Big Man on Campus

Photo Ops

The Guelph Gryphons women's basketball team lost its OUA regular season opener 63-62 to the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Friday night at the Mitchell Athletics Centre.

I'll have full reaction in Saturday's edition of the Guelph Mercury. In the meantime here are some shots from the game:

Radio Ga Ga

The Guelph Gryphons men's basketball team is in Idaho on Saturday to play the Boise State Broncos (an athletic program most noted for its football team's incredible comeback in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl).

Anyway, take a guess at how many radio stations will broadcast what is Idaho's first game of the 2008-09 season? . . . Ten, including a station in a town called Ontario.

Oh, and I love how Guelph is described on the Broncos' website:

Guelph is surrounded by the rolling hills of southwestern Ontario and is an hour’s drive from Toronto.

The whole pre-game press release is here.

O'Shea Classy 'Till The End

Or is it really the end for Mike O'Shea? The former Guelph Gryphons linebacker may have played his final CFL game last night when his Toronto Argonauts lost 45-38 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday night at Rogers Centre.

O'Shea played four years for the Gryphons. He was an OUA and CIS all-star. He won the Yates Cup with Guelph in 1992. And he is still the school's all-time leader in sacks with 21. He also had a tryout with the Detroit Lions in 1996 after three years spent with the Hamilton Tiger Cats.  All told, he played 16 CFL seasons between Hamilton and Toronto.

Thursday may have been his last game.

The boys over at Out of Left Field noted some in-game hijinx performed by O'Shea on Thursday night, and then followed that up with a nice little tribute.

O'Shea is a man's man playing a man's game. Tough. Stoic. Loyal. And, a Canadian.

A Canadian that played his college ball in the CIS. Actually, he is perhaps the best Canadian trained defensive player to ever play in the CFL.

Also, the National Post has a bit on the possible end to O'Shea's career.

Some of the team's proudest lions will pay the price for missing the playoffs. Longtime linebackers Mike O'Shea and Michael Fletcher face uncertain futures, as does defensive back Kenny Wheaton and other members of a core group that helped the Argos to their Grey Cup run four years ago.

And meanwhile, the Toronto Sun says O'Shea hinted at wanting to return for one more season.

Veteran linebacker Mike O'Shea, who finished his 16th season in the CFL, hinted that he wants to come back for another shot at the Grey Cup.

"You're asking the wrong guy," O'Shea said. "Call the GM (Adam Rita). My assumption is you guys know me by now and know there is not any quit in me."

A few minutes later, O'Shea was hugged by several teammates, and sat down to share a few shots of whiskey with Jude St. John, Chad Folk and former Argo Sandy Annunziata.

And finally, here's what O'Shea told me about calling it quits back in February of 2007:

When it does come to the inevitable end, O'Shea may not even be the first to know his career is over.

"I've got a couple buddies out there where the deal is, once I'm not able to compete at a high level, they have to tell me it's time to pack it in," O'Shea said. "You don't want to be hanging around keeping a young from his dream."

Blues Clues

As many are aware, the University of Toronto Blues have posted a public call for applications as head football coach.

They're looking to either remove the word "interim" from current head coach Greg DeLaval's title or replace him all together. I highly, highly doubt it's the latter. After all, DeLaval did something Steve Howlett couldn't do in five years — win a football game. And then, DeLaval won another. His team snapped a CIS record 49-game losing streak. DeLaval went 2-6 with an outside chance at making the playoffs and a good chance at forcing the Ottawa Gee-Gees to miss the playoffs when they played each other on the final day of the season. Ottawa won 39-30, but had to overcome a Toronto lead to do it.

Anyway, I emailed DeLaval for his thoughts and intentions regarding the job posting. Here's what he had to say:

I am planning to apply.  Everyone has been been very positive about what we accomplished this year, but I won't take the position for granted.  I am preparing for the interview like I prepare for an opponent.

