Ray a front-runner for league MOP
Argos quarterback having one of best seasons in his lengthy CFL career
At 38, Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray is having perhaps his finest season of a long CFL career.
Ray was nominated as the Argos candidate for the most outstanding player (MOP) award on Wednesday by the Football Reporters of Canada and looks like a good bet to be the East Division nominee when the award winners are announced at the Grey Cup in Ottawa later this month.
Ray has passed for 5,205 yards this season, recording 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
It’s the fourth time in his 15-year career that he has passed for more than 5,000 yards but the first time since 2008 when he was with the Edmonton Eskimos.
Ray was injured for one game this season, making his yardage total all the more impressive. He is averaging 325.3 yards per game, which puts him on pace for 5,855 yards over a full 18-game season. That would be the best total of his career.
Ray has led the Argos to an 8-9 record. They can clinch first place in the East and a berth in the East Final with a win or tie against the B.C. Lions Saturday in Vancouver.
Also nominated for the MOP award from the East Division are Montreal Alouettes linebacker Kyries Hebert (108 tackles), Ottawa Redblacks receiver Greg Ellingson (12 touchdowns, 96 receptions, 1,459 yards) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats linebacker Larry Dean (93 tackles).
Ray’s toughest opposition for the MOP likely comes from the West Division, where Edmonton quar- terback Mike Reilly is having an incredible season.
Reilly leads the CFL in passing yards with 5,536 and has an outside chance of getting to 6,000 with a big game this week at Saskatchewan. He has also thrown for 30 touchdowns and has tossed 13 interceptions.
Reilly’s Eskimos started the season 7-0, lost six straight games and then won the next four. At 11-6, they still have a chance to get second place in the West Division, if they can beat the Riders Saturday and if the Winnipeg Blue Bombers lose at Calgary Friday night.
Challenging Reilly for the MOP in the West are Winnipeg quarterback Matt Nichols, who has thrown for 4,472 yards and 28 touchdowns against only eight interceptions, Calgary linebacker Alex Singleton, who has 121 tackles, B.C. middle linebacker Solomon Elimimian, who has 133 tackles, and Saskatchewan receiver/defensive back Duron Carter, who has scored touchdowns on both offence and defence this season.
Singleton is nominated for three awards — most outstanding player, most outstanding defensive player and most outstanding Canadian — after leading the top defence in the CFL. The Stamps head into the final game of the season with a 133-1 record.
His top competition for the defensive award will come from Elimimian, who is only 10 defensive tackles shy of his own CFL single-season record.
Singleton, an American with non-import status, will get his toughest opposition for the outstanding Canadian award from Bombers running back Andrew Harris.
Harris, who is from Winnipeg, has 967 rushing yards and 829 receiving yards this season. He has 100 receptions, which leaves him two shy of the all-time record for catches by a running back (102), set by Craig Ellis of Saskatchewan in 1985.