Ben Archibald are in their first CFL seasons and left guard Derek Armstrong had never played a CFL snap in anything other than short-yardage formations.

Even the backups — Tim O’Neill and Fabio Filice — had very limited pro experience. Injuries to veteran Jeff Pilon and Godfrey Ellis, combined with the off-season departure of some key veterans, forced the Stamps into a major youth movement.

Despite the inexperience of Calgary’s o-line, the Stamps have only given up 21 sacks this season (second in CFL) and they average 6.3 yards per carry (third).

PLAYER	GP (2008)	GP (pre-2008)
Rob Lazeo	14	154
Dimitri Tsoumpas	14	0
Tim O'Neill	13	0
Jesse Newman	12	0
Fabio Filice	11	24
Jeff Pilon	11	115
Ben Archibald	9	0
Derek Armstrong	7	13
Antonio Hall	5	3
Godfrey Ellis	2	52

INSIDER: Kick for a Million

October 1, 2008

Kevin Vosburgh has taken one step closer to a million dollars.
Vosburgh, a 36 year-old Calgarian, advanced to the semi-finals of the Wendy’s Kick for a Million by outdueling Dallas Salahub in the quarter-finals on Saturday, Sept. 27 at B.C. Place.
The semifinals will take place on Thursday afternoon and be broadcast live on broadband at TSN.ca. A million dollar prize could be on the line during the halftime of the Friday Night Football game on Oct. 3 at the Rogers Centre should Vosburgh come out victorious in the semifinal.
Vosburgh has been working with Stampeders kicker Sandro DeAngelis prior to the quarter-finals.
“He (Vosburgh) has improved leaps and bounds since the day when I first started working with him,” said DeAngelis.
The two have spent a number of afternoons over the past couple weeks honing Vosburgh’s skills after the Stampeders practice on the turf at McMahon.
“We have had to find a routine for Kevin and I think we have found something that works,” said DeAngelis.
They have worked together on kicking techniques that will help Vosburgh have a chance to score big. Vosburgh said Sandro has developed some custom steps for him and some techniques to master the mental aspect of kicking.
To work with Sandro has shown how classy the Stampeders organization and he feels very fortunate, said Vosburgh.
“It’s unbelievable, I almost hung up the phone when he called me (saying I was a contestant), said Vosburgh.
The IT team leader for AltaGas Income Trust will face Omar Kassim, of Kitchener, Ont. to determine who will advance to the Friday finally for a shot at some big prizes.

INSIDER: Hank on Off The Record

September 27, 2008

Following walkthrough on Friday afternoon, Stamps quarterback Henry Burris was whisked out to the TSN studio for a shooting of Off The Record with Michael Landsberg.

After opening solo on the Up Front portion, Hank was joined by former CFLers John Bonk, Neil Lumsden and Jock Climie. As expected, Smilin' Hank was in top form and made the show a hit.

"It was a lot of fun," said Burris. "I didn't know what to expect from Michael Landsberg but he was great. He likes to ask unusual questions and hit you with things out of left field, so it was interesting."

Click here to watch the episode.

INSIDER: Back-to-back games

September 23, 2008

The Stampeders head to Toronto this week for their second of back-to-back games with the Argonauts. The series is the third of four such occurrences this season; the team already played back-to-backs with Saskatchewan and Edmonton earlier in the season and still has another one with the Roughriders in October.

“Playing back-to-back games has its pros and cons. If you happen to have a short week, having the same opponent makes it a lot easier to prepare for that second game because the team is already familiar with what to expect,” said head coach/GM John Hufnagel. “If it’s a regular week or even longer which this game is and our second game of the upcoming Sakskatchewan back-to-back is, the challenge is to keep the players interested. The information gets redundant and it can be a fine line between keeping their minds and bodies fresh and not going overboard in the preparation.”

The Stamps have a 2-2 record in back-to-back matches this season. In the two previous sets against Saskatchewan and Edmonton, the Stamps lost the first game at home and then rebounded to win the second game on the road.

“History shows it’s tough to win back-to-back games, but B.C. just did it against a very good team in the Saskatchewan Roughriders and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

The Stamps leave Thursday for Toronto, having already won the first of the back-to-back series, defeating the Argos 34-4 on Saturday at McMahon Stadium. The team looks to win both games in a back-to-back for the first time since taking both against Edmonton in 2007.

INSIDER: Prepping for Pickett

September 15, 2008

The Stamps returned to work on Monday and are preparing to face the Toronto Argonauts this coming Saturday (Sept. 20) at McMahon Stadium. The Argos also are hard at work and head coach Don Matthews dropped a bomb today by stating that Cody Pickett will replace Kerry Joseph as starting quarterback against the Stamps.

