Stamps’ Buckley out to prove homegrown QBs can succeed
The guy who is one injury away from becoming the Calgary Stampeders’ starting quarterback has a picture on his cellphone of himself as a kid, wearing the team’s iconic red jersey at McMahon Stadium.
As a Canadian-born quarterback, Andrew Buckley never seriously considered a pro career, with good reason. He was the last player selected (62nd overall) in the 2015 Canadian college draft, and had resigned himself to following in his parents’ footsteps and becoming a doctor. The Calgary native was a twotime winner of the Hec Crighton Trophy, awarded annually to the outstanding player in Canadian university football, and holds the record for most passing yards in a season (3,162) with the Calgary Dinos.
But Canadian-born quarterbacks just don’t get to play in the Canadian Football League. And if they do, they invariably change positions, as did Ottawa receiver Brad Sinopoli and former Alouettes safety Marc-Olivier Brouillette.
“I’m just another guy on the team, throwing the football. It makes no difference to me where I’m from, but it seems to be a big deal to other people,” said the personable Buckley. “That’s part of the problem. There’s a stigma behind being a Canadian quarterback. I’m trying to go out there and make passports irrelevant. If you can throw a ball and read a defence, that should be what counts.”
Buckley, 23, is one of two nonimport quarterbacks, along with Saskatchewan’s Brandon Bridge, who dress for games. Bridge, a Montreal draft choice who played at the University of South Alabama, started the final game of the 2015 season for the Als, but is backing up Kevin Glenn with the Roughriders, while Buckley serves as Bo Levi Mitchell’s backup.
Buckley, a six-foot, 205-pounder, who has yet to complete a pass this season, is generally used in short-yardage situations and has gained 62 yards on five carries, including a 60-yard touchdown against the Redblacks. Last year, as a rookie, he attempted two passes, completing one, while gaining 49 yards on 27 carries and scoring six touchdowns. He had a TD in November’s Grey Cup, becoming the first Canadian pivot to do so since Russ Jackson in 1969. But Buckley also was stopped later, on another attempt, and the Stamps lost in overtime.
A two-time recipient of the Russ Jackson award — presented annually to a Canadian university player for outstanding citizenship, community service and academics — Buckley and Jackson have met. While Buckley knows the name and is familiar with Jackson’s legacy, it was his grandparents who informed him about Jackson’s outstanding career with the Ottawa Rough Riders.
Buckley can only hope to emulate Jackson, who played from 1958-69, won three Grey Cups, and was the league’s most outstanding player three times. But with Mitchell still only 27 himself and in his sixth season, it’s not likely.
Buckley started Calgary’s first exhibition game in June, completing six of eight for 59 yards in the opening half. The following week, against Edmonton, his performance in the fourth quarter convinced head coach Dave Dickenson he had earned the spot. Buckley completed all but one of seven attempts for 81 yards. He threw the game-winning TD with just over a minute remaining and also scored on a QB sneak.
“When we evaluate quarterbacks, we don’t pay attention to where they’re born,” said Dickenson, who played the position impeccably for Calgary and B.C. “The only reason the Canadian thing gets old is because we talk about it too much. We’ll play the best guy. Right now, I feel Andrew is our second-best quarterback.
“I’ve got a good athlete who has a good arm, who is smart. He knows the rules and has played Canadian football his whole life. Why can’t he be a good quarterback? That’s where I live. I see what I see and trust my eyes. If they’re good enough, they’re good enough. I believe Andrew, if given the right opportunity, can make it.”
It was Buckley’s father who pushed him to play the position, but he became a quarterback out of necessity. The team he was on at the time had nobody equipped to adequately perform. Recruited by the Dinos in high school, he was the backup in his first two seasons before starting.
“I didn’t have ambitions to play pro. I never thought I’d be good enough,” Buckley said. “But I put the time in and kept developing. One thing led to another and the door popped open. And I ran through it.
“When you have nobody to look up to, you don’t realize the potential that you have. It kind of limited my own thought process.”
It helped that the Dinos played at McMahon Stadium, allowing Dickenson and Stamps general manager John Hufnagel — another former pro quarterback — to keep tabs on Buckley. He attended training camp with the Stamps in 2014, part of the league’s Canadian university quarterback development program. After being drafted, Buckley returned to the Dinos for a fifth year in 2015.
“The jump between the intellectual level (between university and the CFL) ... it was such a steep learning curve,” Buckley said. “What goes on at the university level seems so simple now. My first couple of camps, I’d line up, look at the defence and have no idea what I was looking at, it was disguised so well. It’s that complexity. Kids coming out of the NCAA are used to that high level of complexity.
“That’s where (Canadian university) quarterbacks struggle ... developing the reads and read progressions. All the pre-snap stuff. It’s not that they can’t throw. It’s getting back there and making the right decisions.”