William Stanback: 'I'm trying to stomp Montreal'

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

When I tell you that William Stanback says he wants to “stomp Montreal” when his BC Lions pay a visit to the Alouettes on Friday, a little context is necessary.

Because although that might seem aggressively personal when you read it, the reality is that the veteran running back said it rather calmly, rather matter-of-factly.

As well, that desire was expressed after first talking about how his past with the Als is largely water under the bridge at this point, as far as he’s concerned.

Consider, too, that Stanback aims to stomp every opponent he ever plays, has ever played, or ever will play. That much is obvious from even a quick glance at the 30-year-old’s career highlights.

Stanback is a stomper. A player who aims to dominate with every touch of the football and every step that follows. Stompity-stomp-stomp is his thing, generally speaking.

But, sure, this game looms a little larger for Stanback, naturally. He did spend five seasons in Montreal before being released by the team just ahead of free agency last winter. That it had come to that? That hurt.

It’s early Wednesday morning and Stanback is on the phone and on the move, being chauffeured to a media appearance in Vancouver. He’s got a few extra requests to handle this week. Everyone wants to talk to him about this game and about going back to face his old team for the first time in a place he used to call home, Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.

“Going into this stadium, going back to this province, it’s gonna mean a lot. Seeing the fans and everything like that,” says Stanback. “But it’s a business trip, man. I’m there to handle business.”

This isn’t a big game for Stanback alone. This is a big, big game for all of the Lions, eager to show after last week’s demolition of the Ottawa REDBLACKS that they are back on track after five straight losses, ready to once again be the team we all thought they were when they started the season at 5-1. What better way to show everyone – and themselves – that’s the case than by beating the CFL’s best team at home?

That is what Stanback says he is focused on, although his personal desire to have a large say in a victory over the Alouettes is at least a source of some extra inspiration this week. And that, after all, is not at cross purposes with the main objective anyway. A dominating Stanback would be a tasty boost for the Lions on Friday night, undoubtedly.

“Yeah, of course, that is somewhat my plan,” says Stanback. “To go in there and dominate, to let them know, like, ‘Hey guys, you made a small mistake.’ But it’s all good. I’m just ready to go there and play my game. And my guys and the coaches, they’re gonna all have my back. And once I start, once I get it going, it’s gonna be hard to stop me. So, I’m ready for it.”

Stanback’s five years in Montreal included two seasons of 1,000-yard rushing and two CFL All-Star selections as he rolled up 4,526 total ground-gain yards and another 1,360 in receptions. In 2021, he was the East Division nominee for Most Outstanding Player.

The very next season, however, Stanback suffered a serious ankle injury during Montreal’s first game and he didn’t see the field again until October. He rushed 12 times for 84 yards in Montreal’s 34-27 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in the Eastern Final that year.

Last year, Stanback rushed for 800 yards during the regular season and then capped his final year in Montreal with a 32-yard touchdown run in the Als’ Grey Cup win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. A pretty good year, all in all, with a nice, shiny ring to top things off.

But he wasn’t feeling the love, he says.

Although he’d felt healthy and able to play up to his capabilities in 2023, Stanback wasn’t quite employed as a workhorse tailback in the way he’d been accustomed. “I did feel like I was held back,” he told TSN in an interview last June. “I just felt like the confidence for me wasn’t there…with the people up top.”

The Alouettes had three talented running backs on the roster including Canadian Jeshrun Antwi as well as rising star Walter Fletcher so they decided to release Stanback just before free agency began – the team said at the time that it was at his request – concluding what the veteran felt was a rather confusing year for him.

After signing with the Lions in February, Stanback asserted that the Alouettes didn’t make him any kind of offer and that he’d have been fine with taking a pay cut in order to stay with the team.

“I wanted to be just treated right,” he said during his inaugural Lions media conference on Feb. 7. “I wanted to be respected. I didn’t want to be looked at as I’m just being tolerated. That was the feeling I was having.”

If Stanback was angry then, he says he is not now. Not so much, anyway.

“Well, I guess you can say it’s subsided a bit,” Stanback tells me. “I really don’t think about it anymore. One door closed, another one opened for me and my family and I’m enjoying the ride right now.”

That ride with the Lions has so far seen Stanback be the player we’ve always known him to be. He leads the CFL in carries (161) and is second in rushing yards with 810, topping all rushers when it comes to runs of 10 yards or more (24). Through the air, Stanback has added 302 yards in receiving, and 215 of those are yards-after-catch.

Last week, the Lions really leaned on the native of Hempstead, NY in their 38-12 victory over Ottawa. Stanback carried 20 times for 93 yards and a touchdown and caught all six passes thrown his way for another 78 yards.

“This is pretty much what I’ve asked for,” Stanback says of his season in BC. “Just to have another opportunity to showcase my ability to play this game at a high level. And I feel like the Lions have granted me (that), and I’m just going to continue to do everything I can to be ready, be prepared, be available, and be a dominant force every time I get an opportunity to touch the ball.”

In preparing for Friday night, Stanback says that he and his teammates are fully aware of what this game means to them and of what kind of opposition they are facing.

Roarin’ run 🦁

William Stanback does what he does SO well and adds to the Lions’ lead.@OKTire #LDWeekend #CFLGameDay LIVE on TSN, RDS2 & CBSSN
📲: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/T9FyrNqon0

— CFL (@CFL) September 1, 2024

“We know what type of team they are,” he says of the Alouettes. “We know what they’re capable of doing, but we also know what we can do here. We just have to really zero in and lock into the game plans. We just have to execute at a high level, and make sure that we stay focused from the beginning of the game to the end of it, because they’re not a team that’s going to lay down and roll over.

“So we gotta go there and get it.”

As the interview wraps up, I circle back around to Stanback’s feelings about facing his old team. I offer that even if a guy doesn’t still feel a fresh, hot anger towards his former employers that surely what remains is the desire to emphatically illustrate to them that they made a mistake.

“I’m excited,” he says. “I guess you can say it’s still some bitterness, a bittersweet feeling, but I’m ready to take on the challenge. And them guys (his former Alouette teammates), I know they’re gonna be chirpin’ all night. And I’m ready for it. I’m built for this.

“I’m all in, 100 per cent ready to run the ball as many times as they call it, catch the ball out the backfield, block, whatever we got to do to win, because I want to stomp them,” says Stanback.

“And that’s straight coming from me. I’m trying to stomp Montreal.”

But that’s what William Stanback is always trying to do so it’s nothing personal.

Not completely anyway.

William Stanback: ‘I’m trying to stomp Montreal’

BCLions.com

Don Landry

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