Wall big obstacle to opposing receivers
Stamps’ defensive back having another all-star calibre season
There are a lot of famous walls in the world ... the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall ... but this is one Wall that if you stand too close to, it just might take a swipe at you.
Leading the Calgary Stampeders and tied for sixth in the CFL in tackles, Jamar Wall is building off an all-star season in 2014 and keeping up the excellence in 2015.
“Of course, you always want to be an all-star,” Wall, in his fourth season in Calgary, admitted. “For one, it’s from your peers and your coaches, so someone thinks you’re good. So it’s always nice.
“But I can’t control that. It’s been a tough year this year, the year of the pick-six. There’s a lot of guys with interceptions. So it’s going to be way harder. I would love to have it again, but if I don’t, I won’t lose any sleep over it. If we can get another ring, of course, that’s always better. If I make all-star, I do, if not, I keep moving forward and try and figure out why I didn’t.”
In last weekend’s game against the B.C. Lions, Wall had a whopping 10 tackles, giving him 55 on the season.
“It’s different things,” insisted the 27-year-old. “Sometimes things get on the perimeter and they expect us to make tackles. Whatever we can do to contribute. Some people say, he’s a DB, he’s getting caught on. But it’s not necessarily that. We have a lot of run fits ... and we make tackles. Someone has to make them.”
Wall also has a pair of interceptions this season, one for a touchdown, and he’s been the team leader in that department the past two seasons, with a league-topping six in 2014. His one TD came at the expense of Robert Marve, who was quarterbacking the Winnipeg Blue Bombers the last time these teams played. Their third meeting is on Friday night in Winnipeg.
If there’s one guy Wall wanted to emulate when he first joined the Stampeders, it was probably fellow halfback Brandon Smith.
“I liked to watch Smitty,” he explained. “For one, he’s been in the league a long time, he’s a very consistent player. He’s tough, he plays through a lot of things. He tackles and he covers. To me he’s always been that underrated guy that never got the (accolades) because he never had a ton of picks or anything like that. When he got to be all-star last year, I was so happy for him. He works hard every single day, through adversity, and is very consistent.
“Looking at how he plays, how he thinks — he’s extremely intelligent, he knows the game — there’s no better person to watch.”
Smith, meanwhile, wasn’t taking any credit.
“When he got here, he came with good technique, good ball skills,” the eight-year Stamps’ veteran said about Wall. “But it was just much more of learning the defence. Being here at that time for four years, I was able to help him with the scheme of things and he just incorporated his ball skills, his technique into it and became a good player.
“He has a good understanding of the defensive schemes so we bounce ideas off each other. We eventually end up at the same conclusion, it’s just different ways of getting to it. He opens my eyes up to a different perception of the offence, he tells me things I probably wouldn’t have seen from my side of the field. As well, I show him what we do on the boundary side.”
Smith, incidentally, has been the club’s tackles champ the past two seasons and he’s happy to see Wall assume the mantle.
“Absolutely,” he insisted. “He’s getting the plays his way. He’s seizing the moment and taking advantage of every opportunity he’s getting.”