The Battle of Alberta resumes in Cowtown.
The Battle of Alberta resumes in Cowtown.
Rookie HCs Maas and Dickenson will challenge each other in this preseason game.
http://calgaryherald.com/sports/foot...aching-changesQuote:
The circumstances are unique.
Two teams with identical 14-4 records last season.
Two teams that have hoisted the Grey Cup in the past 20 months.
Two new head coaches.
It doesn’t happen often, but that’s the exact sideline situation the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos are facing heading into Saturday’s exhibition opener for both clubs at McMahon Stadium (7 p.m., News Talk 770).
Dave Dickenson on one side, Jason Maas on the other.
One is completing a long-awaited succession plan that GM John Hufnagel set into motion only hours after leading the Stamps to the 2014 Grey Cup, while the other is stepping into Chris Jones’ shoes, runners that quickly skedaddled off to Regina once he was done hoisting his silver mug this past winter.
“Most of the time when there’s a coaching change, there’s a problem or something going on,” Dickenson noted. “We’re definitely in a unique situation that way.”
So begins a new chapter in the pages of the Battle of Alberta.
The Dickenson vs. Maas section.
While this pre-season engagement will be a lot friendlier than the Labour Day Classic confrontations in three months time, every instalment — unlike recent battles — is sure to involve post-game handshakes.
“I’ve known Jason as a player for a while,” Dickenson said this week. “He does work in Calgary in the off-season so we’ve gotten together a few times in the off-seasons for coffees and just talked over philosophies a little bit. I respect him and, I think, he’s as big of a competitor as there is out there.”
The qualifications are eerily similar.
Both are former quarterbacks for the teams they’re now leading, and they’re both, obviously, first time head coaches.
Dickenson is 43. Maas is 40.
Dickenson’s playing career as a professional started in 1997, Maas’ in 1999.
Both won three Grey Cups as a players, with Dickenson tacking on another one in his former role as Stamps offensive co-ordinator in 2014.
Interestingly, both will also be the primary play-callers for their offences this season, the only two head coaches in the CFL to do so.
The one major difference between the two resumes is the fact Dickenson has five seasons of experience as an offensive co-ordinator under his belt, while Maas’ lone campaign as an offensive architect came last year with the Ottawa Redblacks, a season so impressive that it landed him the gig in Edmonton earlier than he probably even expected.
I don't think this game was aired on TV, but sounds like it was a fairly non-descript preseason game with the Eskimos winning 23-13.
http://www.tsn.ca/maas-debuts-with-w...tamps-1.505813
Scott Mitchell perspective on the game.
http://calgaryherald.com/sports/foot...ary-stampedersQuote:
These days, the Calgary Stampeders simply can’t find a way to beat the Edmonton Eskimos.
Not that it mattered.
After the Esks won three of four meetings in 2015 — including all the important ones — the Green & Gold walked into McMahon Stadium and set the tone for 2016 in beating the Stamps 23-13 in the exhibition opener for both sides.
One person it did matter to was Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson, who was the first man not named John Hufnagel to steer the Red & White on the sideline since Nov. 11, 2007.
“The score matters to me still,” Dickenson said. “I just felt like there’s still a lot of good effort and our guys, they played hard, but it was not a well-oiled machine by any means. We had a lot of mistakes. A lot of mistakes. There is tons of room for improvement, and I feel like there’s only one way to go, which is up.”
With star quarterbacks Mike Reilly (5-of-8 for 54 yards) and Bo Levi Mitchell (5-of-6 for 56 yards) exiting early, Jordan Lynch (one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown) and James Franklin (10-of-14 for 94 yards and one touchdown) were the ones doing the damage for the Eskimos.
“They just outplayed us at the skill positions and made more plays than us,” Dickenson said.
The Stampeders, meanwhile, had trouble finding any sort of rhythm on offence once their franchise QB left the field, and defensive back Ciante Evans was the only one in Red & White to find the end zone, scooping up a Thomas DeMarco fumble in the second half and running it back 34 yards for a touchdown.
Offensively the Stamps turned the ball over six times, including three fumbles and a pair of interceptions off the arm of backup quarterback Bryant Moniz, who’s battling Andrew Buckley for the third-string role.
“Worst game I ever played, that’s for sure,” Moniz said quietly. “I had no control on the ball. I don’t know. It was bad.
“I couldn’t get no rhythm going and never got any drives going. It’s hard and it’s an exhibition game, but you’ve got to make plays, and I didn’t do that tonight.”
Dickenson wasn’t happy with all of the turnovers, either.
“The turnovers were tough to watch,” Dickenson said. “You just keep putting the defence back on the field, and that was something we’ve actually stressed in training camp. You don’t know why that’s the case yet, but certainly for guys trying to make the team, putting the ball on the carpet is going to be tough.”
The Stampeders will head to Vancouver to wrap up the pre-season next Friday against the B.C. Lions with plenty to clean up on both sides of the football.
“Not a good game,” said Buckley, who completed 6-of-10 passes for 69 yards. “We were kind of sloppy on all sides of the ball. Defence, I thought, played pretty well and held them for the most part. Offensively, we just didn’t move the ball and had too many mistakes.”
Maas comments on the game.
http://edmontonjournal.com/sports/fo...reseason-debutQuote:
It might only have been a preseason game, but there are plenty of worse ways Jason Maas could have made his debut as a CFL head coach than Saturday’s 23-13 win over the Calgary Stampeders.
And it came against another rookie head coach in Dave Dickenson, though given both former quarterbacks’ expansive playing careers and the time they’ve already put in on the sideline in various other coaching capacities, it’s difficult to think of them as rookies at all.
“Dave and I have both been a part of the CFL for quite a long time and we’ve both been quarterbacks, which means you’re both involved in game planning and usually involved with the offence as a whole,” Maas said of his 43-year-old Calgary counterpart, who took over as head coach from Stampeders GM John Hufnagel after seven seasons on the coaching staff. “Going through the whole process of scheduling everything, you’re a manager now, more than anything.
“And that comes with experience, to learn and be better at that, but as far as the football game management goes, I think both of us will be fine and capable of it. There’s going to be some learning to do, but that comes with every profession.”
Neither Maas, who began coaching quarterbacks with the Toronto Argonauts in 2012, or Dickenson looked out of place calling shots from the sideline in an exhibition game where as much focus is placed on evaluating talent and forming rosters as it is on winning.
“I felt fine. It’s a game that I’ve been a part of for a long time now, being the head coach and making more decisions is what it’s about, and preparation,” said Maas, 40. “It’s been two weeks (of training camp) and basically six months of preparation to get to this point, but football is football once you step out on the field.
“So I felt comfortable in the role and looking forward to many more.”
Especially when the result is a win, like Saturday’s.
“Yes, it matters,” Maas said of the exhibition victory. “I think any time you play a game, it matters. Ultimately, what we want to get out of this game is to be healthy and be competitive.
“You galvanize your team by wins and by tough moments. After battling for two weeks in practice and then to come out here and beat somebody, it feels good.”
And it sounded like it felt good, given the volume of the team cheer coming out of the closed locker-room door after the game.
“But we have lots of work to do and lots of things to improve on, for sure.”