Problem of plenty for Stamps
Hufnagel hunts for new blood
It’s the off-season, but the decisions are still just as important for Calgary Stampeders coach and general manager John Hufnagel.
He’s at his off-season home in Jacksonville where for the next few days he’ll be reviewing notes and video on the players he and Stampeder fans hope can make an impact with the Canadian Football League club during the 2012 season.
The Stamps held their invitationonly free-agent camp last weekend in Bradenton, Fla., the culmination of a series of open tryout camps around the U.S.
Now, Hufnagel and his coaching staff must decide which of those players will make the next jump — the chance to compete for a job at the Stamps’ rookie camp at Mcmahon Stadium, beginning May 30.
“It was productive, let’s put it that way,” said Hufnagel on Monday. “I was very pleased with the talent level, the speed and the skill. We’re in the process of making decisions, and it’s difficult — which is good. That means that there’s a lot of good picks, not bad picks, right? I’m sure the 18 to 20 players that we’ll select to come to rookie camp will help strengthen our football team.”
What stood out most of all for Hufnagel was the speed and athleticism across the board at all positions — a likely byproduct of some increased depth in the free-agent talent pool because of the demise of the United Football League.
Which adds to Hufnagel’s dilemma: Ideally, he’d have as many of those prospects as possible at Mcmahon in late May, but league rules allow just 75 players (not including current CFL draft picks and a few other socalled non-counters).
“Right now, that’s the biggest puzzle I have to solve,” he conceded. “Whether or not there’s a casualty (to the existing roster) because of that number, I’m not foreseeing it. But you never know what might jump up. Nothing transpired from this camp to make it happen, but I can’t say what will happen in the month and a half before training camp starts.”
Once Hufnagel and his staff decide on the invitees, probably early next week, the focus will turn to the CFL draft, which returns to a weekday on May 3 (a Thursday) beginning at 1 p.m. MST on TSN; Calgary holds the No. 5 pick in the first round.
“As soon as we get our house cleaned up from this at the beginning of next week, I’ll start the intense meetings with all of the position coaches before the CFL draft, ranking all the players and spending a whole week of categorizing and ranking from the two and a half months of work we did on those players,” said Hufnagel. “Hopefully, we have a real good idea of what we want to get done in the draft.”
EXTRA POINTS: The Stamps have partnered with Canadian Red Cross to deliver the Beyond the Hurt anti-bullying campaign... the stamps, along with the other seven CFL teams, will unveil their new Reebok jerseys that are part of the league’s 100th Grey Cup celebrations . . . Main camp starts for the stamps on june3, with their first pre-season game on June 15 against the visiting Edmonton Eskimos.