Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
WINNIPEG – They don’t have the exact recipe to making a Grey Cup-winning team, but the Winnipeg Blue Bombers feel like they’re close to getting there.
This past season, the Bombers made the playoffs for the first time in five years – their last trip to the post season was back in 2011, the same year they fell to the Lions in the Grey Cup.
Carrying that momentum into 2017, Winnipeg feels like they have a good understanding of how to make it all the way to the most important game of the season in late November once again.
“We have an idea on how you build a championship team and the main focus of that is building a team first,” head coach Mike O’Shea said in the Blue Bombers’ season preview call with members of the media on Tuesday. “You have to become a team before you can become a championship team. That requires not only talent but a group of individuals that are willing to sacrifice a lot for each other.”
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Head coach Mike O’Shea hopes the newest member of the Blue Bombers, Ekakitie, will make an impact right away (Iowa Hawkeyes)
At the 2017 CFL Draft, Winnipeg added another piece to their puzzle, Faith Ekakitie, a former Iowa Hawkeye defensive lineman, who they drafted with their first-overall pick. The 6-foot-1, 304-pound interior lineman helped the Hawkeyes to the Outback Bowl and collected a career-high in tackles (21 solo and 18 assisted) last season.
Ekakitie, according to O’Shea, is one of those individuals with the attitude the Bombers are looking for.
“(It was) important for us to get Faith,” said the bench boss. “(He’s) a player who was going to show up right away and play and a good player and a good guy. Anybody that’s interviewed him has commented that he’s such a pleasant guy to deal with. He’s going to fit right in.”
The change at quarterback from Drew Willy to Matt Nichols was the catalyst to the success for the Bombers last season, sending the team on a seven-game winning streak, and to an 11-7 record, in prime position to head to the Western Semi-Final against the BC Lions.
Winnipeg’s playoff run was the closest Nichols has gotten to a Grey Cup in his entire five-year CFL career – he had been traded from the Esks in 2015 to the Bombers before Edmonton won the coveted trophy that season.
The 30-year old’s motivation heading into this season? Finally winning and lifting the Grey Cup over his head.
Matt Nichols is heading into 2017 as the starting quarterback for the first time in his CFL career (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
“If you’re playing this game not to win a championship, what are you doing it for?” questioned Nichols. “That’s kind of the main thing in my career. I’ve yet to be able to hoist that trophy and I plan on doing that and doing it soon.”
This year, too, is the first time in Nichols’ professional career he’s heading into a season as the bonafide starting quarterback, which according to the pivot, feels right.
“I’ve mentioned this earlier this off-season in a couple other interviews that this year feels more normal to me that it has in the last seven years,” Nichols admitted. “I’ve been a starting quarterback from second grade all the way through college. I was a four-year starter in college so this feels more normal to me than going in as a backup (or) two or three trying to earn a roster spot.”
The Bombers, with Nichols ready at the helm of the offence and the hopes of Ekakitie making an impact on defence, will head to training camp at the end of May in hopes of finding the final ingredient to making a Grey Cup-winning team.
