THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — Kevin Glenn would like nothing more than to have another shot at winning a Grey Cup.
Whether that’s with the Calgary Stampeders or not remains to be seen, but the 12-year Canadian Football League veteran believes that he still has what it takes to be a starting quarterback in the CFL.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say that I think that I’m a starting quarterback in this league,” Glenn said. “I think I am. If you’re a quarterback and you don’t think that, then something’s wrong.”
Just two days after the Stampeders lost 35-22 to the host Toronto Argonauts in the 100th Grey Cup, Glenn spoke the media at McMahon Stadium for the final time this season.
“It’s been tough, just going back and trying to figure out where it went wrong and how come we’re not celebrating as Grey Cup champs right now,” Glenn said.
“You’ve got to give Toronto credit and they were better than us on that day. We couldn’t get into a rhythm. When we did put drives together, we came out with three points instead of seven.”
With Drew Tate out of the lineup with a fractured bone in his right arm, Glenn guided the Stamps to a 34-29 road win over the defending Grey Cup champion B.C. Lions in the West final on Nov. 18.
“If Kevin wasn’t here, you never know how the season would have went,” said receiver Marquay McDaniel, who was also Glenn’s teammate in Hamilton.
“It’s good to have that veteran guy who’s been playing for a long time with a lot of experience. You definitely need it because you never know what could happen.”
After throwing three touchdown passes against the Lions, Glenn couldn’t duplicate that feat on the CFL’s biggest stage against the Argos.
“I don’t think that takes anything away from the season that we had and us getting to that point,” said Glenn, who completed 14-of-27 passes for 222 yards, no touchdowns and one interception against the Argos. “We’ve just got to come back stronger, tougher and fight for it again next year.”
Still under contract with the Stamps, Glenn said he’s expecting to return to Calgary next season.
“At this point, I leave as a Calgary Stampeder and hopefully come back as a Calgary Stampeder,” he said. “If not, then that’s just the way the business rolls.”
Calgary head coach and general manager John Hufnagel is also counting on Glenn to be back in the fold next year.
“Right now, he’s under contract to come back and I expect Kevin to be at training camp,” Hufnagel said. “A lot of things can happen, but I have no preconceived thoughts of him being anywhere
else except a Stampeder.”
Tate also has no qualms with Glenn returning next season.
“I hope he is back,” said Tate, who missed the majority of the regular season after dislocating his left shoulder during the second game of the season in Toronto against the Argos. “I hope everyone on this team is back.
“It would make us pretty tough, because we’ve got a lot of good guys on this team and a lot of them are really young too. I don’t think the white horse is too worried about anything really.”
After having missed so much time to injury, Tate said he realizes that he’ll have to prove himself all over again starting at training camp.
“We just had the exit meeting and Huf made it pretty clear on how it works,” Tate said. “Win or lose the Grey Cup, we’re still starting at the bottom of the mound on June 1. It doesn’t matter what we did this year, it’s over. It’s in the past.”
Whether it was Glenn or Tate at the helm of Calgary’s offence, running back Jon Cornish had his best CFL season, so he has no problem with both of them returning.
“If Kevin Glenn returns, in the event Drew can stay healthy, we’ll have a great second option,” said Cornish, who was honoured as the league’s outstanding Canadian prior to the Grey Cup. “Having both of those guys around could only be a benefit to us.”
As a result of the injuries to Tate, rookie quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell spent most of the season backing up Glenn.
“Really, it was just a huge blessing,” said Mitchell, who threw two touchdown passes in the regular season and rushed for five more. “Every break you can get whether it’s mental or actually getting in there and playing is huge.”
With the Argos well in control of Sunday’s championship game, Hufnagel rewarded Mitchell with some playing time in the Grey Cup and the rookie responded by tossing a 12-yard touchdown pass to Maurice Price.
“It just makes you want to go out there and work even harder to where, if I get in that situation again, I can keep doing the same thing,” Mitchell said. “It’s obviously not a good feeling losing it, but to get in there and get some playing time, throw a touchdown to Mo, it’s motivational.”
Mitchell said his plan is to prepare in the off-season to fight for the starting job, but added he’s willing to accept whatever role he’s given.
“Whatever it is coming into training camp, I’ll come out here fighting,” he said. “Whatever they tell me I’m going to be, that’s what I’m going to be. I’ll do my best to help the team in that situation.”
