By Jaime Stein
CFL.ca
It takes time to become a starting quarterback in the CFL. It rarely happens overnight. Don’t believe me? Ask Michael Bishop or Kevin Glenn.
Both Bishop and Glenn have finally blossomed into bonafide CFL starters in their sixth and seventh CFL seasons respectively. Fortunately for the pair of pivots they have come across coaches and general managers with lots of patience, or in the case of Bishop, a little bit of luck.
Bishop, if you recall, was out of the CFL and completely off the radar at the start of the 2006 season, but the Argos ran into injury problems and he was brought back in an emergency situation in mid-August. Bishop was used in short yardage situations during his first game back and even scored a touchdown on a one-yard goal line plunge.
Bishop only attempted 12 passes during the remainder of the 2006 regular season, but flourished in the playoffs in relief of Damon Allen, nearly leading the Argos to successive comeback victories against Winnipeg and Montreal. It was those two performances that led many to believe that he was the odds of favourite to become the new starting quarterback in Toronto this year.
Bishop’s career really is like a tale of two halves of a football game. The first half: not so good. He was inconsistent despite being one of the most physically gifted athletes on the field.
The second half of Bishop’s career – the one where is becoming one of the best quarterbacks in the game – began following the death of his mother. Bishop was a new man.
I recall speaking to him in the days after he returned to the Argonauts in August of 2006. He told me how his outlook on life was different than before the death of his mother. Bishop had always been a fun – you could even say silly – kind of guy. He was good for a laugh or a joke, but his serious side was hard to find. Upon his return to the CFL, though, he was focused. Clearly, his rededication to the game of football has paid off.
The Toronto Argonauts have not lost a game this season in which Bishop has been the starting quarterback. He has made good decisions, throws an incredible deep ball and is able to take off and run when there are no passing options present.
While Bishop’s story of success has a defining moment, Kevin Glenn’s situation shows a different kind of perseverance. Glenn was passed around the CFL like an unwanted gift at one point; he was even traded twice in one day, eventually landing in Winnipeg.
Despite being handed the reigns in Bomber-land, Glenn’s role as a starting quarterback was always in question. The fans, the media and even his own head coach questioned his ability to be a starting quarterback.
“It was up to me as a player and a person to go out and do what I can do,” he told me this week. “I try not to get caught up in what other people say. You can’t focus on things you can’t control.”
Adjusting from the American game to the Canadian game is not easy and Glenn admits that it took him time to understand the nuances of football north of the border. He found trouble accounting for the 12 men on defence while also trying to adjust to the additional hours in the film room compared to his days at Illinois State.
Too often fans and coaches expect miracles from NFL castoffs and college stars who come north. General managers need to win today and are thus quick to cut loose a player who initially under performs. Glenn was fortunate enough not to have gone down that road and has now blossomed into one of the CFL’s best quarterbacks.
Dave Dickenson took three to four years to truly develop into a starting quarterback while Anthony Calvillo completed five seasons in the league before gaining a true handle on the game during his second season in Montreal. Few recall that Doug Flutie threw 73 interceptions along with 86 touchdown passes in his first three years in the league.
For Glenn, the answer is simple for why it takes quarterbacks so long to develop in the CFL.
“It is kind of like school,” he said. “With continuous reps you get better at it [playing quarterback]. The more practice that you do the better you get. I think it is just one of those things that comes with time.”
Another quarterback who has discovered success this season is Kerry Joseph. Arguably, Joseph had found success as a quarterback during his time in Ottawa, but his interceptions numbers were always in the vicinity of his touchdown passes. This season, Joseph has thrown 14 touchdowns to only five interceptions and his quarterback rating (93.7) is the highest it has been during his five years in the league.
Even guys like Rocky Butler (sixth season) have blossomed after years of playing the role of understudy. It seems as though the magic number for quarterbacks to succeed in the CFL is around five seasons. That requires a lot of patience from coaches and GMs and sometimes a stroke of luck.
With every rule there are always exceptions. In the case of the current starting quarterbacks in the league, Casey Printers and Ricky Ray would be those exceptions. Luck was definitely on their side.
Printers burst onto the scene in 2004 after an injury to Dave Dickenson. His magical season culminated with the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award but ended short of a league championship. After trying his hand in the NFL, Printers is back with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats albeit with a less talented receiving core than he had in B.C.
Like Printers, Ray benefited from an injury to snatch the starting job away from Jason Mass during the 2002 season. Ray led his team to the Grey Cup but came short of winning a championship in his rookie campaign. In 2003, Ray’s sophomore season, he shed any signs of a jinx and led the green and gold to their 12th Grey Cup championship in team history.
The strategy for developing a quarterback has changed with time. Gone are the days of a quarterback tandem sharing the workload. Today it is all about one guy leading his team on a weekly basis, but where does one get the experience to become “The Guy”?
Backup quarterbacks rarely get enough reps in practice to become effective during their first taste of action and the nature of the CFL game seldom allows a coach to give his backup live reps until very late into the fourth quarter when the game is surely out of reach.
Each year a new crew of NFL and college castoffs will audition for a CFL quarterbacking job. More often than not they leave disappointed.
The flavour of the day is a Doug Flutie prototype. Quick, undersized and “made for the Canadian game” as so many GMs like to say. Yet, year after year fans are presented with more evidence against the model for instant success. Like a blue chip stock, investing in a quarterback offers solid returns in the long term. Rarely is a quick fix found.
The evidence exists with this season’s list of quarterbacking disasters. Mike McMahon had a good pre-season, but this is the same old storyline when new quarterbacks face a vanilla defence in exhibition. Once the regular season began, McMahon was a failure both on and off the football field. Instead of playing the role of a sponge and learning from the veterans on the team, McMahon had difficulties earning his stripes and his sense of entitlement finally wore thin with his teammates or coaches.
Akili Smith has had a more positive influence on his teammates, some even describe him as a leader, but on the field he has underperformed. He completed 12 passes and threw four interceptions for a quarterback rating below zero (-2.6). The Stamps contend that they are happy with Smith and feel he is developing nicely,
but like McMahon he is not an option for the time being.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats went looking for help during the off-season too. Highly touted Shaun King didn’t survive training camp while Timmy Chang provided the patient fans of Steeltown a rainbow of hope in the likely event that Jason Mass struggled.
Chang had trouble throwing further than 35 yards down field last week against that Argonauts and that was when he actually had time to throw the ball. One specific pass was well short of the intended receiver and led to an interception by Byron Parker.
Chang looked lost in back-to-back starts against the Argonauts. With Printers in town, Chang will be afforded some time to truly learn the game assuming that both he and Tiger-Cat management remain patient. Chang has the skill set to succeed in the CFL, but for now he needs to focus on learning instead of demanding playing time.
For Bishop, Glenn, and Joseph consistency will be the key for their collective long term success. It appears as though all three have turned the corner and Glenn sums it up best.
“It feels good right now [to be considered for Most Outstanding Player]. But I want them to be saying it when the season ends, because that’s when it really counts.”
Jaime Stein is the former play-by-play voice of the Toronto Argonauts.
