The Stampeders have become the New England Patriots of the CFL ... Hufnagel learned from the best under Belichick ... Singleton proving to be a steal ... Jones had ‘never heard of’ substance he is banned for
While it seems like a gaudy comparison, the numbers reveal the truth — the Calgary Stampeders are the New England Patriots of the CFL.
“We’ll take that as a compliment,” Stampeders general manager John
Hufnagel said this week in a one-on-one interview with Postmedia.
“I don’t know whether it’s fair or unfair. I’m not complaining about the comparison.”
The Stampeders once again lead the CFL with a 10-1-1 record this season and are 25-3-2 over the past two regular seasons.
That record is nothing new for a team that is now 12744-3 since Hufnagel joined the organization in 2008. It compares with the record
Bill Belichick has as head coach of the Patriots. Since 2000, New England is 20171, for a winning percentage of .738. The Stampeders winning percentage since Hufnagel’s arrival is .730.
“Obviously I had the privilege to work for that organization for a year” said Hufnagel, who was quarterbacks coach with the Super Bowl champion Patriots in 2003. “I know what they promote and I honestly I have tried to instill some of that in the program that I started back in 2008.”
Hufnagel handed the coaching reins to his protégé
Dave Dickenson in 2016 and all the new sideline boss has done is win 25 games, while losing only three.
The Stampeders did, of course, lose the Grey Cup last season in overtime against Ottawa, despite going 15-2-1 in the regular season. If there’s any knock against the organization, it’s that it has only two championships in the nine seasons Hufnagel has been at the helm.
“It’s nice to win,” Hufnagel said. “It’s a lot, lot better to win a championship.
“We’ve been very fortunate. We have had good records and we have been up there in the dance. We’ve had fun at the dance and we’ve been disappointed at the dance.
Each year is it’s own challenge and each year we work hard to try to win a championship.”
Since 2008, the most losses the Stamps had in a season was seven. The fewest wins they had was 10. They won 15 games twice, 14 games twice and 13 games twice.
The most recent time they lost two games in a row was in July of 2012. That span will reach 100 games on Sunday when the Stampeders face the Roughriders in Saskatchewan.
The Stampeders have never lost three games in a row since Hufnagel started.
“We really haven’t stubbed our toes for a while as far as not being prepared to play,” Hufnagel said.
“We haven’t always won, but we’ve always battled. There haven’t been a whole lot of blowouts because our guys weren’t ready to play. If we lose, it’s because the other team played better than us, not because we didn’t put the hard work in during the week.”
It would be fair to say in the case of the Stampeders that winning breeds more winning. The success of the team allows management to recruit some of the best available talent — as coaches and players — and allows them to hold onto them.
“I would think that has a part of it,” Hufnagel said. “The players come here and they expect to be very, very competitive. The players we bring in from other teams, I’ll ask them ‘What’s the difference of playing in our organization or the other one you came from,’ not thinking they’ll praise us but just trying to find out what the other organizations do to help me make this program better. They say ‘There’s not a lot, it’s just the expectations are a lot greater.’
“So, it goes with the territory.”
Continuity is a huge part of success. There have been many of coaches hired and fired in the CFL since Hufnagel arrived in Calgary.
Just look at where the teams that have fired coaches recently are in the standings
this year (Hamilton is 2-9, Montreal is 3-9).
Meanwhile, Calgary is purring along again, looking primed to host the West final and make it back to the Grey Cup for a second straight year.
“I’ve been fortunate,” Hufnagel said. “I’ve had a lot of loyalty on my staff. Obviously some people have left because of better opportunities, as they should. I’ve lost some players because the gap between the offers was just too much for them to not take. But I have a lot of players who understand how we try to do things and maybe they accept a little bit less from us instead of moving on.”
The head coaching transition from Hufnagel to Dickenson has worked out beautifully. The Stampeders have seemingly not missed a beat and players like quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, running
back Jerome Messam and middle linebacker Alex
Singleton are thriving under the new coach.
“It has worked out well,” Hufnagel said. “It was a decision that I thought would allow us to continue to have a great chance to be successful, also knowing that we were a better organization with Dave and I in the building than with only one of us.
“Dave was on the fringe of being a hot head-coach candidate. I made a decision that in my mind, was best for the organization and I had no doubt that Dave would do a great job.”
SINGLING OUT A STAR
When the Stampeders used the seventh pick of the 2016 CFL draft to select linebacker Alex Singleton, they were pretty sure they were getting a steal.
Turns out they were absolutely right as Singleton has proven to be an elite talent and the best player from that draft class.
Singleton, an American with non-import status, set a CFL record by recording at least 10 tackles in each of the past three games. Predictably, he was named one of the league’s top performers of the week on Tuesday.
He has 91 defensive tackles through 12 games this season.
“It’s not a surprise, truthfully,” Hufnagel said. “Again, this is good fortune. We had, I think, the seventh pick that year and he was still on the board. If we had the No. 1 pick in the draft, we would have selected him. We thought he was that good of a player and he has not disappointed us.”
TICAT SUSPENDED
Hamilton receiver Mike
Jones was slapped with a two-game suspension, effective immediately, on Tuesday for violating the CFL’s drug policy.
Jones apologized to the CFL, the CFLPA, the Tiger-Cats and his family in a statement after testing positive for an anabolic steroid called De hydro ch lo rm ethyl testosterone metabolite.
“I had never heard of this substance and I have never intentionally consumed it,” Jones said.
He and the Tiger-Cats both said they endorse the CFL/CFLPA joint drug testing policy and accept the suspension.
ALOUETTES REELING
Things have gone from bad to worse in Montreal this season.
The Alouettes have a 3-9 record, have fired their head coach Jacques Chapdelaine and defensive co-ordinator
Noel Thorpe and have looked listless while losing their last five games.
The boo birds were out in full force last Sunday when the Alouettes drew a decent crowd of over 22,000 to Percival Molson Stadium for a game against the Ottawa Redblacks.
Montreal wound up losing 29-11, prompting one of their longest serving players to offer up an apology to the fans. Defensive end John
Bowman, who has been with the team since 2006, tweeted: “Merci/thanks to the 22k fans (even the Ottawa fans, lol). I apologize from the bottom of my heart. We appreciate all of you guys.” General manager Kavis
Reed, who took over as head coach when Chapdelaine was fired, has a major task at hand to get this ship back on course.