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Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson joined the media on Tuesday to field questions ahead of Rookie Camp and Training Camp.
Here’s what he had to say:
“We’ll have a couple new linebackers for sure. If you think about it, we lost three because Maleki [Harris] left to BC. I really like what we’ve got there. We worked really hard to find the best competition. We’ve got different athletes, we’ve got size, and we’ve got hitters and we’ve got people who run well. Let’s see who goes and takes that job. With Cory Greenwood we’ve got a quality guy – at 34-years old, he’s not young – let’s give him a chance. Wynton McManis’ arrow is up. Those two guys, they’ve got the inside track.”
“He’s a super family man and when you get back home, gets around his lady and his girls, it’s easy to get into that life. But to me, he seems motivated to come back and see if he can get back to the Eric Rogers that we knew. He was dominant when he played, but it was pretty hard for him to feel good for two games in a row. We will monitor him in camp, but he should be good to go. It’s not like last off-season where he’s coming off of another surgery. He’s had a few things that we’ve had to help him out on, his knee is not something that we take lightly, but we hope that the off-season has done him well. He’s got to be our leader.”
“Well I feel that Ryan Sceviour has shown to be ready to play and he has to earn it, but man he’s working hard and he really wants it. He’s a local guy, we really liked him out of the draft but it just didn’t play out for him last year. By saying that, you’ve got to give him a chance. We got Bergman back and Erdos back as the other guard, so we thought, ‘why not give him a shot at center?’ Knowing full well we’ve got Ucambre Williams that can come back in.”
“He’ll get coached, he knows it. He’s not going to practice some days, that’s just what I do. I won’t double him up much and let the other guys fight it out. I truly believe that camp is a time for the other quarterbacks to figure out who they are and if they can make this team. Bo is going to be our guy, bottom line. He doesn’t need to show everybody how good he is in training camp, he has to be feeling as fresh and as healthy as he can be for game one.”
“We’ve got eleven of our 24 starters from the Grey Cup are gone. That’s almost fifty percent, that’s a crazy stat. Do I love it? No. But if I was a young player, I would want to make my name and get out there and show people what I can do. For me, I had to wait until Jeff Garcia left and I felt like I could play but that’s what it took. If that’s what some of these other guys can do and run with it, that’s certainly the hope.”
“Jamar Wall and Brandon Smith are the guys. Those are the guys that keep everyone together back there. They are the leaders and they run meetings with Josh Bell. The other guys have younger, fresher legs but those two vets are the glue of our group and we’re happy to have them back.”