Something to prove
Underdog Stamps hope to make noise
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He's the new Commodore! ... Flames character Mike Commodore shaved his hair off Thursday but leave it up to Stampeder Scott Roe to pick up the slack. Sporting a bright red new ’do, Roe tosses the ball at practice yesterday. The Stamps open the season tomorrow. (CALGARY SUN/Jim Wells) |
Written off by the big brains across the CFL as a team with too many new faces, too little experience and rocked by too much turmoil, the Calgary Stampeders are hoping to use those apparent deficiencies to their advantage. The Stamps are buoyed with optimism heading to Regina to tear the top off another campaign, an entire country convinced fifth place is their final destination.
The new faces, they say, offer an injection of enthusiasm, the inexperienced additions are secret weapons the whole league will learn about while the turmoil is ancient history.
Will the Stampeders feel the same way tomorrow night?
Maybe not but having watched West Division favourites Winnipeg and Saskatchewan drop season-openers, the Stamps are convinced they can provide some surprises this year.
For now, they are undefeated and with a win tomorrow can lay claim to first place in the CFL West, no matter how tenuous the perch.
"There you go, it's that easy," grinned Stamps defensive lineman Joe Fleming, knowing nothing will come easily this season. "Then you just don't give it up for the next 17 weeks."
Fleming and the revamped Stamps, expected to field about a dozen new players tomorrow taking on the Roughriders, are happily accepting the role of league doormats. Having entered 2003 as favourites to make some noise in the West, the club struggled to a 5-13 record and missed the playoffs for the second straight year.
Now, with new coaches in every office and a throng of new bodies filling the locker-room, the Stamps are relishing the role of underdogs.
"To be honest, that's the way I hope it stays," said Fleming, noting the Roughies' stock has fallen since losing starting quarterback Nealon Greene to a broken leg against Toronto. "People can underestimate us but the games are not a foregone conclusion. You have to go out there and play 60 minutes and all the other cliches that go with it but it's true.
"You have to remain healthy and I feel bad for Nealon, a tough situation and I hate to see that with any key player but that's a part of the season as well is keeping you guys healthy. You never know. A game can change pretty quickly with what happened in the West in the last few days. We're in a good situation heading into our first game to give ourselves an opportunity."
Running back Scott Regimbald, who captured a Grey Cup with the 2001 Stampeders club that won just eight regular season games, has seen plenty of turmoil the past two seasons. Starting with a clean slate tomorrow, Regimbald is confident the Stamps could author some upsets and surprise some opponents.
"It's always unpredictable," the fifth-year CFL veteran suggested. "When you can have 8-10 teams winning the Grey Cup that goes to show what kind of league this is, there's no real top dog in the CFL and you can knock off anybody at any time.
"We've got a bunch of core guys who have set the tone for the rest of the athletes on this team you get guys like Joe Fleming, Jamie Crysdale and I like to think myself, you bring an attitude to practice that rubs off on guys who haven't been a part of this."
New head coach-GM Matt Dunigan, to whom most of the blame or credit will be thrown this season, feels the Stampeders have made progress through training camp and the two-game pre-season.
"The whole football team's come a long way in a three-week period and we've got a long way to go as well," Dunigan said.
"We're certainly mindful of that. We're not where we want to be at this point we want to continue to work hard so we can get there.
"We can't control what other teams are doing we can only control our work ethic and our mindset and our approach to the game on a day-to-day basis and it's simple: Try to get better every day and work hard and that's what we'll do.
"We'll take that approach for 18 weeks and start over in the post-season."
A post-season only Dunigan and his players believe they'll take part in.