Greg

And, in sticking with Toronto for a second. It looks like Steve Howlett is still doing recruiting for the Blues. Check out that contact on the recruiting page.

UPDATE (1:15 p.m., Friday): I just received word from Toronto sports information director Mary Beth Challoner that the job posting is not just a "mere formality" — as I thought would be the case, considering what DeLaval accomplished this season.

From Challoner: No, [it's] not a formality — a formal search for a full-time athletic instructor and football coach is being organized.

And, when asked how long the word "interim" was planned on being left on DeLaval's title, she said, "until a new full-time coach is hired."

Tipoff Time

The OUA women's basketball season tipped off Wednesday with three games. The Guelph Gryphons open Friday night against the Lakehead Thunderwolves at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Athletics Centre.

Be sure to check the Guelph Mercury game day for a story on the women's drastic change in attitude and brief capsule of the team's key players, losses and additions.

Women's basketball head coach Angela Orton watches as players scrimmage during a Thursday night practice at the University of Guelph. Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn.

Away From My Desk

Posts on Monday and Tuesday may be few and far between. That's not to say I won't try.

But until then, check the Merc online or in print Monday for a second and different game story than ran on this blog.

Also, sometime this week in the Merc I'll have a piece on the five  graduating Gryphons (Reed, Russell, Keleher, Bartley and Riley). Their careers certainly didn't end the way they envisioned.

And, as usual, my column runs Wednesday.

Post Mortem Continues

Just another random thought: Did you know Guelph's four wins this OUA football season came against the four teams that didn't make the post-season?

I'm not sure how much that says about Guelph, or what, if anything, it means. After all, Windsor knocked off Ottawa when the Gee-Gees were ranked fifth.

Daryl's Debut

In case you missed it, former Windsor Lancer running back, 2006 Hec Crighton winner and the CIS all-time leading rusher Daryl Stephenson made his CFL debut with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday and rushed seven times for 16 yards in Winnipeg's 24-23 win against the Alouettes in Montreal.

Jim Bender of Sun Media had Daryl's pre-game thoughts.

No post-game stories floating in cyberspace, yet.

Photo Ops

Some pictures the Guelph Mercury's sharpshooter Ryan Pfeiffer snapped Saturday at the OUA quarter-final game between the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Guelph Gryphons. You can click to enlarge them and see them in a new window.

By the way, check out our photographers' blog. Cool stuff resides over there.

 

Run And Done — More Postmortem

You know what I just thought of? Guelph had the No. 1 ranked rush defence in Canada last season.

This year, Guelph finished the season with the fourteenth-ranked rush defence.

Early in the 2008 regular season, the Gryphons allowed Queen's tailback Mike Giffin to rush for 214 yards.

In the quarter-final loss to Ottawa on Saturday at Alumni Stadium, Guelph allowed Davie Mason, a previously injured, previously (almost) unknown running back to set a new CIS playoff game record of 327 yards rushing.

So what happened?

Now, linebacker Tag Russell missed the quarter-final game with an MCL injury. But he was on the field for all but one of the team's games this season. He missed York. But his injury doesn't account for the massive drop in the rankings.

Guelph did graduate linebacker Chris Decker, the team's two-time defensive player of the year, defensive end Chris Hladich and defensive backs Peter de Guow Jr. And up-and-comer Ricky Gorton left the team for personal reasons.

Their collective absence could have something to do with it, especially considering they were replaced with relative inexperience (freshman Michael Millar at linebacker, converted running back Brad Crawford at defensive back, freshman Jordan Duncan at defensive back and third-year defensive end Scott Eggleton playing a more significant role).

"Some young guys were really thrown into the fire on defence (Saturday)," Guelph head coach Kyle Walters said.

And the boys over at The CIS Blog made a good point before the season began:

Defensively, they have to make sure that such a young team doesn't wear down late in the season: They gave up an average of 544 yards on defence over their final four games [in 2007].