However you say it, he sure did it well
TICAT ROOKIE ROSS SCHEUERMAN
First things first.
How, exactly, do you pronounce the name of the rookie Hamilton Tiger-Cat tailback who impressed everybody in his professional football start Friday night against the Montreal Alouettes?
“It’s ‘SHOY-er-man’,” says Ross Scheuerman, who rushed for 79 hard yards in 16 carries, one short of the Ticats’ season-high established by CJ Gable against the same Als two months ago.
“It always gets changed. It always ends up going to ‘Sherman’ for some reason.”
Maybe it won’t now. You get that many touches — he also had five catches for 40 yards — and do something with them, people eventually get around to learning the phonics.
When Gable was hurt in the Labour Day sequel in Toronto, it cast a dark cloud over Tailgate Nation for Friday night.
The Ticats would be starting a rookie tailback who’d dressed for only two games all year, playing mostly on special teams, behind a left side of the line which was had two blockers (Terrence Campbell and Brandon Revenberg) in their firstever CFL starts.
It might not have been Louvre-worthy, but it all turned out fine thank you very much.
The Tiger-Cats did enough to win, and Scheuerman did a lot of that enough, carrying the ball six of the 14 plays in the opening drive of the second half which ate up nearly eight minutes.
The Ticats came away with only a field goal, but the well-rested defence needed only one play to get the ball back on a turnover.
And on the winning drive of the 20-17 victory, Scheuerman ran the ball the final four plays before Brett Maher split the uprights from 16 yards with no time left on the clock. A key play in that possession, ensuring Montreal wouldn’t get the ball back, was Scheuerman running behind the two young blockers and fighting for seven gritty yards when the Cats needed six for a first down at the Montreal 10-yard-line.
Only an act of God could have rescued the Alouettes then, and God didn’t act.
“He battled his ass off out there,” quarterback Zach Collaros said of his backfield mate.
“He’s a great runner, great blocker, great pass catcher. He carried us offensively tonight. If we gave out game balls, he’d deserve it.”
Scheuerman has a slightly different emphasis to his skillset but, like Gable, is an all-round player. As a college senior at Lafayette, he was sixth in the entire U.S. in all-
purpose yards, and saved his best for the biggest being named the MVP of 150th edition of The Rivalry with Lehigh, the most-played football game in U.S. college history.
“I think that’s a good way to describe it: all-purpose,” he said. “For sure, throughout college it was my game. I can do a little bit of everything. The biggest thing is to be able to protect in there, up here even more so with two downs than down south.
“I watched a lot of film all week and blocking was the biggest focus for me. I know I can run the ball and everything, and going to the pro level, that was one of the things I had to work on the most. I was happy with that tonight.
“I don’t think I expected to run the ball that much, but Zach checked to it a lot, based on the five-man box they were giving us. He trusted me with the ball in my hands and it was just easy behind the offensive line.”
Scheuerman says that Gable has been generous with time and tips throughout the season.
“He’s helpful to me in all aspects of the game, just watching him and getting help from him is awesome,” he says of Gable.
Scheuerman, whom the Ticats had scouted for some time, was signed in May. Winnipeg had dropped him from its negotiation list and the Tiger-Cats, looking for an all-round player to back up Gable, grabbed him.
He had bounced around the NFL for nearly a year, signing with Pittsburgh, Green Bay and Philadelphia without playing a game.
“I couldn’t afford to sit out another season so decided to try and come up here,” says the 23-yearold native of Creamridge, N.J.
“My agent told me he thought I could do well in this league based on my style of play.
“I’m not so much of a downhill back, I can catch the ball and do a lot of stuff out of the backfield.”
Which he clearly showed on Friday, even if it was only keeping the spot warm until Gable’s return. NOTES: The Ticats obtained national defensive back Shane Herbert from Saskatchewan for a player on their negotiation list. Herbert played seven games for the Riders this season, after three year with the Argos.