Pickett has never started a CFL game, while Joseph was the league's most outstanding player last year and led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a Grey Cup triumph over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Don't expect the Stamps to take Pickett lightly, however, as they were torched the last time they faced a quarterback making his CFL regular-season starting debut. Remember, Ryan Dinwiddie put up 450 passing yards in Winnipeg's 32-28 victory over Calgary in Week 5.

"Don Matthews made a move that he feels is best for his football team at this point," said Stamps head coach/GM John Hufnagel. "We haven't seen a lot of Cody Pickett but we need to take a good, hard look at how he played in the second half last week and get ready for them. They have a lot of good weapons on offence and they'll be a dangerous team."

Pickett replaced Joseph in the second half of a loss to Winnipeg last week, Matthews' first game on the Argos sideline. He completed nine of 13 passes for 100 yards, no scores and no picks.

INSIDER: Dickenson steps back

September 3, 2008

The Stamps placed quarterback Dave Dickenson on the nine-game injured-reserve list on Wednesday, two days after he was dinged in a Labour Day loss to the Edmonton Eskimos.

The move was a difficult setback for Dickenson, who has battled post-concussion symptoms in the past and said he felt woozy before he left Monday’s game in the fourth quarter.

“The perplexing thing about that game is that I didn’t take any hard hits,” said Dickenson. “When you’ve taken a normal hit and you don’t feel quite right, that’s telling you something. That’s concerning. That’s why I decided to take a step back.”

Dickenson gave way to Barrick Nealy and was reevaluated after the game.

“A number of our players have instruments inside their helmets that measure impact from contact,” said head coach/general manager John Hufnagel. “We looked at Dave’s readings after the game and they were nothing out of the ordinary. That was a concern. We felt the best thing to do would be to place Dave on the nine-game injured list, give him some time and re-evaluate him after nine games.”

While backing up Henry Burris this season, Dickenson has performed some of the duties of an assistant coach. His vast knowledge and understanding of the game is well documented and he will continue to perform his valuable off-field duties.

“I’m still thinking about this season and focusing on the task at hand,” said Dickenson. “I haven’t looked any further ahead. I have confidence in this team and I’ll continue to do what I’ve been doing. Unfortunately, I won’t be suiting up for a while.”

The Stamps also announced the signing of import quarterback Ben Sankey and import running back Lavarus Giles.

Sankey most recently attended Calgary’s training camp and spent the first three weeks of the 2008 season on injured reserve. He was with the team from 2000 to 2002 before rejoining the Stamps late last season. He last played at B.C. on Nov. 3, 2007. The Wake Forest product completed 21 of 26 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns in the game.

Giles recently spent time with the St. Louis Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars before signing with the Stamps. The 22-year-old is a product of Jackson State University.

INSIDER: Dickenson loves the Griz

September 1, 2008

Stamps quarterback Dave Dickenson performed the ceremonial tip-off at the University of Calgary’s men basketball game on Saturday as the Dinos faced his alma mater, the University of Montana.

“It was fun to get back into the college scene a little bit,” said Dickenson. “It was great game and I enjoyed seeing how good the Dinos’ program really is. For me it was fun to see the alma mater and connect with some old friends that I went to college with that are now coaching that team.”

Dickenson is a hero at the University of Montana, where he led the Grizzlies to their first-ever NCAA Division 1-AA football championship in 1995. A three-year starter at quarterback, Dickenson won the Walter Payton award as the Division 1-AA outstaning player in 199 and left the Missoula campus with 26 school and seven league records.

He is still the all-time Montana leader in passing touchdowns (96), total yards offence (11,523), passing yards (11,080), passing attempts (1,208) and completions (813).

INSIDER: Stamps find shelter

August 31, 2008

The Calgary Stampeders provided an odd sight on Sunday morning when they held their pre-game walkthrough in the east concourse at McMahon Stadium.

"With the rain coming down and the wet field, we decided to get our work done in the shelter of the stands," said head coach/general manager John Hufnagel. "We've had a couple of players feeling under the weather this week, so we leaned to the side of caution.

"They were cramped quarters and it was an interesting sight, but we were able to get our work in and guys are looking forward to the game."

Monday's Labour Day Classic against the Edmonton Eskimos marks Calgary's first home game since an Aug. 2 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Since then, the Stamps have won back-to-back road games against Saskatchewan and the BC Lions.

"We've been playing some good football and I'd like to see us continue," said Hufnagel. "We've still got a lot of room for improvement."

