Boatmen hope handoff’s smooth with Ray on shelf
Kilgore braces for first start and near-sellout crowd in road test vs. Redblacks
OTTAWA— The first big tests for Logan Kilgore, newly anointed starting quarterback of the Argonauts, came just over 24 hours out from his firstever CFL start.
The 26-year-old stood under a scorching hot sun at the Ottawa Redblacks’ stadium on Saturday. He wore a light blue blazer with a green button-down shirt, a pair of khakis adding a heavy, sweat-inducing layer. He seemed to be keeping his cool.
If the heat didn’t get him, the numbers might.
Henry Burris, the Redblacks’ veteran quarterback, will be starting his 223rd game on Sunday night. Kilgore is staring down start No. 1. The imbalance didn’t seem to faze him.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” he said. “(Burris) had a first start at some point and so did Ricky (Ray) and they both know how you feel during that one. You can’t get to 223 until you go past one.”
Kilgore’s path starts Sunday against the East Division-leading Redblacks (3-1-1) and is expected to last for three to six weeks while Ray is out with a sprained knee. Kilgore and his coach, Scott Milanovich, don’t doubt he’ll have nerves to deal with in his first series of the game, but there’s only one way for both men to find out what they’ve got.
“You can look at a guy, think he has the makeup you’re looking for, the skill set you’re looking for, but until he does it on the field on a game day you don’t know for sure,” said Milanovich, whose Argos have a 3-2 record.
“One game doesn’t necessarily always tell you that story, as well. I’m anxious to see him play. I’m looking forward to it, and I think he’s going to play well.”
Kilgore said that nervous feeling is normal.
“I always kind of get that butterfly feeling,” he said. “That’s what makes this game so addictive. You can’t simulate that in any other walk of life, really.”
After missing four weeks with a pinky injury, Burris is back as Ottawa’s starter — after Trevor Harris’ promising run was cut short by a leg injury. The 41-year-old’s first game back is a much different scenario than Kilgore getting his first start.
“(Kilgore’s) last starting snap was in college, so for him there’s going to be a lot of big-time adjustments going on,” Burris said, adding that there were only 500 tickets still available for Sunday’s game and that noise would be a factor for the young QB to deal with, too.
“If we can add to that pressure by putting points on the board and making him have to handle the ball each and every play, and (force him to) make good decisions as far as the passing game, that can be the bestcase scenario for us.”
Kilgore remembers his first start at Middle Tennessee State back in 2010, and said he could learn from that loss — by a field goal to the Minnesota Gophers.
“We had a lot of veteran guys on that team that said a lot of the same stuff that the veteran guys on this team said (this week): You don’t have to go be a hero, just protect the football, move the ball and just do what you’ve done to get yourself here.
“They just need someone to continue to run the offence, continue to do the things that put us in a chance to win a football game.”