April 29, 2017

Mitchell: ‘My mindset every year is to go undefeated’

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

If Bo Levi Mitchell had it his way, the Calgary Stampeders would never lose a game again.

He’d never have to take the disappointing, head-hung-low walk off the field, never have to explain what went wrong to members of the media and never have to feel the disbelief of an overtime loss in a game late in November.

Finishing an entire season without a loss may seem far fetched but it’s not impossible.

The 1948 Calgary Stampeders remain the CFL’s only team to have a perfect regular season, finishing their campaign with a 12-0 record. They were 2-0-1 in the playoffs and went on to defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders to win the Grey Cup.

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Bo Levi Mitchell is confident that he and the Stampeders will go undefeated one season (CFL.ca)

2016’s Stampeders were as close to a perfect season as any team has been in recent memory.

The Stamps were without a loss from Week 2 all the way until their season finale in Week 19 – a loss against the Montreal Alouettes that head coach Dave Dickenson elected to rest most of his starters, including Mitchell.

After that stellar season, Calgary solidified themselves in history with the longest single season win streak at 14 games and the longest unbeaten streak at 16 games – after a loss against the BC Lions in the team’s opening week, and the loss in the season’s ender, a Week 3 tie against the Ottawa REDBLACKS was the only blip in the Stamps’ impressive run.

Mitchell himself also set the most consecutive wins by a starter at 14.

And when asked about matching last season’s success in 2017, the Calgary quarterback confidently said, “I’m going to go undefeated one year.”

If history is any indication, that could become a reality sooner than we may think.

When Mitchell took over the starting role under centre in 2014, the Stampeders finished the regular season with a 15-3 record. The following season? 14-4. And last season, Calgary finished with the league’s best record of 15-2-1.

Mitchell’s first full season under centre was in 2014, where he helped lead his squad to winning the 102nd Grey Cup. That season, the 27-year-old threw for 3389 yards, 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions in the 15 games he played.

In the following season, Mitchell threw 4551 yards for 26 majors and 13 interceptions. And in his best season to date in 2016, he through for 5385 yards, 32 touchdowns and just eight interceptions in 17 games.

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

Dave Dickenson and John Hufnagel are leading the family feeling inside the Stampeders locker room (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

Mitchell’s confident in himself, his teammates and his coaches that his era of Stampeders will become the second team to go undefeated in league history.

“We came in 14-4 and Dave said let’s just go out there and do that again,” he recalled. “I said, ‘no, we have to be 15-3.’ Now we’re going to be 16-2 (this season). Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play in the last game to make that record happen but my goal and my mindset every single year is to go undefeated and I’m going to make it one year.”

Having a successful organization takes a lot of different pieces working together in perfect harmony. The players, coaches and front office management have to mesh together before things start to take shape on the field.

According to 2016’s Most Outstanding Rookie, DaVaris Daniels, that’s exactly what’s happening in Calgary – harmony.

At Daniels’ first practice as a member of the Stampeders last season, he was approached by president and general manager John Hufnagel. Hufnagel introduced himself, shook Daniels’ hand and apologized for not meeting him sooner.

Daniels said that sense of comradery throughout the entire organization, including constant communication between president and GM Hufnagel and head coach Dickenson, is what makes the Stampeders so special.

“Huff (Hufnagel), even though he’s higher than him (Dickenson) in the ranks, he’s not overtaking him. He lets Dicky (Dickenson) do his thing. And Dicky, he played in the CFL, he knows how to talk to the players and what the players are feeling and all that stuff. He’s able to know exactly what’s going on in your head and talk to you from a real personal point of view instead of coach to player.

“That whole family dynamic that the whole organization has is the reason it’s successful over and over again. You don’t really find that too much in a lot of other places.”

Charleston Hughes, who signed a contract extension to keep him in the red and white through 2018, says the reason the Stampeders have been so successful for so long is because they keep the same group of players in Calgary.

“We always keep that core set of guys around,” the defensive end said. “You can keep a core set of guys that you know are always going to be good, always going to perform and always going to perform at a high level then that’s half the battle.”

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

Charleston Hughes re-signed with the Stampeders this off-season (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

Hughes is a part of that core group, spending his entire CFL career as a Stampeder. The 33-year-old has been with the Stamps since 2008 and has collected 88 career sacks – second all-time in Stampeders franchise history, trailing only Will Johnson’s total of 99. Hughes has claimed at least a share of the team lead in sacks in seven of his nine seasons with the Stamps.

In 131 career regular-season contests, he also has 371 tackles, including 42 tackles for loss, 22 forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries, three interceptions and 26 pass knockdowns.

Calgary re-signed another constant in their lineup, veteran receiver Marquay McDaniel, just an hour before he was to hit the free agent market in February.

McDaniel was the Stamps’ leading receiver in 2016 with 83 receptions for 1,074 yards in 16 games. He had four touchdowns and one two-point convert reception. It’s the third time in the past four seasons McDaniel has surpassed the 1,000-yard mark.

McDaniel joined the Stamps in 2011 and in 115 career CFL games, he had 489 receptions for 6,441 yards and 34 touchdowns. He was a CFL all-star in 2013 and was a member of the Stamps’ 2014 Grey Cup-championship squad.

So, with confidence, an approachable coaching staff and a constant group of players, Mitchell wants to remain in the Canadian game, no matter what, especially if he might have an opportunity to go down in history.

“I have a chance to be one of the greatest to ever play, why spoil that to tell someone that I played for the Bucs for a year and a half?” he said of hypothetically playing in the NFL. “If it’s a real possibility, I’ll go down and take a chance. Right now, I have a mindset to try and be the best.”