‘I’m ready to go’
Bombers’ Collaros vows to play in Sunday’s game
REGINA – Practice? Who needs practice?
That depends on whom you ask.
The way Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea sees it, nobody should raise a single eyebrow hair over the fact his most important player missed the first two workouts of Grey Cup week.
We’re talking about quarterback Zach Collaros, of course. The top player in the land the last two years.
“I don’t really think, at this point, that Zach needs any reps in practice,” O’Shea said on Thursday. “One of the practices, he would have got seven reps anyway, based on our plan. It doesn’t matter at this point.”
Collaros sat out Wednesday and Thursday workouts to get treatment on his right ankle, which he injured late in Sunday’s West Final win over B.C.
Sheltered from interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday, Collaros on Thursday assured a throng of breathless media types he’ll be suiting up against the Toronto Argonauts on Sunday.
“I’m ready to go,” Collaros said. “I’m ready to play.”
OK, but can he be Zach Collaros, the Houdini-like escape artist who’s as dangerous when plays break down as when they remain on script?
“My mobility? It’s good,” the 34-year-old said. “My foot feels really good.”
So why hasn’t he practised this week – too cold?
It’d be hard to blame the man, actually. Regina has felt like Winnipeg in January.
But no, of course that’s not why Collaros hasn’t been out enjoying the snow squalls and wind chill like the rest of the two-time defending Grey Cup champs.
“You don’t like being away from the guys,” Collaros said. “Especially the last couple of days. It’s been pretty cold and windy. I wish I was out there suffering through it with them.”
The Bombers’ medical staff, though, have held him out, treating that wonky ankle like it’s the team’s ticket to the Promised Land.
“It was hard to have a productive practice out there,” GM Kyle Walters said. “So the amount of productive reps that Zach was going to get versus the benefit of resting and getting more treatment… the latter outweighed the former, in our opinion.”
Which brings us back to the original argument: how big a deal it is for the starting quarterback to miss practice.
Collaros hasn’t thrown many balls in anger since his team clinched first place in the CFL West in what seems like eons ago.
The Bombers take pride in going at high speed, replicating game situations as best they can, doing their best to negate the inactivity.
Unlike his head coach, Collaros says those plays matter, even at this late stage of the season.
“I don’t like missing practice,” he said. “Every rep is important, whether it’s a game rep or a practice rep. From the way that I see the game, I see the position, I think you should be practising. So it’s tough.”
No. 8 in your programs, No. 1 in the minds of voters for the Most Outstanding Player Award the last two years (at least we assume he was: at press time, this year’s awards had yet to be announced) Collaros has never met a form of game preparation he didn’t like.
The guy studies film like his life depends on it, soaking up every little opposition nuance he can and passing it along to his receiving corps.
“He’ll talk to us all week about the film that he’s watched,” Greg Ellingson said. “And reference it in practice: ‘Hey, when you see the SAM (linebacker) do this, or the free (safety) do this, you know this is coming.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m going to run the route this way.’ And he’s like, ‘Alright, perfect. We’re on the same page.’
“If you prepare the right way, you can slow it down in your head.”
Of course not all quarterbacks can do it like Winnipeg’s can.