The banquet was a well-produced, fun event. There was the right amount of fun and seriousness in the program. Michelle MacDonald, who host Huskies Football Outsider Quick Hits was the host and she did a great job.
Carter Kolybaba tells a few stories about Coach Moser.
The event started out recognizing the Canada West All-Stars from the team. The next part of the program saw the Coaches hand out the team awards. Before that started, Michelle got the call and a Huskies version of the Pittsburgh Steelers “Renegade” showed on the big screen. It was humorous and full of energy. Read more »
University of Saskatchewan Huskies linebacker Taylor Wallace was recognized for his outstanding senior season when the football team held its windup awards banquet Friday night.
Wallace, a runner-up for top defensive player in the nation this year, was named the Huskies’ most outstanding player.
Wallace was also named the team’s most inspirational player and shared the award for commitment to off-season strength and conditioning with linebacker Peter Thiel.
Huskies kicker/cornerback Grant Shaw, who hit 25 of 31 field-goal attempts this year while punting for a 38.1-yard average, is the special teams player of the year.
Huskies offensive guard Hubert Buydens wrapped up his fifth and final season by being named the team’s lineman of the year.
The rookie of the year is defensive lineman Joel Seutter, who collected 18.5 tackles this season, including 3.5 behind the line of scrimmage.
Reserve quarterback Parker Siemens is the show-team player of the year.
The Huskies held a wind-up meeting on Monday evening. Coach Towriss went through some administrative stuff and made sure the team was getting ready for finals.
After all of the admin stuff was out of the way, the four fifth-year players spoke to the team. The talks were powerful, emotional and showed Huskie Pride. Sometimes things are better left in the locker room, so we won’t go into detail about what was said, but we want to give you a little bit of Huskies Outsider access.
Hubert Buydens started and he talked about how proud he was to play with the other guys in the room. He described his teammates as brothers. He ended his talk with a line that drew laughs from the entire locker room: “If you ever need anything, look me up.” Read more »
The all-Canadian teams were announced Thursday night at the Quebec City Convention Centre with the Vanier Cup-bound Dinos and Gaels claiming six and four selections, respectively.
Leading the way for Uteck Bowl champion Calgary was Hec Crighton-winning quarterback Erik Glavic of Pickering, Ont., who was also named to the first constellation in 2007 when he claimed his first Crighton trophy as a member of the Saint Mary’s Huskies. Glavic was brilliant in his first season at U of C, averaging 273 passing yards per game and leading the Canada West with 14 touchdown passes, while adding another 503 yards and six scores on the ground.
Glavic is joined on the first offensive team by teammates Matt Walter, a running back from Calgary, and Nathan Coehoorn, a wide receiver from Redcliff, Alta. Walter, last year’s Canada West nominee for CIS MVP honours, topped the conference and was second in the nation this fall with 1,103 rushing yards, while Coehoorn hauled in 41 balls for 765 yards and four majors.
Grant Shaw was the only Huskie to make the team this year. Read more »
QUEBEC CITY (CIS) – Fourth-year Calgary quarterback Erik Glavic made Canadian university football history Thursday night when he was named CIS player of the year for the second time in three seasons.
The native of Pickering, Ont., who is in his first season with the Dinos after transferring from Saint Mary’s, became the first player in CIS annals to claim the Hec Crighton trophy with two different teams. He was also chosen CIS MVP in 2007 in his final campaign with the Huskies.
Other individual award winners announced during the All-Canadian Banquet at the Quebec City Convention Centre were Concordia linebacker Cory Greenwood of Kingston, Ont., who captured the Presidents’ trophy as the nation’s top defensive player; Windsor centre Matt Morencie of Windsor, Ont., who received the J.P. Metras trophy as outstanding down lineman; Calgary defensive tackle Linden Gaydosh of Peace River, Alta., who claimed the Peter Gorman trophy as rookie of the year; and Manitoba linebacker Thomas Hall of Winnipeg, who received the Russ Jackson award for combining academics, athletics and citizenship. Read more »
As we have mentioned in the past, several Huskies footballers have been participating in Play for a Cure, in hopes of raising money for cancer research. Money raised will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society.