INSIDER: The league of slow starts

July 30, 2008

While much fuss has been made about slow starts by the Stamps in 2008, truth be known, only two CFL teams have scored more first-quarter points than Calgary this season. A trend around the league is one of slow starts.

First quarter scoring

	Team	1Q Pts
1	Montreal	59
2	Edmonton	26
3	Calgary	24
4	Winnipeg	17
5	BC	15
5	Saskatchewan	15
5	Toronto	15
8	Hamilton	6

As a whole, CFL teams are averaging just 4.425 points per first quarter. The Stamps are averaging 4.8.

Now, this isn’t to say the Stamps are lighting it up, but the tendency of teams taking a quarter to feel out the opposition has become a league-wide trend.

There have been 1,093 points scored in the CFL this season and just 177 have come in the first quarter. That works out to just 16.2 per cent.

A few further points of interest with regards to this trend:
• The Stamps have taken heat for “slow starts” but the truth is they’ve only trailed twice after the first quarter (11-0 in Mtl, 2-0 in Wpg). And only two teams have more first-quarter points.
• Montreal is the only team to score more than 10 points in a first quarter this season. They did it three times.
• Saskatchewan is 5-0 and only has one first-quarter touchdown.

INSIDER: Reynolds - the 5,000-yard man

July 23, 2008

Stamps running back Joffrey Reynolds (Reynolds bio) reached a special milestone last Thursday when he became the sixth Calgary player to rush for more than 5,000 yards.
Reynolds reached the mark with a two-yard run on his first carry, then proceeded to carry 11 times for 96 yards and three touchdowns in a 43-16 win. He now has 5,095 rushing yards and is close to passing James Sykes (5,357) for fifth place on the list. The full leaderboard is below.
After achieving this mark, Reynolds did a question-and-answer with Stampeders.com. We also have a highlight video of some of his best runs . . .

When you came to Calgary in 2004, did you think you’d ever rush for 5,000 yards with this team?
No, not really. I was a new guy and the team wasn’t very good then. I was just trying to take it one game at a time, hoping to stick on with the team. At that point, it was kind of early in my career and I bounced around a little bit. So I was just trying to make a name for myself.

When did you realize there was a chance you could do some good things here?
After the first five games, I had a little bit of success that year. The next year kind of added to that and after that it was just a matter of trying to improve as a player. I tried to enhance myself as a runner, then I wanted to get involved with the passing game a little more. Now it’s evolved so that I’m kind of a dual threat on both sides and I’ve added the kickoff returns to my arsenal, so I try to keep growing as a better football player.

Does it feel like you’ve rushed for 5,000 yards?
Until last week, when I found out I was one yard away, I had no idea that I was even close. But here it is. I really wanted to get that over with at the beginning of the game and just get on with winning. I told Geo (equipment manager Hopkins) that I didn’t really even want the ball. I just wanted to keep going with what we were doing.

So you never kept the ball?
I didn’t even get it. I just thought, “Hopefully there’s more to come.”

You’d keep it for 10,000, though, wouldn’t you?
(Laughs) I might keep that one, yeah.

What does reaching 5,000 yards mean to you?
Obviously, you need to have some longevity in your career. You have to be productive. I’m going into my fourth full season here, so I feel that I did it in a pretty good amount time. It feels good. But I’m looking to build on it. I’m definitely not satisfied. I want to hit 6,000, 7,000, who knows, 10,000.

Do you have a favourite run?
I would probably have to say against Edmonton last year when we were there. I had a long TD run. We were down that game and we were playing up and down, and we weren’t winning on the road. So that was a big run to get the team back in the game.

Do you remember a lot of your runs, or few?
Not many of them. Sometimes I see them on the replay screen and think, “Oh yeah, that was a nice one, I forgot about that one.” I don’t remember most of them. The 5,000 is kind of a blur. I find it hard to believe I’m in my fourth full year. Things kind of run together a bit.

Are you proud of the fact you achieved this under three different head coaches?
Yeah, I think that’s the amazing thing. Each time you have a new coach you have to establish yourself as a player again. I haven’t had the luxury of some veterans, where they say they don’t need to see you in training camp. I’ve definitely had to prove myself every year. We bring in good competition and I think that’s part of keeping you on you’re a game and making you a better player. You have to go out and prove to people that you are who you are. That translates to the production on the field.

STAMPS CAREER RUSHING YARDS
8,292   Kelvin Anderson (1996-2002)
6,994   Earl Lunsford (1956, 1959-63)
6,394   Lovell Coleman (1960-67)
6,234   Willie Burden (1974-81)
5,357   James Sykes (1978-83)
5,095   Joffrey Reynolds (2004-current)