REDBLACKS ARE ‘READY TO GO’

Still a month away from the start of the Ottawa Redblacks’ training camp, offensive lineman Jon Gott has football on his mind.

So, he says, do many of his teammates still stung by the way the 2017 Canadian Football League season went with an 8-9-1 regular-season record and an early playoff exit after an East Division semifinal loss to Saskatchewan. “It was frustrating for us,” Gott said. “We believed we could win, but it never seemed to come together. It was a tough battle just to make the playoffs. The guys weren’t too happy with the way the season went. We want to change that. At the end of the year, we decided we’d have a good off-season, come back and be better. We want to have a winning record at home, that’s a big thing.”

The Redblacks will hold a mini camp next week — Monday to Wednesday at TD Place — but that’s mostly for first-year players.

“This is my 10th year coming up,” Gott said. “Usually at the start of April, you get antsy, you want to go hit someone. You have that feeling in your body that you’re ready for another season. I’ve talked to a lot of guys and they’re ready to go, they want to be on the field right now.”

There should be no complaints about the schedule. Last year, inexplicably, the CFL handed the Redblacks a schedule that saw them get both their bye weeks in the final three weeks of the regular season.

“What the league gave us for a schedule last year, it wasn’t fun,” Gott said. “To go through a season without much of a break was tough physically, but more mentally. You get worn down.”