About fifteen Huskies football players are participating this year, including Tyler O’Gorman, Scott McHenry, Cory Jones, Mitch Friesen, Ben Coakwell, Levi Steinhauer, Cody Halseth, Seamus Neary, Peter Thiel, Taylor Wallace, Lyndon Boychuk, Mark Klause, Braeden George, Jarod Koroll, Hubert Buydens, Ben Randall, Bryce McCall, Harley Irwin, Nnamdi Metu, Tony Michalchuk and football student trainer Kurt Kuhn. Read more »
The Office of the CIS Football Commissioner: National TV contract
We know that there is no such office, so we made up our own fictitious version. In the event that the CIS does create a football commissioner, feel free to use these ideas. Over the next few weeks, we will tell you what would do if we were in this office.
Last week, we presented a case that the CIS needs to develop a national interlocking football schedule with games counting in the conference standings. In doing so, the CIS would gain more interest from national broadcasters. Today, we are going to talk about our vision of how the TV contract to work.
There are four things the CIS needs from a national TV network:
Minimum $500,000 rights fee annually which will escalate as viewers and revenue increase
Increase in the number of hilights shown and better placement on sports report shows
Quality pre-game show
Full partnership between the CIS and the national broadcaster
After the team meeting on Monday, the players cleared out their lockers and started to meet with the coaches on an individual basis. Most of these are complete now.
The coaches have also had a number of meetings to identify areas of needs for the upcoming season. In college football, there will always be a dozen or more players that leave after the season due to using all of their eligibility, graduation, finding a career-job and the like. So teams are always looking at bringing new players in to fill the gaps.
Rory Kohlert had an immeidate impact this season.
Some of these players make an instant impact like Joel Seutter, Cam Redl, Zach Hart, Jeff Hassler, Luke Thiel, Garrett Bolen, Mitch Friesen, Harley Irwin, Cody Halseth, Shayne Dueck and others did this year (we hope we didn’t miss anyone!!).
While others could be stars of the future, like Brad Nehring, Charlie Power, Levi Steinhauer, Seamus Neary, Matt Walker and others. Read more »
We know that there is no such office, so we made up our own fictitious version. In the event that the CIS does create a football commissioner, feel free to use these ideas. Over the next few weeks, we will tell you what would do if we were in this office.
National Schedule
Anyone involved in CIS Football understands that more exposure is one of the big priorities for the sport. There is no better way to get more exposure than having a national TV contract and national sponsors. In order to get the ratings up, the first thing that we would do is create a national football schedule.
The National Football League is a very successful league. So, maybe we can learn something from them. Like if you finish first in your conference, you play two other first place conference finishers the next season (three if you count the winner in the regular conference rotation). That is why we get to see Indianapolis play Pittsburgh, San Diego and New England almost every year. These are the games that get the biggest ratings.
Better late than never, we weigh in with our thoughts on last Saturday’s Hardy Cup game.
1. Who gets the offensive game ball?
The Outsider: In the last game of his CIS career, Tyler O’Gorman had a career-like game. 24 carries for 162 yards, averaging 6.8 yards per carry. I haven’t seen him run this hard since the SFU game at BC Place last season. He was able to get the corner, pick up tough yards up the middle and had a reception. O’Gorman seems to have his best games in the playoffs, and he did not disappoint last weekend. What many people may not know, is that he did all of this with a broken hand. That makes his performance even more outstanding. Laurence Nixon is the honourable mention.
BleedingGreen2009: I have to give it to Rory Kolhert, who had an outstanding day with 5 catches for 166 yards (a whopping 33 yards per catch). Along with Braeden George, he was Nixon’s favourite target when the offense need a big play, coming up with clutch catches against a secondary that looked rather ordinary. Laurence Nixon’s performance (24-35-422-2 Tds) is also worthy of mention.
