JOSEPH RUSHING IN WHERE FEW HAVE TREAD
‘ HE’LL ONLY GET BETTER’ Renegades pivot closes in on elusive 1,000-yard mark
CALGARY • For all the criticism heaped on Ottawa Renegades quarterback Kerry Joseph lately, you would hardly guess that he is capable of breaking a longstanding Canadian Football League record this season.
Joseph, with 10 turnovers in his past four games, all losses, has become a lightning rod for what ails the Renegades, despite having one of the best rushing seasons ever for a quarterback.
Entering last night’s game against the Calgary Stampeders, Joseph had rushed for 709 yards on 102 carries, ranking fourth in the league ahead of notable tailbacks such as Hamilton’s Troy Davis and B.C.’ s Antonio Warren.
He is on pace for 1,063 yards, which would be only the fourth time in CFL history that a quarterback has eclipsed the 1,000yard milestone.
In fact, with some luck, Joseph could break Tracy Ham’s 15-year-old record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a season (1,096).
“Good for Kerry,” Ham said when reached in Georgia this week. “I’ve met him: good kid, good quarterback. He’ll only get better.
“ When I was doing it, it was because it was necessary to win ball games. As a quarterback, if you had to become part of the running game, so be it. I think Kerry understands that now and knows he doesn’t have to stay in the pocket. I wish him well.”
Ham ( twice) and Toronto’s Damon Allen are the only quarterbacks to gain 1,000 yards on the ground, and ironically, they did so in three straight seasons from 1989 to ‘ 91.
“I knew about the two guys but I didn’t know their yardage,” Joseph said yesterday. “I’m not a big stats guy. I’ll speak about it after the season.”
The fact that only two had rushed for 1,000 yards surprised many CFL observers interviewed. People assumed that Matt Dunigan, Nealon Greene and others had surpassed the mark, and were even less aware that no quarterback had done so since Allen in 1991, when he was with the now-defunct Rough Riders.
“I played in a lot of shoot-outs with that team, so I was able to run around a bit,” Allen said from Toronto. “I was still considered a running quarterback at that time.”
Steve Goldman, who coached the ’91 Riders, said Allen’s rushing success that season was rooted in a strong offensive line and a modernizing offence that often called for bootlegs, rollouts and other designed plays where the quarterback was on the move.
“ They were just plays that developed into runs,” Goldman said from Philadelphia, where he works in the financial industry. “He probably got most of those yards on runs where receivers were covered and he just tookoff.”
In Joseph’s case, that is also true.
The Renegades have many plays where Joseph has the option to run or pass. His ability to run — and at 215 pounds, run over defenders — has been exploited this year, even if it increases his risk of injury.
Most clubs have only a few designed running plays for their quarterback because they fear injuries, which is one of the reasons why more haven’t joined the 1,000-yard club.
CanWest News Service