November 23, 2017

Reilly, Ray finally cross paths at Shaw CFL Awards

Get past the huge arm, the foot-speed out of the pocket, the superhero toughness and willingness to sacrifice his body in order to make a play, and Mike Reilly isn’t that different from the rest of us.

The Edmonton Eskimos’ quarterback remembers the end of the 2016 regular season, and how his team had beaten an Argos squad that had lost its way. Reilly was walking out of Commonwealth Stadium when he ran into Ricky Ray.

“I have a great relationship with Ricky. Every time I see him we have 20-, 30-minute conversations. We sit and talk about all sorts of different things,” Reilly said on Wednesday, shortly after arriving in Ottawa for the Shaw CFL Awards, which get under way Thursday night.

“I never would have asked him because it wasn’t my place,” Reilly continued, offering up a relatable moment.

“I remember looking at him and thinking, ‘I wonder if that’s the last time I’ll see Ricky play or not?’ He’d fought through some injuries and things and their season hadn’t gone well. I didn’t know if he was wanting to come back or not, or what his plan was. I think everybody wondered that.”

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One of the best things about the CFL is that the wildest twists and the least predictable turns always seem to be around the corner. A then 37-year-old, injured and downtrodden Ricky Ray, leader of a five-win team that would eventually fire its GM and lose its head coach, being a year away from playing in the Grey Cup and an East Most Outstanding Player nomination? What no one saw as a remote possibility this time last year is reality this week.

And in a league where the pieces of the best stories almost always seem to somehow find their way to each other, there’s Reilly at the other end of this year’s equation as the West nominee for MOP, Edmonton’s past colliding with its present.

This is the first time they’ve competed for this award and there was never an overlap in their time in Edmonton — Reilly’s first season there was in 2013 and Ray played there from 2002-2011, save a gap-year with the New York Jets — but Reilly has felt some level of competition with Ray since the first time he stepped into Commonwealth.

“I see him every day,” Reilly said. “Every day I walk in that building. Every day I’m reminded of him. There’s a mural in the stairwell of all the various (former Esks) players. I think Warren Moon’s on there, (Dan) Kepley’s on there and Wilkie (Tom Wilkinson) is painted on there.

“The Ricky mural, it doesn’t really look like Ricky. It kind of looks like an alien version of Ricky, but you still know it’s Ricky based on the jersey he’s wearing.

“I see him every day. I obviously wasn’t involved in the trade, that was before my time there.

“But personally, I knew when I was signed in 2013 that people were looking at it going, ‘You’re the one that’s supposed to replace Ricky for this team’. Knowing what I know about what Ricky’s done and he’s continuing to do, that’s a tough act to follow.”

While the Eskimos fell short in the end, Mike Reilly continues to engineer one of the CFL’s most prolific passing attacks (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

When the Argos hired GM Jim Popp and Head Coach Marc Trestman in late February, Trestman quickly made it clear that Ray would be his starting quarterback. With that, Reilly knew the possibility was there for Ray to have a big year.

“I was excited for him because I knew, I think everybody knew he was going to have a great year and he’d be rejuvenated. He hasn’t let anyone down in that regard,” Reilly said.

Ray played in 17 games this year and threw for 5,546 yards, made 71 per cent of his passes and had 28 touchdowns. Reilly played in all 18 games — a rarity for an Esks team plagued by injuries — and had a league-leading 5,830 yards with 30 touchdowns, while completing 68.3 per cent of his passes.

Reilly doesn’t treat this as an individual competition.

“I don’t look at it as I’m trying to beat Ricky Ray,” he said. “We both had great seasons and we’re both part of great teams. Whoever wins the award, it’s going to be a great achievement for them and their team. I don’t take any solace in anybody else not winning something in our league.”

As Ray has extended his career — it seems like he’s been written off at the end of each of the last four seasons — Reilly has taken note and hopes to have some more of those long conversations with him.

“It inspired me to watch what (Anthony) Calvillo did. It inspired me to watch what Henry (Burris) did. I want to play as long as I can in this league. I want to play until I’m 40,” Reilly, 32, said.

“I know that it’s possible because of guys like them. That’s a long way down the road, I’ve got a long way to go but those are guys that certainly inspire me.

“They’re also people that I have in the past and plan to continue to try to get information from and figure out how they do it. You don’t just say, ‘I want to play until I’m 40′, and it’ just happens. You have to have a plan and you have to make that plan happen. (Ray) obviously does and he’s obviously succeeded and executed that very well. Those are people that don’t just inspire me but people I seek information from as well.”

The remaining secrets of the Shaw CFL Awards will be revealed on Thursday night as well. Winnipeg-born Bombers’ running back Andrew Harris is up against Ottawa REDBLACKS receiver and Peterborough, Ont. native, Brad Sinopoli for Outstanding Canadian. Harris flirted with a 1K-1K season, picking up 1,035 yards on the ground and a career-best 857 receiving yards. Sinopoli won the award in 2015 and was over 1,000 receiving yards for the third straight season.

 

Montreal’s Kyries Hebert and Calgary’s Alex Singleton are the nominees for the Most Outstanding Defensive Player. At 37, Hebert had an East-leading 110 tackles, with three forced fumbles, two sacks and an interception, providing a bright spot in a very difficult season for the Alouettes.

Just 23 and in his second season in the CFL, Singleton set a Canadian record for the most tackles in a season, with 123. He also set a record mid-season with three consecutive 10-plus tackle games.

 

Winnipeg Blue Bomber left tackle Stanley Bryant and Toronto Argonaut centre Sean McEwen are the finalists for the Nissan TITAN Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award. The Bombers had more rushing yards than any team in the league and were the only team to average more than 100 rushing yards per game. The eight-year CFL vet helped set the tone for the line the year.

McEwen, a second-year centre, played a key part in the Argos’ strong finish to the season, allowing Ricky Ray to have an MOP-calibre season, while opening up holes for rookie of the year candidate James Wilder Jr.

 

Wilder Jr. faces Calgary receiver Marken Michel for the Most Outstanding Rookie award. Wilder Jr. had the sixth-most yards from scrimmage this year (872 rushing, 533 receiving) and was a catalyst in getting the Argos to the Grey Cup game.

In Calgary, Michel had 780 receiving yards and led the league with an average of 19-yards per catch. Michel is looking to be the second consecutive Stampeder to win the award, after DaVaris Daniels won it a year ago.

 

Calgary’s Roy Finch is facing the Ottawa REDBLACKS’ Diontae Spencer for Most Outstanding Special Teams Player. Finch’s 16.4 yards on punt returns this season is the third-best total in CFL history and he also had 1,914 kick return yards, scoring three touchdowns. In his first season in Ottawa, Spencer did his damage late in the season. He had 1,796 return yards, but fans will remember his 496 all-purpose yard game against Hamilton on Oct. 27, where he set a league record.

 

Calgary’s Dave Dickenson and Toronto’s Marc Trestman will stand on opposite sidelines in Sunday’s Grey Cup game and one will be named the Coach of the Year. Dickinson led the Stamps to another league-best record, going 13-4-1.

Trestman was behind a complete turnaround in his first season with the Argos, taking the five-win team he inherited and leading it to an East-best 9-9 record and a berth in Sunday’s big game.