Dallas: The offensive game ball goes to the offensive line: Patrick Neufeld, Hubert Buydens, Darren Hinds, Ben Heenan and Cam Redl. The Dinos had the stingiest run defence in the Canada West this season, surrendering only 143 net rushing yards to Manitoba on October 10 in their worst showing of the season. The offensive line opened holes all day for Tyler O’Gorman to rush for 162 yards alone, with the Huskies finishing with 175 net yards. An impressive outing, especially considering it was the biggest game of the year.
Tyler O’Gorman takes the handoff from Laurence Nixon.
We’ve had a few questions about the Huskies schedule in 2010, so we contacted some peeps and have figured it all out.
First off, with Simon Fraser leaving the Canada West for the NCAA, there will be six teams in the conference instead of seven. That means that with an eight-game schedule, the Huskies would have to play three teams twice and two teams once. Read more »
The Huskies had a team meeting yesterday afternoon in the Graham Huskies Clubhouse. Forty-eight hours after the heartbreaking loss to the Calgary Dinos in the Hardy Cup, the coaches, players and support staff still had a feeling of disbelief that the season was over. As the saying goes, time will heal all wounds, but right now, many involved with the Huskies are still feeling a bit down.
Coach Towriss went over some administrative things and spent time thanking all of the support people and coaches who volunteer hundreds of hours each season to help the team out.
The Huskies are built on character people. Coach Towriss does not tolerate “bad apples.” Each player cares about the program and each other, and they often refer to each other as their football brothers. We have never seen a closer-knit group of young athletes.
There it was, set up just like a dramatic football novel. The story line usually ends something like this. The quarterback leads his team down the field for the winning points and spurs his team on to victory, amid cheers from a jam packed crowd of supporters. That’s the way these things are supposed to end.
The Huskies have nine long months to figure out how to put the wraps on Eric Glavic and his dynamic offence.
Calgary’s 39-38 victory over Saskatchewan had the makings of a story book ending deemed to be a bestseller, but by the end it was destined to be one that would stay on the shelf gathering dust for years to come.
As I wandered over to the exits in complete shock after realizing the game’s fate, I wasn’t exactly prepared for what I was about to see. The pain on many of the player’s faces couldn’t be hidden. The fifth year players, fighting back tears, had come to the realization that this was the end. Being a blogger for the team this past year made me feel in a small way like I was part of it all. I can’t imagine what it feels like being part of three months of physical battle and commitment, yet come away empty handed. These guys wanted it so much more than even the most die-hard fans. They had given it all they had, and for this reason there should be no “what if’s” when talking about the outcome.
The emotional roller coaster 5,100 fans went on ended with a little Drop of Doom, as the hopes, excitement and dreams of a 4th National championship came to a crashing halt. This however does not mean it was an unsuccessful season by any stretch.
Despite losing 39-38 to the Calgary Dinos in the Canada West Final, Saskatchewan Huskies kicker Grant Shaw hit five field
goals in the game.
The fourth-year Edmonton native hit field goals from 27, 37, 38, 40, 8 and 35 yards out. Shaw also had 241 yards on four
kickoffs and 226 yards on five punts.
While not part of the special teams award, at defensive back he did also have 4.5 tackles.
This is Shaw’s third selection of this award this season.
We will have some post-game reaction to the Huskies loss to the Dinos over the next few days.
After the game on Saturday, it was an emotional scene inside the clubhouse. Players, coaches and support staff were all very down. Many of them felt that the Huskies could have won that game but credit the Dinos with keeping things close and making some plays when they needed to.
A few hours after the game, the coaches talked about what they could improve on in the future. It was interesting to see the transformation from being very down to “getting back to work.” The loss will continue to linger for a few days or weeks, however.
On Sunday, a number of coaches were in to look at the film. We will write up what we saw later today.
The plan for the team right now is to have a team meeting today. After that, the coaches speak to each player individually over the course of the next week or so. The coaches also start to identify areas of need and potential recruits that they would like to speak to over the next few months. There is a recruiting moratorium coming up around Vanier Cup week, so recruiting will really pick up in a few weeks.
We’ve posted a few photos on Flickr from the game and will have more tomorrow. Back in a while.
The Outsider
Dallas
bleedinggreen2009
Dog Whisperer