Will the Ticats lose their coach?
As Grey Cup week hits full swing, there are dozens of delicious onand off-field tidbits floating around the CFL community, and here’s a small sampling of them.
Success always breeds wider interest. The Ticats aren’t discussing it at all, and Orlondo Steinauer would never distract from his team’s preparations, but there’s a ton of noise about the Hamilton head coach moving to the University of Washington as the Huskies’ defensive co-ordinator at the end of this season. Sports Illustrated is the latest to chime in, noting Steinauer is a native of Seattle, worked with new Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer at Fresno State in 2017, has had a brilliant run in Hamilton, and would be paid almost three times w that Hamilton co-manager Shawn Burke is a strong candidate for vacant GM jobs in both Ottawa and Edmonton refuses to go away.
How big will the ground battle be Sunday? Likely enormous. Don Jackson has helped change the Ticats offence and the Blue Bombers have, of course, Andrew Harris. He’s bound for the Hall of Fame, torched the Ticats with 18 carries and 134 yards and a touchdown in the 2019 Grey Cup and dominated Saskatchewan last week when 62 per cent of Winnipeg’s plays were runs. But Hamilton led the CFL in rush defence, allowing 79.6 yards per game.
On his way to cover the Grey Cup, reporter Frank Stinisci, who owns and operates the football website,
ndidfranklivecfl on Zingo TV, lost his suitcase, laptop and camera equipment. They flew out of his vehicle when the hatch popped open somewhere near his Wasaga Beach home. A snowplow operator found the suitcase later, saw Stinisci’s medication and looked through the bag for ID, called him and is bringing it all to Hamilton on Friday. Ross Anderson, the plow operator, was born and raised in Hamilton, is a lifelong Ticats fan and used to attend local stock car races with Angelo Mosca and Don Sutherin.
When Ticats’ dynamic first-year ■ returner/receiver Papi White made the 92-yard return that put his team right back in the East final, down only 12-6, it was his first punt return for a TD since he was a junior in high school. He never took any kind of kick to the house in his llege career at Ohio University. And, for the record, his given first name is Sefuan, but he explains part of his heritage is Puerto Rican and “Papi” has been his nickname since he was in middle school.
“I had just come to a new school and no one knew me yet and my dad (Amari) was just saying it on the sidelines when he came to a practice,” White told The Spectator. “And nobody’s called me Sefuan since then.”