CIS Preview: Revamping the Redmen
By Shawn McLeish
In our continuing preview of the 2012 CIS season, we move to Quebec and a team from the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). At McGill, football has a storied past. In fact, it has a history that stretches back to 1874, longer than any other Canadian school. First-year head coach Clint Uttley is trying to breathe new life into that winning tradition.
Uttley initiated a motivational program this off-season which
imparts values in his players, such as respect and honesty. Part of
that package is also a list of facts about the history of the
McGill football team. Players have to memorize the facts as part of
a test (you could get one question right on the test if you
remember the year mentioned in the first paragraph.)
“With all the recent struggling,” said the coach, “kids lost touch
with the tradition of the program. We need to get them back to
it.”
McGill has found recent success in a number of other sports,
including winning the University Cup last month for men’s hockey.
Uttley hopes to be on par with the other sports sooner rather than
later.
The path back to relevance for the Redmen began with a complete
overhaul. Pat Boies, Mickey Donovan, and his brother, Pat, (who is
also a defensive assistant) are the new coordinators for offence,
defence, and special teams, respectively. All three facets of the
game will be completely new for McGill in 2012. Uttley spent the
winter with his hand-picked new coaches working on the fresh
schemes and was excited recently to see them on display in the
current spring camp.
On defence, McGill has been competitive for the past few years and
played much better than last year’s 0-9 record indicates. The elder
Donovan had success at Western coaching the front seven and will
give McGill’s defence a few packages to master before moving to any
colourful schemes and pressures.
In camp so far, Uttley says the defence is “flying around and
exuding confidence.” That swagger comes directly from the Donovan
brothers and coach Uttley, each star linebackers in the CIS during
their playing days. With Uttley’s pedigree as a four-year starter
at Acadia, it comes as no surprise when he says, “I want us to be
known for playing good D.”
On the other side of the ball, Boies is making a switch to a new
spread option-type offence. The goals Uttley has for the team are
threefold:
“I want to extend drives. I want to shorten games, and I want to be
effective in the red zone.”
McGill’s defence has spent a significant chunk of time on the field
over the past decade or so and their red-zone offence last season
was, to use Uttley’s own words, “bad. Just bad.”
Battling to pilot the new offence are three quarterbacks who all
saw time last season. Jonathan Collin is back after suffering a
severe knee injury last season and has impressed so far this
spring. He may have the strongest arm in camp. Ryne Bondy saw most
of the snaps last season and has great vision and field
intelligence. Dallon Kuprowski is also in the mix and may be the
best athlete of the three. If Kuprowski doesn’t win the starting QB
job, expect him to spend time on the field involved in the offence
somehow.
Kuprowski’s older brother, Taylor, returns as the Redmen’s leading
rusher. Though not blessed with breakaway speed, Kuprowski is,
according to his coach, “solid at everything. He can pass catch and
his pass protection is awesome.”
Pushing him for some playing time will be star recruit from Collège
d'enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP), Luis-Andres
Guimond-Mota. The shifty back from Collège François-Xavier-Garneau
was named CEGEP AAA MVP as well as being MVP of the Bol D’Or
championship game last season. Uttley calls him, “the biggest
recruit to McGill in the past ten years.”
McGill has struggled mightily bringing in CEGEP players recently,
but focus by Boies and his assistants during recruiting ensured
this year’s class looked different. There are more CEGEP All-Stars
among the new recruits than the last three classes
combined.
Also aiding the rebuilding was a generous donation this winter from
McGill alum, Robert Winsor. The funds are designed to help coaches
and athletes compete at a higher level.
Despite an imposing schedule that routinely packs three of the top
10 teams in the country, Uttley knows there is one more ingredient
for success at McGill.
“We have young, dynamic coaches and a massive financial endowment,
but the players need to understand it’s hard work to win.”