Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
As the 2024 season approaches, each team has a question that looms over it that will shape its season. CFL.ca asked players across the league about that question. Our series continues with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Bo Levi Mitchell as the lynchpin of their offensive success.
HAMILTON — Aside from the odd team that runs off four consecutive Grey Cup appearances, most teams in the CFL head into training camp at a ground zero of sorts.
A lot can happen in a CFL off-season and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a prime example of that. Freshly minted head coach Scott Milanovich will start to get a look at the potential fruits of the Ticats’ winter labour when rookie camp opens this week. From there, main camps open on May 12.
The beauty of the CFL is that a team that towered over its opponents one year can topple back to Earth the next year. Those teams that were a little closer to the ground last year can rise up in a new season and force its way into the playoff or Grey Cup conversation.
We don’t know where the Ticats stand right now, but there is internal optimism as we start to shed the off-season and move into the preseason.
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“Out of all of my camps I’ve been to, this is the one I’m anticipating,” Jamal Peters, one of four now former Toronto Argonaut defensive players to sign as a free agent with the Ticats, told CFL.ca. “It’s like the first day of school. I’m anxious to put on that Black and Gold. I’m anxious to get started.
“I was telling my mom, I feel like Batman (putting black on). I wore black and gold in high school, so it’s like a high school feeling again.”
It’s fitting that Peters mentions a superhero. It’s a presence that, despite the effort of those on the field wasn’t consistently there in 2023. That absence glares like the Bat-Signal from the most important position on the field, at quarterback. Bo Levi Mitchell played in just six games in 2023, seemingly hit by a new, unfortunate long-term injury after he’d recovered from the previous one.
Then-rookie QB Taylor Powell stepped in when Mitchell AND backup Matt Shiltz were on the six-game injured list (anyone else re-living just how unlucky this team was with the injury bug last year?). Powell’s impressive eight-game run as the team’s starter pushed the Ticats’ playoff appearance streak to five seasons, but the Eastern Semi-Final was as far as they got, as the Montreal Alouettes put them away, starting their Grey Cup-winning journey.
For all of the changes that were made in Hamilton over the winter — and as our Don Landry has written at length about, there are many — the question that looms over the citizens of Gotham/Hamilton (Gothamilton?) pertains to the most recognizable face on the roster: what can a healthy Bo Levi Mitchell do for this team?
“A healthy Bo Levi, cohesiveness on the offence and a healthy offensive line,” Ticats’ running back James Butler told us last month at the CFL content capture in Hamilton, envisioning the possibilities if the injury bug’s feast is complete in Steel Town.
“We kind of played musical chairs a little bit for a while on the offensive line. Then Bo dealt with some injuries, which happens.”
Butler, who broke the 1,000-yard rushing mark last year, had spent time with Mitchell while in Hamilton and caught passes from him. Aside from his health, he noticed something else positive around the two-time Most Outstanding Player. He’s got a good energy to him.
“Just an excited Bo — well you know, he was excited last year too, but then when you get a couple of injuries it’s hard to keep that same fire,” Butler said. “But you can definitely see the fire’s still in Bo’s eyes. I think a healthy Bo is huge.”
Whatever 2024 holds for Mitchell, he goes into the season with an offensively-minded head coach in Milanovich. His CFL resume boasts its share of success with his starting quarterbacks, both when he’s served as an offensive coordinator and head coach. There was Anthony Calvillo in Montreal, then Ricky Ray in Toronto. Both quarterbacks lifted the Grey Cup in their time with Milanovich.
On the defensive side of the ball, Mark Washington returns for his sixth year as defensive coordinator. That handful of former Argos alongside of him — Peters, d-linemen Brandon Barlow and Dewayne Hendrix and linebacker Jordan Williams — should help ease the transition to a new team as training camps get set to open.
“I like where this team is at,” Peters said.
“Last year I felt like they were kind of young, that’s kind of hard for them. I feel like bringing in a vet like me into the DB room, bringing Barlow, Hendrix, those guys, I like everything about this team.
“It had some missing pieces they had to insert. I think we’re going to help the team win. We’ve got a lot of expectations. Coach Scott has a lot of expectations, everybody has a lot of high expectations. That’s what you’ve got to do to win. You want to go into camp feeling good. I like what we’ve got and I think we’ve got a chance to compete.”
A healthy Mitchell, with offensive weapons like Butler and Tim White at his disposal, elevates the Ticats as this season gets set to start. It could be enough to take the team that was somewhere near the fringes at the end of last season and vault them into a new conversation.
