IT’S A CANADA DAY CAT FIGHT
Lions ready to pounce in Hamilton
Despite being crowned Canada’s smartest person on a CBC TV show, apparently there are some things that Peter Dyakowski doesn’t know.
When informed that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats had not won a season-opening game in 11 seasons before defeating the Toronto Argos 42-20 last week, the offensive lineman with the steel-trap Mensa mind was dumbfounded.
“I didn’t know,” the 32-year-old Vancouver College and Louisiana State alumnus said. “That’s terrible. I must have blocked that thought out of my mind, it was so traumatic. Oh, my goodness, it was good to get that behind us.”
Danny McManus, now the 51-year-old assistant general manager of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, was the last Ticat quarterback to win a season opener for the Tabbies — until Jeremiah Masoli turned the trick on June 23, spoiling the Argos’ housewarming party at BMO Field in Toronto.
We’ve had a winning culture in place since 2013 when (head coach) Kent (Austin) took over, and it’s a great culture … ‘There’s been a great continuity in personnel.’
McManus took special delight in testing Lions rookie cornerbacks Dante Marsh and Sam Young on that June 18, 2004, night, a game the Ticats won 38-36 at B.C. Place Stadium.
Marsh, who went on to play for 10 more years, retired after the 2014 season as the Lions’ all-time leading tackler and left with two Grey Cup rings. Dyakowski, the longest-tenured Ticat on the current squad, is entering his 10th season in Hamilton yet remains ringless.
“When you get to 10 years, you start to think about things like that,” Dyakowski quipped. “Heck, I might have only six or seven years left to play. I better start making the most of it.”
The genius left guard is able to make mind-boggling math questions — the Singapore viral puzzle? No sweat — seem like child’s play. But Dyakowski and the organization he represents have been unable to crack the code for a Grey Cup victory since 1999, the last time it happened.
The Ticats reached the Grand National Drunk for the first time in 14 years in 2013, though Dyakowski wasn’t around at the finish of a 45-23 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders after being carted off the field with a torn patellar tendon. Worse than the knee injury itself, a blood clot in his leg and a pulmonary embolism in his right lung, which collapsed, later forced him to be rushed to a Hamilton hospital with life-threatening complications.
It was a year before he was able to return to the Ticats’ lineup for the 2014 East final and the Grey Cup, won by the Calgary Stampeders after Brandon Banks returned a punt 90 yards for the possible winning touchdown in the final minute, only to have the play called back because of a controversial flag.
“We’ve had a winning culture in place since 2013 when (head coach) Kent (Austin) took over, and it’s a great culture,” Dyakowski said. “There’s been a great continuity in personnel. We’ve added more key pieces in (sack artist) John Chick and (receiver) Chad Owens.
“I can’t say enough good things about Chick, how hard he works, the physical effort he puts into a game, his influence in the lockerroom. In Chad Owens and Brandon Banks, we have perhaps the two most electrifying players in the CFL. In many ways, this is the best team I’ve played on yet.”
Masoli is further proof of that statement. With starting quarterback Zach Collaros still in rehab mode from knee surgery, Masoli, a top-shelf reserve, is showing evidence of Hamilton’s backup power.
Indeed, he is playing so well Masoli could be laying the seeds for a future quarterback controversy, the wealth of talent problem that teams love to have.
But Dyakowski says Masoli is just “continuing the evolution we saw last year … he definitely executed against Toronto (with three touchdown passes, 15 straight completions). He’s an incredible weapon.
“Masoli shows how dynamic a team we have now—and how much depth we have.”
That’s the take from CFL’s smartest person: In 2016, the smart money is heading to Hamilton.