IN ACT OF TRANSPARENCY, CFL PROVIDES A SNAPSHOT OF ITS NEGOTIATION LISTS
NCAA quarterbacks Mcsorley and Book could help Riders’ incomplete passing game
The CFL, while hardly an open Book, has allowed for a Trace of transparency.
In a media release on Wednesday, the league revealed 90 of the 405 names — including quarterbacks Trace Mcsorley and Ian Book — that appear on the nine teams’ negotiation lists.
Each club was required to disclose 10 of its 45 negotiation-list players for public consumption.
The “10-for-45” part was reminiscent of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ passing game so, naturally, the quarterbacks attract the most attention.
Mcsorley, for example, is a senior signal-caller with the Penn State Nittany Lions.
At 6-foot and 201 pounds, he does not fit the NFL’S template, size-wise. In high school, Mcsorley covered the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds. That speed has helped him to rush for 11 touchdowns this season and last.
As a starter, Mcsorley has posted touchdown-pass totals of 29, 28 and 16 en route to becoming the winningest quarterback in Penn State history. His farewell appearance as a collegian will be in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1.
A journalism major, Mcsorley also knows better than to use a garbage word such as “winningest.”
Mcsorley is one of four negotiation-list quarterbacks whom the Roughriders deigned to disclose — the others being Book (Notre Dame), Joe Burrow (Louisiana State) and Mason Fine (North Texas).
The North Texas gridders are known as the Mean Green!
Could a Roughriders neg-lister possibly have a Finer collegiate affiliation?
The 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior already boasts the most passing yards (9,358) in school history.
Fine, who threw for 4,052 yards and 31 touchdowns in 14 games last season, has followed up this year with 3,734 yards and 27 aerial majors in 12 contests.
North Texas is to play in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday. (This sentence, alone, should qualify me for a National Newspaper Award.)
Burrow, meanwhile, is a junior who is completing his first season as the LSU Tigers’ starting quarterback after transferring from Ohio State.
The 6-foot-4, 216-pound Burrow’s athleticism is such that he moonlighted as a cornerback at Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio.
This season, Burrow has thrown for 2,500 yards and 12 TDS in addition to rushing for 375 yards and another seven scores. He is to quarterback LSU in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1.
The book on Book is that, as a junior, he has helped Notre Dame post a 12-0 record.
The Fighting Irish are to face another undefeated team — the 13-0 Clemson Tigers — on Dec. 29 in the Cotton Bowl Classic, which doubles as a Football Bowl Subdivision semifinal.
The 6-foot-0, 203-pound Book was named Notre Dame’s starting quarterback in Week 4 this season.
He has thrown for 2,468 yards and 19 touchdowns. In each of his eight starts, he has thrown multiple TD passes. Additionally, he has a completion percentage of 70.4 — sixth-best in the nation.
The other six publicly disclosed Roughriders neg-listers are running backs Terry Swanson (Toledo) and Lenard Tillery (Southern), defensive end Nate Orchard (Utah), linebacker David Talley (Grand Valley State), defensive back Shawun Lurry (Northern Illinois) and offensive tackle Jylan Ware (Alabama State).
So concludes this snapshot of the negotiation list — a disclosure that is, to use another term that offers a reminder of the Roughriders’ passing game, incomplete.