Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
You would have expected it to be the three-time CFL all-star Jeremaine Copeland. Or maybe the CFL’s second leading rusher Cory Boyd.
But when the Argonauts scored their first and only touchdown of the day in Saturday’s 19-12 CFL East Semifinal victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, it wasn’t any of their big name players making the catch.
It was humble North Vancouver native, Simon Fraser University graduate and rookie CFL receiver Spencer Watt.
“I felt like my heart was going to burst through my chest,” Watt said of scoring a touchdown in the first playoff game of his career. It ended up being the only touchdown the Argonauts would score on Sunday.
“I didn’t think about it much. There was some nice open field in the end zone and I saw it and just ran for that open space and Cleo recognized that. Before I knew it the ball was there. It was a good play.”
Not only a good play, it was a simple, yet effective one too. It was one of the play calls that give a quarterback a number of options and leaves it in his hands to pick the best one.
It showed a lot of confidence for Argonauts head coach Jim Barker to leave the game in the hands of his pivot Cleo Lemon, playing his first year in the Canadian game. And it showed even more confidence to have the rookie Watt as the second option on the play.
But Barker knew Watt could make big plays. In fact, he watched him make two in the Argonauts season ending victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Nov. 7.
With most of the Argos’ starters resting for that game, Watt saw unprecedented playing time and didn’t let his coaching staff down, hauling in six receptions for 140 yards, including two touchdowns.
“It was a huge game for me. I just wanted to see where I could stand in the CFL and see if I could hang with all these other players — see if I could play,” Watt said. “My coaches knew I had the ability — it was just a matter of when they were going to put me on the field.”
Watt certainly showed he could play and he continued to in the playoffs, making three catches for 23-yards in the Argos triumph over the Ticats last weekend, including, of course, the touchdown.
Needless to say, this weekend’s opponent in the East Division Finals, the same Montreal Alouettes that Watt burned two weeks ago, will be paying a bit more attention to the rookie this time around.
“Yeah, I’m sure they won’t look past me this time,” Watt said with a chuckle. “But I think we’re going to disperse the ball more. We’re going to probably give it to our bigger playmakers like Jeremaine Copeland, Chad Owens, Cory Boyd. Guys like that.”
It says a lot about Watt’s personality that he doesn’t even consider himself a big playmaker, despite proving exactly the opposite in the past two weeks.
Watt’s biggest asset is his speed —he runs a blinding 4.4 in the 40-yard dash — and he showed it on the touchdown reception against Hamilton on Sunday when he broke free to the end zone in an instant after Hamilton’s defensive back bit ever so slightly on Lemon’s play action.
The play was actually designed to go to Chad Owens in the flats, but he was covered and Watt had a step on his man. It was all Watt needed to pull in six points and extend the Argos lead.
It was a perfect way to accentuate what Watt hopes is the first of many CFL playoff games.
“You can try to prepare as much as you can for the playoffs but you can never truly be prepared,” Watt said. “There is a lot more pressure ¬— especially in Hamilton with the rivalry. It was a pretty intense atmosphere.”
Someone who knows a thing or two about charged atmospheres and pressure is Grant Shaw, the Argonauts kicker-turned-linebacker.
Like Watt, Shaw made the most of his opportunities in last week’s Semi-Final coming up with a key fumble recovery on special teams in the Argos win.
Shaw was the Argos place kicker for the first 11 weeks of the season before he was replaced by Justin Medlock and eventually Noel Prefontaine who handled the kicking on Saturday.
Shaw went 22 of 33 during his tenure as Argos kicker — not awful but not good enough for Barker and the Argos staff who were looking for a bit more consistency. Prefontaine has delivered it, hitting six of seven kicks in the regular season upon joining the Argos and going 3-for-3 on Sunday.
For most kickers, especially rookies, a demotion like that would mean it was time to clean out the locker and call your agent to seek employment elsewhere.
But Shaw was one of the lucky ones who could play another position and the Argonauts thought he had potential as a backup linebacker and a return coverage specialist.
“It was great to be given this opportunity. I’m so thankful for that. I’m really lucky that I wasn’t just cut,” Shaw said. “On the day they told me I was moving to linebacker I knew I had to just change my mindset.”
Switching from focusing on being a pure kicker to suddenly having to pick up an entire defensive playbook and multiple special teams schemes isn’t any easier than it sounds.
But luckily for Shaw he had done both in the CIS with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies where he was a 2009 Canada West all-star, hitting 19 of his 23 field goal attempts and adding 18 tackles and an interception of defence.
That meant moving back to defence and special teams was old hat for the 25-year-old.
“I feel pretty comfortable playing both — I want to be on the field” Shaw said. “At first it was kind of a transition. But [linebackers coach Greg] Quick put extra time in with me and I got up to speed pretty quick.”
Shaw showed his versatility in that same game against Montreal at the end of the season when he was called on to take over the kicking duties with Prefontaine sitting out with a sore calf.
Shaw graciously accepted the offer — but with one condition.
“The first thing I asked was if I could still play on defence and special teams. I still wanted to run around and hit people,” Shaw said. “They were like ‘yeah, that’s no problem.’ It was a busy day — that’s the way I like it.”
Of course, the Argonauts play those same Alouettes this weekend in front of what will surely be an unforgiving crowd at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
The game will be inherently different from the last meeting which Toronto dominated. Neither teams’ starters saw much of the field in that game and CFL Most Outstanding Player nominee Anthony Calvillo didn’t even take a snap.
But the Argos — rookies and backups like Watt and Shaw especially ¬— are still drawing on that game for inspiration heading into this weekend’s clash.
“Our backups stepped up that game. That game showed that we can put in our backups and not hesitate on offence or defence,” Watt said. “We just gave our coaches that much more confidence to put us in if they need to.”
The Argonauts undoubtedly come in as the underdogs against a much more experienced Alouettes squad. But with a victory over Hamilton last weekend -— a game they were also expected to lose — in their back pocket, the Argonauts are coming in with more confidence than ever.
“Sure, we reali
ze that we definitely did not see them at their best but they should realize that they didn’t see us at our best either,” Shaw said. “We never want to lose regardless of who’s playing and who’s on the field and who’s starting or not starting. We’re playing for pride. We want to win.”
